Glittersniffer

I'm super late to this so the majority of you will probably have read this info somewhere else, but I still thought it was very important to post so the information is available to as many people as possible.
Glittersniffer Cosmetics is a (seemingly freakishly popular) indie mineral makeup company that has been going for a couple of years. I first heard of the company from a blog post of Phyrras where she suspected that some of the colours she had bought were repackaged so rolled my eyes and decided not to buy any pigments from the company. However I did check back on the company now and then as some of their other products (foiling mediums, toilletries etc) intrigued me. Luckilly I never bought anything.

Anyway I didn't hear anything about them and didn't look at their site for a while, until a few days ago when I saw a post on my dashboard and was absolutely horrified by what I found out from subsequent posts:
http://pa1nt3d-pr1nc3ss.blogspot.com/2010/12/glittersniffer-links-of-awesome.html

http://kirafayescorner.blogspot.com/2010/12/glitter-sniffer-closing-for-good.html

I probably can't say anything more than the bloggers I've linked to have already said but here's a breief synopsis of what this company has been up to:

• Repackaging
• Selling non-vegan products while claiming to be an all vegan company
• Taking months to ship orders and not replying to emails
• using money raised for charity to pay her own expenses
• possibly packing and handling products in unsanitary conditions
• and selling items that are not safe for cosmetic use and not disclosing it.

The whole thing is just appalling. Everytime I thought it couldn't get worse something even more terrible would come up!

The are complaints left and right of orders taking months to arrive, or not arriving at all. Or of people having half their order replaced substitutions without notice. Of pigments arriving with chunks where it hasn't been mixed properly, or their lids coming off in transit  making the product spill everywhere.
There are photos on face book of the owner and her employees cutting soap and handling jars of pigment on what appears to just be a kitchen table, without gloves or masks.

The owner Lela admits that she was given money for charity but is spending it on refunds and will have to re-raise the money (I certainly hope she means that the money will be raised from her own pockets, not that she will hold more raffles or drives to get others to contribute the money but i suspect with disgust that she means the latter). This is utterly despicable. If you have been given money for a charity, no matter what the situation is, it is NOT YOURS to spend. It belongs either to the charity or the people who donated it. I can only imagine my fury if I donated money and then discovered it was funding refunds for shoddy, unsafe products, instead of helping the cause it was meant for.

The vegan thing is not cut-and-dry as I have seen comments from her saying (though only when asked directly) that some red shades contain carmine, the ingredients were not disclosed on the site and Glittersniffer claimed to be an entirely vegan friendly company, so many people could have been duped into using non-vegan products because they did not specifically enquire whether they contained carmine.

There's a list as long as my arm of products that are being recalled because they contaim unsafe ingredients. Lela has said that every pigment that was unsafe for eyes was labelled as such, but you can see from the screenshot here that that was not the case. Her the Neon 80s collection, which was not only unsafe for eyes but not suitable for any cosmetic use as it contains soap dyes, not only fails to mention that it shouldn't be used in cosmetic applications but actually suggests using it as as eyeliner, shadow or lipgloss. Also the times Lela did admit that the item she was selling was not safe for use on the eyes and to use it as shadow would be at your own risk she would always follow it up by saying that she and others had used it many times with no harm. While that may be true she should not have said it as it implication is that the product almost definately will do no harm, and could be seen as suggestive that others should follow her example and ignore the silly safety rules.
Finally Lela made a statement about all the problems her company has been having. While it's good that she admitted fault it doesn't excuse anything. Her 'taking a chance' by using soap dyes in cosmetic products appears to have caused several people to develop eye and skin problems. And there's a weird undercurrent of her seeming to blame her customers, people were asking for neons so she was FORCED to sell unsafe items, it's not her fault!

Everyone makes mistakes. But mistake after mistake after mistake? And withholding information about products that could cause people harm is not a trivial matter in the slightest. At best it was an incredible piece of stupidity and at worst it was a deliberate effort to fool people into buying products they would not have if they had known they weren't safe.

Lela's fans are loyal to a frightening degree, to me it's rather upsetting seeing these women who, while probably having all the best intentions, will defend Glittersniffer to the death. 'I've only received 2 out of my 5 orders, and those were full of substitutions, but Glittersniffer is the best makeup brand ever! I don't care about all the money i've lost. Lela knows what she's doing, of COURSE she'd wear gloves at all times. There are photos saying otherwise? Well then Lela MUST have washed her hands, that's as good as wearing sterilised gloves anyway! The products aren't safe for eyes? Well I've used them with no problems, you people who say you've developed pinkeye are talking nonsense, it couldn't have been the makeups fault even though it's not safe? Selling products that aren't meant for cosmetic use at all without a warning? Well Lela admitted it and that took guts so she's a saint!'. It's just weird.

I've also heard that Lela attacked Dominique from but haven't seen it anywhere, I assume comments were deleted. If anyone has any details I'd love to know.

Anyway if anyone has any of the listed unsafe Glittersniffer pigments then I urge you to contact Lela  straight away for a refund, though you might be a while getting one. Apparently when they relaunch all their products will be reformulated to be completely vegan and safe but frankly I would really worry about anyone who could trust them after all that.

Depressingly I have another drama post coming straight up. Boo urns :(