Pony Effect has two preview videos of a set of magnetic brushes and two metal brush holders: a frame, and a panel. It looks super cool. But is it a coincidence, a ripoff, or a license of the Rae Morris magnetic line? I don’t know, there’s no answers anywhere, but this is all veryyy interesting.
The first video is a hidden link on YouTube:
It was posted on Instagram, but has now been deleted, as you can see below:
I will admit that the design for both the Pony Effect and Rae Morris versions are quite simple and it’s easy to arrive at that design. But when placed side-by-side, I have to admit they are a little too similar.
A Google search will tell you that this has already been a Thing for a couple of years now. The Rae Morris magnetic line has been covered on InStyle (June 2014), Popsugar (January 2015), Into the Gloss (Dec 2015), and also the excellent makeup brush blog Sweet Makeup Temptations (February 2014 and February 2015).
Pony Effect, Metal Brush Frame
40,000 krw (45 aud)
Rae Morris, The Rae Frame
75 aud
Secondly, the smaller plate.
Pony Effect, Metal Brush Plate
25,000 krw (28 aud)
Rae Morris, The Rae Plate
35 aud
Pony Effect’s line is available on Memebox.com and also on the US Memebox site, and will begin shipping on April 18, 2016. Presently, you can only buy them in sets, but individually, the prices are listed from 17,000 won for the Small Eyeshadow Brush, to 40,000 won for the Metal Brush Frame.
Copyright issues aside … admittedly, even with the current exchange rate, Pony Effect’s near-identical version is much more affordable. The whole thing is a mess, but even with the social media fallout and ethical/legal problems, I think that the Pony Effect version will sell very well here in Korea. It’s so much more affordable, and it ships from a location in Seoul, instead of all the way from Australia.
Personally, I already have a bunch of non-magnetic brushes that I’m not about to give up, and I can’t be bothered to rig magnetic tips to them. The magnetic concept is gorgeous though, and I wouldn’t have minded having something like that for myself. It’s a great gift for someone who could use a new set of brushes, or wouldn’t mind having a new set.
An option is to buy the metal brush frame and six brushes from Memebox’s Global Gmarket store.
Searching eBay for the terms “Pony Effect brush” should work, too.
And of course, there’s the original Rae Morris magnetic sets and brushes.
Update, April 21
On this post on Instagram, two days ago (April 19), this is what Rae Morris had to say. Her reply is somewhere in the comments, so here’s a screenshot:
Pony has written a statement on Instagram about the issue. The statement states that they studied the features, pros, and cons of magnetic brush sets all over the world (where are these products by the way, I want to see?), including Rae Morris’, and improvements were made. This research resulted in the Pony Effect set. The statement also states that the team went through the legalese, design patents and rights etc., and concluded that the Pony Effect set was legally cleared for release in South Korea.
tl;dr? “We totally didn’t copy it; ours is better. And anyway, it’s not illegal.”
최근 며칠 사이 이슈가 되었던 ‘포니이펙트 마그네틱 브러시’에 대한 제 생각을 말씀드리려고 합니다.
우선 ‘포니이펙트 마그네틱 브러시’는 법의 테두리 안에서 제작되고 생산되어 여러분들에게 선보이는 제품이라는 점을 말씀드리고 싶습니다. ‘포니이펙트 마그네틱 브러시’뿐만 아니라, 지금까지 출시된 모든 포니이펙트 상품은 적법하게 제작이 되었으며 앞으로도 포니이펙트는 관련 법령을 준수할 것임을 다시 한 번 약속드리겠습니다!
여러분들이 궁금해 하시는 마그네틱 브러시 역시 제작에 앞서 포니이펙트팀은 관련 법령과 각종 사례를 검토하였습니다. 레아 모리스의 제품을 포함, 이미 여러 나라에서 만들어진 마그네틱 브러시 제품들에 대해 법률적인 검토를 했고, 비교 대상이 되는 제품들보다 더 좋은 제품을 만들기 위해 다양한 제품들의 특징과 장단점을 분석하였습니다. 그 과정에서 만에하나 혹시라도 다른 분들의 정당한 권리를 침해하지 않기 위해 확인하고 또 확인했습니다. 그 후, 마그네틱 브러시 관련 특허권, 디자인권 등에 대한 검색을 통해 한국 내에서의 출시에 문제가 없다는 점을 확인했고, 더 좋은 제품을 만들어 여러분들께 선보일수 있게 되었던 것이 마그네틱 브러시 입니다.포니 이펙트 마그네틱 브러시를 포함하여, 멈추지 않고 더 유용하고 더 쓸모있는 제품들로 인사드리겠습니다. 모두모두 한분한분께 감사드립니다.
A photo posted by PONY 포니 (@ponysmakeup) on
And a word-by-word translation by someone on Instagram:
