Chloe and Bella Polish Company

[JenTX]

This is just getting worse and worse.  I'll update what my polish looks like when I get it.  Sigh - I was the one who originally posted about the sale and I've had pretty good experiences overall with indie brands, but I feel terrible about how this turned out /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I originally saw a post with the details on reddit (which I can't find right now since searching reddit is hard and I'm also not registered on the site), but it mainly just had the sale code and a link to this blog with a brief review: http://www.rightonthenail.com/2014/07/chloe-bella-indie-brand-summer-2014.html

 believe the post was made by the writer of the blog.  It seemed favorable, the cost was pretty low, and the payment could be done with paypal so I figured it was safe enough.

FYI they do have a facebook page, under "chloe and bella cosmetics" where you could try contacting them as well.

eta: the blog link I originally posted was a newer one; the one above is the first one I saw.  The same blogger did a follow up here http://www.rightonthenail.com/2014/07/chloe-bella-indie-brand-summer-2014_23.html.

That blog post is interesting. The daffodil color, even if she used it as a top coat, looks nothing like the daffodil on their website.

 

[NotTheMama]

Oh, and just a thought, maybe you should put a link to this in the indie polish lovers thread as well.

I went & looked at her site and I'm totally amazed, what you got looks NOTHING like the bottle she shows. Wow, just wow.

 

[Christa W]

The indie market is so competitive and I trust the word of my fellow MUT friends more than most other people in this world.  It's a shame.  Sorry you had to go through all of that. 

 

[Deareux]

It's companies like these that give indie brands a bad rep. Sure you can spend the money to get a decent website, logo, and ingredients/supplies. But somewhere along the line, no research on how to conduct business is actually done. It doesn't matter if your stuff is awesome, if your business conduct is unprofessional, people will be aware of that more.

 

[felicia1995]

@@normajean2008 If you don't get an acceptable resolution (refund) from the business owner, PayPal is usually eager to take the side of the consumer. It's pretty easy to get a refund if you paid by PayPal.

Sorry for your bad experience. I would have been really creeped out as well. It does make me wonder which companies are monitoring activity on MUT. On one hand, I hope they are because it would give them an honest, anonymous assessment of their product or service that would hopefully lead to improvements. However, using information obtained by other sources (your order) to single out individual users is not cool. 

 

[Tamarin]

That blog post is interesting. The daffodil color, even if she used it as a top coat, looks nothing like the daffodil on their website.

I think it looks similar but in the blog post it looks like the bottle is only partly full (bc it's a "press sample")?  

 

[zadidoll]

"Press sample" typically means the blogger got it for free from the company and really has nothing to do with it being a sample size or different product.

 

[acostakk]

What a pity. I actually liked the bottles I got, and fully intended to get more.....now, not so much.

 

[normajean2008]

I think it looks similar but in the blog post it looks like the bottle is only partly full (bc it's a "press sample")?  

I think it looks similar enough to the company photo... however, I do not agree with most of her descriptions about coverage.  

She states online that this yellow glitter color is semi opaque in one coat, fully in 3.  Yet her company photos show two coats, and it is NO where near even semi opaque.  Full coverage/opacity for glitter (as I believe) is like the blog poster's purple glitter nails posted below the yellow.  A full coverage glitter, none/hardly none nail showing.  

You'd need like 10 coats to get that yellow as full coverage or opaque, lol.  

I really don't believe this owner understands what certain terms mean, or how to provide accurate descriptions.  

Oh, and Tamarin, don't feel bad at all for posting the original link telling us about this company.  You had no idea, and that's how you find the good indies. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />  She at least only does payment by paypal, so she doesn't have anybody's account info/card info!  

And you know what, I was originally waffling between her "magnolias" polish and "black opal".  Had I chose "magnolias" I might not have experienced this outcome, and kept shopping with her..and who knows what would have happened in that situation.  She has pretty bad privacy trust, so this experience has a silver lining of being able to warn others.    I value the type of outlet and community this website provides, and whether something personally comes out good or bad, being able to talk about it and share makes things pretty good in the end.  

 

[normajean2008]

I believe I already mentioned how I sent her an email to her response and gave her a good piece of my mind/calling her out on her behavior.  

So far she hasn't said anything else in response, which I like because she really has nothing she could say at this point.  I just hope she learns and takes some important stuff to heart.  Turns out some of the points I gave her a piece of mind on were very similar to sentiment of what Zadidoll posted earlier here.  

