Not too long ago, MakeupSavvy  posted about an awesome offer from Klorane. The deal was, simply register and indicate your choice of product, and they'd send you a full sized shampoo and conditioner, absolutely free. Naturally, not having heard of this brand but thinking it was a good opportunity to test it out, I went for it.



The day afterwards, MakeupSavvy edited her post, saying that the brand had contacted her and told her the offer had changed. Now, it was a sample sized product they were giving away, and they weren't accepting any more applicants anyway.

I'm not sure there's another way a brand could have put me right off their products, permanently, any more forcefully. Contacting a beauty blogger to promote your products and giving her incorrect information...not on, at all. Brands wouldn't make this sort of huge mistake (assuming it wasn't deliberate) in their dealings with magazines, would they? So why isn't this sort of professionalism found in brand/blogger interactions?

Companies, bloggers aren't toys and they're not inferior to magazines. Klorane, your samples are going in the bin.

I'm sure regular readers know exactly how I feel about the revamped Sleek lipstick range (hint - if you don't, follow the link) but since my last lipstick post got such a good response (and I haven't even technically reviewed that one yet. Lol) I thought it was high time I properly sampled the new range for myself.


I'm sure you'll recognise 'Mystic' from my 'Prom Face' post - that's the colour I wore to my afterprom. Me, a lipstick virgin, wearing bright purple to afterprom...good times. The origin of 'Barely There' is a little more convoluted to explain...


I've been reading the lovely Shamini's blog for a while, and during my hunt for Sleek lippies on a slight discount, I read a post in which she'd won a Sleek competition and was happy to send the two colours she wasn't keen on to blog readers. But I misunderstood (typical) and was like, 'Blog sale? How much do you want for them?' She then explained in terms my simple mind could understand, and I was happy to pay postage but then she refused, posted it, and skipped the country (on holiday, lol. But still) This lovely woman paid postage for the lipstick all the way from Norway <3 an act that firmly placed her on my 'Things I love about Norway' list which was started in 2009 and currently consists of:
Alexander Rybak (ETERNAL crush on that man...stole my heart at Eurovision 2009)
Shamini

Subsequent amazing hosting of Eurovision 2010
Being so much classier when it comes to pretty much everything 

General Awesome
One of my Uncles lives there and his wife is Norwegian and she's really pretty and nice.



I digress. Back to the lipstick, lol. When I requested it, I didn't actually realise how light it was! Perhaps I was mentally still thinking of the old Sleek Lipstick range, in which I could have worn pretty much ANY shade and have it fit my skin tone. I like that this range has plenty of nudes and 'my lips but better' shades for those with lighter skin (which, I'll be fair here, the old range lacked that) but really dislike the fact that it has NONE for those that aren't, well, Caucasian.



The range only needed a little tweaking to be inclusive rather than exclusive which is what they've done - they've moved from what is essentially one extreme to the other, alienating those that propped them up for so many years (namely the Afro Hair and Beauty shops who have stocked Sleek since forever.) Would it have killed Sleek to leave the two brown shades in, while adding all the new ones? I still sound really angry about this. Read the post, it's kind of a masterpiece. *modest*

Even though a Sleek rep assured me that they'd be coming out with two brown ones later in the year, so far I've seen zilch and it really seems to me like it was just said to appease the angry blogger (me).


'Barely There' is part of their 'Sheen' finish range, which when these came out a few months ago, bloggers left right and centre (a suspicious amount of whom seemed to get the product free to review) were saying were really moisturising. I was hoping that they would be, because my lips really need the moisture...sadly, it wasn't to be. You'd think that I was applying a matte lipstick by how it looked on and how not-moisturising it was. Which was a bit of a bummer, as I personally didn't find the sheen lipsticks from their old range drying at all.



My lips weren't in the greatest condition when I applied it but I really needed to take it off, condition, exfoliate and reapply just as I would for a matte lipstick when I was taking these shots. Wasn't impressed.
Oh, no need to say that the colour is hideous on me. I dare the great Nicki Minaj to try and pull a lip colour THIS light off. Nope. Not possible.
It turns peach on me? Don't quite understand it, lol - it looks pink on everyone else and in the tube.

Luckily, I found a way (quite by accident) to make this work.



The photos are a bit crap, but work with me here.
By applying a layer of Miner's Lip Tint (cherry) beforehand (I really needed the moisture), the colour was altered into a far more flattering rose pink that is slightly darker than what you're seeing in the photo now.



