Makeup via the Internet: a buyer’s manual

There’s another convulsion circling through the beauty blogosphere, regarding Bitchslap Cosmetics. Long story short, they were reselling items from Lady Burd and marking them up enormously. Apparently, according to one video I saw, people somehow were under the impression that BSC claimed to have made all of the items themselves. I never purchased items from Bitchslap Cosmetics, nor was I interested in doing so ($16 to $18 for one of those four-color shadow palettes that they call “paint wheels”? $12 for a pigment? And the names…to some, they say “fearless” and “edgy”. To me, they say “look, we found this theme in the gutter, and so we brought it back and cleaned it off a little (but not too much, because we want the grit) and we’re using it! Yayz!”) This all sounds oh so very much like the LimeCrime scenario of last year, and the Ginger + Liz dealio rocking the nail polish blogging world, that I just had to speak up.

There are a few terms everyone should know, a few things everyone should keep in mind, and a few sites everyone should probably bookmark. Let’s define them together, shall we?

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Save me from myself!! ...not…

Just a little note to all the folks who comment, email, or tweet to me telling me that this or that company, from whom I purchase product, repackages/resells some of their products:

You’re not telling me anything I hadn’t figured out, on my own, over a year ago (and then confirmed just under a year ago). And yet I still will buy from these various companies if they have something that I like. For me, it’s not about buying “artisanal” or “original”. It’s about “what do I want” versus “what I don’t already have and can’t find elsewhere for a lower price”.

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Would it change my mind? Integrity and business ethics

This is a followup to another entry on my site, and a part of the indie-MMU repackaging kerfuffle.

Another web site is running another piece on Lime Crime, one of the makeup companies that consumers have recently cited as having several colors that are so very reminiscent of colored micas available from wholesalers (as in, when swatched side by side people can't tell the difference.) After a few of us stated, in the comments, what we found so particularly disagreeable about Lime Crime's behavior in this incident (seeming integrity, lack thereof), the person who wrote this follow-up interview asked us a hypothetical question:

"So let’s say for the sake of argument, Doe Deere says you know what you guys, I may have exaggerated when first marketing my product and for that I apologize from the bottom of my heart. What then? Would that change anyone’s mind?"^*

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Cream shadows, holiday collections, and site news

The latest line of gel liners and cream shadows is in over at Morgana Cryptoria. Initially I’m liking Twilight, Eerie, Bubblegum, Dreamscape, Bathory, and Glowin’ - and there are six more shades that don’t yet have pics or descriptions. I don’t know whether or not they’re indelible, as neither the names nor descriptions say anything definitive. However, Melissa is going to be coming out with her own line of cream shadows and liners soon (hopefully those will be ‘indelible’!) She’s going to stop carrying the Lady Burd indelible cream shadows and gel liners soon, too - and she’s reduced prices on her remaining inventory. Get them while supplies last! (She has the best prices on these I’ve seen from any MMU vendor, hands down.)

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