Part 1, the Lime Crime scandal
Part 2, the Glittersniffer Cosmetics scandal
What exactly qualifies as repackaging will depend on who you ask. For some blending the wholesale micas on a base is enough to say you created it, for others it doesn't count as your own unless you blended the color too. Personally, I like a lot of the basic wholesale colors and enjoy having them available... but I feel companies need to be 100% up front about those colors being wholesale. They also need to blend it on a base and make it an eyeshadow or GTFO. I hate companies that try to sell basic mica as an eyeshadow! It can work, but you need a really sticky base. Knowing what colors are wholesale repackaged will save you a bit of money because you won't wind up with multiples of the same damn color. Trust me, it's not just indie companies that do this (looking at you Loreal, MAC, Wet n Wild and Urban Decay to name a few).
To start things off, Lipsticks and Lightsabers made a post with swatches of some of the most commonly repackaged micas from TKB. There are many, many more available though. Get your butt over to the TKB site and look at the micas and matte tones... note that Gaia will probably block the site due to the word "trading". If you can't click the links type in tkbtrading.com into your browser and click on the makeup tab. Take note that some of them are not eye or lip safe, that is important to know since lots of unethical sellers ignore this information (looking at you, Glittersniffer).
There is really no other way than to familiarize yourself with the wholesale products. Now, keep in mind that these are sold to be the base colors so you will find similar products out there. For example, Biker Chic by Fyrinnae is similar to TKB's Blackstar Blue and Blackstar Blue could potentially be the base color. I don't know the formula for Biker Chic and for all I know Fyrinnae didn't use Blackstar Blue... and I'm not saying they repackage because Fyrinnae certainly does not.
Click on any TKB mica and then click "more details" for an ingredients list. You will notice that TKB micas are not just purely mica. The "more details" link will also tell you safety information!
Mica
Titanium Dioxide
Iron Oxide
Ferric Ferrocyanide
Tin Oxide
Ultramarines
Carmine
As you can see these are all ingredients in the base micas available. If you see an ingredients list for an eyeshadow that just has some or all of those ingredients it's likely a repackage. It's a little different with the mattes... if you see a pretty matte purple and the only ingredient listed is manganese violet, guess what it is. Many mattes are single ingredient.
Noting back to Biker Chic, Fyrinnae lists the following for ingredients:
"Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica. May contain: Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide, Manganese Violet, Ultramarines, Chromium Oxide, Copper Powder, Bronze Powder, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Red #40, FD&C Yellow #5, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Silica, Styrene/PVP Copolymer, Myristyl Myristate. All ingredients are FDA-approved for eye-area use, and there is never any glitter used."
Myristyl Myristate is an example of a base ingredient, this ingredient helps eyeshadow adhere to skin better. This is the kind of ingredient list you will see with quality products. Other bases you may see are koalin clay, bismuth, boron nitride, calcium carbonate, magnesium myristate, magnesium stearate, zinc stearate and talc to name a few. Seeing these in the ingredients list is a good sign but doesn't mean the product will be awesome, there are too many reasons to list here why certain combinations of ingredients just wind up sucking a**.
Back to TKB... You'll notice some colors, like Red #33 Lake are "batch certified". That means once TKB opens their package and repacks it for you it loses its certification and the FDA says you can not use that for products you intend to sell. If you see a product with one of these colors listed as an ingredient ask them where they get their supply and if they can provide the batch certification information.
For the next part click on TKB's recipe tab. This is where people can share their recipes for mixing colors and making eyeshadows and what not. These are also handy to know. While the end colors have been hand blended these color recipes are pretty common. Totally Teal, Lotsa Lime, Twilight (as seen on Lime Crime), Celery and Vintage Green are all over. If you want to avoid dupes it's good to take a look at these as well. Is it OK to use these and claim them as your own? No, not really.
Still, even knowing what to look for it can be hard to spot repackaging. Different monitor and lighting settings can make the same color look different, especially with sites that use Photoshop to make their swatches. If you're ever uncertain you can also pop "company name repackages" and "company name swatches" into Google and see what comes up.
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Bad Ingredients Lists!
If the seller doesn't follow FDA regulations for listing ingredients, don't buy...
This is not a proper ingredients list, avoid it! This is manganese violet repackaged. Unfortunately this is not a joke! Surprise, surprise this one was from Lotsa Lime. This one is Cloisonne Red repackaged.
