October 2014 Lip Monthly Bag

So what came in the mail the other day? A package addressed to Shayna Leibowitz. I have no idea who that is, hell, my last name doesnt start with an L or even come close to that. But I guess the people over at Lip Monthly thought "Oh well, we know shes Jewish, lets take a guess". Choen, Greenberg, Leibowitz, Borditsky..... All those names are interchangeable right?

Anyways, in the package came this cute little bag (though it smelled sooooo bad. You know that cheap rubbery smell?). And inside were these items:

A littte tiny sample of a starlooks scrub. I am fairly certain that this is simply a jar of brown sugar. It smells, tastes and looks like it. And has the texture of it. And since there is no ingredients anywhere (never even thought that was legal to send out an item that way) I am going to call it a pot of brown sugar.

A kosher lip balm. Not quite sure why the lipgloss has to be Kosher, as you are not eating it, and not me nor anyone else I know who keeps kosher requires that, but I guess they are targeting some market somewhere with it.

A J Cat Lipstick - Cant say I am too interested in this. A $3 lipstick that looks like a concealer.... I will however give it a try before forming an opinion.

A Devine gloss - this is very sheer and the swatch is after many many swipes.

A black brown eyyeliner from LA Girl. A very cheap liner that was better than I thought, but no where near the quality I demand out of an eyeliner.

Starlooks Lip Pencil in Bare

So today I got my item for filling out the Starlooks survey. I am pretty sure I am the only one so far to get one. I have posted in several groups I am in and NO ONE so far has said they got one or a shipping notification for this.

They posted a few different excuses for why they were not going to send out the free item, but I did not the get the email saying that it wasn't coming OR an email saying it was.

I posted on their facebook wall.

And I emailed them at the address given and within 4 hours I had a tracking email that the item was coming.

It came today. A little dented. But otherwise, it came.

Dented lid. How does that even HAPPEN?

Amd a pretty funny tip. Its kind of warped. Hard to tell in the image though.

Now, I recently reviewed another lip liner from Starlooks that was dry and dragged and was fairly unpleasant. This one is

That being said, its kind of a bad colour for me. Is that a nice way of saying it? Its browner than this image shows and kind of looks like melted milk chocolate. Or as a girlfriend so nicely put it, "why did you write a note on your hand with poo?". Yup, only she would go there, but it does kind of look like that. The formula however is quite lovely so I will play around with it a bit more and see if I can make it work.

Starlooks Single Shadow Compact In ????

So this shadow has no name on it. Googling it came back with the same response I already had. That it lacks a name. The shade could be found in birthday boxes from Starlooks.

This is a lilac/periwinkle cross of a shade and its SHEER. Its rather dry and while I think its acceptable and you could make it work, its neither worth the hassle nor is it worth the effort. Overall, I would say you could spend $12 much wiser and get much better bang for your buck

Starlooks Cherry Cedar Lip Liner And Obsidian Eyeliner

I have been quite harsh with Starlooks but its because every opportunity I have to interact with them has ended in them making up a BS story and me wanting to bang my head against a wall.

They recently came out with a survey that they asked people to fill out and promised to send a product to everyone who completed it. Time goes by and they email everyone who filled it out that the data was corrupted. Then they explain it on the facebook page that they got too many fake entries of people using fake names and fake addresses. When its pointed out NO ONE WOULD EVER DO THAT (they might use the same address many times to get more than one freebie, but no one fills it out and gives fake non existent addresses to get their free item) they changed the story BACK to they couldn't pull out the information. To solve this they are going to REISSUE the survey with much stricter guidlines on who can fill it out.

The general consensus online was that too many people filled it out and they didnt want to send so many free items. Its the only plausible reason why they have all the information to contact everyone and tell them they dont know who filled it out (the people whose surveys the responded to are the ones that filed it out. DUH!) and that they will reissue it with much stricter guidelines on who can fill it out. 

So I have to say it is with all that in my head that I got these two products. The lip liner is a cool toned red which seems odd since it was part of the same collection as the Boss lipstick which is very warm toned. And I was NOT in a generous mood to cut them slack and still rather unimpressed with the company.  

So when I opened them up and saw the tip I was even more annoyed. They looked very dry and not very user friendly. I expected a lot of drag, and an uncomfortable application.

However:

And it does NOT easily come off. Like not easily at all. This is AFTER both Bioderma AND my astringent.

