Friday, June 10, 2011

Neons Round 2/Fantastic Faces

DING DING DING


I was trying to be fair and give this company a chance to correct their mistakes of selling neon eye shadows, not listing ingredients and flat out refusing to tell customers what was in the stuff she is selling. Which BTW in the US there are NO approved neon eye shadows in case there is a question about that. Now that this company has decided to cancel my order, ignore a message I sent them, refuse help I offered in talking in IM, ban me from their fan page, and then continues to offer the neon shadows. She is calling people out on her fan page that have only asked questions about the safety of using the neons, offered her help, and even those who have only clicked like on a comment. I am beyond trying to be helpful and feeling sorry for her. Yes I felt sorry for her because I saw comments being posted that could have been sent to her privately first. I know if it were me and I had a bunch of people coming at me all at once in not such a calm manner I would get defensive. It is human nature that when you feel attacked that you put up a defense. I am not saying hers was the best defense strategy by any means, each of us handle things differently that's for sure. Just put yourself in her shoes for a minute and think how you would feel in the situation. Don't kill me yet, I am just trying to get why I was sympathetic across. Like I stated above I have since seen things that have made me change my decision to not name the company.
Since the company asks that their pictures not be used without their permission I will honor that. I will instead try to link you to where you can see these pictures for yourselves. Since I am banned from her page it may prove to be difficult. So here we go...


This is a company that by the owners own statement launched in March 2011
She has a fan base of a little over 400 on her page which you can find here. It seems her fans strive for the boldest brightest colors you can get your hands on. Which in itself is not a bad thing. I have heard a lot of complaints made from people about the lingo or text talk the owner and fans use, to me it just represents the targeted fan base the owner has. I know the bad grammar and the lingo can turn some off from purchasing. While it is not my thing, honestly if a product is good does it really matter what lingo a seller uses? I mean if a seller is happy with a certain type of fan base and doesn't care if that fan base is expanded or not more power to them.

The next thing I want to touch on is the lack of customer service. The owner refuses to disclose the product ingredients to customers, which BTW is against the law. When asked her response was it is just mica.

Now knowing what I know about makeup I know without a base mica has very little staying power. I also know that on an ingredients list from a supplier it doesn't just say mica. 

I don't claim to know everything about formulating cosmetics, I don't have to because I only buy it not make it. Given the last 6 months of my life I would like to think I know enough to call bullshit when I read it. 

Numerous times this owner has stated her neons are 100% safe for eye use. Well I am here to tell you they aren't and at least 1 of those neons she is claiming is eye safe is not. I have dug and dug to find the supplier that Fantastic Faces uses for her neons. I with 99% certainty have found that supplier. I sadly will tell you that the supplier is indeed selling most of their neons as eye safe. Others just state they are cosmetic safe, which as a responsible seller this should be researched to make certain what it is and isn't safe for. 

This is an Ebay seller that is located in New York right here in the US. So this supplier should know the FDA guidelines since they are selling here in the US to companies who are in turn selling these products either as is or in some way to their customers right? Now I can also tell you that on a few of those neons that are now listed as for cosmetic use their descriptions have been changed at some point. So is it possible that the owner of Fantastic Faces unknowingly bought unsafe products? YES it is possible at first she may have, but as she has bought since revisions were made to the listing of at least 1 of those neons she is just as liable as the supplier. 


This shows that the seller revised the description of the neon red in the listing on May 10,2011. I also know that a friend messaged this seller in regards to this pigment being eye safe and was told no it was not.

I have also messaged this seller and have not received a response back yet.

Now I know people are going to ask how is it I think I know the supplier so let me give you what I have found thus far.

These are the colors listed as neons from the Ebay seller which you can find their store by clicking here. If you click here you can see just how similar Fantastic Faces neons are to those listed on the Ebay link. if you click here you can see the neons in action. (Once again she has asked on her fan page and on her shop site that the pictures there not be used so I am honoring that.) Not to mention that the owner of Fantastic Faces Stephanie is an Ebay user and has purchased from this same Ebay store.

Notice that the seller leaving her feedback is the same Ebay seller I have been mentioning. Now let me show you where she has made purchases for the neons.

I'm not going to link you to every single transaction made between these 2 people it would take too long, but I will link you to where to look for yourselves just click here. I also encourage you to look at the actual listing for their neons for yourselves to see that there are some listed as eye safe, you can do that by clicking here.

I am not proud of some of my actions surrounding this whole situation, and I have apologized to the owner of Fantastic Faces in an email. I placed an order with this company so that I could see the labeling on the products, in doing that I was not completely honest with her.



After this email I placed an order for the set of 6 (3gr) neons for $30 and a pot of lipgloss for $8. With shipping it came to $41.50. Ouch that price is steep and normally I wouldn't even think to pay that much for something I would use let along something I knew I would not put on my eyes. Luckily there were a few awesome women who donated to help pay for the order in hopes we would now know ingredients if there were labels on the jars, which there should be. After watching people talk about the owner and me finding the supplier issues I decided that I needed to come clean with her as to who I was and offer her help and show her what I had discovered. Yes there had already been people sincerely try to offer help by messaging her or posting links to FDA regulations on her wall, and I am very proud to call those ladies friends. But like I stated before when you have numerous people coming at you from all sides and some of them in not such a helpful manner you feel attacked and ganged up on. The owner put her wall up and defense mode appeared.
 The message that was copied and pasted was the one I posted above where a friend had messaged the Ebay seller.

