In beauty, imitation has long been part of the ecosystem. Dupes are no longer a fringe phenomenon; they are a business model, a content strategy, and, increasingly, a consumer expectation. Yet as the industry evolves, so has the nature of imitation. So what happens when a dupe is no longer just about a specific formula or a lower price offering, but replicates the brand’s entire identity?
For Korean indie fragrance house BORNTOSTANDOUT, that question has become a pressing reality. The brand has found itself at the center of a growing controversy involving the Indian fragrance label BLA BLI BLU, one that, according to BORNTOSTANDOUT founder Jun Lim, goes far beyond mere inspiration and into full-scale replication. In a twist that underscores the complexity of today’s global beauty landscape, some consumers in India—who are shipped BORNTOSTANDOUT products even though they aren’t distributed in India—now believe BORNTOSTANDOUT is the imitator, not the originator.
Lim is not unfamiliar with knockoffs. Like many indie founders, he has watched other brands borrow elements of BORNTOSTANDOUT’s aesthetic: its white porcelain-inspired bottles, bold red typography, and irreverent tone. That, he says, comes with the territory. But this situation felt different from the outset.
“The overlap is not just one element,” Lim explained to BeautyMatter. “It’s the names, the bottle, the color system, the tone of voice, everything feels like it’s been rewritten through AI from our brand.”
Initially, the brand took a wait-and-see approach. Reports from Indian consumers suggested that a new player was drawing heavily from BORNTOSTANDOUT. Still, at the time, it appeared to be another small-scale dupe brand, common and typically inconsequential. “At first, it was just reported to us that there was a brand taking heavy inspiration,” Lim said. “That wasn’t a big concern.”
The shift came when BLA BLI BLU began to scale. Over the past year, the brand has gained significant traction across India through major e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart. With price points far below BORNTOSTANDOUT’s luxury positioning, it has quickly achieved mass accessibility. And with access comes familiarity.
“At the beginning of this year, they [BLA BLI BLU] really started to grow, and that’s when the confusion began,” Lim said. The brand has even received extensive press in India, with The Economic Times reporting that the business hit Rs 100 crore ($10.41 million) within its first six months of trading. In markets where BORNTOSTANDOUT does not yet have a physical retail presence, like India, that growth has had an unintended consequence: narrative distortion.
“Third parties are now asking whether we are the copy,” Lim explained. “The brand damage is no longer hypothetical; it already exists.” That confusion is now playing out publicly online.
Across Reddit fragrance forums in India, users have increasingly discussed similarities between the two brands, with many concluding that BLA BLI BLU directly references BORNTOSTANDOUT’s branding, naming conventions, and visual language.
One Reddit user wrote that BLA BLI BLU was “basically a copy of BTSO,” while another described it as “a full on 100% rip off of Born to Stand Out,” asking, “how can these so-called ‘founders’ sleep at night?”
Others pointed to the similarities in bottle design, typography, and even website presentation, with one commenter writing that the brand had copied “everything right down to branding and perfume name.” But perhaps the most telling development is what happened next: the imitation itself became so culturally embedded that consumers began parodying secondary “copies” of BLA BLI BLU, and effectively creating a dupe of the alleged dupe.
In one Reddit thread titled “Westside copied bla bli blu,” users jokingly mocked an Indian retailer for releasing fragrances with similar packaging, despite commenters openly acknowledging that BLA BLI BLU itself had mirrored BORNTOSTANDOUT first.
The irony speaks to a larger shift in beauty culture. Once a visual language becomes widespread enough, its origin can become obscured entirely. In this context, authorship becomes secondary to visibility.
Despite the apparent similarities, pursuing legal recourse has proven difficult. “Trademark is a very delicate issue,” Lim said. “The infringing mark has to be identical or deceptively similar, and even then, it’s hard to prove.”
According to Jessica Eaves Mathews, a US-based trademark, IP, and compliance attorney who works on cross-border IP matters, the case likely involves several overlapping legal questions, none of which are straightforward. Mathews emphasized that she is not licensed in India nor is she an expert in Indian IP law, noting that any definitive assessment would require local counsel. Still, she said the situation highlights how difficult these disputes can become across jurisdictions.
