Final Thoughts: Glittersniffer Cosmetics

I recently announced I would no longer support, endorse, or use Glittersniffer Cosmetics. Now that I have had enough time to let emotions die down, I feel that I can talk about it here with a fresh and and unclouded perspective. I wanted to be truthful about my reasons for leaving, as well as provide information This might be long, so please bear with me
DISCLAIMER: ALL OF THE FOLLOWING IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. TAKE THIS INFORMATION AS YOU SEE FIT, AND PLEASE MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS.

When I became an admin on the Glittersniffer Private group page on Facebook, I felt awesome. For the first time, I was a part of something. I have had issues fitting in since I was little, so this was a new experience to me. I followed orders, from Lela, about deleting and blocking users who were on the Glittersniffer Complaints page. I also removed any and all negative posts on the private page as well, and monitoring the main fan page for negativity to tell Lela about so it could be removed. It felt wrong, but my mind, I saw it as the role I was to play in order to stay apart of this group.

Not too long into my admin duties did I start to hear the rumors, from the other admins. They spoke of her lack of proper work sanitation procedures, such as, not washing her hands after smoking or eating. Another matter brought into question was her working environment. For example, her cat being aloud to walk in and out of her work area. I am deathly allergic to cats so the idea of fur in my cosmetics is not a settling thought.

An accusation was also made that Lela has an addiction to a substance called Kratom. Though it is legal in small doses, Lela made references to using it multiple times a day, in high doses. This was also witnessed by another admin that had gone to stay with her for roughly a week back in February. Though this is a more personal aspect of her and not the company, it made me stop to think what it was I was trying to be a part of? Was this type of person, someone I should be so worried of getting approval from. I was wanted to be a part of something, but not something like this.

These rumors have proved true with photos, eye witnesses, and even from Lela herself. I find myself now concerned for Lela Warren. She is only human, and I do not wish to harm her. I can only hope she will seek the help she needs to become a better business owner, but also a better person.

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Now, before I left GS, I helped Lela create the Video game collection. After waiting  a month for my package, since I was promised a full collection because it was my idea originally, I contacted Lela and she was happy to send me one. I would like to share with you what I had received.

How it was packaged inside a regular manila envelope.

Inside the bag

The package pulled out of the pac-man bag. I already knew I was up for disappointment when I saw the broken soap.

The other side. The "Yoshi" green pigment was spilled everywhere.

The set of pigments as I received them. This is unaltered. I pulled this for the bag as is.

The perfume. The listing stated it was in a twist up tube, but was actually sent to me in a 5g Pot. Still cute though

It looks as though it was in a tube at one point, and just plopped into the pot.

The Mountain Dew Soap. Broken in 4 pieces, and was not wrapped. Everything was covered in a soap residue because of it not being wrapped.

The "full" vials of cosmetic glitter. In different vials, and barely full.

The Bath bomb. There was red glitter, and rock salt on the top. Some of which was scraped off as I pulled it from the package.

Side view of the bath bomb. It was cracked, had these white chunks everywhere, and was very inconsistent.

This is all I received. I was very disappointed. The soap was very thin, so it broke in transit. If it had been packaged and wrapped as most companies do with their soap I believe that it would have arrived in one piece. The pigments were everywhere. Most of the green was dumped out because there was no sifter stickers on any sifters, and the stacker wasn't sealed in anyway. Scotch tape would have been enough in my mind to prevent this. The perfume not being in the twist up tube doesn't bug me as much as you can tell it was at some point.  The glitter vials were no where near full, not even half full. 

I really do hope that maybe this was just my package, not everyone's. It is also my hope that Glittersniffer does turn over a new leaf and corrects its mistakes of the past as they promised. Sadly though, as you can see above, it doesn't appear that it has happened yet. Personally, I will not purchase for GS ever again. After was I saw with the Video Game collection, my heart broke because that was something I helped create, and it was no where near what it could have been.

I hope this has been informative to whoever reads this. I sincerely hope that possibly, Lela Warren will read this and see what has happened and know that I wish her the best. I used to be devoted to GS, I used to be an admin, and I loved it. Then it went south, I left, but I still feel like things can improve. For her current customers, I hope things improve and you enjoy what you get from GS.

If you received the Video Game collection, comment below and tell me, was mine just like this, or was yours broken/open/spilled when you received it? I want to know if I just got unlucky.

Gears of War 3 Beta--- Come on 24th!

Cant
Freaking
Wait.....

