Without question, Lost Mary is one of the most popular disposable vape brands in the UK today. If you’re even just an occasional user of disposable vapes, you’re undoubtedly familiar with devices like the Lost Mary BM600S. Lost Mary vapes are popular because they have the right combination of good looks, reliable performance and terrific flavours to please just about anyone looking for a quality vaping experience.
Disposable vapes aren’t without issues, though, and one of the biggest problems is the proliferation of fake vapes that has happened over the past few years. Disposable vapes are exactly the kinds of products that unscrupulous producers target. They’re inexpensive to make and purchased by the millions around the world every day. They’re also only used for a little while before being discarded, so buyers don’t look at them very critically and aren’t likely to spot counterfeits – which brings us to our topic for today.
In a local vape shop or corner store, you may have seen a new brand that looks a lot like Lost Mary but, oddly, has a slightly different name. That brand is Found Mary. What is it? How do Found Mary vs. Lost Mary vapes compare, and are Found Mary vapes fake? Let’s dig in.
Learn More: Read our comprehensive yearly roundup of the best vapes in the UK.
What Are Found Mary Vapes?
Let’s begin with the most basic question: What, exactly, are Found Mary vapes – and are they fake? The answer is that it isn’t exactly correct to call Found Mary vapes fake or counterfeit products. It would be more accurate to call them clones or knockoffs. It’s a little like a luxury handbag with a label that says “Goochie” instead of Gucci. Naturally, Gucci would protect its trademark and have the bag removed from the market – but the bag wouldn’t exactly be a counterfeit since it wouldn’t have the Gucci name or logo.
The same is true of Found Mary vapes. They’re deceptive in a sense because they’re certainly trading on the cachet of the Lost Mary name, but they aren’t technically fake. I definitely wouldn’t recommend buying a Found Mary vape, though, and I’ll discuss the reason for that shortly.
First, though, why are Lost Mary knockoffs actually on the market in the first place?
Why Are Lost Mary Knockoffs So Common?
To understand why Lost Mary knockoffs are actually on the market, it’s worthwhile to have an understanding of how the vaping market – and how the disposable segment of the market in particular – works.
One of the biggest problems in this segment of the industry is that it’s often hard to tell where the devices really come from and who the official sources are. The fact that a website has a particular brand in its domain name doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the brand’s official website for two reasons.
- In general, Chinese vape brands often do a poor job of protecting their trademarks, and other websites seemingly use those companies’ brand names with impunity.
- Some makers of disposable vapes have no official websites at all.
The reason why a vape manufacturer would have no official website is because the company wants to elude regulatory authorities. The biggest market in the world for vaping products is the United States, and in the US, no disposable vapes are approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Therefore, they’re all technically illegal. It’s difficult for the FDA to serve a warning letter, though, to a company it can’t find.
Lost Mary, however, isn’t one of the brands that’s difficult to find. Lost Mary has an official website, and it’s known where the devices come from. They’re produced by Shenzhen iMiracle, which is a subsidiary of Heaven Gifts.
Shenzhen iMiracle, however, has pulled plenty of its own shenanigans in order to evade the FDA – it’s changed the names of its products several times. The company is also the maker of the popular Elf Bar brand, which has changed its name twice – to EB Designs and then EB Create – in the US. The company also has another brand, which was formerly called Funky Republic and is now called Funky Lands. The name changes have bred confusion among consumers and have helped fake products to proliferate.
The name changes to the Elf Bar brand haven’t happened in the UK market, though, and the name of the Lost Mary brand has never changed in any region. So, Found Mary isn’t an official product and has no relation to Lost Mary. The same is true of Bloody Mary, which is another knockoff product recently seen in UK stores.
Are There Any Reasons Not to Buy Found Mary Vapes?
So, if Found Mary vapes aren’t technically fake, are they okay to buy? I, for one, wouldn’t suggest it. Here’s why.
- They’re not licenced by MHRA. Therefore, they haven’t gone through the emissions tests required for all vaping products in the UK and aren’t approved for sale here.
- It’s not known for sure where the devices come from. Therefore, nothing is known about what’s in the devices, whether they’re produced in sanitary conditions or whether they’re even safe to use.
- If they’re found to have problems such as microbial contaminations, unsafe additives or low-quality batteries, it would be difficult to address the problem legally since there’s no manufacturer or official distributor to contact.
I, for one, feel much more comfortable about using vapes that have been tested and declared safe and are legal for sale in the UK – and I definitely don’t feel comfortable buying a vaping device from a maker that’s attempting to ride the coattails of an established brand rather than building a brand of its own. Real Lost Mary vapes aren’t expensive, and they’re not difficult to find. If you buy your devices from a reliable vape shop, you’ll never have to worry about fakes. That’s the only way I’d ever want to vape.