This and this is absolutely appalling!
I'm lucky enough to have never had any of my images or content stolen (well as far as I'm aware!), apart from one time where someone uploaded some photos of my nail polish collection to the Models Own facebook page without my permission, but that is absolutely nothing compared to what has happened to The Swatchaholic and Swatch and Learn!
Other bloggers and ebay sellers nicking photos off blogs for their own purposes is bad enough but this, using bloggers photos to actually advertise a product (that isn't even being worn in the photo!) is just beyond the pale!
You can't really get Sinful Colors in the UK but if you could then I would be boycotting them! There's also a petition here but really there should be no need of a petition, I'm pretty sure what theyv've done is illegal. Or am I naive?
Support your fellow Beauty Bloggers!
Showing posts with label drama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drama. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Hi Fi Cosmetics - MIA or AWOL?
So I mentioned that I was having trouble with an indie company. Unfortunately nothing has been fixed yet and there's nothing I can really do about it. The company in question is Hi Fi cosmetics. I've reviewed them in the past and absolutely love their products and the owner, Veronica, was always really nice and helpful so I'm really saddened to have to write this.
I ordered from the companies artfire page on the 27th of November and paid via echeque which cleared on the 2nd of December. It was during their black friday sale so I made a rather large order coming to about £40 ($60) Since then I've heard nothing. I know that earlier in the year they'd had a big problem keeping up with orders because of a Heartsy deal but that seemed to have calmed down. I expected to have a bit of a wait with the turn around time and then international shipping so, even though I got other Black friday orders in a couple of weeks, I didn't think much about it. But then New years came and went and there was no sign of my order. No shipping confirmation, no apology for delay, nothing. So I sent Veronica an email, just enquiring politely when my order was. No reply. I asked around on some facebook groups and was told by several people that while Hi Fi orders often take a while to arrive they always DO arrive. I also heard that Veronica was pregnant so i thought maybe that was why she hadn't replied to my email and thought I'd give her the benefit of the doubt and wait a while longer.
Since then I've sent two more emails and a message over artfire and have had no reply of any kind. The Hi Fi cosmetics facebook page has been deleted and their twitter hasn't been used since Christmas but the Artfire shop is still up without any kind of announcement about delays etc.
For some reason I thought I'd ordered later than i actually did so when I thought I was coming up to paypals 45 day limit to make a claim I was actually over it :( so now there is nothing I can do to get back my money (and £40 is a lot of money for me) and as I can't get in contact with Veronica I very much doubt I will ever see my order.
So... yeah that sucks! If anyone has any ideas what I could do please say. I can't file a claim with my bank by the way as I can't use the phone and my bank doesn't seem to have email customer service :( I really don't mind long TAT times, I'm in no rush to get my makeup, I just don't want to be ripped off!
The thing is, while of course I am pissed off and want my order or my money back part of me is worried about veronica. When people just disappear from the internet I can't help but think that something bad has happened, especially as the last few tweets from Veronica (from December) say that she's been sick and had
other problems to deal with. So it's really hard to know what's happening. Veronica could be ill or something bad could have happened but there's no way of knowing!
So I'm out £40 and very unhappy. As I said before, if I knew my products were still coming I wouldn't even mind waiting this long but as my emails have remained unanswered and the company has basically disappeared I can only assume that my money has been stolen. And because of this I do not recommend Hi fi Cosmetics. Their products are genuinely great but there's been too many problems with TAT in general and now my order has not been honoured. If you are going to order then please at least wait until Veronica reappears because if you order now then who knows if it will even be acknowledged?
Just a word to indie sellers, if you're ill or have some kind of problem then announce it. Most people are going to be fine to wait for their stuff if they know you're having a hard time, or at least will want to know what's going on. Just disappearing without any explanation is frustrating and suspicious. Perhaps give someone you trust the log in to your facebook account or similar so if any emergency happens they can take care of the business.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Follow up to the last post
I was just going to leave my last post as it was, just links and me saying 'this sucks' but I've been feeling all angry and need to rant! To apologise for the upcoming drama llama below the cut, here's Justin Bieber made from meat:
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Some posts you should read
Some rubbish stuff is going down in the makeup world at the moment, here's some posts I think are important to read:
I'm also having a big problem with an indie company I ordered from at the end of November. Hopefully it will be sorted out soon, if not watch this space.
:/
To lighten things up, here's a picture of My Monster High Dolls making out:
Oh Lagoona, you're such a cad!
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
The Makeup Critic
You may have seen this blog on some posts already. Basically it's some horrid person insulting beauty bloggers because they dare not do their makeup how it 'should' be done. It's stupid and mean and basically pointless except for insulting people for spurious reasons like their nails aren't absolutely perfectly manicured.
The writer is not a proper makeup artist or cosmotologist (though apparently her and doesn't seem to know much about makeup herself. She doesn't share any of her own looks, and the only tips she gives are tired old beauty 'rules' you read in every magazine, dictating what makeup should be like. And some of her advice is just incorrect. The blog is not helpful, it's just mean.
But.... God is it funny.
I can understand why some of my featured friends found the nasty criticism written about them hurtful, it really is horrible that someone would take the time to just criticise and bitch about things like that. But... God it's so stupid and funny! She knows NOTHING! She's basically insulting beauty bloggers without even understanding what beauty blogs actually do. And she has very limited knowledge about actual beauty practices. She doesn't know what the point of
FOTDs is, doesn't know why someone would show nail polish swatches, doesn't know what a cut-crease is, think nails breathe, etc etc.
What I find particularly funny is that the writer has only the shakiest grasp of the English language. The blog reads like one of those spam emails about a Nigerian dictator leaving you money in their will. Now I don't think there's anything wrong with not knowing English perfectly, God knows I couldn't write anything in a different language, but when your entire blog is basically saying 'you shouldn't write a blog about things you're not a complete expert at' then the ridiculous grammar mistakes and incorrectly used words sort of work against that point :P Her overuse of 'qualitative' is particularly hilarious, she doesn't use it correctly a single time! Some sentences are completely incomprehensible.
It's also funny because, like I said earlier, she doesn't actually seem to know a lot about makeup. Lots of her 'tips' are either incorrect or just stupidly dated. And the thing I find funniest is that she claims her posts are good for the bloggers they insult. That she's just kindly giving them some tips.
Criticism as a whole is not bad. Constructive criticism can be very helpful, and even vital. And I have no problem with snark, where the criticism isn't really constructive but it's used for humour. There's also a lot to be said for criticism where it's really deserved, towards liars, cheats and so on. But this blog is is just bitchiness, aimed at people who haven't done anything wrong, very poorly disguised as advice.
The whole point of her 'critiques' (which is really just her excuse for writing a blog full of petty insults) is that if you're not an expert you shouldn't do tutorials, or even just share your makeup, which really goes against the whole idea of beauty blogging. Of course there are some professional makeup artists who have blogs, but the majority are girls who just love makeup and want to share what they love, what works for them and any tips they might have. I actually prefer reading blogs written by non-professionals because I'm not a makeup artist myself. My needs are different than what a makeup artist needs and my skill with makeup is nowhere near their level, so it would be very difficult to pull off a lot of professional techniques and looks. So I prefer to read advice from people like me, who just have a passion for painting their face and whose looks I might actually have a chance of replicating. If only experts are allowed to blog there would be basically no baking blogs (only bakers could share recipes), no weight-loss blogs (only professional fitness instructors should write diet advice) and only a few makeup blogs, most of which would use products out of my price range.
She also thinks that if your makeup is 'perfect' then you have no right to be showing it at all.
I am under no illusions that my makeup is 'perfect'. I very rarely do tutorials because I do not feel that I am qualified to tell people how to do their makeup as I'm well aware that I don't know how to do everything in the 'proper' way. I do it how it works for me, whether that means using a tiny concealer brush to apply my foundation, occassionally using sponge applicators, wearing colours that don't quite suit my skintone or forgoing eye primer because I am forgetful and damn lazy. Why do I share it at all then? Because I want to. It's fun. I don't expect anyone to look at my blog and assume I am a proper makeup artist and they should be copying my looks. But I think some of my ideas are fun and interesting and mostly I just share because this is MY BLOG. It's a personal thing for me to do what I want and I'm not ashamed to show how I look.
And what exactly is 'perfect' makeup? I would say my favourite makeup artist is Alex Box, I think her looks are just stunning. Look at this:
I would say this is 'perfectly done'. But I'm sure lots of people would disagree. It's over the top and fantastical and it would be hard to find an occaision suitable for such a look.
Wayne Goss just today said that to him this is 'perfect':
The skin is flawless and the look is natural and conventionally attractive. But to me it's a little dull.
Maybe my friend Mikey's makeup is perfect?
...Ok so that's a no :P
But my point is, if makeup is an 'art' as the blogger claims, then there cannot be any 'perfect' makeup. Art is by it's own nature subjective. Everyone has different ideas on what is 'good' art and NO-ONE'S opinion is correct.
But my point is, if makeup is an 'art' as the blogger claims, then there cannot be any 'perfect' makeup. Art is by it's own nature subjective. Everyone has different ideas on what is 'good' art and NO-ONE'S opinion is correct.
There is no such thing as 'perfect'. There is no such thing as 'normal'. Everything is subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
And even if there was such a thing as perfection, the idea that you shouldn't share things because they're not perfect is moronic. Where would we be in life if everyone acted like that? No-one would share ideas, they'd basically be no art, music, film etc. Also how will you ever become better at what you do if you don't share? As an artist I know my work isn't perfect, but I'm still going to show it to people and appreciate the compliments I get and think about the constructive criticism I'm given. If I'd never shared anything I would never have grown.
When she discusses the fact that makeup shouldn't have rules she says: “Yes, make up has no strict rules, but there are some guidelines to help avoid the most serious mistakes and did not look ridiculous and unnatural.” (although she then goes on to say some bloggers have failed the 'rules')
But I WANT to look ridiculous and unnatural! A mistake for me would be 'my lips but better' lippie on, french tipped nails, brown mascara etc because I wouldn't feel pretty or comfortable. But is that sort of makeup a mistake for everyone? Of course not. Do what you want, it's your face! Makeup is worn for so many different reasons, you can't apply the same rules of makeup to, for instance, a drag act or performance artist than you can to a woman who just wants to look good for work. And there should be no rules anyway. NONSENSE NONSENSE NONSENSE!