I actually quite like it and wore it like this to drop off my application for a job as a lifeguard.

Anyone else tried this particular lipstick?

#rant
#profanity

This is soooo long overdue but I've been holding off on posting it in the hope that things may get better. Which they haven't. Last Sunday's chat had me hysterically clicking the 'block profile' button in the hope that all this spam would just go away from my timeline. I barely remembered to do this:

 I know that's not even correct grammar in the context of my sentence but I was that angry. That extra 'e' can go to hell.

I DON'T EVEN LIKE THIS SONG THE BOYBAND ARE SO DUMB AND THE DANCE IS RETARDED

OK. This has been going on since probably the second or third #bbloggers chat. I'm not going to printscreen any individual specifically but I'm so sick of how bang on nine o clock there is an influx of 'wow great chat here's my blog link hiimwastingbandwith@blogger.com'

FUCK OFF. GOD.

It is so incredibly rude just to sit there and be like 'Well, that was great. I'm going to shamelessly self promote myself at everyone else's expense now! *flips middle finger at other beauty bloggers*' especially as many of the main offenders don't even seem to take part in the actual discussion! Recently, there's even been a lot of 'Ah, I missed the chat! Oh well, here's my blog link.'
I know lots of people seem to think that it's 'alright' because there are so many fools doing it that it looks like the norm, but just because lots of people do it does not make it 'alright'. By whatever arbirtary concept 'alright' is. I'm defining it. Don't like it? I can recommend you some (good) K-pop. Nothing by the boyband you see above.

Just because the chat is officially over, doesn't mean people are done talking - the chat often continues for an hour or even two after the official end. #bbloggers encompasses people of many different time zones who may find it easier to join in the chat a little later than the majority and also want to talk to other #bbloggers. Is it really too much to ask to leave the link spamming out, so they too can enjoy a conversation? Same as for those who've been busy during the chat and wish to catch up. On the last chat before Fee gave up leadership of #bbloggers, I was away doing something which I can't even remember so it can't have been that good. The next morning, having been informed it was a SERIOUSLY juicy discussion, I went back to try and read it. After three pages of 'READ MY BLOG PLZ' Twitter kindly informed me that it couldn't go back any further. So I obtained absolutely no information about the chat whatsoever and had to get friends to recap it for me. And this was just the day afterwards, before the spam really had a chance to accumulate. Incredible.

If you're one of the tweeple that spams DURING the chat, I hope you tweet yourself to death. I don't think I even need to get started on the foolishness that goes into thinking that is going to get you any followers. Or friends. 



'Companies' (though truly, half of these barely deserve the term) can get lost as well. I'm all for cosmetic companies taking part in the chat, giving meaningful and interesting feedback, and generally getting stuck in - in fact, I love that. Brands like MUA Cosmetics and The Teacup Agency are present week after week and forge connections with bloggers while not blatantly advertising all over the hash tag. Then you get brands like (pictured) who clearly aren't interested in connecting with bloggers during the actual chat, rather using them for free content and promotion (see below).



Why the hell did anyone think this was a good marketing strategy? It cheapens your brand and makes you look desperate. Leave #bbloggers be...if you're looking for people to try out your product, go the old fashioned route and contact bloggers that you enjoy reading to try it out. That was at you, Youngblood. :) Next time you fancy creating rivalry and tension between bloggers, leave the innocent hashtag out of it. Ta.
I hope people think more of their blogs than to go for this sort of thing. Companies rock up and decide that the 'best beauty bloggers' are the ones who should feature them. OK...
The attitude that bloggers jump when companies say 'how high' and that we're automatically inferior, somehow, really pees me off. If you're a company moving into a different market or you're a new company trying to establish yourselves, don't expect bloggers to be all over you, just as new bloggers don't expect to be showered with free samples.


I thought the whole point of #bbloggers was to show us as a blogging community. So many people love and enjoy beauty blogging because of the sheer amount of interaction that we all have with each other, and the fact that we can all connect because we're doing something we love. #bbloggers has grown into a networking tool that allows the beauty community, established or brand new, to all talk with each other as the equals we are - so why are some people showing such basic disrespect towards a community that's so welcoming? If posting your URL in a comment on someone else's blog is widely frowned upon, why isn't this practice? On #bbloggers, as long as you have your blog linked in your Twitter profile, it is incredibly easy to find new (to you) bloggers and read their blogs without cluttering up the chat for everyone else with, "omg, need some bedtime reading material - send me your blogs! My blog is apieceofshit.com". If someone makes an interesting point during the chat or calms down some tension or even has an awesome screen name - investigate them! Look at their profile, look at their blog. I was under the impression that this was common knowledge but apparantly not.

