Lime Crime Drama!

So i got a reply to my last email (which you can read her:

'Lillian,

I do appreciate your remaining civil through all this hostility and vitriol. I do make mistakes and I am willing to acknowledge them, which is why I wanted to speak to you on the phone (that offer still stands at my expense).

I too was appalled by some of the comments on my blog attacking you, and I responded and later removed that thread entirely because it was hurtful and inappropriate. Petty, malicious sniping against ANYONE is not what my blog is about.

I am committed to developing new products that excite me, and hopefully excite others. I stand by my eye shadows and lipsticks and have given as much insight into my process as is possible and I feel I've been more than fair in satisfying reasonable curiosity. I would disagree with you that I claimed anyone with a complaint against me is a liar.I think I was quite clear about what the lies are. We address customer complaints swiftly: we re-designed our jars and sifters so they are less messy and have doubled the amount of product we offer in response to customer input. If a customer informs me that he/she received the wrong or defective item(s) or the shipment was lost I do not brand them a liar for having the temerity to complain, I do whatever I can to make it right - including issue refunds if necessary. I'm human, but I try to learn from mistakes and correct them.

I didn't attack or insult any of these people personally I simply said their claims are false, defamatory garbage, which they absolutely are. They are the ones who brought the personal venom and the endless "gotcha!" distortions into this.

I'm here to share on a positive, colorful blog and make positive, colorful makeup. I genuinely live and breathe this. I hope you'll accept my offer to call you, otherwise please accept my apology for any hurt feelings.

I've not seen or met you, but I'm sure you have a fabulous beauty all your own (as all girls do!) and I regret that you were exposed to such negativity on my blog.


Xenia'

So once again she was civil and polite, but didn't actually add any new evidence to prove her argument, and stuck by her claim that anyone saying she repackages, whether or not they have their own evidence, are lying and being vicious.

Also a couple of days ago i got a comment on my youtube video from someone who asked her about the mum-asshole thing and Xenia told her i was lying.

So anyway here's my reply:

'Xenia,
Thank you for your offer to phone me. I shall have a think about it but I am afraid I probably will not take you up on it because i have a fear of talking on the phone. Also honestly i do not think there's anything that either of us could say to the other that hasn't already been said.

I also want you to know i never blamed you for the vicious comments aimed at me, if one of your fans dislikes me for whatever the reason it has nothing to do with you. However when you deleted the thread containing her comments you also deleted the link to my blog, which i don't care about but will probably give people fodder to claim you are censoring again since it stops your fans from reading about my experiences.

However, i have watched your video again and you definately do say that anyone who is claiming you are repackaging is lying and spreading 'malicious rumours'. While i agree totally that people who have been saying things like 'i would spit in your face' are completely out of order, most of the people who have made claims about your eyeshadows being identical to wholesale Mica's were fans of yours who bought your products and then discovered they already owned them, having bought them from a different company.

The problem is that while you have denied the rumours of repackaging you haven't offered any explanation as to why you can get the exact same colours from other places. The examples you used on your video were the only colours from your range which had not had 'confirmed' duplicates and still they were incredibly similar and looked as if they had been applied in different ways (your swatches looked like they had been foiled). Also i have seen emails from you to customers who have asked about the repackaging rumours where you have heavily implied that it is the other companies that have been copying you. For instance Mark sent this message to Anastasia from Lipsticks and Lightsabers:
'The observation you made is an example of how competitors follow and try to imitate something that's been successful. Colors cannot be legally protected so there isn't much we can do about that'
the competitors who you claim are imitating you have been in business a lot longer than you, as have their products which you are accused of repackaging, so i don't see how they could possibly have copied you. This makes your argument seem suspect, which in turn makes your claim that you orginally formulated the colours seem less likely.

Your video showing how you made eyeshadow also did not prove anything as it showed you matching the colour Twilight, not actually how you formulated the original recipe. In fact you did not even use a recipe, meaning it took you a few tries to create the correct colour match, i hope you are able to see that in some peoples eyes this will look suspicious as if you did indeed send your original formulation to a lab you would have had the recipe down in black and white.
It was very similar to this video from TKB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVTcidHMA20
where they teach you how to match an existing colour.

While i am sure the majority of your customer service is conducted in a perfectly sensible and fair manner i have heard of examples where you have refused to refund people after their eyedusts arrived damaged. I have also heard from innumerable sources that only 4 and 5 star reviews are allowed on your site. People have posted lower rated ones which have never appeared, while their higher rated ones show up. All this goes towards fueling the rumours that you are hiding a lot from your customers.
While you, as a business, have the absolute right to not give away your trade secrets i hope you can see that these practices do nothing to foster trust in customers. Particularly those who want to give (or already have given) to your business but feel they may be being mislead or even lied to. When people cannot trust you on one matter they cannot trust you overall.

Although I forgave you a long time ago for the insult you branded my mother with, the experience has left me very skeptical about your business practices and more inclined to believe dissenters who have nothing to gain by insulting you and were in fact fans before they bought your products.
However i realised that i really should see the evidence for myself so i have bought the TKB colours and am being sent some samples of your eyedusts from an ex-fan of yours so i can compare the two. I will tell the absolute truth and capture the first time i see them together on video and with photographs. If i do find that they are not identical, even if there is only the slightest difference, i will tell the truth because i have no reason to lie about it and destroy my integrity as a blogger. Also as i will have plenty of photographic evidence people would be able to see for themselves if i was lying.

Also I have been told by someone who watched my youtube video about my experience with you that she emailed you asking if what i was saying (about the 'asshole' remark) was true and you denied you ever said it, implying i was lying. If you had simply forgotten or were unsure that would be understandable, but to outright deny it when the proof is easy to find is not only shifty but makes the rests of your claims look less valid.
Also it makes me trust you less because even though you've been very nice to me and apologised you are then denying you did anything wrong behind my back. Of course the person could be lying herself, or have got the wrong end of the stick, but again i am more inclined to believe her due to that old breach of trust.

I hope you can see that some (in fact most i have seen) of the people doubting your company have no reason to be malicious and so instead of just branding them liars it would be better if you actually addressed their concerns and explained why your colours are so similar to the wholesale micas instead of just dodging their questions and saying they are out to spread rumours about you. If you were to offer an explanation and treat everyone with respect i'm sure you would be respected in return.

Lillian'

I have some samples of her eyeshadows on the way to me now.