I just wanted to give the update that she did send me back a refund to my paypal this afternoon.  It isn't going to get her any good press or brownie points, but she at least figured out it was the right thing to do.  I gave her the option to not refund if she wants, left it up to her to decide.  

I'm sorry it had to come down like this, calling her out etc, bad reviews... but she caused all this mess her self, she's only got her own actions to blame.  I just made sure anything I said was about what happened, how I feel as a customer, how her actions made me feel.  No name calling, cursing, or personal insults.  

 

[normajean2008]

Oh, and just a thought, maybe you should put a link to this in the indie polish lovers thread as well.

I went & looked at her site and I'm totally amazed, what you got looks NOTHING like the bottle she shows. Wow, just wow.

I can do that.  

In addition... some of her polishes look great, but I don't believe most of them will be as advertised.  The good thing though, is none of hers is SO unique that totally awesome REAL companies wouldn't or couldn't produce something like it themselves.  

 

[normajean2008]

I just ordered polish from this company on Friday. Regretting it, to say the least.

Well, I hope you like what you picked out!  The polish itself isn't that bad (formula wise), it isn't amaze balls, but it isn't terrible either.  

What is really upsetting is she slinks around, knowingly breaks rules multiple times, and searches people online.  I would suggest, and this would be for anybody in any case, that on online forums, never post your real name or any identifiable info that others can see whenever.  While those of us here (for example) wouldn't think anything of it or do any harm... it is cases like this lady that make it dangerous.  She had no personal information about me here, yet she connected my real info and order info to my profile here.  You can't do that without actively stalking.  If you have to post real info, make it private to members only/friends only, or use fake info/alias.  People might call you the wrong name, lol, like I get called Norma all the time from my screen name I use most places.  I don't mind, if by chance somebody wants to do shady, they can look up Norma and not find anything.  ((NormaJean is my girl kitty btw, and she loves to sit next to me starring at makeup talk, and wants blush with a brush put on daily when I'm doing my makeup.  Sadly, I'm not kidding on that one, lol.)  She doesn't have your payment info, which can be the most damaging if something goes wrong, so at least you don't have to worry about that! :-D  

People like this don't think twice about doing the same all over, and that is the scarier part.  Who's to stop her from searching for personal pages, like Facebook etc?  Defensive people who are currently in the wrong and deal this kind of behavior online, aren't typically above retaliating themselves.  Stalking, posting slanderous or threatening comments/images on blogs, you name it.  

while I can't obviously say for sure, I'm willing to bet she googles her company daily, looking for reviews, who's posting them... She's new, so she's going to be watching and looking for people to promote her products.  If it is negative reviews, she'll most likely behave like she's done here.  And that is the only reason I brought up Bondi in my original post.  Everybody who knows the issues with Bondi know this kind of personality and behavior, and this owner is pretty similar in interactions.  

 

[tweakabell]

The name thing really gets me.  There are ladies here who know my real name either from packages or emails and none of them refer to me as such. I am Tweakabell here and that is what I'm comfortable with (and probably more likely to respond to, I rarely hear my name in real life, lol). And these are people I consider friends or at least people I "know." I couldn't imagine a complete stranger being so presumptuous and forward.

Edit: Here to hear and theses to these. Proofreading is your friend lol

 

[Tamarin]

So I took some pictures of the black opal polish I received.  I took the pictures in natural light after reading what the owners said about the color shift being less visible under artificial lighting.

The polish is sheer unless you use a dark base.  In the bottle the color shift can be seen clearly when you change the angle.  I tried out some swatches over a black polish (shown in the pic).  I also tried it over dark blue and burgundy but there wasn't much difference.  You can easily see a shift from blue to purple in the swatches (though it's hard to see in the swatch pictures).  It also looks like there is a shift to a dark reddish-orange color (middle bottom pic) at certain angles.  I haven't tried it out on my nails yet so that may look different as well.  I do wish the shift was more of a gold but in the bottle at least it does look pretty simliar to the images on the website.  I didn't notice any cigarette smell but my polish was packed in tissue paper and not a small purse.

 

[normajean2008]

So I took some pictures of the black opal polish I received.  I took the pictures in natural light after reading what the owners said about the color shift being less visible under artificial lighting.