It's similar to the 'sub for sub' thing going on over at YouTube. You suscribe to me, and I'll suscribe to you. Did we suscribe to each other because we like each other's content? No. Are we even interested in the other person's blog/channel? No. We did it just to boost the numbers. It's hollow and fake and when you see #bbloggers littered with 'Hi, I saw your blog on #bbloggers and I really like it! Here's mine.' then you can't help but feel it's going the same way. Which is a real shame.

Wow, that was an angry post. Have some hot Korean men for your time.

Source: fuckyeahleejoon.tumblr

OK, so as we all must be aware by now, you can currently pick up a bottle of Nails Inc polish with a purchase of Coke, "chocolate" (quote marks because Cadburys is foul and can be barely considered such) Malibu, Dove deoderant, Fabulous magazines, shares in Waitrose, a fake greencard and any two Romanian orphans. Nails Inc are currently everywhere in one of the more agressive marketing strategies that the beauty blogging world has seen. And I love it.

I scroll down my Twitter timeline and see one or two beauty bloggers turned economists debating how on earth Nails Inc can possibly be making any money whatsoever. Well, er...isn't it obvious? Agressive promotion (in which case is giving the polish away with like, oxygen) = more people knowing about and being familiar with the brand. Which translates into increased sales. I actually saw one blogger write a post on the topic and then say, 'I don't even consider Nails Inc high end any more'. Sorry, it's not what you consider a brand that makes it so. If I regard Burberry as low end that suddenly doesn't mean that I won't have to save up my pocket money for a year to buy half a lipstick. Likewise, saying that E.L.F is high end doesn't change the fact that you can get eyeshadow quads for like a quid. Not really sure where she was trying to go with that.

I do think that we in the beauty blogging world do forget sometimes that not everyone can name all the shades of the latest OPI collection or recite a list of MAC shadows from memory. To the average Joanna, who hasn't been exposed to all of the freebies and doesn't really pay attention to what's hot, new shades and trends, who hasn't been over saturated with the news of endless offers and freebies, it's just a chance to pick up a nail polish with a deoderant that they already buy. Or a Coke they were having for lunch anyway. Or the paper they already bought on Sundays. From that, they've been exposed to a brand that may have been new to them and Nails Inc have just earned themselves a new customer. Or not, whatever.

This isn't a rant as such as I'm not personally invested in Nails Inc, but I'm just more confused at why people are so opposed to them promoting their product. Is it the oversaturation thing? (i.e people seeing it everywhere, and then getting sick of it) or are people pissed because they used Nails Inc before they became easily accessible to the masses and now don't feel exclusive any more? I personally don't understand this one, I too used Nails Inc before I could buy a farm animal and get a free Nails Inc polish in 'Milkmaid' (sheer sky blue jelly with large pieces of hexagonal black glitter) and I'm not annoyed. Maybe it's just me. Someone care to explain?

In other news, can I send things like Posietint/Benetint overseas? Because they look like nail polish (but aren't) but if the big burly men at USPS who dislike nail polish immensly pick up on it, I don't want to be slapped with an $800 fine for a swap or a giveaway. Any help would be appreciated!

TOO MUCH ANGER, NOT ENOUGH VICTIMS

Superdrug Beauty Card. 

 I was just chilling in my local Superdrug (buying nail polish, naturally) when we were accosted by about three shop assistants at the same time, each brandishing this card. I came in for it anyway, so I took one and read the leaflet. It's currently languishing at the bottom of my bag because I couldn't even be arsed to take a photograph.
One "point" = one penny. Contrast with Boots, who do four points per pound (though they do have a very generous scheme, to be fair...)

You can only redeem once you get to one hundred points.
100 points = 1 pound
You get a point per pound, ordinarily (unless they're doing a special promotion) So to get a quid back, on average, you'd spend £100. And surrender all the intimate personal and contact details of your life for the privilege.

 ...

I don't have time for this.

Thanks, observant company.

Noticed another blogger has possibly borrowed my "Sleek Week" Twitter promotional term for her own series. Which was retweeted and blogged about by Sleek. Thanks, guys. Not that you reply to my emails or anything...not even to the ones that YOU sent ME...

rage.

