Why It’s Safe to Buy Tanning Lotion on eBay
* We recently added a new page about Where To Buy Tanning Lotion, it has more detailed info than this page so be sure to check that out too.
Hey tanning lotion shoppers! We've noticed some tanning salon owners and associates leaving feedback stating that buying lotions online results in you receiving a fake or tampered-with product. Since this is an important concern we'd like to explain how to easily avoid such an occurrence. No matter what you're shopping for (jewelry, clothes, cosmetics, etc..) there will always be a small percentage of people out there trying to rip you off and sell you an imitation product. This can happen when you walk into a local store or mall, and it can happen online as well. However, as long as you do your due diligence before committing to buy an item you can easily avoid making a mistake.
The great thing about buying lotions on eBay is their customer feedback system. Ebay allows every person who makes a purchase to leave a detailed review of their experience with each seller. You can leave ratings on how accurate a seller's product description was, if the item was genuine or not, how fast the shipping was, and overall how satisfied you were with the experience. So you can easily tell if a seller is distributing fake products by reading their feedback. Obviously if they have 98%+ positive feedback from thousands of customers it is highly unlikely they are selling products that are not genuine. This is what makes shopping for lotions on eBay a smarter choice than a retail website because those types of online stores rarely show customer feedback - and if they do they usually have control over removing any negative comments.
We make every effort possible to only link to highly reputable eBay sellers on our website. We did most of the work for you by researching top-rated sellers to link to, but you should still look at the feedback of a few different merchants anyway just to be 100% sure. We have been buying our tanning lotions through eBay ever since we started tanning and have never received a fake product or lotion that has been tampered with. We have only bought lotion in a tanning salon a handful of times and unfortunately always felt like we were overcharged.
All of the reviews that we post on this website are completely neutral and unbiased. We do not receive any compensation from any lotion manufacturers for rating their lotions higher than others.
You'll also find that a lot of our reviews contain descriptions of what the lotion bottle looks like and how the lotion is supposed to smell. This is so that you can compare the bottle you receive to our detailed description. The customer feedback system on eBay is such a great tool for shoppers as it really minimizes the chance of receiving a bad product, making it one of the safest places to shop for lotions online.
We hope that our explanation has helped ease any anxiety you may have had about buying indoor tanning lotions on eBay. Have a look around our site to read reviews of lotions from your favorite brands or get straight to the point and choose one of our top picks. Be sure to Bookmark this website because it is regularly updated with new lotions, and we'll always have links to the most reputable sellers to buy from.
Happy tanning!
*Update - A new feature recently rolled out on ebay.com is eBay Buyer Protection. Why is this important? because it means eBay will cover your purchase price plus original shipping charges should anything go wrong with your order. It was already highly uncommon for you to have a problem on ebay but now it is safer than ever to buy deeply discounted tanning lotions online from reputable sellers.
June 30th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
great article! very helpful!
July 18th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Do you know if you pay duty/tax when you order a lotion from ebay.ca and have it shipped to canada (the store is in USA) – this could change how much ‘cheaper’ it is for us canadians to buy online!
Thanks!
July 18th, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Hey Lauren – to my knowledge if the seller ships your items through the post office there are no customs charges or taxes, but if there is I can’t imagine it being very much at all. I know with UPS and FedEx the charges could be high sometimes but I’m fairly certain it’s way way lower through the post office. You may want to verify this with the post office just to make sure. Also most lotion sellers on ebay ship through the mail so you shouldnt have any trouble finding a good deal. Thanks for the comment!
July 19th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Thanks, Jess!
August 17th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
This is a great article. I actually work in a smart tan certified salon and one of our main brands we sell here is the Designer Skin line. We have lotions ranging in price from 13.50 all the way up to 137.00. We always ask our customers how their lotion is treating them, and if they are not fully satisfied, we suggest lotions to suit them better. I do have a few ladies that buy their lotions online from places like ebay and amazon. I understand with the economy being the way it is that we are all short on money and really just cannot see spending over a 100.00 on a bottle of tanning lotion. HOWEVER, i’m not sure if any of you have ever bought a salon brand such as Matrix or BedHead from Wal-Mart. But if you notice on the back of the bottle it always says, “If you did not buy this product in a salon, you are not guaranteed the satisfaction of the quality.” The reason they put that on there is because it is true. I attended a Webinar recently for Designer Skin’s new line of products from the Gumdrop Collection. One of the main things they talked about was keeping lotions from being sold on the internet because they are almost always counterfeit or tampered with becuase genuine lotions, hair care products, etc. do not typically have a seal on them since they are being handled by trained professionals in the industry. Designer Skin DOES NOT retail their products to anyone except for Salon professionals. Therefore, it has been known to happen that conterfeit sellers will go to extreme lengths of making money by “dumpster diving” behind salons to retrieve empty bottles that look new. They will add a product that can look and smell very simalar to the product that they are claiming they are selling, when in reality, the product is not the same as the one they claim to have. Now, this is not the only way lotions can be tampered with. Sometimes, the actual lotion is bought from a salon by a customer at full price. They will use it and find they don’t like it as much as they thought, or they may like it and use about half the bottle, then decide they can make a profit by adding UNSCENTED LOTION that is simalar in texture to the remaining genuine lotion, contaminating the product. I have a bottle of Obsidian by Designer Skin in front of me right now. It is a high end product sold in our salon because it has precious ingredients that you will find in very expensive skin care sold in stores such as sephora and other high end retailers. You can buy a 1oz jar of eye cream for about 80.00 at certain retailers, or you could buy a 13 oz bottle of something like obsidian that contains excellent skin care and anti-agers. This goes along with the phrase, “You get what you pay for.” I won’t go on forever on the topic of the danger of counterfeit lotions, (although I could). But I would like to cover one last thing. If you have ever bought an easter egg coloring kit, you would know that they contain the plastic boilers that you slide on the egg. you drop it in boiling water for less than 10 seconds and it automaticall conforms to the egg. The same concept goes with sealing a product. It’s that simple, and the sealers are not hard to find, actually you can find those on the internet as well!
