Samples

I buy a lot of cosmetics.  I buy a lot of cosmetics.  But a lot of things about buying cosmetics drive me crazy. Over-attentive shop assistants who hover over you, demanding to "help" whenever your eye wanders onto anything.  Under-attentive shop assistants who ignore anything resembling a buying signal, up to and including you saying "excuse me, can I get one of these please?"

But one thing that really, really, really drives me nuts at cosmetic counters is the refusal to give samples. I have pretty sensitive skin, and, it means that I can't really buy skincare without having tried a sample of it for a few days first, particularly with eye creams, so many of them sting me after a day or two. Likewise, there are certain ingredients in some perfumes that literally make me vomit, so I have to be careful - you will never find me agreeing to be sprayed with an unknown perfume in a department store, ever.  They tend to get upset after the first time you throw up on a shop floor, I find. 

Now, none of this would bother me that much if we had a decent returns policy in this country for unsuitable products.  But, if you've ever tried returning something you were allergic to, or made ill by (or even one that's damaged when you get through the packaging), then, on a cosmetic counter, you're made to feel like a scammer, or a criminal if you try to return it to the brand.

Far too often these days, I find that brands are very, very reluctant to hand out samples, even when I've notice that they often have drawers full of tiny tubes and sachets just ready, willing and aching to be handed to people.  In fact, especially when the brand has drawers of product ready willing and aching to be handed out to people, this appears to be the time that the dragon sales assistant has decided that no one - but mainly you - simply cannot have a sample of anything.

In fact, even when you've spent lots of money on products already, increasingly brands (and expensive brands are the worst, at times) some companies won't give you any samples, even when you ask. "it's not policy" you're told, or "we don't have any", both of which are doubly galling when it's a brand you've had samples of before.  I know, if I had a chance to try before I bought - and I'd even be happy to pay a token amount for certain samples - I'd BUY MORE COSMETICS.

So, what drives you mad about buying cosmetics?  And, whilst I'm about it, what's your biggest gripe about cosmetic sales assistants?

Mission Statement?

I try not to  make Get Lippie political - I've said before, it's all about the products and how they work as far as I'm concerned, but I thought I'd share this email exchange that took place today regarding a product that a PR firm wanted to see featured here my blog:

"Hi Louise,


NAME from  PR FIRM here,

I'm writing today to see if you would be interested in posting a new piece of video content on http://www.getlippie.blogspot.com/

MADEUPNAME is a fun new campaign encouraging you to get creative, take a look at the video here: MADEUPNAME.com

...

We can pay you to post this video, to sign up as a publisher and for payment please visit MADEUPNAME.com

If you have any questions please get in touch."
 
(emphasis mine)
 
My response was as follows:
 
"Hi NAME


Thank you very much for getting in contact with Get Lippie.

Get Lippie does not feature sponsored posts, and nor do I accept payment for posts. Nor will I ever.

 I write about products I've tried and tested - 90% of which I buy myself for the purposes of review. All products, regardless of their source, are tested thoroughly, and the reviews posted on my site - good and bad - are, above all, honest and true. I also do not feature video content, and have no plans to do so.

I believe that the concept of paying bloggers to feature products (not to mention your requirement that the posting be in a specific format) to be a pernicious one, and one I have no interest to be involved with. Your products may be wonderful, and in fact I have tried them already, but I will be unable to be involved in this particular project at this time.

Again, I thank you for your interest in Get Lippie. I assure you that if your product is mentioned on my blog in the future, my review will be honest, thorough, in the format of my choosing, and I will NOT have been paid to feature them."

I'm reprinting it here as I thought it was as good as a mission statement.  What do you think about the concept of brands paying for posts?

EDIT:

It's been pointed out by another blogger (quite rightly) that my posting appears to misrepresenting what the email is actually asking people to do. I'm happy to make clear, and put right, that this email isn't asking for paid endorsement of a product, that it is in fact a request to rent "ad-space" on the blog. Whilst I'm more than happy to put that miscomprehension right - and I'm happy to have been corrected! - the above is still a genuine email conversation, and it was based on how *I* interpreted the request at the time it was put to me (actually I feel that the email from the company involved could have been much better-written to make their intent clear. But, then I would!), as such, I stand by my comments with regard to paid posts, and would like to make clear that my reply to the agency involved would still have been in the negative, for a variety of other reasons. Other people can, and will, feel differently. That's the beauty of blogging!