In honour of the #bbloggers discussion last night...

Recently, more and more brands (British ones, especially) have been beginning to interact with the consumer and blogging world via. social networking - Facebook, Twitter and the like.This is good - it makes customers feel more connected with the brand, gives a platform on which enquiries and complaints can be answered (unless you're Sleek) and I'm just plain more likely to buy from a brand that I know more about.

Unfortunately, this seems to have opened the door for sheer ignorance like this:

And this:

Nothing else I can say to this.

I don't even know why you'd advertise the fact you were reselling a company's products ON THEIR OWN PAGE. WTF. That...words cannot comprehend...

The finest in ghetto ass behaviour



et finalement



Ignore my piss poor photo editing and focus on the matter at hand :P

Honestly. Really? You want to publically beg? You don't see anything wrong with that?

At least, if you're going to be too cheap to buy from a line where everything is a pound, do your research first. A company that sells only in the UK and Ireland, and I mean only in the UK and Ireland, for example, is not going to be interested in sponsoring a US vlogger. That doesn't make any sense. If a customer from the US can't physically order, then why would you market to that consumer base via YouTubers? If a brand already has a program directed at makeup artists, why would you not try and enter through that channel instead of making yourself look unprofessional by begging on Facebook. Someone, please explain to me because I can't even comprehend this, on a thousand different levels.

Why should I care? Because it doesn't just reflect badly on the blogger, it makes all of us look bad. It feeds into the stereotype that beauty bloggers are grasping, cheapasses who are stealing money from print media and are unprofessional. Yes, the stereotype is highly undeserved, but it doesn't help when people behave like this and vindicate journalists and magazine editors who think this way about bloggers. If you've got to do it, at least take it to email? 

As soon as a brand becomes reasonably 'talked about', you get a million and one harpies harrasing their Facebook and Twitter looking for free swag, or to obtain free swag by posting swatches or a review of the cheapest product in the line and then spamming the PR rep with it as if to say "Oooh, look at me. Aren't I such a good customer? SUBSIDISE MY FUTURE SHOPPING TRIPS."

Don't even get me started on the fools that can't type correctly.

Shame that a ranty post was required to bring me out of hiatus, but eh. I enjoy releasing pent up exam frustration through the medium of text. I have like five rants lined up so be prepared for anger.

 Schedueled Post! (look, I can't spell schedueled, OK?)

http://clickandmake-up.blogspot.com/2011/03/mini-mua-haul-swatches-2.html

Waiiii. There are MUA eyebrow pencils available? Why aren't they on the website? Or in my Superdrug? Raaaaaaaaage.

I believe that this post from Lolaatittude (French and English) sums it up /perfectly/.

There's actually nothing else I have to add, really - she covers it all. Who is this blogging authority who decides when we can and cannot blog? Who criticises others for not following this bizarre imposed doctrine? Clearly, I've missed something. Japan doesn't care about a few less nail polish posts on the interwebs on one day. It does care about donations and prayers.

I felt it was high time for another "It's Half Twelve..."esque rant, but without the grouping because to tell you the truth, I'm running out of ideas :P I just thought I'd float some ideas around. It's not a personal attack on anyone in particular - if I was legitimately pissed off about something, believe me, I'd say. But there are some things that I've noticed that make me just pause and go, "O_o" and I was wondering if any of you guys had noticed the same sort of thing?

This is all rather disjointed with no real flow or continuity, so do bear with me.

Revenge of the Blogger/Bandwagons, thou must join it

Slightly misleading title there because revenge implies that you personally have been wronged in some way.
I don't know if many of my readers are interested in the mineral makeup community but there's been some problems lately with companies repackaging and potentially (and in one case actually) endangering their customers. Google Glittersniffer if you want to know more about it. You'll probably find the other companies once you dig a little deeper.

Anyway, this is obviously highly upsetting and shocking to former fans of the companies involved or those that may have used their products/given them away to friends and family. There are also some really influential bloggers in the MM community (everyone probably knows who they are) that spend lots of their own money trying out new products from indie companies and I personally enjoy reading their reflections and thoughts on the matter, articulated in a cool and reasonable way.

I do kinda feel that it's unnecessary for someone who's never ever tried the products of these companies and has no personal connection to them to be blindly ranting and raving based on a couple of skim read posts. That's just my opinion. (Please don't hesistate to disagree - as always, anon is on if you prefer that.)
Slightly off topic, but phoning and harrassing people (YouTube gurus) in real life based on percieved wrongs on the internet that have nothing to do with you is pretty horrendous too. I don't understand that at all.