Shortly after sending that message to the owner I received a friend request on Facebook and I accepted thinking that she was wanting to talk about the email and accept my help. Sadly that was not the case. In a conversation on chat she let me know that I would be refunded, that my email was drama, she wouldn't tell me her supplier, that she thought I was petty. I continued to apologize and tell her I was not trying to do anything but help her, and was told to drop it.

So I get up today to being deleted and banned from her fan page, along with her posting on her fan page the names of people she has banned from her fan page. I understand being upset, angry and many other emotions over everything happening, but to post the names of people she is banning, name call, and encourage her fans to do likewise is completely unprofessional.

I could sit all night and post screen shots of all the unprofessional things that have happened in the last few days on that fan page but do I really need to? I have shown the lack of research, lack of following FDA guidelines, lack of professionalism by the owner of Fantastic Faces. I have shown that the Ebay seller is selling products that are unsafe and not following FDA guidelines by doing as much, also their lack of response to my message to them about the neons. Before I end this post though I am going to give you one last link to look at, I will not post any of the pictures from this link due to privacy issues. If you would like to look for yourself you may do so by clicking here.

I am going to close this post now with a few thoughts. Just because a seller is selling things you know are not safe doesn't mean they are doing it intentionally. It is very possible that they are not being given the truth by a supplier. There are some very established companies who have encountered this very issue and still are going strong. As easy as it is to jump to conclusions try to give someone the benefit of doubt before jumping on the mob bandwagon. Lastly kindness goes a long way, it should always be your first reaction.

Please be respectful while leaving comments



Peace, Love and Cupcakes
All opinions posted here are my own.

28 comments:

  1. Well thought out.
    Well written.
    Terrifically researched... Great job!

    I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon, but I wanted answers like you did. To me, the sheer lack of respect and elementary-school name calling was all I needed to finally say "Done.".

    And super job on tracking the supplier/purchases too... Sneaky sneaky ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Snarky. I just hope that something good can come from all of this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. *crosses Fantastic Faces off of her list of Indie companies to support*

    Thank you for this. I am entirely new to the Indie Cosmetics scene so it's posts like this that I hope to see before I make a decision to invest in something like this.

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  4. ShinkenRed thank you for taking the time to read my post. I can promise you there are many good indie companies out there, don't give up on finding them.

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  5. I won't Christie. I'm in talks with Geek Chic to get some review samples and I know just as soon as I get a job, I will be looking at Morgana's Cryptoria, Shiro Cosmetics, and a few others I've seen reviewed on blogs like these. :)

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  6. Aside from the ingredient issue, and the behavior issue, and the lack of customer service. This company has a folder on her fan page with pictures of her "lab". In that folder there are no pictures of any "lab" at all. No pictures of a work station. No pictures of mixing anything. It's all pictures of pigments that are already packaged. When I saw that it didn't sit well with me. I have been burned by another indie company that was using unsanitary methods in her so called "lab". I can see pictures of already filled pots of pigment anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Jessie Thank you :o)

    @ Angela thank you for reading this post, and I agree if a seller is going to post an album of their lab they probably should have pictures of their lab in it. With the knowledge that customers now have we are looking at newer less known companies with more scrutiny.

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  8. Great post and excellent job researching the seller! I really can't thank you and others who take the time to research companies and promote cosmetic safety enough. Seriously,there are several blogs who have kept me from making unsafe purchases and if I hadn't found this information before purchasing who knows what condition my eyes might be in!

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  9. @Angela Thank you for your kind words. I am so happy to see so many people taking the time to check out companies before buying.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great article, Christie. Well researched and well written. Thanks for doing all the footwork you did - what you discovered confirmed quite a few suspicions. I hope this post saves someone from being taken advantage of (or worse, suffering injury).

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  11. @Christie- Thank you so much for your due diligence. I think the unprofessional and "low class" comments (similar to the ones you use to see on GS page)on FFC's page shows the quality/class of the people or should I say the lack of. It appears that this owner was under the impression that if she acted superior that you would just "slink" away. It is blogs like yours and Amanda that help those of us who like to support true indie companies.
    Thanks again!

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  12. just leave the poor girl alone! if u dnt trust her makup then dnt buy it your dnt have to put her on blast like this??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because she is selling products that are UNSAFE, and she knows it, and STILL does it. Thats why, 'anonymous'

      Delete
  13. @ Krissi thank you that is my hope too

    @ Cheryl Thank you for your kind words.

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  14. @ Anonymous This post is not meant to "put her on blast" this post is to show that Fantastic Faces was buying from a supplier who was mislabeling their ingredients. I also tried to help her out and so did many other. Sadly she refused to listen to anyone. The public deserves to know the truth about what they put on their faces and if that means that I or any other blogger has to make posts like this then so be it. I have no ill feeling for Fantastic Faces and only wish her the best in the future.