The foregoing post is merely a statement of *my* intent on *my* blog at this time.

Organic Wednesday - A change from our usual programming.

In which Get Lippie goes off on one and hopes she'll be forgiven ...

Here at Get Lippie, I have a lot of organic products, and I read a LOT of pseudo-scientific gubbins about why organic products are better than products that contain ingredients which are not organic. And, by and large, I take most  of these claims with a pinch of salt.  You can tell me that a product works because the contents are  harvested only by the light of a gibbous moon by virgins, then then ingredients are handed to fairies who use angel wings to mix them up (not actually that far-fetched a claim, to be honest) and I'll simply roll my eyes slightly (possibly whilst belming gently to myself) and then go back to smearing it wherever it's meant to be smeared and reading the ingredients list.

From reading that,  I'll know that a product works because it contains ingredients known to moisturise, or perfume, or colour and doesn't contain potential irritants. I'm a big fan of reading the ingredients list of any product I buy, organic or not.  More people should do it!

There are, however, two words which, when I encounter them on an organic product - and it is always an organic product I'm afraid, that will make me go all "HULK SMASH" on the offending article.  Those two words are:

Chemical Free

They make me crazy.  Because I'll assume two things.  That the makers of the products are idiots and, worse, that they think the people buying the products are idiots.  And that makes me angry.  Just because people may want to avoid increasingly synthetic products, it doesn't mean they're gullible.

There is nothing on this planet that is chemical-free.  I am chemicals.  You are chemicals.  Air is so full of chemicals it's astonishing we can breathe at all.  Water - the supposedly one of purest ingredients on earth is ... you guessed it ... chemicals!  ORGANIC INGREDIENTS CONTAIN CHEMICALS.  Everything does, and certainly everything on that pesky ingredients list will consist of chemicals in various guises. There simply is no such thing as chemical free.  Any product that tells you it's good because it doesn't contain "chemicals" is attempting to pull the wool over your eyes in order to get you to hand over your hard-earned pennies.

If a product is free of synthetic dyes, perfumes, colours, additives or preservatives, then that's great - to a point, but that's the subject of a whole other post - then quite rightly the packaging should mention it.  But I do wish organic producers wouldn't be so tricksy at times.   Sometimes you need a degree in double-speak to figure out if the products are entirely organic or not.  I really don't think you should be able to claim that a product is organic if it merely contains a couple of organic essential oils or something.  But again, that's the subject of another post.

What do you think of organic products? Does the provenance of the ingredients in your cosmetic items bother you at all? Did you make it to the end of this post? Are you a cosmetic brand who disagrees with what I've written here?  What drives YOU crazy about cosmetic claims or labelling?

Unhappy Badger (balm) ...

I love me some Badger Balm - and so does Mr Lippie now I don't flinch when I see his elbows coming anywhere near me! - so when the company left a comment on my original article and said they'd just made their last 1343 tins of the Chai Rose variety (my personal All Time Favourite of All Time), I immediately emailed them and asked how I could get hold of a couple of tins.

I just heard back from them. I can't.  They're not shipping them to any international distributors!  I'm actually now even more bitterly disappointed than I was when I realised they'd discontinued it in the first place!  I've got money, I can pay, but I'm slightly aggrieved that, once again, international fans of US products - I'm looking at you, Stila, Urban Decay, Zoya and a couple of other companies ... SEPHORA -  tend to get the fuzzy end of the lollipop when it comes to getting products over here in the first place, or being excluded from special offers and twitter competitions and the like.

I still love Badger Balms, they're second to not very many in their field ... but, companies need to try not to get people's hopes up, just to dash them badly. Unlike Chai Rose, it's not a pleasant flavour.