Gears of War 3, the final installment in the series, will be released this November, but the multiplayer Beta opens to those with the invite on the 24th of April.... merely 11 days from now. How do you get the invite? By purchasing "Bulletstorm" (the EPIC edition) or by pre-ordering Gears 3 at your local Game Stop. Booyah. I bought Bulletstorm (which is fantastic btw) and I am pre-ordering as well. I need this game, I love the story, and I just need it.

Back in last June/July they annouced that the one of the final Carmine Brother would be in the third game. His other brothers, Anthony and Ben, died previously in games 1 and 2. How they annouced his appearance was great. They opened a vote for if this final Carmine brother would live or die of coarse!

The vote was done by sales of t-shirts and avatar shirts on the xbox. For him to live: you bought the black shirt saying "Save Carmine". For him to die: A red shirt with "Carmine Must die". I of coarse, looked into the character a little before voting. I bought both the avatar shirt and an actual tshirt so I voted twice... both to Save Carmine. (all proceeds also went to charity! How cool is that?!)

Here is my reasoning on why Clayton Carmine should live:

- Clayton has already survived a sniper shot to the head, proving that he is a badass.
- After his brothers Anthony and Ben died, he had them tattooed on his arm in their memory and a reminder on why he fights. A badass with a heart wins my vote on surviving.
- HE STRANGLES A LOCUST DRONE TO DEATH!!!! Seriously!? Those things slaughter people and he just walks in and chokes one.
- He looks like a badass:

Come on, whats not to love? Although you'd think after his brothers deaths that he would think to not wear a helmet. Anthony died of a sniper shot to the head because it restricted his view too much, and Ben died from injuries in battle. If Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago are NOT wearing helmets, you figure that's the way to go... just saying.

Anyway... for you gamers out there, what is your opinion? Live, or Die? I wanna know. Comment below! If I pre-order my game in time for the beta, maybe YOU can have the second code I will be getting for it sicne I have the bulletstom one. ^-^

Buyer Beware: Ruthless/Bitchslap Cosmetics

I hate typing blogs like this. I will be honest, I don't like ragging on other companies when I personally haven't used them, but after some recent information surfaced about the company, I feel the need to inform my readers why they should avoid this company as it is advertised as a cosmetic company. Please know that any of the following are my observation and opinions, mixed with some first hand accounts and photos provided to me by customers of these companies. I always suggest doing your own research before taking my word on everything because sometimes, not all experiences are the same.

Also, all photos can be expanded by clicking on them so you can read what is written on the pages.


Ruthless Cosmetics
 
A lot of controversy has revolved around Ruthless Cosmetics Recently. They sell everything after buying whole sale. Here's the issues. This is a screenshot from their site:

 These paintwheels are listed as able to be used for cosmetic purposes and used around the eyes. There are NO disclaimers that they can't. Most consumers would take this as they are eye approved. Too bad that is incorrect. The place they purchase these is from Lady Burd's site. The following two screen caps are from Lady Burds listing:

The first picture is to show that this was taken from Lady Burd's site directly. The second shows all the paintwheels marked as NOT approved for eye use. That's right ladies, all but ONE paintwheel is not approved  for use around the eye. When the information is so readily available, why was it not listed on Ruthless's site? They don't state on their site where they get the paintwheels either, I knew from a friend otherwise I would have never known myself. Other blogs have brought this same thing to light. The first blog that I saw talk about this was How NOT to run a Business which has 3 or 4 posts on the ordeal with Ruthless.

On top of selling unsafe products. The owners of Ruthless seem to have a rude streak in them from what I have seen. The following are screen shots from various comments left on Facebook and Youtube.

These were comments left on a video describing the rude comment, and Non-eye safe paint wheels Ruthless sells, as well as their poor customer service.

Further comments from the same youtube channel

Same you tube comments, bigger version

More comments from the safe aforementioned video.

I removed the FB photo and last name of Leslie to protect her privacy. She gave me permission to keep it all, but I chose to remove it to protect her. Also, she had copy and pasted these into a post on facebook since she didn't know how to sceen cap.

On another person's YouTube channel after she said she was screen capping all of the comments.

Ruthless's response to the "How NOT to run a business" blog post.

As you can see there is a lack of "professionalism" in their comments towards people that speak against their company. In my opinion, when something like this surfaces, you would be kind, address the concerns, and answer questions from concerned fans or users of the products you sell instead of publicly trying to insult the blogger/youtube-er. 

