Hi, I'm new! Aromaleigh Drama!

Here is the refused to be shown aromaleigh epinions review entitled "Wonderful products, fine customer service, bad but avoidable attitude" http://www.epinions.com/content_494954516100 that I had deleted and decided to repost. I don't understand why epinions isn't allowing a review that when it was written in August 2009 was publically available and received many "Very Helpful" responses by advisors. However, I have a feeling that the owner of the company I reviewed asked epinions to keep my reposted review hidden. She had mentioned that she was thinking about contacting epinions in one of those nasty emails that she sent me.

Since epinions after 5 days was still not making my review public, I ended my old account, created a new one, and made the preface to the reposted review more "vanilla" in the words of Kristen, reposting the review exactly as it was in August (except for a short preface at the top). The review I wrote in August was made public. Now the only difference between the old August review and the reposting of it is a short preface.

You have to be logged in in order to rate the review. Rate it however you feel. Whether you think the review is good or bad does not bother me. What bothers me is that up to this point, the only people rating the review have been people directed to the review from the aromaleigh forum's bashing (mostly on me) thread. Also what bothers me is that no one can easily access my review at this point unless they have a direct link. It doesn't show up if you search "aromaleigh epinions" on google and then go to the site.

I believe the reason no one else besides the aromaleigh "haters on me " have rated my review is because the review for some reason isn't visable unless you have a specific link to it or (possibly are logged in to epinions. I know if I am logged in, I can see my review, but could someone else test it out and perform an "epinions aromaleigh" google search and then log in to epinions and see if you can see my review?). And at this point, only the people from the bashing thread knew about the review b.c. a direct link to my review was posted on the bashing thread.

The main reason I started this thread is because I want people to have some way of knowing the review is there again (the epinions review doesn't show up unless I am logged in to epinions). Any ideas on why that is? Thanks a lot!

If the moderators want to take out other things I have written, that is fine, but I would greatly appreciate it if the moderators left the link, the descriptor "aromaleigh epinions review", and the title of the review, "Wonderful products, fine customer service, bad but avoidable attitude". Oh, and the moderators could change the title of this thread from "aromaleigh drama" to "aromaleigh epinions review". I don't know how to do that...

So, I was recently kicked off of the aromaleigh forum and am wondering if I am the only one who this has happened to. Am I really the only one who has gotten onto Kristen's bad side? (Ok, I know I am not the only one...) I had written a review about Aromaleigh on Epinions in August. When Kristen, the owner of the company, leaked out that she didn't like a "certain" review, strangely around the exact same time when I had posted that I was going through hard personal times, I questioned her if it was my review that was bothering her. She sent me this whole email rant. I eventually took the review down but now have decided to repost it because I feel like I was correct in what I said, even more so now that I've seen how she reacted to the initial review.

Because I was informed that the bashing thread was now open to the public (I didn't need a forum account to view the thread), I finally got the courage to go and see what people were posting after Kristen had finally found away to prevent me from commenting on the forum. I am disappointed to see that she is now calling me "crazy" using posts I had posted and now have deleted (posts that I had used to get help from people who I thought were friends) when I was going through troubles in NOVEMBER (NOT AUGUST, WHEN I POSTED THE REVIEW). She is vile imo for using that personal information to try to invalidate a review I wrote 4 months earlier.

At the time it was written, my epinions review had 5 or 6 "Very Helpful" responses, all from "advisors", gathered over the course of a couple of months. However, when I first decided to repost my review (at this time with the old account and with a different preface) after being bullied by the owner of the company to take it down, the day I posted it, it got over 6 "off topic" reviews, all by non-advisors. Oh, and Kristen keeps commenting on my review, lol! She is kleighb there and she usually comments on any negative reviews on epinions.

I am warning everyone not to ever share personal information on the aromaleigh forum and then get on Kristen's bad side by writing a review that isn't completely postive. Kristen and certain forum members will turn on you and use anything they can to attack you personally.

If they boot you out just because you gave your honest opinion, then I certainly wouldn't want to be there to begin with. Welcome to MakupTalk. Everyone has their own opinion here and everyone is entitled to them as well.

Thanks so much, Chaeli! I'm excited to be on a forum where free expression is allowed! And where more than one mineral makeup brand can be mentioned . Cause I like lots of them .

Well, I've got to admit, I think I was kicked off the forum because when I questioned the owner if the review she was talking about so negatively was mine, she sent me this really long, nasty email in response, which I proceeded to post on the forum. If I kept quiet about her agressive emails to me about my review, trying to get me to take it down, then I probably wouldn't have been kicked off. But since I posted on the forum that I would probably have to leave because of my and the owner's differences and because of the email she sent me, well, that set her off which led to me being kicked off.

Oh, and does anyone know why my epinions review is only visable when I am logged in? Thanks so much!

Yes, and you are right about I shouldn't have gone there in the first place. The forum has this weird feeling to it.

Whenever someone posted a FOTD, I learned that you were only allowed to say strictly postive things. When I said about a friend's FOTD that I personally would have added a bit more eyeliner, I actually got attacked by a member for offering unasked for constructive criticism! So yeah, don't write anything negative about that company, and only write "that looks great" to FOTDs, and if you say anything negative about a product, the owner will almost always come around with some reason why you are wrong. LOL! Gah, I can't believe I did spend so much time there! If you visit the forum, I was under the same screen name, I had upwards of 1000 posts!

Too bad, the makeup quality is impeccable, imo. Such creativity. That is why I was still shopping there. See, I am able to separate a product from the personal goings on of the owner. But the owner isn't. Oh well... But there are many other mmu companies I like. I am going to find that list your fav. 3 thread!

Let me say this to you and anyone else that is reading concerning these mineral makeup companies: Dont ever ever ever ever allow them to strong arm you! You will be the third person I have read about to be strong armed. The company (I forgot its name) that told a member here not to slander their name because they sent her an 88 palette with mold on one eyeshadow. Lime Crime, who makes ladies take down any and all negative reviews and force them to post apology letters which is bullshit. If you bought a product, and it was not what you wanted, spread the word! Blog about it, talk to people on makeup forums. Just keep in mind to be honest and not spiteful.

I had a company make me a bar of soap, sent it to me 2 weeks late, and it had dog hair alll over it. I be darned if I keep my mouth shut!

Yeah Coastal Scents did that which is why I dont buy their stuff anymore plus they buy their stuff Wholesale and slap a label on it.

That's so pathetic, I hear Aromaleigh is great but if the owner gets that bent out of shape due to one review then she must feel insecure about the success of the business. I buy many products that have been shunned by many people, I dont give a sh!t because they work for me! People need to get a life.

You weren't kicked off of the site - you left of your own volition. If you would like I can quote your final posts on the Aromaleigh forum.

PLease don't come here and try to start a flame war, or try to create more drama. I doubt very seriously that the forum moderators would take very kindly to a troll on the boards.

How do you know what action was taken from another forum? I am just inquiring. Either way, this is not trolling, I can edit this post to remove owner names and the name of the company at the least, but I really feel that we cant stop people from posting an opinion. *shrugs*

Wow, I think my brain exploded after reading all of that.

Tally, I have my own beef with Aromaleigh (which I won't get into here). I didn't care for the way that they treated me as a customer, so they don't get any more of my money. Simple as that. I feel that you have put entirely way too much effort into whatever you are trying to accomplish here. Just let it go. There are plenty of other companies out there that will be happy to treat you in a respectful manner. Life's too short. Seriously.

Also, for future reference, you probably don't want to keep registering IDs on *any* forum after the owner/admin/moderator has told you to leave. I'm sure that could be construed as cyberstalking and you've just openly admitted doing it.

Hi Carleen, thanks so much the tip! Of course I did it with the best intentions so that I could defend myself, but the legal system doesn't care.

I think my epinions review may be viseable now, although I am not sure. If I google "aromaleigh attitude" and go to epinions from there and sort by date, my review shows up.

However, if I google "aromaleigh epinions" and go to epinions from there and sort by date, my review does not show up.

I do plan on removing these posts in a couple of days as long as my epinions review remains open to the public because I don't want to drag that aromaleigh yuck mess into another forum. My main reason for posting was that the epinions review I wrote didn't show unless I was logged in or someone else had a direct link. That problem seems to have been resolved. My reasons for posting here were because my epinions review wasn't appearing to the public at that point, and I thought that no one would ever know my thoughts on the subject of aromaleigh attitude unless they had a direct link to the epinions review.

I'll explain why I felt the need to make so much out of this. It is basically because I had become attached to the people on the forum and Kristen, and they both hurt me very much. Also, I felt like my freedom of speech had been silenced.

The forum had become like a second home to me when I needed an escape from the real world. Many of the women were very friendly to me when I had problems. I felt like I had a supportive group of friends there.

Basically, I thought Kristen was friendly towards me and I had always posted friendly comments on her blog which I read religiously and sometimes she posted friendly comments in return. I tried my best to help her win that Shine Light Competition, getting all my friends to vote and posting links to the competition all over my facebook page. It was such a shock when she emailed me after I questioned her if it was my review she hated so much and she said something like "every time I see your name it makes me so angry and hurt" in return. So she had felt this way for 4 months while I unknowingly was happily following her blog and having mini conversations with her, and participating in her forum.

Now, I posted a comment in the cafe, which at that point was a members only section, that I was going to have to leave the blog because of the nastiness of the first email Kristen sent me in response to my epinions review and said goodbye to my friends there. I also publically posted Kristen's nasty email towards me. Kristen couldn't stand for that and the whole mess ensued. Forum members who I had thought were my friends turned to Kristen's side at the drop of a dime.

Now for my loss of free speech:

1. Kristen had said "look into your heart and find the kindness there" to take down the review. I felt bad for her after a while, even though I thought I was perfectly justified in leaving my review up. I took the review down because I felt bad about hurting another person.

2. Kristen had effectively blocked all my means of trying to get back onto the forum to defend myself (she blocked my account and for a while I couldn't even see what was being written on the thread because it was accessable only to people with accounts). Then I learned that the cafe was now public, and that the bashing thread had gone on for 30 posts after I was unable to view it (or thought I was unable to view it until someone informed me that the cafe was now public and I didn't need an account to read the thread, although I still wouldn't be able to comment).

The subsequent comments were spreading lies, Kristen included as a spreader of lies, about my being mentally ill and that was the reason I was acting the way I was. So much for my feeling bad for Kristen, "looking into my heart" in her words in a email she sent me, and taking down the review because I felt sorry about making her unhappy. I had no way of responding to those terribly hurtfull and absolutely false accusations. There were 30 posts worth of lies that I had no way of defending myself against. She and her forum members attacked me viciously in those 30 posts. Loss of free speech number 1.

3. Loss of free speech number 2. Kristen had said that she was thinking of contacting epinions to have them block my reviews. As a result of my misplaced trust that Kristen would drop that matter if I "looked into my heart" and and therefore my deleting my review, I could now no longer repost the review that Kristen had convinced me to take down. The reason being that I was only able to see the reposted review if I was logged in. (I am not sure about other people being logged in and then being able to see my review, or if people need a direct link to it, whether or not they were logged in). So I was afraid my epinions review will never be easily accessable.

It was only after I deleted my old epinions account and created a new one and posted word for word the August 2009 review without any mention of the real reason that I took the August review down, that I was actually bullied into taking the review down, was the review was briefly made public.

So in summary, I was bashed on the aromaleigh forum without anyway of defending myself. I had stupidly taken down my initial review because I pittied Kristen and had misplaced trust in Kristen not spreading lies about me and dropping the matter if I deleted the review.

Since epinions is somehow blocking my review in some fashion or another, I am upset that because I was duped into feeling sorry for Kristen and taking down the review, the original review will never be easily accessable again.

I was silenced on the aromaleigh forum and epinions. And I have been viciously attacked by people who I thought were my friends on that aromaleigh bashing thread with no means of defending myself.

However, if that epinions review stays up and open to the public (edit: it is no longer public, I think it can only be accessed by a direct link), I will delete all these posts. I don't like holding grudges and spreading meanness. However, I also don't like having lies spread about me and having my ability of free speech silenced. If that epinions review becomes open to the public, I will feel like my right of free speech hasn't been silenced and will be happy to delete all my posts here.

I want to start fresh and happy on a new forum. A forum where any brand can be mentioned and any opinion within reason can be expressed. I love mineral makeup. I love aromaleigh makeup. Haha, I think I am also quite ticked off because I really did think her makeup was the best and now I compare everything to her products. However, I obviously can no longer patronize her company. However, I definitely will be wearing her eyeshadow in some of my FOTD's.

Thank you all for bearing with me. I needed a place to go while I felt like my voice was being silenced.

I read all of it... this thread, your review, and the thread at Aromaleigh. Personally, I think you're both a little nuts. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. I'm also a little nuts, just not to the extravagance that the two of you have taken this. This whole hideousness started because you were upset that you didn't get free samples with your Ebay purchase? Am I right, or have I missed the boat completely?

Honestly, both of you... let this mess go. It's not worth it. It's makeup, folks. There are plenty of other companies that will be happy to take your money.

No, Carleen, you missed the boat. I wrote the review because of having friends I made on the forum chewed out by Kristen and because of the discussion I had with her on how one should treat customers. One friend was chewed out for asking about her missing free samples (were free samples no longer a practice?) on the public forum and not in a private email. Also, I have had other friends I had made on the forum chewed out privately by Kristen for asking about non black and white customer service issues. I decided to have a conversation with Kristen about how one should handle customer service issues. After I realized that my conversation wouldn't change Kristens opinion on how customers should be treated, I felt a review was in order.

The missing samples thing I mentioned was just one case of unfriendly customer service responses that I could reference (I couldn't reference friends' much worse c.s. problems because they were afraid to be found out by Kristen for speaking out against her verbal abuse). At that point in time I had nothing worse to reference about something that happened directly to me except the free sample thing and that long discussion with Kristen on how one should treat customers and handle oneself. I didn't care about missing free samples. I cared about how I and others were treated when they asked about missing samples and other things I can't mention for my friends' privacy, and I cared about how Kristen's attitude came out in that forum discussion I had with her: http://aromaleighaficionadas.infopop...4552#858104552

I was shocked at some of the things she wrote, and decided a review was in order. I hoped the review would explain the negative customer service responses and also convince Kristen to treat her customers with more respect, not get riled up at them at the slightest provocation and not always assume that the customers had some nasty agenda behind them. I was fighting not only for myself, but for others who were too scared to speak up about the verbal abuse they had received from Kristen.

If this doesn't make things clearer for you, I am sorry, but I can't think of anything else to say that will.

Now this is my last post on this thread. Once again, I feel like I've come to a point where I've said everything that could be said. This is such a complicated matter, and answering any question takes too long. I want to be rid of this whole experience and let it go. And I will be able to do that as soon as I am sure my epinions review is available for everyone to see. At that point I will remove my posts from this thread.

Okay. Well, good luck with that. I still feel that the whole thing was blown *way* out of proportion. You are the way that you are and Kristen is the way that she is. Call it a personality conflict, if it makes you feel any better. Seriously, I'd let it go because nothing is worth the aggravation that you're obviously putting yourself through.

Well, you are right, I do want to be over with the whole thing. I am just ticked off the epinions still refuses to show my review that when it was posted 4 months ago received many "Very Helpful" ratings from advisors.

But you are correct, I do not have time for this anymore. Luckily I was able to find a place where I could place a direct link to an epinions review that you can't see unless you have a direct link to it.

So I am done. I am over with this drama. However, these posts will have to remain because epinions refuses to show my review.

Peace out!

While I have never purchased anything from this company, the solution to your problem is easy: Buy your products elsewhere and let it go, there are other great companies with better customer service out there...

Also, I reallllllly dislike companies that go out of their way to throw dirt on someone's name because they don't like their products. You win some, you lose some. *shrugs* Let the product speak for itself. I'm tired of seeing supposedly "professional" companies do this (not really talking about Aromaleigh, but still, its annoying).

I want to say that I love Aromaleigh and I did get fast shipping and so on. (No, I have not emailed her with questions of any sort, so maybe my review will waver) I love her products and she lists her ingredients openly on the site, so i have to give kudos to her for that.

HOWEVER, if you have a bad experience with her, you don't have to give her business. I understand we all have some people whom with all the conflicts and so on. I can't blame either you or Kristen. If she acted towards you in a way that is unprovoked (like you give your honest opinions of her products), I'm with you that she should have thought about it before she decided to do that.

Although I like a company or their products, I do not think it's right that if they try to block somebody's honest opinions. No one can please anyone. I've only been to Aromaleigh forum for a couple of times and I think I saw your name. Don't feel bad that some people here are accusing you of creating drama if you did not do anything wrong. We have teh right to express displeasure if any, plus you seemd to do it nicely. I thought Kristen was nice, but you get to know a person better at hard times. She had NO right kicking you off the forum unless somebody is spamming useless hatred. I'm with you though I will still order from her. Sorry... (or stop because something she does that pisses me off)