In a way I don't want to feed the troll by posting this and pointing you towards the blog, but some of the comments on her blog are wonderful, heartwarming and exciting.
If you've been featured on her blog, or if it happens in the future, I can imagine how hurtful it would be, but try and look at it this way: How much bravery does it take to start a blog, never show any of your own work and basically anonymously (while her name is there there is no indication it's her, any talk of her life and the photo thats supposed to be her looks very much like a stock image) slag people off? She's not doing anything constructive, she's just insulting people who dare to put their faces out in the world and share their creativity.
All the people she's insulted have thousands of followers and huge amounts of postive comments, so obviously they're doing something right! All she's got is a bunch of people who hate her for being a nasty critical person. Also seeing as she's so mean we have an excuse to laugh at her amazing destruction of the English language.
I really hope that she genuinely doesn't understand how meanspirited and bitchy she comes across as and that after she's read all the comments on her blog she will rethink what she's doing. If not then she's just an idiotic butthole.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Insert Lime based Pun
I know what you're all thinking 'Oh no, Lillian's going to bore us all with another rant about Lime Crime' and yes you're right. And I am truly sorry, I had tried very hard to keep my mouth shut through all her recent shenanigans because I didn't want my blog to be seen in any way as a complete attack on her and because I had more interesting things to write about and didn't want to give her the time of day. But well now she's decided to insult me. So I figured I should respond in kind.
I would also like to point out that while I have repeatedly called her a lying, cheating, sexist, offensive moron, and written posts on all the immoral and shady stuff she has done on my own blog and youtube videos (which I would argue she brought on herself) I have never done anything outright to bring her down. I have not gone around trying to convince Lime Crime supporters to listen to my story, I only posted on her blog once (in response to the person who said I hated Lime Crime because I was fat, my comment was deleted). I've not reported her to any consumer groups or spoken about her/left reviews on makeup forums.
And like I said, even though i have had LOTS of fodder in recent months I've chosen to not discuss them.
But now look what the stupid mare has gone and done:
'QUESTION
I'm not a hater or anything, just curious. Was the duct tape dress rumour true? The TKB thing I don't really care about because it's not like you mark the price up while reselling in cheap bags/whatever, although if I'm honest your prices are high
ANSWER
Glad you asked that -- it's about time that misunderstanding was put to rest.
7 years ago (gosh, I'm old!) I sold a beautiful, long velvet dress on eBay. It was vintage from the 1960s and, alas, came hemmed with duct tape. Since removing the tape would mean cutting off the bottom, I chose to preserve its length and list it "as-is". I did make sure to include a clear disclaimer about the item's condition -- I wouldn't want my customer to find duct tape as a surprise. The buyer received the dress & didn't seem to have a problem with it. Had they complained, I would've taken it back without a hinge -- but they didn't. Years later, a *friend* of the buyer's daughter posted on the internet a picture of the dress, trying to unfairly out me as a bad seller. I told that person what's up using strong language. They shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, as I was upfront about the dress from the beginning.
I have never spoken to the actual buyer of the dress. I would hope that if there was a problem with their purchase, they would have come to me and allowed me to take care of it.
Regarding Lime Crime, I have covered this in the past, but just to reiterate: our eyeshadows are custom-blended. We are very concerned with making Lime Crime affordable for every budget, with that in mind we do have sales. In fact, there is one coming up very soon! :)'
Oh just charming! Xenia I am SO sorry that my mother bought a shoddily made dress from you and forced you to call her an asshole, oh what a bitch I am! I particularly love how she puts the word 'friend' in asterisks which seems to imply either a) I did it myself, even though said friend posted on the community using her own livejournal, which she had had for several years (Oh noes, she has seen through my evil plan of pretending to be a girl from Canada for several years beforehand just so I could post mean things about her. Come on Xenia, not everyone loves sockpuppeting as much as you) or b) I have no friends D: Ouch, i'm all hot from my burn.
Her reason for not removing the duct tape is complete bollocks also, but more on that later.
Ok so seeing as Xenia is so keen to put this misunderstanding to rest, here's what really went down.
Many many years ago when I was a mere chuppy sprig of a lass I discovered Xenia on the internet. This was back in the days where she sold Lolita-ish style clothes under the name of Thunderwear. She had a livejournal (where she actually spoke about her life like she was a real person and not some weirdo who lives only to do fashion shoots in her own bedroom and pretend she invented mathmatical theorums before then claiming a few months later to be completely useless at maths) and i liked reading her posts and thought her style (which was a sort of Wednesday Addams meets EGL thing at the time) was cool. She seemed like a sweet girl and, besides her being in a truly appalling band, I saw no reason not to like her.
Over the years though she changed, or at least her internet presence changed, knowing what I now know about her I am not sure at all that she was ever a nice person. On the outside her style changed to basically be a lesser quality rip off of her friend at the time (the amazing designer and now fantastic makeup brand owner) Shrinkle. And at the same time her blog changed. No longer did she talk about her everyday life, boyfriend, Guinea-Pigs (i remember she had one who looked just like mine at the time) instead it became all about the Lime Crime brand, mainly adverts for auctions and so on. I eventually stopped reading her journal properly but still thought of her as a cool person and good fashion designer.
I bought a couple of pieces of her clothing, and while I liked the designs they all had something a bit shabby about them. For instance I bought a top that had decorative serging around the cuffs, hem and neckline and somehow the threads just started falling off (I don't even really know how she did that, I had to unpick some serging i did recently and it took forever!). I also heard some slightly suspect things about her business practices. But again I thought it was no big deal and continued to think of her in a good light, thought it was beginning to dim.
Then my Mum bought a vintage velvet dress from her as a gift to my sister. It arrived and from the outside looked lovely. So my Mum was happy, left Xenia good feedback and packed it away for Christmas. Now maybe my Mum should have examined the dress fully before it was too late for a refund, but you don't expect an item that looks nice on the outside to hold a horrible and ridiculous secret on the inside, do you?
So Christmas came, my sister got her dress and went to try it on. She came down with an odd expression on her face, we asked what's wrong to which she replied 'It's hemmed with gaffer tape!' (gaffer tape = what we call duct tape in England). My Mum looked and was slightly annoyed as she had spent quite a good amount of money on the dress, but we just laughed at it, thinking how completely stupid it was. A hem is so so simple and quick to do. (most sewing machines can do a blind hem, but even if they can't a normal stitched hem can be done in a few minutes, it's just a straight line!). It wasn't too big a deal, though we obviously said we'd never buy anything from Lime Crime again.
My sister apparently wasn't too keen on the dress as it ended up sitting in our house (Lyd lived in Birmingham at the time) for many years, with it's silver taped bottom, undisturbed until one day some friends of mine came to stay. They had both been fans of Lime Crime a long time ago too and we were all laughing at some of the nonsense she'd said recently or something when I decided to tell them about the duct taped dress. We all had a good laugh and one of my friends asked to take some pictures, I said sure. Said friend then decided to post them in a livejournal community called Meanestbastard.
Meanestbastard was sort of similar to Regretsy, only almost entirely about bad DIY clothing and a bit more meanspirited. Lots of people like Superyana and Shrinkle had been posted about but they all just either laughed or shrugged it off. Xenia however got a lot more coverage presumably because of her ridiculous reactions to petty comments about her clothes looking rubbish. She tried to have the community taken down, tried to get a 13 year old girl suspended from livejournal for breaking her copyright (which is hilarious seeing as recently Xenia has been called out for stealing numerous photos without giving credit), and either her or Mark sockpuppeted constantly with hilarious Xenia-is-a-God style compliments while also insulting Shrinkle as much as possible (something Xenia has also done recently) . However while all that is accurate, a lot of comments are just insulting 'she looks bad here' things, which really brought down the tone of the community to seem like a bunch of bullies, which is a shame as they had some very good points. The community proved that Xenia/Mark use sockpuppets, had admissions from members of Xenia's old fashion community confirming that she encouraged them to shillbid and attack other communities, brought the charity scandal into the light and so on. But some of the comments make it hard to take anything seriously.
However while you can see my friend's post is, while laughing at Xenia for selling a dress so sloppily made, not overly insulting. My friend didn't write anything nasty about her personally, just the dress. But I don't know, maybe the fairly innocent post just laughing at the duct tape hem was just the straw that broke the camel's back and she flipped out.
Xenia was furious and decided that the best way to defend herself was to shift the blame. She said that she hadn't put the gaffer tape on originally, she'd just sold it as is, so people shouldn't be attacking her which is an odd train of thought as she was the one who sold it. But anyway I digress. I forget what else was in her comment but the end was (I paraphrase as the comment was deleted by the oh so honest and transparent Doe Deere) 'I sold a dress hemmed in duct tape, someone was stupid enough to buy it, who's the real asshole here ;) '
(if you don't believe it really said that then look at the replies to her deleted comment, it's very easy to work out what she said)
Now Xenia has constantly said that the ebay auction for the dress had a clear disclaimer that it came hemmed with the duct tape. My Mum has always maintained that it didn't say it anywhere. However let's assume my Mum was mistaken and it did say it, and Mum knew what she was buying at the time and then forgot (giving my friend and I the wrong end of the stick). Frankly I'm inclined to believe my Mum, but let's just give Xenia the benefit of the doubt.
It doesn't make the fact that someone who claimed to be an amazing fashion designer either couldn't be bothered or didn't know how to hem a dress any less hilariously. And pretty much perfect for a community dedicated to bad DIY clothing.
So while maybe Mum was wrong and the dress was sold to her with a big, clear disclosure about it being hemmed with duct tape, that's really not the point. I and many other people I know don't actually care too much about the duct tape dress. As I said the reason my Mum never complained was because we all just thought it was stupid and funny, not anything terrible. The problem is her shocking behaviour in response. Calling my Mum an asshole was unforgivable. My Mum and me did nothing remotely wrong. I didn't post the pictures. I didn't say or do anything that could have been remotely harmful to her or her business up until her makeup line launched (and as I said the worst thing I've done is post in my own blog). Not only was the reaction shocking and entirely uncalled for but it said vast amounts about her business practices by insulting someone basically solely for being stupid enough to buy from her.