The polish is sheer unless you use a dark base.  In the bottle the color shift can be seen clearly when you change the angle.  I tried out some swatches over a black polish (shown in the pic).  I also tried it over dark blue and burgundy but there wasn't much difference.  You can easily see a shift from blue to purple in the swatches (though it's hard to see in the swatch pictures).  It also looks like there is a shift to a dark reddish-orange color (middle bottom pic) at certain angles.  I haven't tried it out on my nails yet so that may look different as well.  I do wish the shift was more of a gold but in the bottle at least it does look pretty simliar to the images on the website.  I didn't notice any cigarette smell but my polish was packed in tissue paper and not a small purse.

c and b black opal.png

Your polish looks like it has maybe a hair more color shift than mine does, based on these swatches.  Your bottle shows more than mine does.  But your photos still don't look like hers, so I still say how can they be from the same batch of polish and be so different.  :-\  

The bad smell was from the coin purse she put mine in, so if you didn't get one that'd be why you don't have a weird smell.  

 

[normajean2008]

I don't know what this lady is trying to prove?  Other than the points I made are valid.  She made another fake profile account today to send me a nasty harassing private message.  Still breaking the rules, still behaving the same, and now she's working on breaking legal laws for online harassment.   :wacko2:

 

[Tamarin]

I don't know what this lady is trying to prove?  Other than the points I made are valid.  She made another fake profile account today to send me a nasty harassing private message.  Still breaking the rules, still behaving the same, and now she's working on breaking legal laws for online harassment.   :wacko2:

<_<  that really sucks...you would think that after the refund it would be over

As for the polish - at certain angles the color is very obvious but other than that it looks blue.  I was just looking at it (now that it's dark and I have the lights on) and it's very hard to see the shift.

eta: and the color shift is more of a reddish orange than gold.

 

[tweakabell]

I don't know what this lady is trying to prove?  Other than the points I made are valid.  She made another fake profile account today to send me a nasty harassing private message.  Still breaking the rules, still behaving the same, and now she's working on breaking legal laws for online harassment.   :wacko2:

OMG! I could forgive a bad batch but cyber-stalking/harassing and bad CS? MAJOR NO-NOS which is a shame cuz @@Tamarin s swatches looked closer to the product pics

 

[Monika1]

Dear Business Owner/Representative, You may not like what a customer has to say about your product or your business however the customer has the right to his or her opinion be it the good, the bad or the ugly. The more you argue with a customer the less likely you're going to win that customer's trust or loyalty. You need to apologize to the customer even if the customer is wrong but you don't call them a liar, you don't fight with them and you most certainly do not belittle their opinions or experiences. If you go out of your way to make things right with the customer be it refunding their money or replacing a defective product then do so with no questions asked. APOLOGIZE even if you don't feel you were at fault. Make things right. Even if you have to lose some money to make the customer happy if you succeed in winning back that customer you're probably going to have a loyal customer who will not only gush over how well you treated them but who will return to make more purchases. Anger or upset the customer further and not only will you lose that customer but in a day and age where social media is rampant that person could very easily create such negative feedback that it will not only deter other potential customers but also damage your company's reputation as well as your own personal reputation. The choice is yours to make.

What fantastic business advice for anyone in business or thinking about it in this intensively interconnected digital information era! Those of us who feel we can't do this with a customer when we feel we're in the right probably shouldn't venture there, or should at least make sure we're not anywhere near our customer-facing representatives. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

It is sad that a few impassioned mistakes have the power to very easily destroy a business and livelihood. This reality is not new to the digital era, or unique to business as opposed to personal life. But it does mean an experience like this really emphasises how important honesty, grace, generosity, forgiveness, and careful thought before words or actions can be in our individual lives. It also reminds me of a dear friend who truly embraces that understanding.

Thanks everyone for the reminder.  :sunshine:

 

[ChicagoBlonde]

Goodness what a hot mess! Someone posted a link to this thread in the August Birchbox thread so I'm a bit late to the party. I do not understand why company reps or PR people come out guns blazing in various forums using the company name. They could create an account, post every few days about something unrelated to the product/company they're representing and then their cheerleading posts wouldn't seem so blatant as long as they stuck to OMG this is the best thing ever and didn't attack posters or drop details that only an employee would know. There was someone from SocialBliss in the past few weeks trying to do cleanup in their MUT thread and Zadi deleted all the posts/responses. 