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  15. I like how the concern is that you revealed the supplier, which isn't illegal, instead of the fact that she's use neon SOAP DYE that isn't eye safe as eye shadow, which IS illegal.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great job my fellow Misery girlie! <;-)
    Just wanted to let people know that I contacted Kalia at TKB to give
    her a heads up about the Ebayer, who stole at least 2 of her site
    product shots (the neon pink & neon red swatches in Ebayer's pics), but
    wasn't sure if it was someone who bought from her. She said she has
    contacted the seller, & she has changed the TKB site to have a check
    box on [at least] the neon soap dye listings, that the buyer must check
    in order to buy, that says:
    "This pigment is NOT cosmetic grade and should NOT be used in cosmetics*
    (check box) I Understand"
    Thank you, Christie, for all your hard work, & kudos to TKB for taking
    steps to help make it harder for people (like that Ebayer) to get away
    with stuff like that.
    Unfortunately, as of now, the Ebayer still lists "1 OZ NEON PINK
    PIGMENT FOR SOAP COSMETIC" as being "'1 OZ NEON PINK MICA PIGMENT'
    approved for use in **cosmetics**, **including eyes**. Great for soaps,
    bath bomb, lotions, shower gels, bath salts, **mineral make up** and
    more." & "1 OZ NEON RED MICA PIGMENT FOR SOAP, COSMETIC" as being "'1
    OZ NEON RED MICA PIGMENT' approved for use in **cosmetics** Great for
    soaps, bath bomb, lotions, shower gels, bath salts, **mineral make up**
    and more." But I will check it over the next few days, to see if it
    gets changed.
    **emphasis mine

    ReplyDelete
  17. @ MissJupiter Thank you so much for this information. I am glad to see TKB take such prompt action with their listings. Thank you for sharing with all of us I really do appreciate it!!!
    ps Missery ROCKS lol

    ReplyDelete
  18. That's awesome to hear about TKB adding the check box so people can't play stupid anymore.

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  19. Great post Christie. Well written and thoughtfully researched. Fantastic Faces is definitely on the Moonkin's "no-buy" list.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @Painted Moonkin Thank you so much for everything :o)

    ReplyDelete
  21. The lack of education for some of the fans was kind of ridiculous if you ask me. As for her calling out people I find that really unprofessional. This is a great post Christie and I think you did amazing research! sometimes going through ebay its hard to find the right seller... What boggles my mind is that where you did a screen shot of the feedback that she had left, it clearly states SOAP. So sad that she was and IS still willing to put her *fans* in danger of potentially going blind. I've always trusted makeup companies (Indie) but now I think I'm going to stick to the ones I KNOW I can trust.

    ReplyDelete
  22. @Miss Superstitious Thank you so much for your kind words. I tried to do my best at making sure I had everything as factual as possible. I know with things likes this it makes people very cautious of buying from indie companies. I am planning a post spotlighting some of the good ones and possibly a series of posts about ingredients. I was reminded doing this post just how important it is to educate on what is and isn't safe for our faces.

    ReplyDelete
  23. She posted yesterday that she was going to continue operating without the neon line, but I'm not sure I trust here further than I can throw her... I can definitely say I'll never buy from her company after this.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Good news! Either Ebay, or the seller, kessil2000 AKA "Lora's beauty shop," has removed the listings for all seven of their "cosmetically safe neon pure micas" (including several specifically marked "eye-safe"; as well as TKB's stolen pictures). For those who want a visual comparison of what the Ebay listing looked liked compared to the TKB ones, here are a couple screenshots:
    "Neon Red" Ebayer, kessllei2000 vs. TKB:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/61799594@N05/5822786639
    & then the next "older" picture in the photostream is "Neon Pink."

    The listing for the 3 FF neon sets that were still posted for sale 2 nights ago, looked like a pretty obvious attempt to sell off the incriminating evidence, & read:

    " Serious Buyers Only "Limited Edition " Neon Pigment Set of 6 100% Safe For The Eyes " 3 Available

    Then a few hours later, the listing was gone. I can only hope that FF took *some* responsibility and voluntarily removed them, but I am afraid that they simply sold out quickly, & my thoughts & wishes are with the girls who may have bought them, and their eyes.

    Because it was kessil2000 who originally misled FF, FF could have just come out and said, "my supplier lied, I'm sorry, here's a recall," as
    has happened with a couple respected indie shops, who I think have gained more respect and loyalty from their customers, as well as gain
    new customers, because they were honest & used transparent business practices. Unfortunately, FF's response has been hostile, when people
    tried to tell her that it appeared that her supplier had mislabeled the pigments; and shady, when the mere action of asking for an ingredients list, or asking if her products were vegan or contained carmine, got the person's comments deleted from the FF's FB wall & got them banned.
    It is disturbing to see another makeup company, like GS, who is so hostile towards, and dismissive of, FDA cosmetic safety regulations.

    ReplyDelete

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