Who’s “Duping” Whom? OPI Swiss 2010 versus China Glaze Vintage Vixen

Remember the big brouhaha OPI had, shortly after they filed suit against etailers? In May 2010, Temptalia posted a promo photo of OPI’s fall 2010 collection, and OPI sent the site owner a cease-and-desist letter. Part of OPI’s argument against promo pics being online included the rationalization that if other retailers could see their collections, they’d duplicate OPI’s collections and get them to market faster, thus undercutting OPI’s profit potential. (Several other companies use the same rationale for asking sites to remove promo pics, and / or for not sending out promo materials.) This backfired on them in a rather singular fashion.

This was in late May 2010.

In -=early=- May 2010, nail bloggers began posting swatch pics of China Glaze’s Vintage Vixen collection. It included twelve colors, a mixture of glass-flecks, frosts, and a very few cremes. Well, hey, guess what!! Some of OPI’s Swiss colors are dupes or near-dupes of China Glaze colors….and the China Glaze colors cost less.

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Aromaleigh is closing

Aromaleigh is closing. That’s two major suppliers of my color fixes (and the vendor of my absolute favorite Holy Grail color corrector in the whole wide world…I’ve tried five vendors’ products and they simply did not measure up) that have closed this past year.

Go read the news, then place your final orders. Note that being able to place an order for a product does not mean that you will receive the product. But…if you’ve been holding off, grab stuff now while there’s a chance that it will still be in stock.

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Get Off the Drama Llama

There’s a new wave of drama going on in indie-makeup-land. (There seem to always be waves of drama. As soon as one dies down, another rises into prominence.) I would almost love to sit down with a sociologist and hash this out, because on an aggregate level I’m sure it’s a fascinating study of human behavior, perceptions, definitions of relationships (including rights and responsibilities therein), and communication on both the one-to-one and the one-to-many level. However, since I can’t do that, I’d like to offer my own advice to anyone doing business with a small or microbusiness. Just a few things to keep in mind, if you will. (Many of these also apply to small and microbusiness owners - and having been one for nine years, having had to fire clients, having had to clearly establish boundaries and clearly define what I will and won’t do, and clearly outline what I intend to provide for my clients…I have an opinion. As does everyone, actually. But anyhoo, on to the post.)

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Sparklecrack is trademarked? No it isn’t

I've given this quite a bit of thought, so that I could prepare a full response rationally rather than merely reacting. I initially thought about changing the site name and changing the URL. I spent two nights being physically ill at the abrupt treatment and legal threats. And then I reconsidered my actions.

The term sparklecrack is not, as of November 25 2009, registered with the US Trademark Office. It is not under copyright (it cannot be - words and short phrases cannot be copyrighted) and it is not legally protected by trademark at this time. I have been using the term included in the site's name and URL since January 16, 2009. I have always believed that the term is open to use by anyone and everyone, and have seen many other persons using the term. Despite "hopeful" claims by Mineral Madness that the term is a trademark of theirs, the term is not a registered trademark of anyone as of November 25 2009 and was not in use as any significant identifying portion (site name, subtitle, URL, forum name, user title, thread title, et cetera) as of November 23, 2009. I also don't think that anyone's going to confuse my site, which has never only covered one brand of mineral makeup and has never had a sizeable active forum, for JamesC's community which until November 24 2009 billed itself as "a Bare Escentuals fan site" and has a very active forum. Thus, I do not recognize JamesC's authority to insist that I stop using the domain or that I change my site name, or cease using the term in any fashion.

I encourage anyone else who wants to use the term "sparklecrack", or any variation thereof, to feel free to do so - don't hold back on my account. The term is not restricted to any one person, site, or group and never has been. Before January 2009, it was not used in the site name, URL, forum names, categories, user titles, or site areas anywhere at Mineral Madness, nor was it in use on any other makeup sites that I visited as a part of their name, URL, or tag line. Thus I did not see any barriers to naming my site Sparklecrack Central.

Hey Lime Crime! Xenia! Doe Deere!

EDIT Nov 13, 2009: There’s now a followup to this entry.

Teaching is a wonderful gift. The tutorials you created and posted have interested a lot of folks. And sharing love of bright color and sparkly things? Well, I’m hardly going to say that that’s a problem - take a look at my own collection, over 900 colors from several MMU vendors. You’ve done some things quite right, and quite well, and in a positive manner.

However.

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To the relevant parties

Will the silly fools running around waving the lawsuit-stick at companies who post their opinions on shoddy business ethics please start acting like responsible adults with something resembling scruples? If something is intentionally misrepresented, the persons doing the misrepresenting shouldn’t be entirely surprised when the world at large points out the aforementioned misrepresentation.

Duh.

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MMU Retailer Review - Micabella

• Manufacturer: Micabella
• Products: mineral colored pigments (eyes/lips/etc), foundation, blushes, skincare products
• Where available: online, certain mall kiosks
• Cost / Value: eyeshadows: $15. Or $20. or $10. It seems to vary significantly.
• Primary impressions: possibly some pretty colors, but OMFG, what ill-mannered salespeople
• Would you buy from this retailer again? ...perhaps. But only if I have someone else along to distract the salesperson.
• Would you recommend this retailer to others? NO!!! Approach at your own risk. These people are pushier than an evangelical preacher.

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