After that I was obviously furious. I recieved an email from her (more on that later) where she said she was sorry that we didn't like the dress but never apologised for insulting my Mum. I just ignored it. And then more and more horrible secrets about her started to come out. I just didn't want anything to do with her, and didn't say or do anything remotely to do with her right up until my first post on her on the blog about a year ago (despite the awful experience I'd had I was still considering buying her lipsticks, what a moron I am!).
The reason my Mum never spoke to her about it was because she couldn't give a flying fig about her. It was too late for Mum to get a refund and she could easily fix the hem herself so she just shrugged the whole thing off. If she knew that the seller of the shoddy dress she bought had called her an asshole she probably would have just laughed at it, she's that sort of person. However I am not the sort of person who can shrug off someone insulting my lovely Mummy. I am going to hold a grudge forever.
Now the incident happened a long time ago. I've been attacked before for bitterly clinging to the past (though obviously if you've seen even half of the shady crap she's been up to that she hasn't changed and that I don't only have one reason to hate her) but the fact is a while back when she emailed me with a very pathetic apology (she said 'I'm sorry if I offended you in any way' which is an apology but in the loosest possible sense as it sort of implies that I'm somehow pathetic for being offended by her insulting my Mum. I think maybe she's just completely unable to give a real apology and accept any blame whatsoever seeing as the apology I got after the asshole insult was just 'I'm sorry you didn't like the dress' not 'Im sorry I sold that dress' or 'Im sorry i insulted your Mum' ) I was ready to forgive her. I was very happy to finally have any sort of apology. But then someone contacted me to say that, while Xenia had been sweetness and light to me with her apology and email, behind my back she had said that the whole incident had never happened, so basically calling me a liar while lying through her teeth herself.
And now it's been brought up again by her and she's trying to suggest my friend (or me because her implication that it was really me, not my friend is pretty obvious) is the one in the wrong because she dared to suggest hemming a dress with duct tape was bad DIY.
So I think I have the right to be angry about the whole thing!
So yes, I'm angry. And because of that I'm going to do something I said I wouldn't do. I mentioned earlier (and have mentioned a few other times) that just after she'd called my Mum an asshole she sent me an email. I have refrained from posting it up until now because it is so incredibly moronic and I'd rather have just let her shoot herself in the foot. However because I am so mad I want everyone to see how she managed to not only miss the entire point (apologising that we didn't like the dress when I was angry at her insulting my Mum), insult her 'fans' ('butter knife suicide? nice one Xenia) and turn the whole thing into a pity party for herself.
Also I think it's important and it proves she lied in her formspring. In it she says she purposefully left it hemmed with the duct tape to 'preserve the length', in the email she gives a completely different reason.
It may be a bit bitchy to post this, but frankly I don't care. She's insulted me and my friends and family too many times for me to care about respecting her privacy.
'Hi. I figured I'd email you directly instead of commenting in your journal.
First of all, I am sorry you didn't like the dress. Heck knows why I didn't fix it up. Maybe my sewing machine was broken that week, or maybe I just didn't know how to do it at the time. Or maybe I was just broke and desperate to sell it in as-is condition. I really can't remember.
LJ is a wonderful place. Reading other people's thoughts entertains me immensely. But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback. And yes, I understand everyone has the right to bitch on the internet and blah blah blah but come on. It got to the point where I am not allowed to even be a *real person* any more without someone getting on my case. I'm not allowed to make mistakes without getting scorned by a stranger. I'm not allowed to look ugly without someone snapping a picture and posting it for everyone to laugh at. I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark. All I can do to stay out of trouble is to be is this perfect, bubbly girl with lime green eyeshadow and hot pink mini skirt. I just can't do it any more. I'm done with the limelight, (pun intended!).
I stopped selling on eBay 6 months ago. I don't really do fashion nor music either. I quit both in favor of a steady-paying job a few months ago. I'm getting rid of all my sewing stuff. You're probably wondering why I still haven't 'announced' it yet. Well, frankly, I can't think of a way to do it without coming off like an asshole once again. Imagine hundreds of emails from girls all saying how much you've inspired them 'to be themselves and to follow their dreams' and then bam, "Listen up kiddies, it's all a bunch of horse puckey and you'll be broke for the rest of your life, so forget it and conform now before it's too late." I don't think I'm special. In fact, I think what happened to me is very typical. But oh, the pressure! You know someone is gonna call me a traitor and a hypocrite and commit butter knife suicide because I no longer reconstruct t-shirts. lol
Or should I tell them the truth? How much of the truth? Should I tell them that if they think any of the top eBay designers make any real money, they're crazy? They all act upbeat and pretend to be successful because no one will buy from them otherwise. And the money you make slaving away 18 hours a day? You'd be better off working $10 an hour at a convenience store! It's freakin' depressing. As in, I was actually diagnosed with depression last year and am taking pills for it. O__O
Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. I guess I feel like there must be someone who will understand. I am a nice person (seriously). I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart. I hate being in a public eye, that's why I left entertainment. There is a lot of pressure to be this and that, and to be nice and to smile when all you want to do is punch walls and die.
Sorry about this lengthy email. Don't worry, I don't expect you to fall in love with me all of a sudden or anything. In fact, you can still hate me if you choose - I'm used to it. :) '
And i do choose to still hate her! While some of the things she said wrote (if true) would be very sad, such as her having depression (I suffer from it and wouldn't wish it on everyone, not even her) there was no reason to bring it up. Talking about those things was just an obvious tactic to gain sympathy, without her actually having to do something crazy like apologise for her behaviour. And depression is not an excuse to do something horrible to another person.
And again it's everyone elses fault, not hers (I'm on pills because of you!). While I agree that some of the things said about her in the meanestbastard community were cruel my friends post was really not. And my Mother did nothing wrong, so lashing out at her was completely unnessecary. Mum didn't laugh at photos of her stupid makeup, Mum didn't do ANYTHING nasty to her. She says 'But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback' But my friend didn't really say anything too nasty, just 'this is a bit rubbish' basically and Mum did absolutely nothing wrong, so why shouldn't I be deeply offended by her nasty, bitchy, completely uncalled for comeback?
'I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark' well not when you insult an innocent person you're not!
Also: 'I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart' a) you DID do it, you sold the dress. b) it was not undeserved, it was bad DIY, the post was made on a community about bad DIY, simples. c) That isn't an excuse to call someone who bought a dress from you in good faith an asshole.
And her saying that she hates being in the public eye is just laughable.
In a way I am sort of thankful for Xenia calling my Mum an asshole. Before it happened I may have laughed at some of the more amusing things she said and did but I wouldn't have found about what a gooddamn lousy excuse for a human being she really is. I would undoubtably have bought into her candyfuture nonsense and possibly bought her crappy repackaged eyeshadows and awful formulated lipsticks. Also while personally I have a bias to feeling that calling my Mum an asshole is the worst thing she could do it isn't. In the huge list of horrible things she has done calling Mum a nasty name is pretty low down.
This woman has lied again and again to her customers, has repackaged her eyeshadows then blamed tkb for copying them. (confirmed by Audrey Kitching who worked with her), has tried to assasinate her competition repeatedly, has threatened to sue someone for a bad review then when the review was deleted and replaced with a nicely written apology claimed that wasn't good enough and made her put up a new retraction written by Lime Crime, has asked bloggers to delete negative comments, has given out a bloggers personal email in a newsletter and asked her fans to send emails disagreeing with her fair review, has then claimed said reviewer was not objective, posted horribly sexist remarks, admitted to stealing a jacket, blatantly shillbidded (and according to people in her old community used to encourage them to shillbid) and kicked people out of her old community for not being power hungry enough while talking about them behind their back and has (almost certainly) STOLEN FROM CHARITY (sadly links have been deleted over the years. Ask if you want the full story, but you might not believe me). Her history would be hilarious if it were fiction but sadly it is not.
She is a nasty piece of work. But I had tried to be the bigger person and stop writing about her.
And then she had to bring it up herself but make things sound like she was in the wrong and again just the victim of nasty bullying.
The hilarious thing is I basically predicted all this back in 2007 replying to her insulting Mum:
'If you reply to this i'm simply going to ignore it because i know you wouldn't do anything as crazy as offer an apology for your behaviour, you'd probably attempt to shift the blame back to me for having the nerve to stand up for myself when being insulted.'
To quote someone on the examiner article: 'calling somebody's mother a hideous name for buying something in good faith is not "telling them what's up, with strong language!" it's being an odious little reptile with no sense of how to act.'
What a complete cunt.
I would also like to point out that while I have repeatedly called her a lying, cheating, sexist, offensive moron, and written posts on all the immoral and shady stuff she has done on my own blog and youtube videos (which I would argue she brought on herself) I have never done anything outright to bring her down. I have not gone around trying to convince Lime Crime supporters to listen to my story, I only posted on her blog once (in response to the person who said I hated Lime Crime because I was fat, my comment was deleted). I've not reported her to any consumer groups or spoken about her/left reviews on makeup forums.
And like I said, even though i have had LOTS of fodder in recent months I've chosen to not discuss them.
But now look what the stupid mare has gone and done:
'QUESTION
I'm not a hater or anything, just curious. Was the duct tape dress rumour true? The TKB thing I don't really care about because it's not like you mark the price up while reselling in cheap bags/whatever, although if I'm honest your prices are high
ANSWER
Glad you asked that -- it's about time that misunderstanding was put to rest.
7 years ago (gosh, I'm old!) I sold a beautiful, long velvet dress on eBay. It was vintage from the 1960s and, alas, came hemmed with duct tape. Since removing the tape would mean cutting off the bottom, I chose to preserve its length and list it "as-is". I did make sure to include a clear disclaimer about the item's condition -- I wouldn't want my customer to find duct tape as a surprise. The buyer received the dress & didn't seem to have a problem with it. Had they complained, I would've taken it back without a hinge -- but they didn't. Years later, a *friend* of the buyer's daughter posted on the internet a picture of the dress, trying to unfairly out me as a bad seller. I told that person what's up using strong language. They shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, as I was upfront about the dress from the beginning.
