How to Spot A Fake Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel Perfume

This information courtesy of www.dino.co.uk, who had an interesting idea on how to destroy the fake Coco Mademoiselle bottle he received on ebay.


Take a close look at these two bottles and notice the subtle differences in the font on each one.

Just a few subtle differences in the font sizes and positioning.

Now the back is where it starts to get interesting. There are some pretty big differences in positioning and thickness of the lettering (thicker on the fake)..

The ingredients were the most obvious, with a spelling mistake, different line-breaks and completely different ingredients at times.

The scanner didn’t really do justice to the gold (which was pretty similar on both) but did manage to show the lower quality of the logo and embossing on the fake.

Again, the base was where it got a bit more obvious, but only when you have one to compare to. Fonts were different and the embossed numbers (just visible on both) were in different locations. However, on other online guides, they were both embossed just above the 116.520.

Very subtle but the flaps inside the real box were sharper then the more rounded fake. There is a subtle indent on either side of the real box lid flap too.

Now we’re getting somewhere. If you’ve had Coco Mademoiselle before, you’ll know it’s pink. The fake was yellow / brown in colour. That was the first real alarm bell. The second one was, as you’d expect, the smell. This was Eau de Parfum, i.e. the strong stuff and it just didn’t stack up. It smelt slightly of Coco Mademoiselle but didn’t last. Eau de Parfum is supposed to last for up to 8 hours. The fake lasted for about a minute or two.

The biggest giveaway on the bottle itself is the thick base and (relatively) rougher construction.

Managed to scan these on my flatbed scanner and the result clearly shows the differences. Besides the fact the fake one has a clumsy glass moulding mark compared to the refined line around the real one, the text is different. Other online guides suggest the fake can be picked off with a fingernail but this was printed on pretty solidly.

Other online guides suggest these are obvious to spot as they are made of plastic. My fake seemed to be made of glass. However, there were a few things in common with other guides. The Coco Chanel double-C logo was not very centred on the fake. It was very slightly off on the real one though. The fake stopper was a little lop-sided however. Hard to see in the photo but the square top part was slightly angled compared to the bottom part. There was also a very subtle difference on the round plastic band above the white and gold ring. The real one had small dots around it (just visible).

Other guides also mention the top not fitting well or coming off when the bottle is held by the stopper alone. Mine seemed pretty secure and led to a few “maybe it’s not a fake?” moments. However, when the real one arrived, the real stopper went on with a definite ‘click’.

There are two things to note on the spray nozzle, the color and the shape of the part inside the bottle. Some fake bottle have black nozzle inserts (the small hole that the perfume squirts out of), my fake was white… but compared to the real one was actually a more of a transparent white. The part inside the bottle (the pump) was much larger and protruded into the bottle on the fake (as seen in the photo above). Curiously, the real bottle squirted about twice as much perfume as the fake.

The gold overprinting was much cleaner and sharper on the real one. I’ve tried to get the light to show up the step in the printing where the gold is printed over the frosted logo. On the real one, the gold is exactly to the edge of the logo. In the fake, the gold covers the ridge on the outside of the logo, creating a step. Minor point but seemed in keeping with the theme of lower quality printing.