Fake Shampoo??

Back in December, my hairdresser convinced me to buy a bottle of Kerastase shampoo, because I was telling her I was having a hard time finding a shampoo in the drugstore that's good for oily hair. She in turn convinced the owner of the salon to give me a very large bottle of the stuff (at 50% off - from around $120 to $60 - he had bought too many bottles from Kerastase, so he needed to get rid of them). M and I have been using it ever since, and we love it (I use it every day; it makes my hair super soft, and it takes a lot longer to get oily). It lasted the both of us until just a few weeks ago (so about 4 months).


I went searching for a replacement bottle, and the first one I bought was TINY and $35!!! I was being stupid; I just assumed it was the size I wanted without checking.

I came to realize pretty quickly that the large size wasn't something sold in stores... it was for salons only. And then I came upon a site that had it, and with a coupon was only a few dollars more than what I bought it for in December. I was really excited... and then it arrived today, and I had to scratch my head. The packaging looks different from the large bottle I had... and looks different from the small bottle I bought recently ("for oily hair" versus "greasy hair", and the big bottle looks like the info is pasted on with a sticker, while on the small bottle the info is printed on and it looks glossy). What gives??

During my search for the size I wanted, I came upon a few sites that mentioned "fake Kerastase" (mostly floating around on ebay). I went back to the site I bought the shampoo from and saw this disclaimer: "Store is not associated or affiliated with L'Oreal and is not a licensed retailer of L'Oreal. L'Oreal guarantees this product only when sold through authorized retailers, and cannot guarantee the authenticity of any product sold by an unauthorized retailer." Ok, L'Oreal can't guarantee the authenticity, but shouldn't the store?? They don't know whether or not their own products are fake?

It smells ok... I'm hoping that instead of being fake, it's just old? (although, is that really any better? Does shampoo expire?)

Maybe I'm being punished for buying a $60 bottle of shampoo. :P But 4 months, between two people, isn't half bad... right?

Anyway, I'm ok with it, as long as it works as well as my other bottle... and I guess I should have expected that something was up, considering the price. I just got lucky getting it for so cheap at the salon. I should've bought 3 bottles right up front. :P If only I had known it was so awesome!