Bitch Slap Cosmetics

This company has the same issue of selling something intended as body paints, or for actual art paint as a cosmetic solution. They do state on the paintwheels in a general post on the paintwheels section they are not approved for eye use:

The problem is that they are NOT also displayed as unsafe for eyes on the individual listings. So if you look for "Bitch slap paintwheels" on Google, the results pull up the individual listings as well, so if someone were to click on them they wouldn't see that disclaimer and would think that they are safe.

Some people on a Facebook page posted pictures like this:

This was a small amount of  "One Beat Bitch" mixed with water. It turned to paint instantly with a little mixing according to the user.

Done by the same woman from the photo above. She then use it as finger paint to make this sign.

Another customer mixed a small amount of the pink from this palette with water and put it on paper. She said her hands were stained for some time after as well.

The person who had done the photos above also created the following video:

The users hands were stained pink from the paint wheel itself. I think that alone should worry you because makeup isn't intended to be permenant. (With the exception of lip stains)

After investigating some on my part, and going through Bitch Slap's site, I found some things that are mildly disturbing:

Both of these have "Ultramarines: Pigment Blue 29" listed as an ingredient. I had heard that they were not safe for lip use so I decided to check it out.

I was right. Above is the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet, in case you didn't know) for Ultramarine Blue. It labels it as an irritant and hazardous if ingested. Since it didn't clearly say "Not safe for such and such a use" I went to the FDA website and looked up what is okay and not okay. Ultramarines are listed as NOT lip safe, but there is not a clear label about that on the Bitch slap website. This is a great concern for those that are not crazy like me and research everything they are thinking of buying.

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I intended to buy from both of these companies to do reviews, and try what they offered, but I don't think that in necessary considering the information above. The products I want to try are the ones that are not safe for eyes. So sadly, I will not be buying from that. It is your choice if you decide to purchase from these companies yourself, but I personally will not. If I have a bad experience with a company, I want to be able to voice it without being insulted, and I want to be able to do an honest review without being harassed as well. Please research before you buy ladies and gents, it if for your own safety that I posted this in case anyone had considered buying from these companies. After reading and seeing all of the stuff above, I will not be buying anything.

Facebomb Giveaway results!!!

And the winner is:

Miss Melissa Jewel!! CONGRATS LADY!!! <3  Reach out to me on facebook with your address and I will have it in the mail by the end of the week!

Stay tuned for more giveaways... I have another one in the works <3

Review: Virus Insanity Eyeshadow

I have wanted to do a review of Virus Insanity for awhile, but wanted to have time to play with everything for awhile before giving y'all a final verdict. They offer Super bright to super dark colors, mattes, shimmers, and glitter. They've got unique names, funny names, to down right dirty names... in the good kind of dirty I promise! What more could a girl ask for! So here's my 2.5 cents!

Packaging

Everything that I have purchased from VIE has always been packaged very nicely. my last order was a larger one, which is usually where companies have had issues with packaging, in my opinion. So here's what I recieved yesterday:

 This was the box, fresh off the mail truck. It was sealed up tight, and there was no damage to the box at all. I could shake it and there was little to no movement of the items inside.

 The top of the box upon opening it was packed with tissue paper to pad the top which was very nice. It helped protect things from shifting in shipment to me. I love this because that leaves less chance for things to break or open!

And finally, my order there are 55 shadows, 6 samples, and 6 of the shadows were one of a kind "experiments". I know how some of you feel about receiving experiemnts but let me tell you something that sets this company apart from the rest of those that I have used...

Every single one of the experiments has an ingredients list on the back. Even though they were experimental, VIE made sure you still knew what was going on your face. Not a "May Contain" list that most experiments have, an ACTUAL list. Did VIE earn brownie points for this in my mind? Heck yes! I have NEVER seen a company do this far with experiments if they weren't to become real colors.

VIE Packaging grade: A+


The Products 

So, we all differ in opinion of color choices and such. So the first ones I am showing you are the above experimental ones as swatches. Other companies I had gotten "experiments" from were not anywhere as good as their usual products. I was a little worried when I saw experiments written on the bag, but hey, everything deserves a chance.

They do not have names, and I haven't had the creativity in the past 24 hours to name them yet. These colors are all beautiful, and I love them. This picture doesn't do some of them justice, trust me. They were just as good as all of VIE's other products. They went on smoothly, they were easy to apply, and took little to actually get this type of pigmentation. These were done over just a NYX eyeshadow pencil in milk, and applied with a clean q-tip, so I was impressed that they came out this bright without use of primer and such.