I have never spoken to the actual buyer of the dress. I would hope that if there was a problem with their purchase, they would have come to me and allowed me to take care of it.
Regarding Lime Crime, I have covered this in the past, but just to reiterate: our eyeshadows are custom-blended. We are very concerned with making Lime Crime affordable for every budget, with that in mind we do have sales. In fact, there is one coming up very soon! :)'
Oh just charming! Xenia I am SO sorry that my mother bought a shoddily made dress from you and forced you to call her an asshole, oh what a bitch I am! I particularly love how she puts the word 'friend' in asterisks which seems to imply either a) I did it myself, even though said friend posted on the community using her own livejournal, which she had had for several years (Oh noes, she has seen through my evil plan of pretending to be a girl from Canada for several years beforehand just so I could post mean things about her. Come on Xenia, not everyone loves sockpuppeting as much as you) or b) I have no friends D: Ouch, i'm all hot from my burn.
Her reason for not removing the duct tape is complete bollocks also, but more on that later.
Ok so seeing as Xenia is so keen to put this misunderstanding to rest, here's what really went down.
Many many years ago when I was a mere chuppy sprig of a lass I discovered Xenia on the internet. This was back in the days where she sold Lolita-ish style clothes under the name of Thunderwear. She had a livejournal (where she actually spoke about her life like she was a real person and not some weirdo who lives only to do fashion shoots in her own bedroom and pretend she invented mathmatical theorums before then claiming a few months later to be completely useless at maths) and i liked reading her posts and thought her style (which was a sort of Wednesday Addams meets EGL thing at the time) was cool. She seemed like a sweet girl and, besides her being in a truly appalling band, I saw no reason not to like her.
Over the years though she changed, or at least her internet presence changed, knowing what I now know about her I am not sure at all that she was ever a nice person. On the outside her style changed to basically be a lesser quality rip off of her friend at the time (the amazing designer and now fantastic makeup brand owner) Shrinkle. And at the same time her blog changed. No longer did she talk about her everyday life, boyfriend, Guinea-Pigs (i remember she had one who looked just like mine at the time) instead it became all about the Lime Crime brand, mainly adverts for auctions and so on. I eventually stopped reading her journal properly but still thought of her as a cool person and good fashion designer.
I bought a couple of pieces of her clothing, and while I liked the designs they all had something a bit shabby about them. For instance I bought a top that had decorative serging around the cuffs, hem and neckline and somehow the threads just started falling off (I don't even really know how she did that, I had to unpick some serging i did recently and it took forever!). I also heard some slightly suspect things about her business practices. But again I thought it was no big deal and continued to think of her in a good light, thought it was beginning to dim.
Then my Mum bought a vintage velvet dress from her as a gift to my sister. It arrived and from the outside looked lovely. So my Mum was happy, left Xenia good feedback and packed it away for Christmas. Now maybe my Mum should have examined the dress fully before it was too late for a refund, but you don't expect an item that looks nice on the outside to hold a horrible and ridiculous secret on the inside, do you?
So Christmas came, my sister got her dress and went to try it on. She came down with an odd expression on her face, we asked what's wrong to which she replied 'It's hemmed with gaffer tape!' (gaffer tape = what we call duct tape in England). My Mum looked and was slightly annoyed as she had spent quite a good amount of money on the dress, but we just laughed at it, thinking how completely stupid it was. A hem is so so simple and quick to do. (most sewing machines can do a blind hem, but even if they can't a normal stitched hem can be done in a few minutes, it's just a straight line!). It wasn't too big a deal, though we obviously said we'd never buy anything from Lime Crime again.
My sister apparently wasn't too keen on the dress as it ended up sitting in our house (Lyd lived in Birmingham at the time) for many years, with it's silver taped bottom, undisturbed until one day some friends of mine came to stay. They had both been fans of Lime Crime a long time ago too and we were all laughing at some of the nonsense she'd said recently or something when I decided to tell them about the duct taped dress. We all had a good laugh and one of my friends asked to take some pictures, I said sure. Said friend then decided to post them in a livejournal community called Meanestbastard.
Meanestbastard was sort of similar to Regretsy, only almost entirely about bad DIY clothing and a bit more meanspirited. Lots of people like Superyana and Shrinkle had been posted about but they all just either laughed or shrugged it off. Xenia however got a lot more coverage presumably because of her ridiculous reactions to petty comments about her clothes looking rubbish. She tried to have the community taken down, tried to get a 13 year old girl suspended from livejournal for breaking her copyright (which is hilarious seeing as recently Xenia has been called out for stealing numerous photos without giving credit), and either her or Mark sockpuppeted constantly with hilarious Xenia-is-a-God style compliments while also insulting Shrinkle as much as possible (something Xenia has also done recently) . However while all that is accurate, a lot of comments are just insulting 'she looks bad here' things, which really brought down the tone of the community to seem like a bunch of bullies, which is a shame as they had some very good points. The community proved that Xenia/Mark use sockpuppets, had admissions from members of Xenia's old fashion community confirming that she encouraged them to shillbid and attack other communities, brought the charity scandal into the light and so on. But some of the comments make it hard to take anything seriously.
However while you can see my friend's post is, while laughing at Xenia for selling a dress so sloppily made, not overly insulting. My friend didn't write anything nasty about her personally, just the dress. But I don't know, maybe the fairly innocent post just laughing at the duct tape hem was just the straw that broke the camel's back and she flipped out.
Xenia was furious and decided that the best way to defend herself was to shift the blame. She said that she hadn't put the gaffer tape on originally, she'd just sold it as is, so people shouldn't be attacking her which is an odd train of thought as she was the one who sold it. But anyway I digress. I forget what else was in her comment but the end was (I paraphrase as the comment was deleted by the oh so honest and transparent Doe Deere) 'I sold a dress hemmed in duct tape, someone was stupid enough to buy it, who's the real asshole here ;) '
(if you don't believe it really said that then look at the replies to her deleted comment, it's very easy to work out what she said)
Now Xenia has constantly said that the ebay auction for the dress had a clear disclaimer that it came hemmed with the duct tape. My Mum has always maintained that it didn't say it anywhere. However let's assume my Mum was mistaken and it did say it, and Mum knew what she was buying at the time and then forgot (giving my friend and I the wrong end of the stick). Frankly I'm inclined to believe my Mum, but let's just give Xenia the benefit of the doubt.
It doesn't make the fact that someone who claimed to be an amazing fashion designer either couldn't be bothered or didn't know how to hem a dress any less hilariously. And pretty much perfect for a community dedicated to bad DIY clothing.
So while maybe Mum was wrong and the dress was sold to her with a big, clear disclosure about it being hemmed with duct tape, that's really not the point. I and many other people I know don't actually care too much about the duct tape dress. As I said the reason my Mum never complained was because we all just thought it was stupid and funny, not anything terrible. The problem is her shocking behaviour in response. Calling my Mum an asshole was unforgivable. My Mum and me did nothing remotely wrong. I didn't post the pictures. I didn't say or do anything that could have been remotely harmful to her or her business up until her makeup line launched (and as I said the worst thing I've done is post in my own blog). Not only was the reaction shocking and entirely uncalled for but it said vast amounts about her business practices by insulting someone basically solely for being stupid enough to buy from her.
After that I was obviously furious. I recieved an email from her (more on that later) where she said she was sorry that we didn't like the dress but never apologised for insulting my Mum. I just ignored it. And then more and more horrible secrets about her started to come out. I just didn't want anything to do with her, and didn't say or do anything remotely to do with her right up until my first post on her on the blog about a year ago (despite the awful experience I'd had I was still considering buying her lipsticks, what a moron I am!).
The reason my Mum never spoke to her about it was because she couldn't give a flying fig about her. It was too late for Mum to get a refund and she could easily fix the hem herself so she just shrugged the whole thing off. If she knew that the seller of the shoddy dress she bought had called her an asshole she probably would have just laughed at it, she's that sort of person. However I am not the sort of person who can shrug off someone insulting my lovely Mummy. I am going to hold a grudge forever.
Now the incident happened a long time ago. I've been attacked before for bitterly clinging to the past (though obviously if you've seen even half of the shady crap she's been up to that she hasn't changed and that I don't only have one reason to hate her) but the fact is a while back when she emailed me with a very pathetic apology (she said 'I'm sorry if I offended you in any way' which is an apology but in the loosest possible sense as it sort of implies that I'm somehow pathetic for being offended by her insulting my Mum. I think maybe she's just completely unable to give a real apology and accept any blame whatsoever seeing as the apology I got after the asshole insult was just 'I'm sorry you didn't like the dress' not 'Im sorry I sold that dress' or 'Im sorry i insulted your Mum' ) I was ready to forgive her. I was very happy to finally have any sort of apology. But then someone contacted me to say that, while Xenia had been sweetness and light to me with her apology and email, behind my back she had said that the whole incident had never happened, so basically calling me a liar while lying through her teeth herself.
And now it's been brought up again by her and she's trying to suggest my friend (or me because her implication that it was really me, not my friend is pretty obvious) is the one in the wrong because she dared to suggest hemming a dress with duct tape was bad DIY.
So I think I have the right to be angry about the whole thing!
So yes, I'm angry. And because of that I'm going to do something I said I wouldn't do. I mentioned earlier (and have mentioned a few other times) that just after she'd called my Mum an asshole she sent me an email. I have refrained from posting it up until now because it is so incredibly moronic and I'd rather have just let her shoot herself in the foot. However because I am so mad I want everyone to see how she managed to not only miss the entire point (apologising that we didn't like the dress when I was angry at her insulting my Mum), insult her 'fans' ('butter knife suicide? nice one Xenia) and turn the whole thing into a pity party for herself.
Also I think it's important and it proves she lied in her formspring. In it she says she purposefully left it hemmed with the duct tape to 'preserve the length', in the email she gives a completely different reason.
It may be a bit bitchy to post this, but frankly I don't care. She's insulted me and my friends and family too many times for me to care about respecting her privacy.
'Hi. I figured I'd email you directly instead of commenting in your journal.
First of all, I am sorry you didn't like the dress. Heck knows why I didn't fix it up. Maybe my sewing machine was broken that week, or maybe I just didn't know how to do it at the time. Or maybe I was just broke and desperate to sell it in as-is condition. I really can't remember.
