LocalCircles, a community social media platform, in its latest survey released on Monday, said that 1 in 6 households surveyed has had family members who experienced an old allergic reaction or severe ailment due to cosmetics in the last house 3 years and 1 in had 1 A family member suffering a serious ailment due to unsafe cosmetics.

About 25% of Indian households surveyed have had issues with cosmetics they purchased in the last 3 years. 15% of them have had an allergic or severe reaction to the cosmetics. During the time, 34% of households purchased cosmetics that turned out to be fake or counterfeit. 55% of those who received a counterfeit cosmetic via online platforms were able to return it while 45% failed to do so.

Similarly, only 35% of those who purchased a counterfeit cosmetic from stores/markets in the last 3 years were able to return it while 65% of them could not do so.

The survey received more than 37,000 responses from household consumers residing across 305 districts of India. Nearly 48% of respondents were from tier 1, 27% from tier 2 and 25% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural respondents. 61% were men while 39% were women.

LocalCircles founder Mr Sachin Taparia told the Free Press Journal, “The pan India survey was conducted to understand issues faced by Indian consumers in the last 3 years with the cosmetics they purchased from physical stores or online. the issues faced by others, understand counterfeiting and also sensitize the regulator.”

To a question from where did you buy cosmetics that turned out to be fake or counterfeit, 7% said “company store”, 5% said “department store”, 5% said “beauty/cosmetics/general store”, 5% said “ local store/stall in the market”, and 12% said “online platform/app/ website”.

Approximately 54% said they “had not purchased fake cosmetics in the last 3 years”, and 12% couldn’t say. On an aggregate basis, 34% of households had an incident where someone purchased cosmetics in the last 3 years that turned out to be fake or counterfeit.

Of the 34%, 12% bought such cosmetics online while 22% bought them at a physical store or in the market. This question in the survey received 8,728 responses.