This is the best thing ever. Sifted Stickers. Prevents spillage in shipment, which makes me happy because that means I get more product to play with. These are the experiments, so they do not have colors names on them but behold:

All of VIE's None experimental colors have these little top stickers on them. These 3 colors are from the Goddesses Collection in case anyone falls in love at first sight with them. <3

When I applied the product to my face, there was little to no fallout on my cheeks. Loved that. Less clean up makes me happy. The colors themselves, even from different color groups blend together nicely. For example, this is my EOTD today:

These two colors are on my list of faves right now. The green is "Blow Me" and the purple is from my custom collection and is called "Heavens Mirror". They went on nicely and have lasted all day so far. I only used an NYX pencil to put them to the test so this is, again, without primer. I am again Impressed.

VIE's Product Rating: A


Customer Service

Here's the biggy. We all want to see stellar customer service out of Indie companies. I will be honest, my order was incorrect when I got it yesterday. I had ordered a custom collection with 6 colors: Noble Team, L'cie, Albion, Heavens Mirror, Assassin, and Subject Delta. Noble team was missing, but I had 2 jars of Subject Delta. I contact Jennifer Sherrodd right away about the mix up. She apologized right away and asked that I please check the rest of my order to make sure it was correct. I did, and told her this was the only error. She assured me that she would send out a replacement tomorrow, which would be today. I found this on my facebook moments ago:

So not only did she keep her promise of sending it today, she sent me a confirmation number to track it and informed me that she sent it priority. She went the extra mile to make sure I was happy. This speaks volumes to me about how dedicated she is as a business owner. Other companies where I received incorrect products I got the runaround, then was sent something I didn't want, was never sent anything, or was sent something sub-par.


VIE's Customer service grade: A

Overall: A- for AMAZINGLY AWESOME! <3 I will order again, and I will recommend VIE to anyone and everyone. Link to their FB fan page/shop is in the sidebar!


To finish this off, I sent Jennifer and asked her a few questions about her company, so here's what she said:

Q: What made you decide to make MMU?
A: This is a pretty generic answer, but honestly I was sick of spending so much money on eyeshadows so I decided to start making my own. I did a lot of research first and ended up buying the TKB Pop Color's kit to start making myself eyeshadows because I tend to go for really bright colors. I slowly started buying more ingredients and my friends caught onto what I was doing and wanted to try them too! So eventually I made a Facebook fan page and figured out how to go about selling my eyeshadows.

Q: Is there any meaning behind your company name?
A: Virus Insanity is a name I thought of when I was a teenager. I was full of angst and thought it sounded cool ;) It kind of stuck with me for a long time, and I wanted something kind of edgy for my eyeshadow line so I decided to use it.

Q: What is your goal as a company?
A: When I first started out, my goals were to make incredible colors that no one had ever seen before. Much more recently I've been concentrating on making sure I have great customer service because I honestly consider my customers to be friends. Eventually I would love for this to get big, I want VIE to be successful.

Q: To you, what is amazing customer service?
A: I would consider amazing customer service to be admitting your mistakes and making it right. Everyone messes up once in awhile. Occasionally I will forget a color or send the wrong color, I'm only human. Once I marked an international package as goods instead of a gift and the girl ended up having to spend nearly $23 to get her package. I immediately sent her the money through Paypal, no questions asked. If I forget a color or send the wrong color, I send out a package the next day (or as soon as possible) and include extras. I think that as a seller you have to live up to your mistakes, admit that you messed up, and fix it. The customer is always right, because as a small business owner my customers are EVERYTHING.

Q: Out of your product line, what are your favorite colors?
A: My all time favorite color is Becca-ecca! It's named after my best friend so it definitely has a soft spot in my heart! Becca's favorite color is suuuper bright green so I had to make a crazy lime color for her. Some other favorites of mine are Smoked Lilac, Mohawk, and Ocean Mystery. And another color I really love is Ferris Wheel, it's a hot pink with green iridescence and lime green glitter. For some reason it reminds me of pink puke, but in a really GOOD way!

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Love ya!

EDIT: A little disclaimer. I have become an Admin on the VIE page. Jennifer did not pay me for this interview, she didn't give me free product or any compensation at all besides a thank you after reading it. I bought from her before becoming admin in order to do a review, not imagining that she would ask me to be an admin on her fan page to help her out. I spent roughly $130 on all that you saw in the photos, and that was all I got. Jennifer also did not ask me to write this review, and did not know about it until I asked her to answer the above questions for my blog.