We live in an age of internet shopping. People are taking a break from brick-and-mortar shops for a more convenient and low-maintenance shopping experience that makes buying from the comfort of home (or on-the-go) a thoughtless task. The issue there, however, is how much easier it becomes to be scammed and fooled by illegitimate vendors. And with the cosmetics black market now bigger than ever, makeup is the way many illegal sellers are fooling buyers.
So when Jaclyn Hill was alerted of her Morphe palette being on the Walmart website, she was understandably furious, but the story isn't as simple as it may seem.
Jaclyn Hill's Morphe Palette is arguably one of the most hyped and talked about palettes of the YouTuber age.
The 35-color palette, featuring shades from nudes to blues and everything in between and beyond, was the talk of social media and YouTube reviews for months on end. Vloggers such as James Charles and Tati Westbrook gave the palette five out of five stars and created videos dedicated solely to creating vibrant looks with the shadows, persuading makeup lovers to empty their pockets to get their hands on 'em.
But last week, the palette, or at least a product claiming to be the palette, found itself on Walmart's website.
Or at least that's what Jaclyn Hill thought. She took to Twitter to alert people of the fraudulent palettes and urged fans not to buy them.
"This is NOT legit. It is not my palette. I’ve contacted my legal team & will be handling this. Do not purchase my palette anywhere except Morphe, Ulta, Sephora. They are FAKE!" she said on Twitter.
The tweet immediately generated buzz and fans were about just as furious as Hill herself.
One fan spoke about the massive payout Hill could be entitled to if the megastore was in fact selling the knockoff palette or even selling them from the black market. "Oooo honey you’re gonna get a HUGE payout from Walmart after suing the sh*t outta them," she said.
But the palette wasn't just online.
Fans did some digging and found that the palette was also available for sale on the Walmart app, which sparked even more outrage.
"I had to see if this was true for myself but Walmart really messed up now! This is directly from the app!!" said someone who clearly did their research.
The conversation turned to highlighting other luxury brands that are available through the Walmart website.
One person found high-end clothing on the Walmart site.
"Y’all lol Walmart also sells yeezys and moschino products too! Lmfao at you people who think it’s legit," they said. We looked ourselves, and can confirm that are products under those brand names available on the site… Yikes.
Even Gucci?
"Walmart is the worst! They’re always trying to sell things that are fake. One time it said they had Gucci on there. If they had enough lawsuits this would probably stop! Sorry that’s happening to you love," one responder said about Hill's tweet.
But wait... It gets worse.
The research didn't stop, and fans dug up even more brands that simply didn't belong on the shelves of the drugstore retailer. "I went on as well and I found all the UD Naked Palettes, Estee Lauder and you wont believe this but Huda Beauty!!!!!"
But there's a catch.
It looks like Walmart is not actually selling Hill's palette, even though you can find it through its site. The brand allows third party brands to sell through its domain much like Amazon. "If you look it up it’s not sold by Walmart.. it’s sold by a random third party company," one Twitter user clarified.
This exact same thing happened to Jeffree Star not long ago — he had to contact Walmart to remove a third-party retailer selling counterfeit versions of his products.
This explains the other luxury brands being found via the Walmart site and app.
"Walmart sources things from all over and has it shipped to their stores for pickup. You can find literally anything on their website. Now as for the price, IDK. That part does seem a bit sketch. Like it’s a knock off company selling fake palettes and it’s coming up in their site," said another person hoping to provide clarity.
In fact, Walmart's site is more of an open marketplace, not necessarily a reflection of an actual Walmart center.
"This actually isn’t Walmart. Well yes it is on the Walmart website, but Walmart has a market place kind of like Amazon where third parties can post things for sale on there and I’m betting that’s what it is," this person wrote.
No follow-up yet from Hill about further legal action or if she was able to get the listing taken down, but we'd hate to be ones on her bad side. Get it together, Walmart.
