Help! I suspect my conditioner is fake! (Long)

[NaiyaAi]

Okay, so here's what happened:

A few weeks ago, I ran out of my beloved CrecePelo conditioner and went to the BSS to buy more. The first time, I bought it at home in NY. This time, I bought it at the BSS near my school in Boston. I always buy the 28 oz jar.

The first red flag came immediately after I bought it. The color and consistency was not the same. CrecePelo conditioner is a bright white, sort of liquidy cream. This stuff in this jar was much thicker and a different peachy color. I figured they might have changed the formula or something, but looking back, I should have realized that a changed formula also comes with a changed label and this label was still the same.

The second red flag came when I used it. It was not as moisturizing as it used to be and did not give my hair the same slip. Again, I attributed this to a changed formula.

Then, I read something in one of the "buy black" threads about how sometimes Asians will sell counterfeit products and slap the same label on it to make you think you're buying a specific brand when you're not. This is what first got me thinking my conditioner might be fake, but I wasn't so sure.

Then yesterday, I saw that thread about CrecePelo and urea. The OP in that thread says that urea is used as a preservative so that manufacturers can still claim that a product is paraben-free. I checked my jar and there were parabens in it, but no urea.

Luckily, I have a bottle of the other, "non-DC" conditioner by that same company. They call it their "rinse." I remember noting when I got the bottle that the rinse and the DC had the exact same ingredients so I compared the jar to the bottle: the bottle had urea, and no parabens.

What really has me convinced that this conditioner is fake is the contact info provided on the jar. The email on the jar is [email protected]. This seemed odd to me because BOE Cosmetics is a fairly large Dominican company, with a wide range of products. I thought it was weird that they'd have a hotmail address. I went to their site, and the email provided there is [email protected]. The email on the rinse is also [email protected].

 

[NaiyaAi]

So now I'm absolutely sure that the conditioner I bought is fake. And I am heated!

But I'm not sure what to do. Obviously, I contacted the company to let them know. But what else should I do? How do I report the store for selling fake conditioner? Not to sound dramatic, but they can't get away with doing stuff like this.

 

[Kareha]

I'm not sure if you should contact the BBB in this situation or not. Maybe don't alert store until you're sure you can nab them for something. They'll sneak their way out of it if they know you're on to them. They should be shut down as an example to everyone else who thinks they can scam us.

I thought it was only me being paranoid, but whenever I buy hair products from the KBS or Walmart I wonder if it's the real thing, especially since somethings aren't sealed. It's nice to know it wasn't just me. I know Chinese in particular are very good at counterfeiting products.

Good luck with running them down! I think I'll spend my hard earned money elsewhere from now on.

 

[Saludable84]

I stopped using Crece Pelo, but I did notice the same thing about their DC and rinse off. It does have the same ingredients.

That company is too big to have a hotmail address. You never know, they might be selling products from other countries and relabeling them. I can see that happening.

Not sure if you can contact BBB about it, but you can try FDA too because you never where they are getting that stuff from and the actual company.

I would let the BSS know either. It's like, you can't trust anyone anymore.

Please excuse my iPhone; it's trying to get it together

 

[SouthernScienceNerd]

I always buy crece pelo from amazon because there are no dominican stores in my area. My container does not contain urea and it has the correct email address on it. Also, I checked the ingredients on dominicanhaircare.com and urea is not listed. OP, your conditioner may not be fake, conditioners can change consistency and properties after sitting on the shelf too long. I had the same issue when buying certain conditioners from my local Walgreens.