LJ is a wonderful place. Reading other people's thoughts entertains me immensely. But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback. And yes, I understand everyone has the right to bitch on the internet and blah blah blah but come on. It got to the point where I am not allowed to even be a *real person* any more without someone getting on my case. I'm not allowed to make mistakes without getting scorned by a stranger. I'm not allowed to look ugly without someone snapping a picture and posting it for everyone to laugh at. I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark. All I can do to stay out of trouble is to be is this perfect, bubbly girl with lime green eyeshadow and hot pink mini skirt. I just can't do it any more. I'm done with the limelight, (pun intended!).
I stopped selling on eBay 6 months ago. I don't really do fashion nor music either. I quit both in favor of a steady-paying job a few months ago. I'm getting rid of all my sewing stuff. You're probably wondering why I still haven't 'announced' it yet. Well, frankly, I can't think of a way to do it without coming off like an asshole once again. Imagine hundreds of emails from girls all saying how much you've inspired them 'to be themselves and to follow their dreams' and then bam, "Listen up kiddies, it's all a bunch of horse puckey and you'll be broke for the rest of your life, so forget it and conform now before it's too late." I don't think I'm special. In fact, I think what happened to me is very typical. But oh, the pressure! You know someone is gonna call me a traitor and a hypocrite and commit butter knife suicide because I no longer reconstruct t-shirts. lol
Or should I tell them the truth? How much of the truth? Should I tell them that if they think any of the top eBay designers make any real money, they're crazy? They all act upbeat and pretend to be successful because no one will buy from them otherwise. And the money you make slaving away 18 hours a day? You'd be better off working $10 an hour at a convenience store! It's freakin' depressing. As in, I was actually diagnosed with depression last year and am taking pills for it. O__O
Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. I guess I feel like there must be someone who will understand. I am a nice person (seriously). I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart. I hate being in a public eye, that's why I left entertainment. There is a lot of pressure to be this and that, and to be nice and to smile when all you want to do is punch walls and die.
Sorry about this lengthy email. Don't worry, I don't expect you to fall in love with me all of a sudden or anything. In fact, you can still hate me if you choose - I'm used to it. :) '
And i do choose to still hate her! While some of the things she said wrote (if true) would be very sad, such as her having depression (I suffer from it and wouldn't wish it on everyone, not even her) there was no reason to bring it up. Talking about those things was just an obvious tactic to gain sympathy, without her actually having to do something crazy like apologise for her behaviour. And depression is not an excuse to do something horrible to another person.
And again it's everyone elses fault, not hers (I'm on pills because of you!). While I agree that some of the things said about her in the meanestbastard community were cruel my friends post was really not. And my Mother did nothing wrong, so lashing out at her was completely unnessecary. Mum didn't laugh at photos of her stupid makeup, Mum didn't do ANYTHING nasty to her. She says 'But then there are these people always looking to say something nasty and then act deeply offended at my punchy comeback' But my friend didn't really say anything too nasty, just 'this is a bit rubbish' basically and Mum did absolutely nothing wrong, so why shouldn't I be deeply offended by her nasty, bitchy, completely uncalled for comeback?
'I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood and make a sarcastic remark' well not when you insult an innocent person you're not!
Also: 'I try to do as much good as I can, and when someone undeservingly attacks me over something I did or didn't do 3 years ago, it breaks my heart' a) you DID do it, you sold the dress. b) it was not undeserved, it was bad DIY, the post was made on a community about bad DIY, simples. c) That isn't an excuse to call someone who bought a dress from you in good faith an asshole.
And her saying that she hates being in the public eye is just laughable.
In a way I am sort of thankful for Xenia calling my Mum an asshole. Before it happened I may have laughed at some of the more amusing things she said and did but I wouldn't have found about what a gooddamn lousy excuse for a human being she really is. I would undoubtably have bought into her candyfuture nonsense and possibly bought her crappy repackaged eyeshadows and awful formulated lipsticks. Also while personally I have a bias to feeling that calling my Mum an asshole is the worst thing she could do it isn't. In the huge list of horrible things she has done calling Mum a nasty name is pretty low down.
This woman has lied again and again to her customers, has repackaged her eyeshadows then blamed tkb for copying them. (confirmed by Audrey Kitching who worked with her), has tried to assasinate her competition repeatedly, has threatened to sue someone for a bad review then when the review was deleted and replaced with a nicely written apology claimed that wasn't good enough and made her put up a new retraction written by Lime Crime, has asked bloggers to delete negative comments, has given out a bloggers personal email in a newsletter and asked her fans to send emails disagreeing with her fair review, has then claimed said reviewer was not objective, posted horribly sexist remarks, admitted to stealing a jacket, blatantly shillbidded (and according to people in her old community used to encourage them to shillbid) and kicked people out of her old community for not being power hungry enough while talking about them behind their back and has (almost certainly) STOLEN FROM CHARITY (sadly links have been deleted over the years. Ask if you want the full story, but you might not believe me). Her history would be hilarious if it were fiction but sadly it is not.
She is a nasty piece of work. But I had tried to be the bigger person and stop writing about her.
And then she had to bring it up herself but make things sound like she was in the wrong and again just the victim of nasty bullying.
The hilarious thing is I basically predicted all this back in 2007 replying to her insulting Mum:
'If you reply to this i'm simply going to ignore it because i know you wouldn't do anything as crazy as offer an apology for your behaviour, you'd probably attempt to shift the blame back to me for having the nerve to stand up for myself when being insulted.'
To quote someone on the examiner article: 'calling somebody's mother a hideous name for buying something in good faith is not "telling them what's up, with strong language!" it's being an odious little reptile with no sense of how to act.'
What a complete cunt.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
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:
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 :(
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 :(
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Final Mac + Rodarte Update
Once again i have only just got around to writing this when the information has been out for days, so you probably all know about it anyway... but still:
Mac are now going to donate ALL the profits from the collection to charity to try and help the women of Juarez and raise awareness of the problems there.
You can read more here
So we did it everyone!
It's nice to know that consumers can change things if they work hard enough and really care :)
Mac are now going to donate ALL the profits from the collection to charity to try and help the women of Juarez and raise awareness of the problems there.
You can read more here
So we did it everyone!
It's nice to know that consumers can change things if they work hard enough and really care :)
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
My thoughts on the Mac + Rodarte update
Most of you have probably seen (from good bloggers who write things in a decent amount of time) that Mac and Rodarte have announced new statements responding to the outrage their collection caused recently (and, in my opinion, rightly) across the 'blogosphere':
Mac have said:
My feelings?
Rodarte's statement is pretty pathetic in my opinion. They apologise and say they realise the situation needs action but are not ofering anything. They're not planning on doing anything and that is a huge shame. They say that helping the women of Juarez is a priority for them, but what have they EVER done to help before? Other than use them as inspiration and make money from that, for themselves? Their statement seems to be missing the point. They did wrong and should do something about it. instead they act almost as if they've done something great, thanking people for commenting on the situation, as if they brought it to our attention themselves.
They've completely lost any respect i had for them.
As for Mac's...Well... $100,000 is a big sum of money to most people. I imagine it could do a lot of good. However, I must say I'm disappointed in Mac again. This is a gigantic company who must make millions of dollars a year, and because of that the sum seems a bit paltry. Beauty Mouth wrote the following in her post on the subject:
'MAC's number 1 door in the UK turns over around £4.5 million a year. ONE outlet. £86538 a week. £12363 a day. £1236 a working hour.'
So one outlet makes £4.5 million in a year, that's over $7000000 and again this is ONE outlet out of, how many in the world? I imagine there are at least a hundred freestanding Mac stores, and then even more counters in department stores, and then online shopping. So when you take this into account $100000 really sems like nothing.
Also i'm a little suspicious to be honest. At first they announced they were going to donate an unspecified amount of the profits from the collection, then this was dropped and turned into a flat rate of $100000.
Now I don't know how much they were expecting to make from the collection. If the estimate total profit of the collection was $200000 then they would be donating 50%, which is pretty good. However if they were expecting to make $1000000 from the collection it would only be 10% which is not great at all.
I am glad they've changed the names, and the donation is nice, if not overly generous, but there's so much more Mac could have done and honestly i can't believe they would do something so insensitive and offensive in the first place. As i've said before i've had mixed thoughts about Mac before but this has really put me off them as a company. I am not going to boycott them, though they don't actually do much i'd want to buy at the moment, but my whole outlook on them has completely change. Before i would not have hesitated to recommend them, now i think i would feel quite dirty doing so.
Whatever your feelings on the matter are i would urge you to sign this petition. it only takes a minute. If you are disappointed like me then this will help. And if you didn't have any problem with the names and inspiration behind the collection then wouldn't you still rather buy a product and know all the profit is going to charity? It only takes a minute and could do real good.
Mac have said:
'We understand that product names in the M·A·C Rodarte collection have offended our consumers and fans. This was never our intent and we are very sorry. We continue to listen carefully to the comments we have received and have the following plans to address concerns:
- We are committed to donating $100,000 to a non-profit organization that has a proven, successful track-record helping women in need and that can directly improve the lives of women in Juarez in a meaningful way.
- We are changing the product names in the M·A·C Rodarte collection.
As we have done in the past, please be assured that we will communicate details regarding our progress in this matter.'
Rodarte's statement:
'We recognize that the violence against women taking place in Juarez needs to be met with proactive action. We never intended to make light of this serious issue and we are truly sorry.
Helping to improve the conditions for women in Juarez is a priority for us and we are thankful for all the comments calling attention to the urgency of addressing this situation.'
My feelings?
Rodarte's statement is pretty pathetic in my opinion. They apologise and say they realise the situation needs action but are not ofering anything. They're not planning on doing anything and that is a huge shame. They say that helping the women of Juarez is a priority for them, but what have they EVER done to help before? Other than use them as inspiration and make money from that, for themselves? Their statement seems to be missing the point. They did wrong and should do something about it. instead they act almost as if they've done something great, thanking people for commenting on the situation, as if they brought it to our attention themselves.
They've completely lost any respect i had for them.