What is really upsetting is she slinks around, knowingly breaks rules multiple times, and searches people online.  I would suggest, and this would be for anybody in any case, that on online forums, never post your real name or any identifiable info that others can see whenever.  While those of us here (for example) wouldn't think anything of it or do any harm... it is cases like this lady that make it dangerous.  She had no personal information about me here, yet she connected my real info and order info to my profile here.  You can't do that without actively stalking.  If you have to post real info, make it private to members only/friends only, or use fake info/alias.  People might call you the wrong name, lol, like I get called Norma all the time from my screen name I use most places.  I don't mind, if by chance somebody wants to do shady, they can look up Norma and not find anything.  ((NormaJean is my girl kitty btw, and she loves to sit next to me starring at makeup talk, and wants blush with a brush put on daily when I'm doing my makeup.  Sadly, I'm not kidding on that one, lol.)  She doesn't have your payment info, which can be the most damaging if something goes wrong, so at least you don't have to worry about that! :-D  

People like this don't think twice about doing the same all over, and that is the scarier part.  Who's to stop her from searching for personal pages, like Facebook etc?  Defensive people who are currently in the wrong and deal this kind of behavior online, aren't typically above retaliating themselves.  Stalking, posting slanderous or threatening comments/images on blogs, you name it.  

while I can't obviously say for sure, I'm willing to bet she googles her company daily, looking for reviews, who's posting them... She's new, so she's going to be watching and looking for people to promote her products.  If it is negative reviews, she'll most likely behave like she's done here.  And that is the only reason I brought up Bondi in my original post.  Everybody who knows the issues with Bondi know this kind of personality and behavior, and this owner is pretty similar in interactions.  

I completely cosign this. I'm probably a bit more private online than most but that's due to the combination of having a very unique first/last name combo and an ex-BF in college who climbed through the window of my second floor apartment (he climbed up using the porch on the first floor) at 7a one morning to 'talk'. I'm a super deep sleeper so I don't know how I heard him in the living room from the bedroom but the noises he made messing with the window and screen from the outside what woke me up. Half-asleep I walked into the living room and found him just entering. I freaked and yelled at him to get out. Amazingly he did. (I'm a huge fan of forensics and true crime so I know this could have ended up much, much, much worse) I called the cops and the ex actually called me on my cell while the officer was taking my report and tried to get me to tell the cop that him climbing through the window was just our quirky thing and not him breaking and entering. I laughed and gave the cop my phone. He also had to be banned from the bar I worked at and kept calling me for over three years after we broke up. Crazy people don't go away easily...

I know there have been at least two instances of posters on The Purse Forum being robbed after posting details about their collections and houses (one of them even put up partial floor plans!).

http://forum.purseblog.com/up-to-the-minute/womans-home-burglarized-20-000-00-worth-handbags-851946.html

Maryland State Police say they've arrested a Baltimore man wanted after the theft of eight purses worth $200,000 in Texas.


Police announced Thursday that 40-year-old Edward Bryant of Baltimore is being held on a fugitive warrant. Police say warrants issued in Texas charge Bryant with burglary and theft over $100,000 and Texas authorities have begun extradition proceedings against him.


Police in West University Place, Texas, say eight Hermes bags were stolen from a home on Dec. 7 and Bryant and another person were identified as suspects. They contacted Maryland authorities this week and he was arrested Tuesday at his home. The homeowner and his wife weren't at home the night those expensive, one of a kind, Hermes purses were taken from their home.

http://forum.purseblog.com/up-to-the-minute/woman-with-worlds-largest-closet-robbed-876868.html

Theresa Roemer says a burglar broke in Friday night and took between $800,000 and a $1 million of designer bags, jewelry and fur. She said she has surveillance footage of the suspect spending 40 minutes removing items from the 3,000-square-foot closet she had installed to host charity fundraisers.

"He was a total professional and he's on tape," said Roemer, referring to home security video she said has now been handed to Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. "He broke in through the bathroom window in the master bedroom. He took all of my jewerly, all of my watches, my Birkin bags, my husband's watch collection."

It's very easy to let your guard down when you interact with people on a daily basis online but you never know who's reading what you post with nefarious intents. I constantly see guy friends on FB who have their entire address, including unit number, listed in their profile and the profile is unlocked! I keep waiting for posts that say their condo was cleaned out while on vacation. I use a different ID on each forum/social media site so if someone has a grudge on one then it doesn't get to carryover to another one. Again this could just be me being paranoid but better that than the psycho ex showing up at one of my kickball games just to say 'Hi' or a company I gave a negative review to finding out where I work.