Xenia's reply

I must say i was actually very surprised by Xenia's reply. First of all i expected to be ignored, or if not, to be attacked. However i will say that actually she has responded in a very fair and diplomatic fashion to me. Here's what she has said so far:

In reply to the email i posted last night


' Lillian,

If you'd like to speak to me over the phone about this, I would love to call you. Let me know where to call.

-Xenia'

to which i responded:

' I don't think that would be practical, i live in England.
I honestly have no personal vendetta against you, i was discussing you with my friend the other day and we both agreed that had we not been around for so long, and seen the drama and scandals with you involved, we would be huge fans of yours. I'll admit i love your whole aesthetic, if i had not been insulted by you i probably would have bought your entire candyfuture line.
If you look you'll see that i didn't even mention my problems with you in the pass until after the repackaging rumours came out, so please don't think i have been trying to sabotage you from the beginning.
I understand that you have to stand up for your company, so of course rebuke people saying your product is duped (i'm still not convinced about your eyeshadows, but i have seen swatches of your lipsticks and i agree that they are not just repackaged) but please don't call people, some of whom are ex-fans of yours liars.
Lillian'

and then she replied with:

'Lillian,

I'm really sorry if I offended you in any way. What I was referring to in the video is an email someone posted recently, pretending to be me, calling my customers idiots, etc. If I lashed out at you in the past, it was very reckless and rash and I hope you can forgive me for that. I am human and make mistakes, but I learn from them too. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to make this right.

-X'

So i must say in a way i am impressed because i was fully expecting to get a nasty reply. And it is nice to have finally, after many years, got an apology for what she said. However she did not address any of my concerns surrounding the video and how she was calling anyone who had made a complaint against her a liar.

I then sent this email:

'Xenia
Firstly i'd like to say thank you for replying to me, i honestly expected to be ignored and thank you for not being hostile towards me. I understand that when your business is being called into disrepute it is hard to keep your emotions out of it. I guess that's what the 'asshole' thing was about but, pathetic as it might sound, it did hurt me deeply and because of the implications (that my Mum was stupid for trusting you) i have found it quite relevant to the new rumours surrounding your eyeshadows and your customer service. When you buy from a small company (as i did several times from your clothing line) trust is a very important factor and my trust was lost with those comments.

I am now being insulted by someone on your blog. I understand if you have to delete the comment i posted in reply but really if you could i would like you to keep it up. I didn't say anything insulting about you in it, i just wanted to point out that is is ridiculous to say that the reason i might have a grudge at you is simply because you are thinner than me. Again i would like to point out that, while i may well have a grudge against you because i was hurt by your comments in the past, i did not say anything about you until after people began discussing your customer service and problems with your products. I did not dredge this up myself to create dama, i just shared my own opinions and experiences when people were starting to wonder.

Again i am sorry that things have got so ugly (i think some of the things that have been said about you are awful and shameful) , but people need to know the truth and i'm still not convinced about your eyeshadows, having seen exact duplicates and also some replies from you claiming that the wholesale companies are competitors trying to duplicate what is popular. If you do repackage some products it would not be fatal to just admit it, in fact I and a lot of others would gain a lot of respect for you. As you are a small company just starting up it would be completely understandable. There's nothing wrong with admitting a mistake and moving on. However the huge problem with the video you made is that you are claiming that anyone who has a complaint against you is a liar. I've heard from many people who were fans of yours, bought products and then discovered that they already owned them, purchased from other companies. Even if you are somehow creating the exact same colours as these companies yourself, and not simply repackaging, that still means they are not in any way unique.

In the name of fairness i have not tried any of your products and can only go by what i have seen on other blogs (and i have seen photos where the colours look absolutely identical) i do not have the money to purchase to try for myself. However i do think that it is well within my rights to write my own opinions on my blog without fear of being attacked or called a 'hater'. I also found it unfair as now i, who have had a legitimate reason to doubt your company, have been lumped in with people who are pretending to be you or simply insulting you on things that have nothing to do with the product. I have completely stayed out of the name calling and in fact have been appalled by some of the comments made about you.

I hope that in the future you begin to make your own unique products and that there will be some exciting new things to see, but i know that I, and many others because of this drama, would be very hesitant to purchase from you no matter how brilliant your products become.

Lillian'

I'll keep you posted if i get a reply. I must say that at the moment i am actually feeling a lot less hostile towards her, perhaps simply because i finally got an apology and because she seems less objectionable in comparison with the girl who said i was just jealous and fat!