Unfortunately,

The eyeliner was surprisingly fabulous (if you want a waterproof, will not go anywhere even if you want it to) and if you are a waterproof mascara kind of girl, I would highly recommend checking this liner out. The lip liner was dry, it dragged, it was uncomfortable, and I would say save your money and skip it.

Starlooks Boss Lipstick

Starlooks lipstick in Boss is a warm toned red lipstick with golden shimmer. Now I bought a bunch of these lipsticks (not this one which IS Starlooks branded) from the supplier that Starlooks gets its products from, so they are the same without the logo that Starlooks puts on. And I must say I already like the formula. As well discussed already on this blog, does Starlooks make the products themselves? NO. Do they lie about it? Well, they sure did in the past, even after being caught.

Please don't try to explain how you significantly change the formulas of the products in your lab (which you apparently don't have) so that they no longer resemble the original product when no single ingredient or order of ingredients is changed whatsoever and the product still looks identical, has the same address on it as the ones not labeled with your brand and you  haven't even bothered to change the name.

But that is a dead horse, and the bottom line is a of their makeup IS nice. Including this lipstick.

Yes, this picture was taken the same time as the equally scary Ardency Inn picture was, so you will haev to forgive the makeup-less face.

Starlooks - Customer Service Leaves A Bad Taste In My Mouth

Oh my gosh! The shit really hit the fan! My last post about Starlooks I thought was a fair and balanced post. I explained how/where they got their product. It was not a "DO NOT BUY" post in any way shape or form. The issue had come up on facebook and it had really upset a lot of subscribers who were under the impression that it was an indie brand with an in house chemist formulating everything himself. I can see how if you thought that, you might be upset to find out otherwise, but I see nothing wrong with that.

I DO see something wrong with how Marci (the owner of the company) has dealt with the issue.

So it started off with a post saying "hey, all these brands sell the same items with the same names in the same packaging with the same ingredients". The discussion goes on as more and more brands are uncovered selling the same stock products (everything but brand logo is the same) with IDENTICAL ingredients in identical order.

Then Marci comes in to clear things up. And at least in my opinion, she answered nothing. She should have said, "yes, this is how we do it, but we only choose the products we are in love with. We carry a limited amount of their items because only so many meet our high standards"

I think her entire intention was to baffle with bullshit because she just went in circles never giving specific answers.


Here is the discussion from the point Marci joined in trying to "answer" our questions.

 

Now, to add insult to injury, while all this discussion is going on, this is how she updates her facebook status:

The thread goes on, but that was the owners part of it, until her big statement.

Now aside from the fact that Coke and Pepsi DO taste completely different, they do not have the EXACT SAME INGREDIENTS, nor do they even have all the ingredients in the same order. She is full of crap about a few things in that long post.

There is NOTHING wrong with how they run their business. But they apparently advertised the brand by saying that they had an in house chemist who used to work for MAC formulating MAC's items, and now he was with them. I kept repeating my questions, and Marci KEPT refusing to answer them. So with that said, and NONE of my questions answered, I posted my questions on their facebook wall.

Now just to be clear, here is my comment zoomed in.

I do not think I was rude, I do not think I was out of line (other than for some reason calling the tipsy lipliner I want an eyeliner, not sure what was going on in my head with that) and it was promptly deleted.

I have a BIG issue with posts being deleted from Facebook walls. Its one thing to ignore something (though it looks bad if you dont have an answer) but deleting it is to me, dishonest and offensive. Marci obviously had NO intention of answering my questions (she said in the facebook page her statement would answer them and they did not) as she just deleted the comment off the wall. It no longer exists, she is no longer held accountable to answer the questions.

Now let me be clear, I am NOT saying you should not buy from them. I am however suggesting you all ask her some questions. She says they have altered many of their products (fine tuning or tweeking in such miniscule amounts that it doesnt once change the order of ingredients or add or delete any ingredient in) and yet refuses to give ONE example of a product they have tweeked. If they have such a wonderful chemist working for them that used to develop for MAC, that would be an added BENEFIT or ADVANTAGE of the product and they should be happy to tell us such. I am not asking for privileged information, I am asking for basic information. If you are going to make a claim, you should be able to back it up, especially once your credibility has been questioned.

I will not be purchasing ANYTHING from the brand (and I sadly had a shopping list I have been procrastinating with) until I get at a minimum an answer to my questions. I am at the point now where I am guessing that they alter NO formulations whatsoever. If they did, I am thinking they would have an answer or two or me. 

My questions: