I have had a terrible experience ordering from indie brands BEWARE before you order !

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So I ordered from chaos makeup artist or chaos makeup as some know it as and apparently they never sent me my package.I must of sent them 7 messages in regards to this and still no package lol.I was told at first by UPS that they didnt have the correct address meaning I guess someone wrote it down wrong when they shipped it but I know my address so it definetely wasnt me I heard about this through an email just the other day.Then when I contacted chaos makeup about it she claimed she had no ideas what that was about and said my package was arriving yesterday and that it shipped and  guess what no package delivered lol why am I not surprised.I dont understand why because the pre order went out may 30th and everyone else got theirs except me.I paid in full so I'am more than annoyed regarding the s**t service.I contacted her again today regarding not getting a package like why do I have to do all this work when its not even my job to work for the United states postal service.Indie brands just dont have their s**t together unfortunately and your money is wasted on products you might never recieve because the small businesses cant even keep track of what their doing / whos ordering or how many people ordered from them.

I also was told on  bitterlace beautys instagram that she  was done with her 1-2 and 3-4 month pre orders and guess what mine never shipped out either so what  is going on here ??? I had to contact her as well regarding my orders.

When I ordered from nigel beauty emporium they told me days later that they were out of stock of inglot the lipgloss I ordered like what ? who does that why did you make it available if you never had the product to begin with when you let me pay for an out of stock item ?

Beware before you order anything from indie / small businesses .I basically had to do all the work myself the businesses never contacted me or told me anything regarding my orders or where they were / are.Not only that but I dont wanna waste any more money in brands where I dont know if I will recieve my package or not its too risky.I will never be ordering from indie based brands again I had enough !

At least when you order from places like sephora / ulta you know your going to get a product as an end result with indie brands you might not even get that so you will be frustrated and annoyed and want your money back even if you did want the product.

Like what is going on indie brands ? if your going to sell products for cash funds you actually have to deliver them meaning give me a product in return.Beaware of scams If you give someone money make sure you get a product being a small business is not an excuse you cant promise customers and not deliver.I 'am still waiting on at least 4 packages from indie brands.

 
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I haven't ever purchased anything from indie brands (depending on what you would say is an indie brand), but friends of mine I know have and none of them have had hard times with orders. I wouldn't say that all small companies are like this, because certainly some are not. What happened to you though does not sound like these companies have handled the situation in good manner. Good luck with dealing with the situation and hopefully you can get your products soon!

 
I haven't ever purchased anything from indie brands (depending on what you would say is an indie brand), but friends of mine I know have and none of them have had hard times with orders. I wouldn't say that all small companies are like this, because certainly some are not. What happened to you though does not sound like these companies have handled the situation in good manner. Good luck with dealing with the situation and hopefully you can get your products soon!
I recieved the chaos makeup the rainbow highlighter  today. Their version of it has different colors the yellow was a gold shade and it didnt really look like the picture and I have to say it was extremely small online they show a much larger  one but you get the size of a small single eyeshadow its very very tiny not the way it was depicted online.I was dissapointed with the product but oh well you win some you lose some.But I did finally get it so I was just happy about that now I just have to wait on Bitterlace to send me the PRISM and that could be a while because millions of people ordered it at the exact same time that I did thats probably why her shipping on my order has remained not shipped.But like I said she didnt respond to my email yet and I'am still waiting to hear back from her.

I think big businesses just handle situations better when it comes to customers they cater to you indie brands dont do that.I also like products where you know exactly what your getting and when its shipped you get notifications and updates on your order small businesses dont do that.When you order from indie brands your taking a risk.

 
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I recieved the chaos makeup the rainbow highlighter  today. Their version of it has different colors the yellow was a gold shade and it didnt really look like the picture and I have to say it was extremely small online they show a much larger  one but you get the size of a small single eyeshadow its very very tiny not the way it was depicted online.I was dissapointed with the product but oh well you win some you lose some.But I did finally get it so I was just happy about that now I just have to wait on Bitterlace to send me the PRISM and that could be a while because millions of people ordered it at the exact same time that I did thats probably why her shipping on my order has remained not shipped.But like I said she didnt respond to my email yet and I'am still waiting to hear back from her.

I think big businesses just handle situations better when it comes to customers they cater to you indie brands dont do that.I also like products where you know exactly what your getting and when its shipped you get notifications and updates on your order small businesses dont do that.When you order from indie brands your taking a risk.
I'm sorry you're having a crap experience. I know a lot of people take one look at the less-than-great side to indie and decide to never bother, and I totally understand.

I have a massive indie collection and I've had a couple issues myself. One involved not shipping anywhere near within the stated time frame, which was a bigger deal than normal because I was moving. Another involved crap products, obviously just repackaged Mica. Mica does not make an eye shadow. 

On the other hand, I've placed god-knows-how-many orders, and had two disappointment issues. I think there are a couple things that are key to having a good indie experience:

1. Research. With all the photo-editing programs out there, it's stupid easy for people to hide a lot of mistakes or make their product look more appealing than it actually is. Indie-loving bloggers swatch a lot, partially for this reason, partially because a lot of indie shadows are difficult to capture properly with a camera (duochromes, etc).

People in the indie community also tend to do their best to document any customer service or product issues. Putting "(brand name)" drama" or "(brand name) scandal" into Google will pretty quickly tell you a company's history. Asking around in indie-focused communities (there are a million on Facebook, there's a big one on Reddit) is another quick way to get multiple opinions on different brands, and people strive to be fair in their opinions. For example, I very much dislike the owner of Lime Crime, and the one thing I purchased from them years ago was of terrible quality, but not everyone cares about the antics of a store owner, and I make it clear I don't judge anyone who buys from them (I really don't). I also make it clear that I haven't tried any other products.

Groups or other connections to the community make less research necessary, usually. They're the first to hear of + spread word of any issues, because it really is a community. Community members do not like it when some jerk makes the entire community look bad.

Other ways to research: Check companies' social media, make sure the most recent posts aren't about unsent orders, unanswered emails, fingerprints in jars, etc. Filter Google results of brand reviews to recent ones only.

2. Caution. This is a big one. I don't order from new stores, or "recently discovered" stores. I wait a year, minimum, after a new store opens, and about six months after a store becomes fairly popular. I also don't order from companies that are being overloaded because some image of a product went viral. Companies fail most often when they suddenly get more orders than the 1-2 people that make up the entire company can handle. 

There are other things, little things, mostly things that indicate a scammer even if it weren't about makeup. Avoiding people who want payment gifted on Paypal, things like that.

I have to disagree that indie brands don't cater to you, especially compared to corporate brands. Corporate brands just don't want bad reviews. They can subscribe to "the customer is always right" because of their massive profit margin. Good indie owners take actual pride in their creations and customer service. I've never had a big brand mail me extra labels after I accidentally ruined the ones on the bottom of my brand new jars by setting them in a spot of oil-based lotion. I've never had a big brand owner message me or email me to make sure I'm the person who got my package out of my mailbox, and to make sure everything I ordered was in it. I've never had a big brand email me and ask me what colors I like for sample purposes. Etc etc etc.

Bigger brands can throw more money at the problem, which allows them to adapt in some ways. But it's not catering the way indies can. And it's difficult to feel anything besides neutral-to-slightly-annoyed about big brands having massive markups, which good indies don't have.

Again, with good indies, you know exactly what you're getting. Amounts aren't listed, just ingredients, same as with corporate brands. I've also always received shipping notifications and tracking, even from the two companies I had bad experiences with. That's automated by the shipping company, or at least it should be, unless maybe the person is trying to make a few more pennies by going with super cheap shipping. If one of those brands didn't give you a shipping notification or tracking, that's a red flag. 

I'm not trying to say you didn't have a bad experience. You did. You're 100% within your rights to never buy indie/small business again. I just take issue with the fact that you're making such sweeping statements about all indies, all small businesses, based on one impulse order. There's a lot of amazing brands out there with high-quality products that are ridiculously gorgeous, and at the cost of drugstore makeup, no less. Lumping them altogether isn't.. realistic.

 
I'm sorry you're having a crap experience. I know a lot of people take one look at the less-than-great side to indie and decide to never bother, and I totally understand.

I have a massive indie collection and I've had a couple issues myself. One involved not shipping anywhere near within the stated time frame, which was a bigger deal than normal because I was moving. Another involved crap products, obviously just repackaged Mica. Mica does not make an eye shadow. 

On the other hand, I've placed god-knows-how-many orders, and had two disappointment issues. I think there are a couple things that are key to having a good indie experience:

1. Research. With all the photo-editing programs out there, it's stupid easy for people to hide a lot of mistakes or make their product look more appealing than it actually is. Indie-loving bloggers swatch a lot, partially for this reason, partially because a lot of indie shadows are difficult to capture properly with a camera (duochromes, etc).

People in the indie community also tend to do their best to document any customer service or product issues. Putting "(brand name)" drama" or "(brand name) scandal" into Google will pretty quickly tell you a company's history. Asking around in indie-focused communities (there are a million on Facebook, there's a big one on Reddit) is another quick way to get multiple opinions on different brands, and people strive to be fair in their opinions. For example, I very much dislike the owner of Lime Crime, and the one thing I purchased from them years ago was of terrible quality, but not everyone cares about the antics of a store owner, and I make it clear I don't judge anyone who buys from them (I really don't). I also make it clear that I haven't tried any other products.

Groups or other connections to the community make less research necessary, usually. They're the first to hear of + spread word of any issues, because it really is a community. Community members do not like it when some jerk makes the entire community look bad.

Other ways to research: Check companies' social media, make sure the most recent posts aren't about unsent orders, unanswered emails, fingerprints in jars, etc. Filter Google results of brand reviews to recent ones only.

2. Caution. This is a big one. I don't order from new stores, or "recently discovered" stores. I wait a year, minimum, after a new store opens, and about six months after a store becomes fairly popular. I also don't order from companies that are being overloaded because some image of a product went viral. Companies fail most often when they suddenly get more orders than the 1-2 people that make up the entire company can handle. 

There are other things, little things, mostly things that indicate a scammer even if it weren't about makeup. Avoiding people who want payment gifted on Paypal, things like that.

I have to disagree that indie brands don't cater to you, especially compared to corporate brands. Corporate brands just don't want bad reviews. They can subscribe to "the customer is always right" because of their massive profit margin. Good indie owners take actual pride in their creations and customer service. I've never had a big brand mail me extra labels after I accidentally ruined the ones on the bottom of my brand new jars by setting them in a spot of oil-based lotion. I've never had a big brand owner message me or email me to make sure I'm the person who got my package out of my mailbox, and to make sure everything I ordered was in it. I've never had a big brand email me and ask me what colors I like for sample purposes. Etc etc etc.

Bigger brands can throw more money at the problem, which allows them to adapt in some ways. But it's not catering the way indies can. And it's difficult to feel anything besides neutral-to-slightly-annoyed about big brands having massive markups, which good indies don't have.

Again, with good indies, you know exactly what you're getting. Amounts aren't listed, just ingredients, same as with corporate brands. I've also always received shipping notifications and tracking, even from the two companies I had bad experiences with. That's automated by the shipping company, or at least it should be, unless maybe the person is trying to make a few more pennies by going with super cheap shipping. If one of those brands didn't give you a shipping notification or tracking, that's a red flag. 

I'm not trying to say you didn't have a bad experience. You did. You're 100% within your rights to never buy indie/small business again. I just take issue with the fact that you're making such sweeping statements about all indies, all small businesses, based on one impulse order. There's a lot of amazing brands out there with high-quality products that are ridiculously gorgeous, and at the cost of drugstore makeup, no less. Lumping them altogether isn't.. realistic.
When I said catering I mean big businesses like sephora and ulta they mark down prices they have sales they do promo codes where you get free makeup and birthday offers and deluxe samples things like that and they even do weekly specials.Indie brands dont really mark down their prices not even on major holidays like black friday shopping.Thats partly why most people dont buy indie makeup because they are looking for a sale / good deal.For instance I ordered from bitterlace beauty and dont get me wrong I think the highlighter looks cool and I cant wait to finally get it  in the mail but the price was pretty high she sold the compact seperate from the blush so unless you want the blush powder going everywhere you pretty much had to buy that compact / holder for it to go in which costed extra on top of shipping costs.Indie brands are not really cheaper The Inglot lipgloss I bought was premium price it costed the same price as any lipgloss at sephora if not more than some of their brands they sell on there.

Inglot , bitterlace and chaos were not really impulse buys for me I took time to really look at what I was ordering but like many things in life you dont always get what you wanted  lol thats life.I just prefer ordering from companies where I know I will get exactly what I ordered and it looks exactly the same as in the pictures.

Another thing that bothered me with indie brands is the low stock they dont have products available so even if you wanted to order something you cant because they dont have it in stock or it wont be available right away everythings on back order.So Unless someone really wants to wait months for a product I dont suggest buying from indie brands.

Its the same price as top of the line designer makeup only difference is you wait longer for the product and dont get as many free samples with your order.Sephora I gotta say they give you a lot of free stuff with your purchase and with indie brands you pay top dollar but dont get free stuff with your purchase or any money off your order.

When I said big business caters to its customers I mean they offer mystery bags and makeup sample bags things like that they might not reach out to you personally but they do offer free items and money off your purchase  which is what most people want at the end of the day anyways not an email from someone asking how your doing.

I have to say I have ordered from both companies big and small  and I just prefer the way big business does things for me personally and my experiences with them I think they handle things better overall  and in the end its about saving money and custom one of a kind indie makeup does appeal to me but so does free makeup  and money off my purchases and monthly free gifts and indie brands dont offer me that big businesses do though .

In the end you actually save more money with big brands than you do going the indie makeup  hipster trend route.

