Testing Expensive Makeup VS. Their VIRAL Dupes *is this legal*

Hi Mia, finally something I can comment on! I work in Brand Protection, so my companies entire job is to act upon things like copyright infringement. This brand is smart, in which they're targeting peoples visualization of other brands without infringement. Unless this brand directly fringes upon something that the other entities have copyrighted (usually names, phrases, and logos) they're actually fully within their legal right to create these products. They also may produce them in another country where the brand doesn't own the copyright or trademark for them, but then technically they can't be sold in the countries in which they do infringe. Their whole gimmick is for people to recognize the packaging shape/elements with a similar enough without infringing name, see the good price- and purchase. I hope this helps someone learn something today, haha.

I have to say the Mco Beauty side looks better on camera, in my opinion. Good for them for making the same products for cheap and cruelty free. Its pretty genius.

What you need to remember is that this brand has been around here in Australia for years. It's available in our local supermarkets and it's half the price of the original brands. Eg. Charlotte Tilbury's foundation costs $70AUD here, the MCo one is $30-40 (depending on whether it's on sale). It's also not just a dupe brand. It has its own unique products as well. What the rest of the world seems to forget is that Australia is friggin far away. Getting these luxury brands imported costs SO MUCH MONEY so our prices are always jacked up well beyond the worth of the product itself. That's why I love the founder of this brand so much, she wanted to make these things accessible to Australians EDIT just to include this: copyright laws are different in Australia, so there's no issue with the packaging

Hi Mia, I’m Australian and we have had this brand long before everyone else and I swear by this brand it’s really good dupes and now they are finally spreading around the world, this brand is totally safe btw!❤

I personally think dupes are perfectly fine so long as the product is a good quality and the lowered cost doesn't come at the expense of the work conditions for the people making the products. The markup on makeup, especially luxury brands, is absolutely criminal so I don't feel bad at all if someone else can do the same thing and sell it for less.

As someone who has lived in a shelter and gone through DV, I really appreciate you donating makeup to women's shelters. I can tell you from first hand experience how much that will be appreciated. I remember getting a bag of high end makeup, it was such a lovely gesture , all of us girlies living there were so happy with what we got donated. Mia, you're a sweetheart ❤ Mia editing herself into the twilight cover 😂😂

I'm a broke Aussie teenager and MCO beauty is an Australian brand I love! Their products are incredibly affordable whilst also being super good quality

Hi Mia, MCo (said em - co) is an Australian brand that I am obsessed with as I live in NZ so it's not only a fantastic price point but I find a lot of their "dupe" products better than the originals. I find the skin tint serum is better than 90% of foundations I have used also. So happy to see you do a review of their products and see someone else's views as these products are going quite viral ❤

I know you love full coverage matte, but you also look beautiful with lighter coverage, dewy makeup! I think it might seem/feel greasy because you're not used to it, but as a viewer I think you're glowing!

This brand looks like the equivalent of what grocery stores do when they sell their "brand" ( same stuff as the name brand or close but cheaper)

I think the fact that this brand was made to give Australian beauty enthusiasts access to products that mimick high end makeup they will more than likely or rarely ever be able to get their hands on is amazing. Remember, Australia is far, and import costs alone deter people from being able to buy the high end products we can get whenever we want to. So they have this brand they can rely on. And it's cheaper. You can hate the duping/copying factor but at the end of the day, this entire brand has a purpose and many people seem to love it. ❤

Recommendation: In the future, if you know you're going to donate a product with a doefoot applicator, I would recommend using a disposable applicator in order to maintain cleanliness. Doefoots are difficult to clean, not to mention that you probably put the applicator back in the bottle immediately after use (as anyone would), at which point the entire bottle is contaminated 😅

The fact of the matter is that make up is pretty cheap to make, “high end” or not. I don’t see a problem with this company doing this. You barely see a difference in quality yet the products are half the price or more. People who can’t afford high end makeup have a chance to still have high quality makeup using brands like this.

I believe the drunk elephant dupe is actually based on the be goldi drops and not the sunshine ones. Because I have the goldi drops and it does almost the same thing as the dupe.

MCo Beauty has been around for years. It used to be called Model Co. They seemed to rebrand and change direction a little in the past 4/5 years and expand their product range and having it stocked in most Aussie supermarkets. It's regularly on sale for 1/2 price. Personally, their tubing mascara is my go to. I try other brands, but always come back to this.

As someone living in Australia, I can say that we appreciate having MCO Beauty, despite them being dupes. Because we literally didn't have access to these high-end products until recently 😊

I like cheap dupes, because let's be honest it's not putting a dent in the original brands profits as a lot of people buy things for the brand name, not the product and being cruelty free is like a cherry on the top

The CT isn’t a foundation, but it’s beautiful under or mixed with a foundation for a glow! The Elf Halo Glow is also very similar.

Hi Mia, In Australia MCoBeauty is very very popular and is sold in one of our big supermarkets as a more affordable option than Sephora etc. When they originally started getting big here their whole thing was being able to buy premium makeup for half the price. I use it everyday as i refuse to buy high priced makeup especialy when the markup here can be pretty intense. Love your vids <3

Hi Mia! As someone who owns a dog rescued from an animal testing lab.. thank you for doing your best to be cruelty free! Our sweet guy went through unimaginable abuse for humans, and seeing someone with a platform speak up for cruelty free is amazing!