Quick answer: The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% is one of the most copied serums in Pakistan. The fakes have become so good that the box, the bottle, and even the scanned codes can look exactly like the original. The one reliable difference we found is simple. When you rub the original on your skin, it leaves a heavy white foam before it soaks in. In our testing, the fakes left far less foam than the original.
You cannot trust the outside of the bottle
This is the hardest part for most people to accept. With this serum, the outside packaging tells you almost nothing anymore.
In our testing, the carton looked the same. The bottle looked the same. The label looked the same. We even scanned the codes and they pointed to the right place. Everything on the outside matched. If you were only checking the box and the barcode, you would have called the fake genuine.
So please do not rely on the packaging alone. The counterfeiters have copied all of that. You need to look at how the product itself behaves.
The texture is not a reliable check
Some guides tell you the original is thick and the fake is watery, or the other way around. Be careful with this. In our own testing the fakes were not consistent with each other. Some fakes felt too watery, and some felt heavier than the original. Every counterfeiter mixes their own formula, so the texture changes from fake to fake.
That means texture on its own cannot tell you what is real. If anything, this inconsistency is a warning in itself. These are different formulas mixed by different people, and none of them is the real thing.
The foam test (the one that worked for us)
This is the difference that stood out the most in our testing, and it is easy to see with your own eyes.
Take two drops of the serum and rub it on clean dry skin, like the back of your hand. Keep rubbing for a few seconds and watch what happens. The original serum leaves a lot of foam. Not thick foam like a foaming face wash, but a clear white layer that is easy to see sitting on the skin just before it absorbs. The more you rub, the more that white foam shows.
Now the fake. We tested the fake bottles the same way, two drops rubbed into the skin. They did leave some foam, but far less than the original.
Instead of a clear white layer, the fake mostly felt like heavy water soaking into the skin, with only a faint trace of white. We saw this across more than one fake bottle, which is what made it worth sharing.
Why does this happen?
The foam comes from the way the genuine formula is made. The original contains an emulsifier called Isoceteth-20, and this ingredient is what produces the white foam when the serum is rubbed.
The more you rub or the more product you use, the more that foam appears before it soaks in. A fake that gives far less foam does not behave the same way, and we cannot tell you exactly what is inside a fake, because it is fake, and that is likely why it does not foam like the original.
We want to be honest here. This is what we found in our own testing, not a laboratory result. But it held true for us across the fakes we checked, and it is a simple thing anyone can try at home.
A note on price
Price can help you a little, but only in one direction. If the serum is being sold suspiciously cheap, far below the normal rate, treat that as a red flag. Nobody sells the genuine product below cost. But a high price does not prove anything. A seller of fakes can charge a full or even higher price to make the product look real. So cheap is a warning sign, but expensive is not a guarantee.
Myths that do not work
There are a few popular checks going around that did not hold up for us.
Scanning the code. Many people think if the barcode or code scans, the product is real. In our testing the codes on fakes scanned fine and pointed to the right place. A code that scans does not mean the bottle is genuine.
The double sticker. You may have heard that if the bottle has two stickers on the back, it means the product is original. This is not a reliable check, and here is why.
The Ordinary is made by a company called DECIEM. From time to time they change how they pack and label their bottles. They also use slightly different labels for different countries. So one genuine bottle might have that extra sticker, and another genuine bottle might not. Both are real. The sticker just depends on when and where that bottle was packed.
And because it is just a sticker, a fake can easily have one too, or leave it off. So the sticker does not prove anything, on a real bottle or a fake one.
This is the whole point of this guide. The outside of the bottle, the box, the labels, the stickers, can all be copied or can change on their own. That is why you cannot judge this product by its packaging.
The safest way to buy
Since the outside cannot be trusted and the fakes keep getting better, the only real protection is where you buy from. Buy from a seller you can hold accountable, one that stands behind the product being genuine. A home test like the foam check is useful as a second layer, but the first line of safety is always a trusted source.
At PrimeSkin.pk we sell only genuine, authentic skincare. If you want The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% without the worry of fakes, you can order the original from us with confidence.
Watch the full fake vs original test in this video, with the foam difference shown side by side.
Also Read:
How to Check if CeraVe is Original or Fake in Pakistan (Cleanser & Moisturizer)