 
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You just save more money buying from big businesses like sephora / ulta compared to indie makeup / nail polish.You get more for your cash when you add in all the free samples and money off and free makeup you recieve its a way better deal overall.I have bought zoya nail polish before and you may think oh but with indie brands you save so much money and indie nail polish is so cheap / affordable but reality is its really not.With zoya I got free nail polish remover , free 3 nail polishes and a color chart for spring and a sample of colors they were promoting on their website if you buy indie brands you pay the same prices at sephora but you dont get any added free stuff or cash off .

 
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I didn't have a bad experience with buying indie beauty items, but I did get burned by a contest i supposedly won.  I messaged them through facebook and even called their phone number.  They responded by apologizing profusely and claiming that they were going to send me something but never did.  It still bugs me to this day. 

 
I didn't have a bad experience with buying indie beauty items, but I did get burned by a contest i supposedly won.  I messaged them through facebook and even called their phone number.  They responded by apologizing profusely and claiming that they were going to send me something but never did.  It still bugs me to this day. 
Yeah , sounds like an indie scam.I never enter contests anymore. I just dont see a point in trying to win when millions of people enter  contests online lol the odds are not in your favor especially  since they post things like that on twitter , facebook , instagram and whatever online website their business has to promote it.

It sounds like they were just trying to scam you though they wanted your money never give out any personal information online you never know if that stuffs legit or not its usually not though.

Yeah and everyone says indie brands are small businesses yet they have products sold out all the time so they obviously are making enough profit to hire people to work for them and expand their business but its all about money they dont wanna waste that cash coming in .Bitterlace beautyand stuff just from their rainbow highlighter alone thats millions of dollars in profit so the oh sorry I'am a small business that doesnt run things properly excuse doesnt work .

I dont care if you sell donuts in a food truck if you dont have products dont run a business if you cant afford to hire people and are cheap about things.

 
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Wow i feel bad for youm i have never ordered from any of the indie brands u mentioned above but i have ordered lots from etsy shops (kinda addicted lol) and i didn't even know they had makeup and skin care until recently! I don't know if you consider etsy shops indie (but you don't get more indie than individually owned do u?)

I have had nothing but excellent customer service and experience with these shops and the products. The all natural lip balm i bought totally saved my swollen allergic lips. I found the shop owners all to be very open and helpful when I had questions about their products and shipping.

Hope you have a better experience next time if there is a next time

 
Wow i feel bad for youm i have never ordered from any of the indie brands u mentioned above but i have ordered lots from etsy shops (kinda addicted lol) and i didn't even know they had makeup and skin care until recently! I don't know if you consider etsy shops indie (but you don't get more indie than individually owned do u?)

I have had nothing but excellent customer service and experience with these shops and the products. The all natural lip balm i bought totally saved my swollen allergic lips. I found the shop owners all to be very open and helpful when I had questions about their products and shipping.

Hope you have a better experience next time if there is a next time
They have a ton of  indie makeup and nail polish brands available on esty but even ordering through esty I have had problems.See the big problem with indie brands is you have to wait and when I say wait I mean probably 5 months for a product thats in high demand / worth buying.I dont like waiting I dont have the patience for pre orders and wait lists and restocks.The only brand I bought on esty was bitterlace beauty and soo many people bought the product that I must of waited to get PRISM the rainbow blush / highlighter for at least 7 months even though I had a 1-2 and 3-4 month wait in the pre order it literally took forever to physically have the product in hand.I would order from her again but everything sells out pretty quickly AND its very stressful because your trying to click place my order before millions of other girls do because the products go quick.I literally had to be on the website an hour / two before it even became offically available and I waited and refreshed the page multiple times in order to place my order.Its not a fun experience lol its like oh my god I need to order this at this time and be on the website at this time and get this before it sells out.

 
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Understood lol. Definitely not such a fun experience. I never have the patience for that sort of shopping. It is like when girls go to the warehouse sales and line up at 3am to wait for the 8am opening. I cannot do it. But hitting refresh is the worst. Sitting there waiting...ughh

I guess i have never bought the high demand ones before. For me, i have always seeked out the etsy shops where the photo drew me in and then i always read the description to check the ingredients (because of my sensitive allergy prone skin) so i always end up choosing brands that i feel are safe. Natural ingredients etc...They usually are smaller shops with none of the amount of traffic and buzz you mentioned above haha. The stuff i have bought has worked rly well for me. And i have never had to wait more than a few days to 2 weeks. And it was the shipping rather than the product processing time.

I wish u better luck! Maybe try smaller brands, lesser known with less craziness. It seems like these indie brands grew too big too fast and could not handle the huge surge of customers

 

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