Fake Giveaways.

This stuff really annoys me. It's become popular to have people jump through loads of hoops to enter/recieve more entries to a giveaway - (you have to follow me on Twitter/Tumblr/like me on Facebook/read my LUUUX post and then you have to link me and blog about it, read through x number of posts and tell me your favourite look/design etc) and while there's nothing wrong with this, in my opinion (you've paid for the goodies, you get people to do what you want and if the worst comes to the worst, they can just not enter) I find it really rude for someone to just /abandon/ their blog immediately after the giveaway date has ended and never pick a winner or to simply act like the giveaway never happened and enjoy the new followers in the GFC box. Seriously, that's so disrespectful. Fulfilling your a million and one requirements to enter used up my time, so the least I'd expect is for you to keep your side of the bargain, as well. Fair? Or no?
I've interacted with commentors on my blog who have had a blog which I have followed in turn, and entered contests (nail art or giveaways) only to find they simply drop and run and don't update after that or pretend the giveaway never happened.
I have a nasty feeling a certain giveaway that's going on right now will end like this - the prizes seem far too generous and good to be true...

The Issue of Blog Photos

I do feel like one of the things that sets blogs apart from magazines is the fact that magazines use stock photos and talk about the product whereas bloggers will show you the product, swatch it, maybe show you a couple of nail designs they've done with it as well as talking about the product. That's where the sense of "realness" comes from - the connection between reader and blogger, which magazines don't really seem to share.

If you've got a very sucessful blog, you recieve lots of things to review free but you never post your nails/eyes of the day/face of the day and you only use stock photos, I will regard your blog as more of a magazine and less of a blog, and...put less value on your opinion, if that makes sense. Does that sound harsh? I don't know. At the moment, there's not that much of a problem - both sides know where they stand.

However, when a company invites you to a launch or whatever and you're the only UK blogger covering this, but you take only one or two (blurry) pictures of the products, this becomes somewhat of a problem. If the reader can't clearly see the product or what the launch was like, they're automatically going to become less interested in what you have to say. Since I'm rubbish at French and have forgotten a lot of my Spanish, there are not many other places where I can learn about the company. So I'll just give up. I see that as a wasted opportunity on the company's part, to be honest. When it comes down to it, magazines can hire photographer to cover events, but a hybrid can't do it that effectively. Is it wrong to expect a very successful blog to have some basic skills with a camera? I'm not imploring that everyone should own a DSLR (god no, in fact - those things are expensive) but just learning how to use it makes such a difference. Anyway, my own pictures are still quite bad so I can't talk.



Sense of Entitlement?

I don't follow many people on Twitter at all, or other social networking mediums (save Google Friend Connect) but I have seen a huuuuuge amount of pressage over certain bloggers getting sent collections and others not. I find it quite pathetic, to be honest. It all sort of came to a head after this new Illamasqua launch with some people feeling that they should have recieved product/launch invites (if they were located in the UK) as well as some other bloggers. Tell me, why do you feel entitled to this? Like seriously, explain. Companies aren't charities and they're not communist states, either. Should everyone with x number of followers automatically recieve free stuff? Perhaps they looked at your blog and disliked your writing style, or the style of makeup you do doesn't fit the brand image or whatever. Perhaps you've just flown under their radar - but surely all whining about it is going to do is make you look bad? I don't know. Enlighten me, anyone?

As always, feel free to disagree with my opinion.

Le continuation. Yes, you can tell I'm failing my French GCSE :P

I had quite a few lovely comments on the last post, which were incredibly informative and expressed what I was trying to express, but far more coherently. Henceforth, I thought I'd add a couple here and use them to expand my points. If you'd rather I didn't, please just comment/email me and I'll remove it!

From Jaljen:
"Love me, love me now blogs? Nah. There's one high-profile one (whom I shall not name) who has excellent nail swatches (Eastern European may narrow it down a bit) but does rather use her blog as a way of eliciting sympathy/outpourings of "Ah, you poor diddums....". I got sucked in until it got old."

Which provides a nice lead to discuss...

The "Sympathy pl0x" blogger

The type that's complaining about her personal life in every other post. I don't mean like a one off, or even once a week. Most people think nothing of feeling sympathetic towards someone who's going through a rough patch. But there's a difference between doing that, and attention whoring. You know who you are -.-

The "Forever left out" blogger.

