I have six Aerin light fixtures so far. Aerin Renwick chandelier is in my entryway and it was my first designer lighting purchase. Since then I bought 5 more light fixtures on the first floor of my house and I am not even half way done.
If you follow me on social media, you already know that I am a fan of high end and designer lighting. I have many pricey light fixtures throughout the house. My expensive lighting love didn’t start straight out of the gate.
I started out by spending (wasting) over $700 in a dupe of this Aerin chandelier first. To me, I was saving 50% on by buying the copycat, only to realize that you do get you paid for, and if you don’t like what you go then you gotta pay up.
Color of The Brass
Right off the bat – the color of the brass.
The Aerin gold is a pretty, warm, gilt brass whereas the dupe is mostly white on the globe part and the solid parts are much whiter, cold looking brass.
You want your brass to be warm and slightly rosy, not washed out, pale white.
Quality of The Casting
I know a thing or two about casting metals since we sell brass hardware.
The pitting and the inconsistencies that you see in the dupe are indicators of poor quality of sand casting.
Another picture of the pitting on the metal. Even though this is the interior of the cap, the poor quality is hard to miss.
In order to get the most consistent quality, you need “stamped” or forged metal. Aerin looks like it was stamped. It’s much thinner with pronounced feature, hence you see the smooth, consistent curves, no pitting to be found.
The Gold Vs. The Beaded Cage
If you notice the difference between the OG and the dupe, you will realize that the dupe has wrapped/ beaded carcass. While I admire the effort, I think the beading looks a bit folksy/ cutesy.
It’s like they tried too hard and it didn’t work.
Quality of The Crystals
These are un-retouched pictures from iPhone 14? I don’t remember. They are from 2021.
Do you see the rainbow? Do I need to say more?
The crystals on the Renwick chandelier are just better quality. They are better quality glass with the rainbow of light reflecting off of them.The dupe has crystals that are FLAT.
Is it plain glass vs. crystal or glass vs. plastic? Glass vs. Swarowaski? I am not sure, since I am no expert on this matter.
You see, 99.9% of the time, your chandelier is going to be off, not on, so it’s more important looks pretty when it’s off.
Quality of The Chain
The Aerin chain is chunkier and hefty. The dupe chain looks a little anemic. Chuck = luxury when it comes to high end goods. You will notice the chunky chains on Chanel Boy bags and Bottega bags.
Aerin delivers on that detail, the dupe fails.
Final Thoughts
Is there much left to say?
I mean dupes look absolutely fabulous in photoshopped Instagram pictures, right? You don’t get to look at them at 6″ distance, you don’t get to touch them, you don’t have a “filter” that the social media posts have that distorts the reality.
Without the beer goggles of filters and photoshopped pictures, I was stuck with a light fixture that looks cheap and feels cheap, because it WAS cheap.
Needless to say, I bit the bullet and bought the real deal.
Since then, I have not looked at dupes.
Open Box Is my Secret
If I love an expensive light fixture that I can’t afford then I look for open box sale. I scored my latest Aerin chandelier in an open box sale on Visual Comfort’s website.
Another option is eBay. There are plenty of people who are reselling these or some are just trying to sell off the wrong sized one the bought and missed the return window.;
I love my Aerin Renwick chandelier very much, till this day. I love it enough that I bought 5 more light fixtures of the same brand.
Try to buy the real deal for the lowest possible price.
Buy Once & Cry Once. That’s my motto. What is yours?