“The product names are a trademark question,” Mathews explained. “‘Be My Cookie’ being used by both brands, and ‘Drunk Lovers’ versus ‘Love Drunk,’ would be analyzed as potential trademark infringement.” She also pointed to the possibility of what US courts call “reverse confusion”—a situation in which the larger or more visible company is mistaken for the original brand, overshadowing the smaller, senior user.
“Consumers think BORNTOSTANDOUT is the copycat because BLA BLI BLU has the retail presence in India; this is what we would call reverse confusion in the US,” Mathews said, assuming BORNTOSTANDOUT was using the marks in India first.
However, she noted that Indian courts have not developed reverse confusion into a clearly established doctrine in the same way US courts have, making local legal expertise essential.
The similarities extend beyond product naming. “The packaging and visual identity are a trade dress question,” Mathews said. “The white bottles, red typography, and overall aesthetic are not individual marks but rather the total commercial impression of the product.”
Trade dress claims focus on whether a product’s overall look and feel is distinctive enough to warrant protection and whether consumers are likely to confuse one brand with another.
Mathews added that the similarities in messaging and positioning could also be relevant in a passing-off claim, a legal framework more commonly used in India and other Commonwealth jurisdictions. “Passing off requires showing that the claimant had goodwill in the market, that the defendant made a misrepresentation likely to confuse consumers, and that the claimant suffered or is likely to suffer damage as a result,” she explained.
Crucially, these claims depend heavily on timing. “India, like the US, is a first-to-use jurisdiction,” Mathews said. “If BORNTOSTANDOUT can establish that it was the senior user in India, then the fact that BLA BLI BLU came in later and built a larger presence there could support a reverse confusion claim and a passing off claim.”
But because BLA BLI BLU entered the Indian market first, the equation changes significantly, given BORNTOSTANDOUT’S lack of presence in the region. “BORNTOSTANDOUT would now just be a junior foreign entrant arriving late to a market where someone else got there first,” she said.
The case also highlights a broader challenge facing indie beauty brands operating globally. Trademark rights and consumer goodwill do not automatically transfer across borders, even for brands with strong international visibility. “Every country has its own trademark system,” Mathews said. “Having prior rights or goodwill in one country doesn’t automatically give you rights in India.”
For founders, the lesson is increasingly clear: expansion strategy and IP strategy can no longer operate independently. For indie brands, the issue is not simply legal, it is financial.
According to Lim, consultations with both international and Indian law firms revealed a challenging landscape: lengthy litigation timelines, high costs, and uncertain outcomes. “Cases like this would likely take years to resolve and cost significantly more than any damages awarded,” he said.
Mathews notes that litigation is not the only option. Major marketplaces, including Amazon and Flipkart, maintain their own IP complaint and takedown systems that can sometimes provide faster interim relief. “These aren’t a substitute for litigation,” she said, “but they can be a faster, cheaper first step while evaluating whether full legal action makes sense.”
Still, the broader challenge, and what makes this case particularly notable, remains: the most valuable parts of a modern beauty brand—its identity, aesthetic language, and cultural positioning—are often the hardest to protect legally.
Dupes have traditionally focused on products: a similar scent profile, a comparable formula, a lower price point. Increasingly, however, imitation is moving beyond single products and into full brand ecosystems. “This is not just one or two elements,” Lim said. “It’s a reproduction of the full architecture of the brand.”
Despite the challenges, BORNTOSTANDOUT is not retreating. The brand is continuing its global expansion plans and intends to enter the Indian market through selective luxury retail partnerships.
What it will not do is alter its identity in response. “We’re not going to change our designs or language,” Lim said. Instead, the focus remains on reinforcing originality and reclaiming narrative control.
In today’s beauty industry, where visibility can outweigh provenance and scale can reshape perception, the battle is no longer just about who created something first. It’s about who consumers believe is the original owner.
As of press time, BLA BLI BLU has declined to comment.