The type that always complains on Twitter/Facebook about everyone having been sent a new product to try but herself, or everyone recieving an invite to an event but herself. That sort of thing. I'm sitting here thinking that if PR companies are planning to go down that route, surely they'd have to invite everyone?
Perhaps you don't have as many followers as the other people that have been invited. Maybe your blog doesn't appeal to the PR company. Ultimately, there's no obligation for them to invite you to anything. Focus on improving your blog so that they will, if you're that bothered about it.

Ulmiel also mentioned about people following just for giveaways, which I'll expand to discuss:

The "Ten updates a day, and nine are giveaway notifications" blogger.

I'm going to admit, I was guilty of this back in the day before I realised one could have more than one link in a post and it was fairly easy to group giveaways into one monthly post. But it just gets annoying when you check your dashboards and find all these giveaway notifications from the same blogger. There's nothing wrong with entering multiple giveaways, but just have them all in one post!

Ditto on sidebars, they don't annoy me at all.

The "I'm an insider, and that makes me better than you" blogger.

There are a couple lurking around the UK blogging scene in particular - crossovers from working in fashion or magazines (that's all we know. We're not told that much more) who suspiciously fail at using cameras or describing colours in much depth but often do posts on how PRs feel about bloggers and the inside workings of the industry. I don't know what's true and what is exaggerated, but I just find certain bloggers referring to the rest of the blogging world as if they don't belong to it quite amusing.

Thanks so much for the discussion on the last post, guys. It was so interesting to read!

I don't want to do my RE homework, OK? Lol.

Since everyone seems to be addressing this today...I don't usually get the oppurtunity to really have a discussion with most of my followers. Like, a really opinionated one aside from, "This polish is absolute crap/ambrosia for the fingernails". So I basically just thought I'd detail a few thoughts out here and then see how many people agree/disagree. Please do comment with whatever you think! As far as I know anonymous comments are enabled, so if you'd rather comment in that form, go ahead.

The "PR Companies, love me!" blogger

Now there's nothing wrong with wanting to obtain free stuff. Free stuff is awesome, really. But when you've only got, I don't know, twenty followers, and you're all over the facebook/twitter/social networking page of that company trying to get free product, it's a little unclassy. It just makes you look like a bumlicker, basically, and it's most likely going to devalue other people's opinion of you. Though props for having the balls to ask for free product to review. I couldn't, lol. Still, if that's what floats your boat, you do that. Same for those who have say, had a blog open for about six months, and have only reviewed samples sent for consideration in about four months. Part of the reason myself and other people enjoy reading blogs is because the products are purchased (or sent, whatever) by people who have the same interests, and we enjoy reading their opinions. If I wanted to read about products that had been sent, I'd pick up a magazine or something. It's pretty obvious which blogs are the ones that are in it for the free shit, and I'm cool with those. I'll look at the pretty pictures, but I won't take the content seriously.

The "Stock Pictures Only" blogger

I'm not demanding that everyone is a prodigy with a camera - I freely admit that my nail swatches are poor. They were poorer when I began blogging, and I really truly thank everyone who has stuck with my uncleaned cuticles and fugly application since those early days *shudder* but they're slightly better now. Blogging helps you improve, I think. Honestly, I'd rather see a load of completely colour incorrect, smudgy, over exposed swatches than a PR picture (of a colour cosmetic. I don't mind with like foundations and suchlike). At least that blogger has made an effort...if you've just stuck a PR picture into the post, what's to prove you're even reviewing the actual product? It just smacks of laziness for me.
Then again, I may well be biased, seeing as my swatches are crapola. *nervous giggle*

The "Moar wuv, please" blogger

So you have more followers than nearly everyone else blogging in this country and yet you still feel the need to repost the link to your latest article every hour because five comments in twenty minutes isn't enough for you?
Oh, OK then.

The "Popular trendz Xtremezz!" blogger

Bashing whatever the media wants to bash, but taken to the extreme. Take the case of that Kenneth Wong dude on twitter spouting his pro-anorexic nonsense. One blogger goes completely over the top and feels the need to insult and humiliate thin women while simultaenously judging those who would do the same to larger women. The hypocrisy is insane, truly.
Naturally, when you call them out on it it's the standard "don't like it, don't read it." No, I'll just unfollow. And then a few minutes later you're on Twitter again, crying about how your latest post just lost you x amount of followers. No shit!

