Kylie Jenner Warns Followers That Kylie Cosmetics Knockoffs Could Be Very Dangerous

Kylie Jenner has built her makeup brand into a global frontrunner in the beauty industry. She regularly updates her social media channels, which boast millions of followers, with information concerning various Kylie Cosmetics products and previews. Jenner has mastered the art of marketing her brand and cemented her products as top sellers, so it comes as no surprise that she is out to stop retailers from trying to make a profit off her eponymous cosmetics line.

The 19-year-old took to Snapchat on Wednesday to post a passionate plea to her fans to be wary when purchasing Kylie Cosmetics knockoffs.

“Hey, guys, so I’ve come across this website called Kyliecosmeticsoutlet.com. It looks exactly like mine, but it’s not,” Jenner told her fanbase while scrolling through the nearly identical site. “I want to be really, really clear and let you guys know that the only place to get my products is Kyliecosmetics.com, and anywhere else is fake.”

She urged fans to carefully check the URL of the site from which they are purchasing products, as many companies use similar domain names. Kylie Cosmetics does not sell to any outside vendors, and the products are only available online. Jenner feels it is her responsibility to warn her followers that these brands are trying to take advantage of them, as her goal remains to give her fans only “the very best.”

“The ingredients that they’re using are in these fake products also really, really dangerous, which is my biggest concern,” she said. Jenner explained that her team has thoroughly examined ingredients in competing products and found that “they’re so bad for you.” She also revealed that fans have tweeted her and alleged some of the knockoff Kylie Cosmetics products contain ingredients like glue and gasoline.

Although the validity of these claims is unconfirmed, ingredients within counterfeit products are usually not explicitly stated on their websites.

In 2015, the City of London Police released a report urging people to consider the potential toxic ingredients in fake beauty products before purchasing. According to the report, “Counterfeit makeup is often produced in unsanitized and unhygienic factories, and there have been cases where rats’ droppings and poison have also been found in the phony cosmetics.” Shockingly, it’s not uncommon for urine, arsenic, and animal droppings to be found in counterfeit makeup across the global cosmetics market. London police are aggressively attempting to shut down and seize these fake-goods websites because toxic levels in many of these products could lead to long-term health issues or even death.

Kylie Cosmetics is one of the many beauty brands at risk. “Counterfeit cosmetics pose a very real danger,” Andrew Brodsky, the commercial director of NetNames, told The Fashion Times. “They often contain high levels of harmful materials. For example, fake versions of cosmetics by MAC and Benefit have been found to contain up to 19 times the legal level of lead.”

Scott Faber, EWG‘s senior vice president for government affairs, says that knockoffs are not the only makeup products consumers should be careful with. “While counterfeit cosmetics propose a unique problem, in general cosmetics do become contaminated from time to time and pose risk to consumers. So even legitimately produced cosmetics pose risks to consumers that are not known to FDA and cannot be addressed by FDA,” he tells Yahoo Beauty. Just last year 21,000 complaints were filed over Chaz Dean’s WEN Cleansing Conditioner products, which allegedly lead to hair loss. The FDA has since launched an investigation into the claims, and in August, The New York Times reported that WEN agreed to a class-action settlement.

In another startling case involving harmful toxins, Inside Edition conducted an investigation in 2012 in which they tested makeup they purchased on the street from vendors who assured them the products were real. The results they discovered through Upstate Labs near Syracuse, N.Y., were startling. Some products contained high levels of aluminum, unidentifiable bacteria, or high lead levels, and some even had traces of beryllium.

Faber is one of many advocates who believes the FDA should have more control over screening of cosmetics. “There’s virtually no cosmetics law on the books, so FDA not only has no idea what’s in products or whether they’ve been produced in a safe environment. They have no way to know if consumers are being harmed by products or the power to order them off the shelves,” he says.

“That’s unusual, every other FDA regulated product that you can imagine — food, over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements, medical devices — for all those products FDA has a system in place to know when consumers are being hurt and the power to order a recall if a product proposes danger,” says Faber.

The Personal Care Products Safety Act, introduced by Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Leonard Lance, R-N.J., would allow the FDA to recall unsafe products to consumers.

On the cosmetics legislation, Faber explains, “Those bills would do sort of basic things. One is companies would have to register with FDA. FDA doesn’t even know where cosmetic companies are, not just in the United States but around the world. Companies would have to tell FDA what’s in their products. FDA doesn’t know that now. Companies would have to allow FDA access to their safety records, which they do not have now. Companies would have to alert FDA if people were harmed by products.” The act would also require the FDA to test five risky ingredients each year to assess their potential effects. Many large cosmetics company are in full support of the bill, including Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, Revlon, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble. The bill does have some resistance though — some makeup companies prefer no government oversight into production and screening. It will not be put to a vote until 2017.

Following Jenner’s Snapchat story, a number of customers tweeted her images of products they had purchased, questioning their authenticity. The reality star informed most of these customers that they’d purchased fake products. The reality star finished off her rant, seemingly disgruntled, with: “This is getting so out of hand, people. Please don’t trust any other website!”

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