As for Mac's...Well... $100,000 is a big sum of money to most people. I imagine it could do a lot of good. However, I must say I'm disappointed in Mac again. This is a gigantic company who must make millions of dollars a year, and because of that the sum seems a bit paltry. Beauty Mouth wrote the following in her post on the subject:
'MAC's number 1 door in the UK turns over around £4.5 million a year. ONE outlet. £86538 a week. £12363 a day. £1236 a working hour.'
So one outlet makes £4.5 million in a year, that's over $7000000 and again this is ONE outlet out of, how many in the world? I imagine there are at least a hundred freestanding Mac stores, and then even more counters in department stores, and then online shopping. So when you take this into account $100000 really sems like nothing.
Also i'm a little suspicious to be honest. At first they announced they were going to donate an unspecified amount of the profits from the collection, then this was dropped and turned into a flat rate of $100000.
Now I don't know how much they were expecting to make from the collection. If the estimate total profit of the collection was $200000 then they would be donating 50%, which is pretty good. However if they were expecting to make $1000000 from the collection it would only be 10% which is not great at all.
I am glad they've changed the names, and the donation is nice, if not overly generous, but there's so much more Mac could have done and honestly i can't believe they would do something so insensitive and offensive in the first place. As i've said before i've had mixed thoughts about Mac before but this has really put me off them as a company. I am not going to boycott them, though they don't actually do much i'd want to buy at the moment, but my whole outlook on them has completely change. Before i would not have hesitated to recommend them, now i think i would feel quite dirty doing so.
Whatever your feelings on the matter are i would urge you to sign this petition. it only takes a minute. If you are disappointed like me then this will help. And if you didn't have any problem with the names and inspiration behind the collection then wouldn't you still rather buy a product and know all the profit is going to charity? It only takes a minute and could do real good.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Mac, naming your products after the sites of horrific abuse is not big, clever or funny!
Yesterday i went on twitter and saw a lot of tweets about some sort of Mac controversy. I hadn't heard anything about it and was a bit shocked as, while i've had my problems with Mac, i'd never heard any real controversy about the company.
I'd seen some of the Rodarte collection before but hadn't looked into it because, once again, the colours of the collection did not interest me. But now I am horrified.
The reason everyone is so angry at Mac is that some of the names of the products are named after a border city notorious for it's crime rate, called by many 'the most dangerous city in the world'. Further more part of the reason for this reputation is that a horrendous string of murders against the women of the city (thousands have occured since 1993 and are unsolved). The majority of the women killed were between the ages of 12 and 22 and were factory workers. And most of them showed signs of sexual violence and torture on their bodies.
Ignorance is one excuse, i can admit that i had never heard of or the atrocities comitted there, so if noone had pointed it out i wouldn't have known anything was distasteful about the names. However after learning about it i cannot believe that anyone who understands where the names stem from cannot see anything wrong with it!
As for Mac and Rodarte being ignorant about the subject, i cannot imagine how this can be possibkle. The name 'Juarez' could have been an innocent mistake but when combined with others such as 'Factory' and 'Ghosttown' how could they be inspired by anything other than the city and the crimes. Especially when Rodarte have admitted that their A/W collection was inspired by 'the maquiladora workers going to the factory in the middle of the night'
'that, according to the designers, who certainly know how to romance a pitch, led to this conclusion: They’d build a collection off the idea of sleepwalking.'
'I came across a note about Rodarte's Fall 2010 ready-to-wear collection and the source of its creative energies – maquiladoras in Mexico's Ciudad Juárez. Yes, maquiladoras. The same maquiladoras that serve as the site for violence, exploitation and femicide, all neatly brokered by global corporate capitalism.'
The group of murders is known as 'las muertas de Juárez' or 'The dead women of Juárez'. The makeup of the models from Rodarte's show and now the promo pictured for the Mac collection makes the women look like corpses or ghosts and this deeply troubles me. It's as if these women are supposed to represent the murdered girls, but a beautiful, high fashion, couture version of a murdered girl (reminds me of that awful poor-taste episode of ANTM where the girls posed as dead girls and the judges said things like 'you look beautiful...and dead'.). And this along with the idea that the show was inspired by 'Sleepwalking' does not sit well with me.
The idea that the models, inspired by the Factory workers are 'sleepwalking' is horribly offensive to me. The workers are real, living women. Many will have friends or family members who have suffered horribly and many must fear for their lives as so many poor, young women have been murdered. To use these women as 'inspiration' for you multi million selling makeup or clothes range just does not sit well with me.
I cannot put it better than the author of this:
'Women in Ciudad Juárez contend with casual violence, grinding poverty, and a higher risk of death than almost anywhere else on this earth — and they make our jeans. It's a little icky to ask them to "inspire" $4,000 dresses as well. Rodarte has done collections inspired by Japanese horror movies (they made dresses dyed so that they looked like they were bleeding), but there's a huge difference between aestheticizing fictional violence and aestheticizing real violence. It's discomfiting to think about the latter.'
Makeup is, let's not forget, a beauty product. While it can be used to create art, to make people look grotesque, etc it was invented primarily to make people look and feel more attractive. The collection is made of 'regular' makeup (as apposed to Special FX makeup or similar) which again is meant to enhance a woman's natural beauty. When this is combined with a concept to do with death, kidnap and so on it becomes incredibly morally dubious. The promo photos are not meant as artistic photographs illustrating the suffering, they are advertising a product. The model's look, while not to everyone's taste is meant to be something to inspire. Should Mac and Rodarte really be saying a murdered mexican woman is something to inspire us? Should the idea of these women be used to sell makeup or clothes? Using these sort of ideas in conjunction with a beauty product appears to be glamourising Juarez.
As well as being shocked and appalled at Mac for this i am also just as shocked and appalled by some of the comments on the website. Many people seem to see absolutely no problem with the names.
The main argument people are saying as for why these names are fine and not morally dubious is that makeup is art, art is often inspired by horrible events, and so there is no problem.
They've got one thing right, art is often inspired by horrible events.
Take for instance Picasso's piece Guernica:
The piece was comissioned by the Spanish Government, meaning that yes, in a way, Picasso was making money out of the suffering. However what Picasso did was bring the true horror of the bombing to light, there is nothing remotely glamourous about the piece, nothing celebratory or heroic, just a piece that shows the misery and pain that war can create. Seeing the piece makes me feel a little queasy because it is just so raw and brutal, it's horrible and painful to look at because it relects the true misery of the bombing. And in fact the painting has become an anti-war symbol and a reminder of the tradgedies of war.
Then let's take the Juarez polish as our next example. It's described as a 'Bright Opal Pink' with a frost finish. I've seen no photos of the polish but looking at the packaging of the other pieces in the collection i imagine it will be a normal Mac polish bottle with 'Rodarte' on it. Does a pink nail varnish named after a town where thousands of women have been raped and murdered do the same thing as Picasso's painting? Will this polish become a symbol of how wrong femicide is? Somehow i don't think so.
Also while Picasso (and other artists who make work to do with pain and suffering) was paid for the piece I believe (maybe i'm a little biased as i am an artist myself) that money is not the only, or even most important thing on the artists mind when they create the work. And while Mac may have had some artistic vision behind the collection the main and most important thing is to sell makeup and make money.
I agree entirely that makup can be used to create art, makeup artists are amazing and can use the medium to make pieces as creative and moving as any painting or sculpture. However a nail polish is not art in and of itself! A lipstick named Factory is no more a piece of art than my tube of 'Titanium White' acrylic.
People are arguing that 'it's just makeup so lighten up' but to me that's part of the problem! I love makeup but, lets be honest, it's not the most important thing in the world! It's a fun, frivolous thing that brings me a giddy little thrill and makes me feel better about myself. And as such it seems morally dubious to name something so frivolous after a horrific thing that is happening.
Another argument is that to complain about this is just politically correct nonsense. Political correctness Gone MAD to me is something along the lines of how once my Mum worked somewhere where you could not call coffee 'black' or 'white' (true story). Not being offended and appalled that someone would name a piece of makeup after horrific violence being put upon women.
A commenter made a brilliant point that, were the collection based on the Holocaust with colours named things such as Auschwitz, Gas Chamber etc people would have been up in arms, but for some reason it's ok when the name is inspired by a town where the murder and rape of hundres of mexican women has taken place. Other commenters then were furious at this comparison, but why? If we have learned anything from World War 2 and the Holocaust it is incredibly wrong to treat any person, no matter what colour or creed differently. Suffering is suffering no matter who it is happening to, which makes it perfectly sensible to compare 2 examples of human suffering. If it's somehow wrong to make light of the slaughter of Jews by naming a product after the place of their suffering why is it fine to do the same to Mexican women?
To me it also depresses me that, in the first Mac collection inspired by Mexico (as far as I am aware) there is very little the celebrates the beauty of Mexico and it's culture. The majority of the names are things like 'Bordertown', 'Badlands' and 'Ghosttown', which just seems that they are looking only at the problem areas of the country and can create quite a miserable, cynical view of Mexico as a whole.
As i wrote about before i was disenchanted with Mac's products and ideas, but I never thought they would be so careless, offensive and insensitive. Mac has often presented a front of being philanthropic, raising money and awareness about AIDS with the Viva Glam program for instance which i guess is why i'm so shocked they would do something so stupid and offensive.
Now, only after realising people are upset Mac have deigned to donate to charities to help the problem. This also is awfully distasteful to me, they had no intention to help before and were happy to capitalise on selling products named and inspired by a place rife with femicide, but then realised that people were unhappy and might not buy from them. Only then did they decide to donate an as yet undisclosed portion of the profits.
It's great that this has raised awareness of the awful situation in but this was not Mac's intention. They did not make any statement about the atrocities to go with this collection and so they should not be applauded. I'm certain they would never have brought it up at all. The awareness is coming from people who have been offended by the names, not Mac or Rodarte themselves. What they did was just wrong, and though some good has come out of it, it does not make it any less wrong.
To be honest I don't know what to do about this situation. People have already written to Mac with their complaints and they claim to have taken them onboard by donating some of the proceeds. Even i they were to change the names the damage is already dumb. To me the problem now is not so much that the product is called 'Juarez' but that someone thought it was a good idea to name it such an insensitive thing. Inspiration can come from anywhere but it's just poor taste to profit from a glamourised idea based on human suffering. Especially when it's not saying anything about the problem. Is this what the murdered women's families will want to represent them? A collection of makeup?