I'll probably make a part two to this if the response is good. Must. Get. Back. To. Crappy. And. Boring. Homework.

The fuckery continues!

NOTE: If you want a recap of the original incident, please click here to read up on it. It's been covered by several other bloggers as well, most notably Anastasia at Lipsticks and Lightsabers.

So for the past fifteen days I've been under the impression that my Sleek order has been dispatched and is winging it's way to me, albeit incredibly fucking slowly. When I log into my account on the website, it has my order written there all legit looking, the money has been taken from my account and I've reimbursed father dearest for the colossal amount I spent (yes, even with the 50% off sale). In fact, I'd conversed with the General Manager of Sleek MakeUp, over a second, different order which had mysteriously appeared in my "Open Orders" tab about a week after the incident, which he cancelled for me. That would have been a great time to say, "Oh Lena, by the way, your order is rotting in cyberspace right now." At least give me a bit of heads up and a refund so I can blow my money at Superdrug as they're doing 3 for 2 on cosmetics right now.

Even the parcel I ordered from Hong Kong for about a quid, free postage, got to me earlier than fifteen days, let alone a domestic parcel for which I've actually paid for shipping. I'd actually been contemplating contacting Sleek about the whereabouts of my products, but I cut them some slack, though, aware that there must be a backlog or some shit with the sale.
So I'm just chillin' on Facebook, excited over the fact we have a five day weekend (two INSET days at my school, fuck yeah) and whatnot, and I notice Sleek have got a new note up. Good job that they put it up late at night so it would fly under the radar because what I read next basically made me want to throw a cute baby animal into my monitor.

"Unfortunately if you have not received the email indicated above we will not be able to process your order."
What is this.

Your website has acknowleged that my order is valid. The credit card company has acknowleged that my order is valid. My savings jar is weeping because that order is valid. So where's my email?
Perhaps I'm not understanding this correctly, because this email was longass and incredibly confusing.

"Some of you would have received an email from our General Manager Saif Pathan within the few hours (Please check your Junk Mail also).   This email confirmed that your order was successful and your items have or will be dispatched shortly.  This email has been addressed specifically to customers who have paid by PayPal, placed an order on the website on the 11th or 12th of November where the payment was not rejected initially or subsequently."

Cool story bro! I didn't pay by PayPal. I paid by your Sagewhatever it is. I didn't recieve an email, but because your website said my order was fine, and the money had been taken from my account, and none of you said anything to the contrary at the time, or posted this I dunno, two weeks earlier, I'd thought I was done and dusted. Silly me!
Oh, and I asked on your website before the sale began whether you accepted PayPal, and you said you didn't. So how is everyone managing to pay by PayPal? It would have saved me a lot of hassle, let me tell you.

But apparantly, it's all OK because I still have my money. Wait, I wasn't aware that I still had my money. Explain this to me, Sleek.

"A few of you are concerned that money may have been taken out of your account but that we are saying you have not paid for your goods.  To explain, when an order is placed on the website no money is taken until your goods are dispatched and invoiced."

What a great system! Until you read on.

"We only began doing this on Thursday 18th of November."
Well that's fucking amazing, Sleek. But I ordered on the 11th, you know, when you held the SALE IN FUCKING QUESTION. So what was the point in even writing that? Save some pixels and stop trying to make yourself look good.
The bit that we're concerned with is this:

"However our payment system providers SagePay do have the ability to reserve funds for up to 30 days"
So these people have the right to hold onto my money for a month, during the Christmas period when I, miss broke student, have things to buy for people. And at the end of it, I don't get my products. w0t a Gr8 sistem! U guize R sooooo clevaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!1111!!!!11

What irks me the most is the lack of personal contact, and I don't mean a rushed Twitter message. A mass email informing everyone of the situation isn't so hard to do now, is it? Judging by the amount of spam that I recieve...
It's the unspoken assumption that everyone logs onto the Sleek MakeUp Facebook page daily. Hell, I stumbled on it by chance - it wasn't even in my newsfeed. An email, just repeating what they said in the note, would have done wonders, and even better would have been an email to everyone detailing where exactly they stood, order wise, and their website to be updated or something so that it doesn't "mislead" people.
 
I'm taking my sarcastic bitchface mask off, now, and putting it on my desk. Sleek do acknowlege their fail.

