A dropshipping beauty brand can look polished, European, and cruelty-free. Here are 9 warning signs to spot one before you spend a euro.
Something has been driving me up the wall lately and I finally wrote about it. You know those fake indie beauty brands that have been showing up in everyone's Instagram and TikTok feeds? The ones with the polished founder backstory, the magical color-changing foundation, the soft European aesthetic?
A lot of them aren't real. They're Shopify storefronts run by people who set up the whole operation in a weekend, dropship rebranded AliExpress products to your door, and disappear when you ask for a refund. They use AI-generated About pages. They invent founders. They claim cruelty-free with zero certification.
After 18 years writing about indie beauty, I put together a guide with the 9 warning signs I use to vet a brand before I buy. For anyone who has wanted to support a real indie and ended up uncertain whether the brand they liked was even a real company.
If you've ever been fooled by one, you're absolutely not alone. I have been too.