Links:
Temptalia
Oh Industry
Ny Mag
Threadbared
The Frisky
ontd_feminism
Amnesty International
Blogs:
British Beauty Blogger
Le Petit Jardin De Liloo
London Beauty Queen
London Makeup Girl
Sparkle and Shade
Vex In The City
Wande's World
Sparklz and Shine
Diary of a Cake Girl
Skeptic Ladies
Georgiexox
MakeupAdviceForum
Pink Sith
My Lips But Better
Tacky Blue Eyeshadow
Konglish Beauty
Edit:
After reading a few of the posts listed above (and i do suggest you read them, each one has something new to say and they are all very well written and thought through. Many talk a lot more about the awful situation in Juarez, i just touched upon it) I've discovered something else troubling about the collection.
This is a collection based upon Mexico and Mexican worker women. However all of the models are white. The selection of colours, to go with the beautiful corpse look, are pale. For instance there are a couple of products that go by the usual Mac foundation names and only come in one shade, up to NC30. Now this would be too dark for me but too light for the huge majority of Latina women. The other items also seem geared towards pale skin, with pale nude lips and white-ish pink blush. So it would actually be very difficult for the Mexican women that inspired this collection to wear the products. And this is troubling. It's sort of appropriating the inspiration to make it work for the white, middle class customer base of Mac.
I'd seen some of the Rodarte collection before but hadn't looked into it because, once again, the colours of the collection did not interest me. But now I am horrified.
The reason everyone is so angry at Mac is that some of the names of the products are named after a border city notorious for it's crime rate, called by many 'the most dangerous city in the world'. Further more part of the reason for this reputation is that a horrendous string of murders against the women of the city (thousands have occured since 1993 and are unsolved). The majority of the women killed were between the ages of 12 and 22 and were factory workers. And most of them showed signs of sexual violence and torture on their bodies.
Ignorance is one excuse, i can admit that i had never heard of or the atrocities comitted there, so if noone had pointed it out i wouldn't have known anything was distasteful about the names. However after learning about it i cannot believe that anyone who understands where the names stem from cannot see anything wrong with it!
As for Mac and Rodarte being ignorant about the subject, i cannot imagine how this can be possibkle. The name 'Juarez' could have been an innocent mistake but when combined with others such as 'Factory' and 'Ghosttown' how could they be inspired by anything other than the city and the crimes. Especially when Rodarte have admitted that their A/W collection was inspired by 'the maquiladora workers going to the factory in the middle of the night'
'that, according to the designers, who certainly know how to romance a pitch, led to this conclusion: They’d build a collection off the idea of sleepwalking.'
'I came across a note about Rodarte's Fall 2010 ready-to-wear collection and the source of its creative energies – maquiladoras in Mexico's Ciudad Juárez. Yes, maquiladoras. The same maquiladoras that serve as the site for violence, exploitation and femicide, all neatly brokered by global corporate capitalism.'
The group of murders is known as 'las muertas de Juárez' or 'The dead women of Juárez'. The makeup of the models from Rodarte's show and now the promo pictured for the Mac collection makes the women look like corpses or ghosts and this deeply troubles me. It's as if these women are supposed to represent the murdered girls, but a beautiful, high fashion, couture version of a murdered girl (reminds me of that awful poor-taste episode of ANTM where the girls posed as dead girls and the judges said things like 'you look beautiful...and dead'.). And this along with the idea that the show was inspired by 'Sleepwalking' does not sit well with me.
The idea that the models, inspired by the Factory workers are 'sleepwalking' is horribly offensive to me. The workers are real, living women. Many will have friends or family members who have suffered horribly and many must fear for their lives as so many poor, young women have been murdered. To use these women as 'inspiration' for you multi million selling makeup or clothes range just does not sit well with me.
I cannot put it better than the author of this:
'Women in Ciudad Juárez contend with casual violence, grinding poverty, and a higher risk of death than almost anywhere else on this earth — and they make our jeans. It's a little icky to ask them to "inspire" $4,000 dresses as well. Rodarte has done collections inspired by Japanese horror movies (they made dresses dyed so that they looked like they were bleeding), but there's a huge difference between aestheticizing fictional violence and aestheticizing real violence. It's discomfiting to think about the latter.'
Makeup is, let's not forget, a beauty product. While it can be used to create art, to make people look grotesque, etc it was invented primarily to make people look and feel more attractive. The collection is made of 'regular' makeup (as apposed to Special FX makeup or similar) which again is meant to enhance a woman's natural beauty. When this is combined with a concept to do with death, kidnap and so on it becomes incredibly morally dubious. The promo photos are not meant as artistic photographs illustrating the suffering, they are advertising a product. The model's look, while not to everyone's taste is meant to be something to inspire. Should Mac and Rodarte really be saying a murdered mexican woman is something to inspire us? Should the idea of these women be used to sell makeup or clothes? Using these sort of ideas in conjunction with a beauty product appears to be glamourising Juarez.
As well as being shocked and appalled at Mac for this i am also just as shocked and appalled by some of the comments on the website. Many people seem to see absolutely no problem with the names.
The main argument people are saying as for why these names are fine and not morally dubious is that makeup is art, art is often inspired by horrible events, and so there is no problem.
They've got one thing right, art is often inspired by horrible events.
Take for instance Picasso's piece Guernica:
The piece was comissioned by the Spanish Government, meaning that yes, in a way, Picasso was making money out of the suffering. However what Picasso did was bring the true horror of the bombing to light, there is nothing remotely glamourous about the piece, nothing celebratory or heroic, just a piece that shows the misery and pain that war can create. Seeing the piece makes me feel a little queasy because it is just so raw and brutal, it's horrible and painful to look at because it relects the true misery of the bombing. And in fact the painting has become an anti-war symbol and a reminder of the tradgedies of war.
Then let's take the Juarez polish as our next example. It's described as a 'Bright Opal Pink' with a frost finish. I've seen no photos of the polish but looking at the packaging of the other pieces in the collection i imagine it will be a normal Mac polish bottle with 'Rodarte' on it. Does a pink nail varnish named after a town where thousands of women have been raped and murdered do the same thing as Picasso's painting? Will this polish become a symbol of how wrong femicide is? Somehow i don't think so.
Also while Picasso (and other artists who make work to do with pain and suffering) was paid for the piece I believe (maybe i'm a little biased as i am an artist myself) that money is not the only, or even most important thing on the artists mind when they create the work. And while Mac may have had some artistic vision behind the collection the main and most important thing is to sell makeup and make money.
I agree entirely that makup can be used to create art, makeup artists are amazing and can use the medium to make pieces as creative and moving as any painting or sculpture. However a nail polish is not art in and of itself! A lipstick named Factory is no more a piece of art than my tube of 'Titanium White' acrylic.
People are arguing that 'it's just makeup so lighten up' but to me that's part of the problem! I love makeup but, lets be honest, it's not the most important thing in the world! It's a fun, frivolous thing that brings me a giddy little thrill and makes me feel better about myself. And as such it seems morally dubious to name something so frivolous after a horrific thing that is happening.
Another argument is that to complain about this is just politically correct nonsense. Political correctness Gone MAD to me is something along the lines of how once my Mum worked somewhere where you could not call coffee 'black' or 'white' (true story). Not being offended and appalled that someone would name a piece of makeup after horrific violence being put upon women.
A commenter made a brilliant point that, were the collection based on the Holocaust with colours named things such as Auschwitz, Gas Chamber etc people would have been up in arms, but for some reason it's ok when the name is inspired by a town where the murder and rape of hundres of mexican women has taken place. Other commenters then were furious at this comparison, but why? If we have learned anything from World War 2 and the Holocaust it is incredibly wrong to treat any person, no matter what colour or creed differently. Suffering is suffering no matter who it is happening to, which makes it perfectly sensible to compare 2 examples of human suffering. If it's somehow wrong to make light of the slaughter of Jews by naming a product after the place of their suffering why is it fine to do the same to Mexican women?
To me it also depresses me that, in the first Mac collection inspired by Mexico (as far as I am aware) there is very little the celebrates the beauty of Mexico and it's culture. The majority of the names are things like 'Bordertown', 'Badlands' and 'Ghosttown', which just seems that they are looking only at the problem areas of the country and can create quite a miserable, cynical view of Mexico as a whole.
As i wrote about before i was disenchanted with Mac's products and ideas, but I never thought they would be so careless, offensive and insensitive. Mac has often presented a front of being philanthropic, raising money and awareness about AIDS with the Viva Glam program for instance which i guess is why i'm so shocked they would do something so stupid and offensive.
Now, only after realising people are upset Mac have deigned to donate to charities to help the problem. This also is awfully distasteful to me, they had no intention to help before and were happy to capitalise on selling products named and inspired by a place rife with femicide, but then realised that people were unhappy and might not buy from them. Only then did they decide to donate an as yet undisclosed portion of the profits.
It's great that this has raised awareness of the awful situation in but this was not Mac's intention. They did not make any statement about the atrocities to go with this collection and so they should not be applauded. I'm certain they would never have brought it up at all. The awareness is coming from people who have been offended by the names, not Mac or Rodarte themselves. What they did was just wrong, and though some good has come out of it, it does not make it any less wrong.
To be honest I don't know what to do about this situation. People have already written to Mac with their complaints and they claim to have taken them onboard by donating some of the proceeds. Even i they were to change the names the damage is already dumb. To me the problem now is not so much that the product is called 'Juarez' but that someone thought it was a good idea to name it such an insensitive thing. Inspiration can come from anywhere but it's just poor taste to profit from a glamourised idea based on human suffering. Especially when it's not saying anything about the problem. Is this what the murdered women's families will want to represent them? A collection of makeup?
Links:
Temptalia
Oh Industry
Ny Mag
Threadbared
The Frisky
ontd_feminism
Amnesty International
Blogs:
Le Petit Jardin De Liloo
London Beauty Queen
London Makeup Girl
So Far So Chic
Sparkle and Shade
Vex In The City
Wande's World
Sparklz and Shine
Diary of a Cake Girl
Skeptic Ladies
Georgiexox
MakeupAdviceForum
Pink Sith
My Lips But Better
Tacky Blue Eyeshadow
Konglish Beauty
(if you know any more please tell me)
Edit:
After reading a few of the posts listed above (and i do suggest you read them, each one has something new to say and they are all very well written and thought through. Many talk a lot more about the awful situation in Juarez, i just touched upon it) I've discovered something else troubling about the collection.