I’m not trying to say that your lotions are counterfeit, for all I know, they could be the same exact product we sell in the salon that I work in right now, but chances are, if you’re spending 40.00 on a bottle of 127.00 lotion, you’re definitely NOT getting what you think you’re getting, and I know I will NOT be taking that risk.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Hey Lilly! Thanks for taking the time to leave your comment… Your concerns are common but let me explain how to easily avoid buying fake lotion.
When you shop for lotions on ebay through one of our links you want to look for sellers who have a high positive feedback rating and who have been in business selling lotions for many years. All you need to do is read through their listings and you’ll be able to tell who you’re dealing with.
These types of sellers want to keep their customers happy and strive to keep them coming back for more lotions. If they’re selling fake or tampered-with lotions, how many repeat customers would they get? Also, you would see negative feedback ratings in a heartbeat if a customer suspected that they received a fake product.
The only unscrupulous sellers who might try to sell fake lotions, or fill a designer bottle up with cheap lotion, are ones with no feedback or selling history because they have nothing to lose. These types of sellers are easy to spot and avoid. Check the feedback history of each seller, and check the other items in their store to verify you are dealing with a real company.
If you’re unsure of a seller’s reputability that you want to make a purchase from, leave us a comment with the seller name and we’ll happily check it out for you.
Remember that salon owners and employees lose profit if you buy your lotions online, so they will always tell you it’s a bad idea. That does not mean that you can’t get real, authentic tanning lotions online for a fraction of what salons charge, because you most certainly can!
August 27th, 2011 at 6:10 am
I love this site, and I really enjoyed Lilly’s feedback. I read positive things about Australian Gold’s Sinfully Black (through this website, of course), and decided to try it myself. I purchased it from GeoCorb.com, and just received the bottle. First thing I noticed is that the wrap on the bottle is not centered (the koala bear and all other print on the label is slightly to the right). Maybe it’s a fluke, who knows? Second thing, which I already knew about and was not freaked out by, is that the lid was not sealed (normal), but taped down.. seller explained this as to make sure the top does not come off during shipment. Understandable. I have never seen or smelled it in person, but the lotion’s consistency looks legitimate and smells.. berryish, I suppose. I don’t know what berries smell like, to be quite honest. The lotion is a light brown color, as most AG products are. However, that crooked bottle wrap? There is a tear at the top, when I unscrew the lid entirely. Like, something cut with a knife. This may have been tampered with, but, the slit is at the bottom of the bottle’s neck.. I don’t really know what a slit in that particular spot would accomplish. I doubt the tape means much of anything, because the seller obviously knows that manufacturers don’t seal their bottles, it says it on their eBay (yes! Ebay! With 99.9% positive feedback) store’s main page.
Summation:
- Off center bottle wrap
- Slit possibly cut in neck of bottle wrap (but WHY?? is it maybe just a tear from opening the bottle initially, if only to smell it? A tear from the lid rubbing against the wrap??)
- tape, NOT SEAL.. to ensure shipping and handling..
- did not buy from eBay, but GeoCorb does have an ebay store selling exact same items
what do you guys think? did I get jipped?
I think it is authentic, but what if GeoCorb is only legit through eBay, and shady through their own website?
I doubt it, though, considering that the ebay store refers to geocorb’s website, and vice versa.
.. I also don’t see a very high profit margin for messing with an initially inexpensive lotion..
sigh. I dont know where to find this lotion locally to compare!!!!!!
August 27th, 2011 at 9:05 pm
LOL I know I sound like a rambling idiot at the point but I have been buying lots of stuff online lately and I just confirmed that I DID actually buy this product from eBay. I used it this morning and I might be darker?
September 1st, 2011 at 11:55 am
Hey Kimberly – Thanks for posting. GeoCorb is one of the top sellers we recommend because of their commitment to customer satisfaction and providing fresh, authentic lotions. I would say that you have nothing to worry about and that the lotion you received is real. One time I bought a lotion from them that also had a slightly crooked label like you mentioned. It was a lotion I had already owned previously (from buying it at a salon) so I knew that it was the same and real based on the smell, texture and consistency. My guess is that they have a connection to get perfectly good lotions that may have had the label applied a little off-center from the factory – which the factory may sell at a discounted price to wholesalers (because salons probably don’t want to display a bottle of lotion with a crooked label).
However, I’ve received other lotions from them where the label was perfectly fine, so I’m just venturing a guess. Also, we like GeoCorb because they make it very clear that they don’t mind paying a little extra from their suppliers to ensure an authentic, fresh product.
Like you said it barely even makes sense for high-volume sellers to try and put fake lotion into real bottles because it takes too much time and effort to make it worth it. Plus, people would figure that out in a second! Especially ebay buyers who are some of the most scrupulous shoppers.