Indie nail polishes have taken over the nail polish world at the moment. They have given us what we want...lots of holographics and glitter galore.
I have LOVED all these new polishes hitting the market and flooding my polish drawers with their sparkly goodness.
But not everybody should be making polish, and after a long hard think I've decided to rant about one Etsy brand: Rockstar Nails.
Her glitter range looks to DIE for in the photos and in real life they are wonderful to look at...in the bottle. The application is another matter but even that can be forgiven if the colors are FAB.
I purchased 3 colors: With Love, Mardi Gras and Night Sky.
With Love.
Huge hearts in my fav color combo of black red and white? Yes please!
BUT the black glitter bleeds. I redid my nails to get rid of most of it but you can still see some black smudging on the side of my middle fingernail.
VERY careful placement of each heart was needed so that the black hexagons didn't smear. I've seen the same thing in other bloggers photos of this color, so I know my bottle is not a one off.
Mardi Gras.
I did really like this one, even tho the glitter curled and wouldn't sit flat. I think the term is 'Taco' glitter! Even with 3 coats of Seche Vite, my nails were high and bumpy which drove me insane.
Night Sky.
As you can see, it arrived broken. The silver moons in the glitter had bled clear, and were curled and horrible. The pointy bits on the stars were curling. The polish was impossible to apply with all that curled up moon glitter.
After all of the formula annoyances I was still OK. I never mentioned the broken bottle to Erica. They were all wrapped well and I didn't feel it was her problem to deal with.
BUT.....
When I emailed to nicely let her know that she had better check her Night Sky bottles as the moon glitter in mine was faulty, I wasn't satisfied with the follow up service.
I know for a fact that any other seller, and any standard procedure for customer service, would have been to immediately offer a refund or to replace the bottle.
But she didn't.
Firstly, she asked for the bottle to be returned. I pointed out that 1): Airmail from Australia to the USA was going to cost $10.50, and was she willing to pay that for a $10 faulty bottle of polish THEN refund me the bottle price as well?
And 2): It is now against Customs laws for Australians to ship out nail polish Internationally. Especially a broken bottle.
After several emails back and fro she finally asked for
photos to back up my claim and THEN after that we will talk about refunding. I didn't respond to the photos request, I felt absolutely no need at all having to justifiably do this.
And I was extremely insulted at the veiled insinuation that I was lying.
The above responses was AFTER she was told by me that I write this blog, so obviously not refunding somebody $10 is MUCH more important than having that person tell over 3,5000 people she is not happy with your product.
As I said at the start, most Indie polishes are fantastic. But we all need to remember that just because you can thrown some glitter into a clear base does not make you a nail polish cook extraordinaire.
The average price for an Indie made polish is $8- $10. This price is an above normal price, in most cases it is
above the price bracket of a proven quality and well established, Internationally sold brand. It is actually of the utmost IMPORTANCE that the quality of a polish of this dollar amount MATCHES these other proven brands.
Indie cooks also need to realise that just because you think your product is da' bomb, it may just not be the case. If something is lacking or faulty and you get told about it, you guys need to make changes to the formulas and make sure you refund for faulty bottles. If it means contacting all the previous customers who brought from that color line and refunding, then you need to do it.
Because if you don't, consumers who know their product, just like me, will not make a second purchase from you and your business/side hobby will not survive. Guaranteed.
And consumers, just like me, often have a blog.
Am I the only one who thinks this is shocking customer service? Or am I over-reacting?