"Initially we received updates of what payments had been successful however this turned out to be not entirely accurate we received this confirmation of errors some 5 days after the sale had ended...I know there has been a lot of frustration expressed (and quite rightly so) as a result of our delayed response in getting back to you regarding the status of your order and dispatch dates and we can only apologise again for the delay.  As our server struggled to cope with traffic and transactions the information it was sending to our payment provider was skewed and we have had to wait for over a week to receive accurate information."

Thank you. Consumers need more of this, please, and less of tweets about pizza that you "deserve" and cheesecake.
And Sleek generously offer us a chance to partake in the sale - again - :

"For those of you that still wish to benefit from this offer we are putting things into place so that everyone who contacted us by email regarding attempted orders but were unable to buy successfully will be sent an individual one time only 50% off discount code."

Thanks again! This sounds like a great idea! Only:

"Since the sale the expected pre-xmas order rate has come through the website"
That and:
"The distribution of these codes will be staggered and this process will not begin until after at least 14 days."
Makes it all a tad moot, actually.
So Sleek have unwittingly mentioned that orders have spiked for their cosmetics as Christmas presents and the like, which means that they're going to be facing increased orders/work anyway, and we're not going to get this new code until at least after fourteen days - well into the Christmas shopping period. So the website is going to be busy and they're going to be rushed off their feet dispatching orders. Who's to say the same thing won't happen again? It's likely that we won't get any products (using this system) ordered until well after Christmas. Which sucks if you wanted to give some away as Christmas presents.  Which sucks if you wanted to purchase the limited edition Good Girl, which most likely won't be in stock by the time this second promotion rolls around. Which sucks if you just wanted look pretty for the Christmas parties. Which sucks if you wanted some, like me, to give away to your readers who don't live in the UK and don't have easy access to Sleek, so that they'd fall in love with Sleek products too, so much that they might even contemplate paying thirteen fucking dollars for postage outside the Eurozone.

The situation sucks all around, basically, for everyone.



EDIT: I appreciate that the staff are trying to do all they can to rectify the situation, it's not a personal attack on anyone. This probably sounds like an incredibly bitchy post but right now, I've got no product, no money and no giveaway, which is why it sounds like it does.

So the Government cuts meant that they've stopped producing NI (National Insurance cards, for those that don't know what this is - basically, you get one when you're sixteen or just about to turn sixteen and it means you pay tax on your earnings and...stuff) cards. They sent me one a couple of weeks back but /butchered/ my middle name (and did the same thing to another friend of mine with a foreign middle name, clearly this is a conspiracy) so we sent it back, not realising that we wouldn't get it back. They reply with the information above and a paltry letter with a serial number on it. A letter. Yes, for real. I don't want a bloody letter. I want a card! *incoherent ranting*

No but seriously we rang them up, begged, pleaded and offered to pay ourselves. No, the original card has been destroyed. No sorry, you can't buy one. No, there is no way we can help you. Yes, this is an 0800 phone number.

I may well be coming off as a petulant teenager but it actually meant something to me :(

On the plus side, yey half term.

I'd swap my half term for an NI card though.

Blogging while you're angry. Don't do it, guys.

Seriously, since Scandalous Ange is oh so desperate for the commenter "hmm" to reveal herself, here I am.

I really respect/respected her and her blog. She's witty and amusing and generally a good read, as are the rest of the Wicked Vixens. I used to comment a lot on her swatches etc. and actually quite admired her. (infact, she's actually on my blogroll)
 Today (Sunday) I saw the post she'd written which I've linked to above. The post does not bother me, at all. What she wrote after it does. This was my comment:

"I have no issue with this post but I do take issue with you wishing Afghanistan and Iraq to be turned into "craters" and expressing a wish to a return to the destruction of Hiroshima.

"I want this shit settled. And if it means nothing but a goddamn crater left, then so be it."
"If it were up to me, I'd be blowing a hell of a lot more shit up and getting this shit DONE. I miss the days back in WWII, back when America wasn't afraid to FUCK SHIT UP"
I love your respect for, you know, humanity in general, other nations, etc. /scarcasm. You're against the deaths of American soldiers but for the annihilation of entire nations of (non American) people? Shame on you."

I recieved abuse after that but you know, I spoke my mind. Check it out if you want guys. I'm not calling for anyone to stop following her blog because it's still very entertaining and informative, or to call her out over this. This is just a cautionary tale - be careful what you say on the interwebz.


I'm done here.