This is a collection based upon Mexico and Mexican worker women. However all of the models are white. The selection of colours, to go with the beautiful corpse look, are pale. For instance there are a couple of products that go by the usual Mac foundation names and only come in one shade, up to NC30. Now this would be too dark for me but too light for the huge majority of Latina women. The other items also seem geared towards pale skin, with pale nude lips and white-ish pink blush. So it would actually be very difficult for the Mexican women that inspired this collection to wear the products. And this is troubling. It's sort of appropriating the inspiration to make it work for the white, middle class customer base of Mac.
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Ginger + Liz: Big Bullies
Hi everyone. I'm sorry my blog is a bit of a big, ranty, grumpy place at the moment but some things have to be shared.
Ginger + Liz are a brand I knew very little about. I'd seen their polishes only really on Dailypolish's blog and not thought much of them. Some of the polishes looked very pretty, but didn't really capture my imagination. Still Sara had said good things about their formula and I may well have bought from them someday, especially if the polish frenzy i have been experiencing recently had continued.
But now i can safely say i will NEVER purchase from them.
They are threatening to sue Sara because of 2 posts she did comparing some of their polishes to Diamonds Cosmetics.
Now you can see there is barely any text, she doesn't state that the polishes are repackaged, she says they are identical and that she is disappointed, implying that she believes they may have been repackaged.
So now Ginger + Liz say they are going to sue for upwards of $200000 if she does not delete the post and all the comments. It's ridiculous and nothing but bullying to try and scare bloggers away from saying anything negative.
Sara bought the polishes herself and was disappointed to find they look the same as the cheaper Diamond brand.
I am going to be writing to the brand to tell them how disappointed I am with them. Even if they were the best polishes in the entire world, Sara was wrong and they weren't even close to DC and she had specifically stated that they were repackaged it would still be hideously wrong to threaten to sue. A blog is someone's personal opinion, other people will disagree (even in Sara's comments there are people who think the swatches look different) and by reacting like this Ginger + Liz have done their own reputation a lot more damage than Sara ever could have done.
In fact before this i had seen Sara's post and thought the polishes being compared looked slightly different. Now they've reacted such a way makes them seem like they have something to hide as well and i will be looking much further into the other claims of repackaging.
Doing this sort of thing is just plain stupid in my opinion. If i was a company and did NOT repackage but someone was saying i did i would address them, show evidence and be civil. Perhaps even offer to send them another polish with no dupe so they could see. Take photos in different lights showing the differences, discuss differences in ingredients etc etc but be sure to be friendly and, even if it's not true, say you are thankful to the blogger for bringing the criticism to your attention and so on. If i was a company who DID repackage i would keep my big yap shut, this way even i a few people saw the post it would not spread around as much.
I guess i shouldn't be giving advice to repackers but it just seems so incredibly stupid to threaten to sue (they would never win, Sara said nothing defamatory , just her assessment based on what she saw) if they hadn't I would never have seen, and would not be posting this now for you to see.
Ginger + Liz are a brand I knew very little about. I'd seen their polishes only really on Dailypolish's blog and not thought much of them. Some of the polishes looked very pretty, but didn't really capture my imagination. Still Sara had said good things about their formula and I may well have bought from them someday, especially if the polish frenzy i have been experiencing recently had continued.
But now i can safely say i will NEVER purchase from them.
They are threatening to sue Sara because of 2 posts she did comparing some of their polishes to Diamonds Cosmetics.
Now you can see there is barely any text, she doesn't state that the polishes are repackaged, she says they are identical and that she is disappointed, implying that she believes they may have been repackaged.
So now Ginger + Liz say they are going to sue for upwards of $200000 if she does not delete the post and all the comments. It's ridiculous and nothing but bullying to try and scare bloggers away from saying anything negative.
Sara bought the polishes herself and was disappointed to find they look the same as the cheaper Diamond brand.
I am going to be writing to the brand to tell them how disappointed I am with them. Even if they were the best polishes in the entire world, Sara was wrong and they weren't even close to DC and she had specifically stated that they were repackaged it would still be hideously wrong to threaten to sue. A blog is someone's personal opinion, other people will disagree (even in Sara's comments there are people who think the swatches look different) and by reacting like this Ginger + Liz have done their own reputation a lot more damage than Sara ever could have done.
In fact before this i had seen Sara's post and thought the polishes being compared looked slightly different. Now they've reacted such a way makes them seem like they have something to hide as well and i will be looking much further into the other claims of repackaging.
Doing this sort of thing is just plain stupid in my opinion. If i was a company and did NOT repackage but someone was saying i did i would address them, show evidence and be civil. Perhaps even offer to send them another polish with no dupe so they could see. Take photos in different lights showing the differences, discuss differences in ingredients etc etc but be sure to be friendly and, even if it's not true, say you are thankful to the blogger for bringing the criticism to your attention and so on. If i was a company who DID repackage i would keep my big yap shut, this way even i a few people saw the post it would not spread around as much.
I guess i shouldn't be giving advice to repackers but it just seems so incredibly stupid to threaten to sue (they would never win, Sara said nothing defamatory , just her assessment based on what she saw) if they hadn't I would never have seen, and would not be posting this now for you to see.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
A sort of rant
Maybe I'm completely naive but reading this completely shocked me. The idea of recieving something for free from a PR and, without even trying it, selling it is just absolutely appalling to me. I could totally understand that if you knew you wouldn't like the product you recieved giving it away to another blogger who would like it or similar things or maybe, maybe i would be ok if you used and reviewed the thing and then sold it for a fair price (not really sure how i feel about that but i guess it's fair to the company) but selling something given to you in good faith to review is just absolutely not acceptable behaviour!
I have no problem with people accepting products for review, i've done it before and would be more than happy to do it again. While the whole point of sending freebies is to get free advertising the vast majority of bloggers will tell the absolute truth about their feelings behind the product. I've seen many reviews where the person who recieved the product hated it and is more than willing to say so. And for this reason i do believe that companies who send samples, especially indie companies, want honest feedback on their products.
The few times i've been asked to review something i have felt absolutely honoured. Not only is it always lovely to recieve something for free and get to try something that i might not have otherwise but it is such a compliment that people are interested enough in my blog and believe enough in it that they would value my opinion or indeed believe it could be a goodd source of advertisement! I've been lucky to have only recieved products i have really liked so far (with the exception of the Illamasqua bronzer [which i still haven't tried because i don't wear bronzer... honestly don't know what to do with it!] And the Skin MD lotion which was fine but nothing special so i passed it on to my sister who really likes it) but if i received something i hated i would absolutely have the integrity to tell the truth.
To get something and then sell it on is just wrong.
To be honest I don't really understand how one gets lots of PR samples. Do you email and ask for them or are there lots of people who are just super lucky and just get offered to try them or even just magically sent them? If you're actually asking for them and then selling them that's just... indescribably wrong.
It's stuff like this which makes people mistrust beauty bloggers :(
Umm... reading back this post sort of sounds like i'm angling for freebies. I didn't mean it to come across like that because i'm more than happy to buy my own products! ... Having said that i'm not gonna lie, a freebie here and there would be most welcome :P heh heh
Anyway rant over! I apologise for my posts being a bit few and far between recently (and my comments being a bit slow because i'm still not recieving email alerts). My sister is moving in with us for a while and i have to get the room ready for her (which is a tough and long process as the room was previously used for storage and my house is hideously packed!). She's moving in at the beginning of next week so after that i should hopefully be back to posting regularly (or semi-regularly anyway :P) and have a lot of posts in the pipeline including more BFTE reviews, new swatches, one ALLMIGHTY haul and did someone say Lime Crime shenanigans?
(Ps i REALLY want to know who the blogger BBB is talking about is. Because i'm nosy :P If you know please email me!)
I have no problem with people accepting products for review, i've done it before and would be more than happy to do it again. While the whole point of sending freebies is to get free advertising the vast majority of bloggers will tell the absolute truth about their feelings behind the product. I've seen many reviews where the person who recieved the product hated it and is more than willing to say so. And for this reason i do believe that companies who send samples, especially indie companies, want honest feedback on their products.
The few times i've been asked to review something i have felt absolutely honoured. Not only is it always lovely to recieve something for free and get to try something that i might not have otherwise but it is such a compliment that people are interested enough in my blog and believe enough in it that they would value my opinion or indeed believe it could be a goodd source of advertisement! I've been lucky to have only recieved products i have really liked so far (with the exception of the Illamasqua bronzer [which i still haven't tried because i don't wear bronzer... honestly don't know what to do with it!] And the Skin MD lotion which was fine but nothing special so i passed it on to my sister who really likes it) but if i received something i hated i would absolutely have the integrity to tell the truth.
To get something and then sell it on is just wrong.
To be honest I don't really understand how one gets lots of PR samples. Do you email and ask for them or are there lots of people who are just super lucky and just get offered to try them or even just magically sent them? If you're actually asking for them and then selling them that's just... indescribably wrong.
It's stuff like this which makes people mistrust beauty bloggers :(
Umm... reading back this post sort of sounds like i'm angling for freebies. I didn't mean it to come across like that because i'm more than happy to buy my own products! ... Having said that i'm not gonna lie, a freebie here and there would be most welcome :P heh heh
Anyway rant over! I apologise for my posts being a bit few and far between recently (and my comments being a bit slow because i'm still not recieving email alerts). My sister is moving in with us for a while and i have to get the room ready for her (which is a tough and long process as the room was previously used for storage and my house is hideously packed!). She's moving in at the beginning of next week so after that i should hopefully be back to posting regularly (or semi-regularly anyway :P) and have a lot of posts in the pipeline including more BFTE reviews, new swatches, one ALLMIGHTY haul and did someone say Lime Crime shenanigans?
(Ps i REALLY want to know who the blogger BBB is talking about is. Because i'm nosy :P If you know please email me!)
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