If you're a makeup lover, you'll probably know of Sephora, the beauty empire that houses brands such as Too Faced, Nars, and Fenty Beauty.

But have you heard of Sefarra?

Fine, the name might be coincidental, but let's take a look at their shopping bag:

The sans serif font and the black-and-white stripey paper bag seems pretty much like Sephora's one, doesn't it?

Wait, what is Sefarra?

According to their Facebook page, Sefarra HQ is a makeup store based in Kelantan, Malaysia, selling various makeup brands. 

It is owned by Farra Fareez, who apparently has her own line of makeup and contact lenses called Farra Beauty and is also a Malaysian social media influencer.

But hey, while Sefarra seems very similar to Sephora in some ways, it is also different.

Sefarra has its own house brand of perfumes, which was soft launched on Oct. 18, 2017.

Pretty common for Malaysian brands to look like international ones, apparently

Sefarra is not the only Malaysian beauty brand that looks similar to a better-known international brand.

There are others.

Dida lipsticks from Malaysia are packaged just like the internationally-renowned ColourPop Cosmetics' Lippie Stix:

Dida lipsticks

ColourPop Cosmetics Lippie Stix

And then there's ANAS (from Malaysia) that has a similar logo to NARS Cosmetics:

ANAS

NARS Cosmetics

There's also donUT Scarves which has been compared to dUCk Scarves.

Both are Malaysian brands, but dUCk Scarves is a more established scarf brand owned by Fashion Valet's chief creative officer, Vivy Yusof.

donUT Scarves, which was founded about a year after dUCk Scarves' launch in 2014, has been accused of copying dUCk Scarves though.

donutscarves is a joke. they copy the whole concept of duckscarves, from the brand to the scarf types. now theyre releasing LE scarves.

— mitochondriha (@rihajamil) September 9, 2016

donUT Scarves' packaging

dUCk Scarves' packaging

And they also have a similar way of doing social media marketing:

donUT Scarves' Instagram post

dUCk Scarves' Instagram post

[related_story]

But that's not all, donUT Scarves has also been accused of plagiarising an illustration by Japanese artist, Shinji Tsuchimochi.

View this post on Instagram

EDIT: Shinji-san has reached a decision. He wants to just continue his art now. Please support him from now on. I do not condone harassing that brand's customers, you have been vigilant, do not be a bully. - Thanks to @aerius_ @donut.nett @pickyours.co it has been brought to my attention that other than the Dubai design, #donutscarves has stolen an artist's work and claiming it as theirs. The artist did NOT give permission to #donutscarves to use his design and make profit from it. For the Dubai and Singapore City images, it is available for purchase from Shutterstock, so we cannot say if they have stolen it or have bought it. However, I contacted the artist himself and this is what he said: "Hello. This product diverted my work without permission. Unfortunately, there is no way to respond. Especially it is sad that the picture has been remodeled. If you are giving a big profit or abusing it, I would like to think about measures, Thank you for your report." He went to their IG page and commented that they stop selling this design. What did they do? Remove his comments and possibly blocked him too. Bear in mind, @donutscarves claimed to have taken A MONTH to finalize the design when Shinji-san is said to have taken THREE years to produce his book. It took them just seconds to silence him. He sells his book for USD25 (approx. RM108) and #donutscarves is selling an edit of his illustration for approximately USD22 (RM99) PER scarf. How many did they sell? How many are sold in pre-order? #donutella are you proud of this? Please spread the word, please take action. Don't sit still. #duckscarves have all the money and power and they can't stop #donutscarvesmalaysia , are you going to let a foreign artist's hardwork be stolen just coz you want to support a local brand? Do something. This brand is not from my country so I can't do anything. YOU CAN. #donutbuydonutscarves (that's intentional) Please spread the word. Don't let the artist be silenced! (If you want proof of me contacting the artist, I will DM you the screenshot) #donutscarves #bbloggers #bblogger #hijab #malaysia #malaysianbrand #duckscarves #arttheft #plagiarism #stoparttheft #japan #artist

A post shared by B's (@beautyandfrogs) on May 1, 2017 at 7:48pm PDT

Negative response

A lot of Malaysians do not like the idea of some Malaysian brands looking too similar to the established ones.

"Where's the originality in these brands? By looking at the packaging itself, it reminds me of the other brands that are already established. Come on."

"Lol what a total rip off."

But the reality is, there will always be people who will still buy these copied products because they are usually cheaper than their original counterparts.

"And yet, people will still worship these people and buy their products and make them richer, SMH."

Oh, well.

Top photo via Sefarra HQ's Facebook page and donUT Scarves.