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Brand Review: Tooth & Nail Cosmetics

I don’t normally do this...not to indie brands, anyway. If anything, I like to support them, uplift them and make sure to give them a fair advantage when trying them out and reviewing them...but when a company fails to even attempt to satisfy their customers while standing by their brand, I can’t sit back and let people fall into the same trap over and over again. As unbelievable as this is, I bought $66 worth of makeup while asleep. I tend to sleep with my phone right next to me in the bed. This is so when my alarm goes off in the morning, I can get to it before it has the chance to go off again or wake anyone else. I’ve texted people in my half- or full-sleep state before, so I’m not surprised that I actually bought makeup in my sleep.

I sleep-bought makeup from Tooth & Nail Cosmetics, an indie brand I never heard of. I don’t know how or where I found them, but I woke up the next morning and while checking my email, saw a receipt for a purchase I had made earlier. I opened it and saw that I bought a couple of highlighters (The Nightmare Before Christmas themed), some kind of eyeshadow or something and a couple of other things. I was floored. How did I--uhh... So I checked out their website. OK. The stuff I picked out looked kind of nice...and it was *only* $66...I’ll let it slide. Besides, who will believe me when I say I shopped in my sleep? A couple of weeks go by and I never received a package or any other notifications of the order. In fact, I even forgot about it until I was deleting emails and saw the initial one I had opened from PayPal. I decided to email them. A day or two later I got a response from a girl named Hannah Foote who asked for my order number so she could look into it. I replied to her a couple of days later and another week passed.

A little frustrated with the lack of communication, I emailed her again using the same contact email address. Finally on Easter, she emailed me back apologizing, saying she had been busy the past couple days and that she’s spending Easter with her sick mother and that my order was supposed to have been sent out before she left. Normally I would feel bad for being a bother and tell the person it’s okay, but mind you, my order was placed almost a month prior with zero communication on tracking or its whereabouts. She also was throwing a guilt trip in there, which I didn’t appreciate. Yes, I 100% understand when life gets in the way, especially the sick parents thing. Both of mine had cancer and I helped take care of both. I put my entire life on hold both times, with the second time resulting in me losing my father. So I do understand that sometimes, you just have to focus on what’s important and everything else can wait. HOWEVER...if you’re an entrepreneur with an active business, you need to take steps to ensure your business won’t suffer while you’re taking a hiatus or trying to juggle your busy life. This includes hiring a trusted person to be you in the business when you can’t, finding ways to stay in touch with clients when it’s important and making sure your jobs/products get pushed out in a timely manner. If that’s not doable, then you need to speak up, own up and figure it out.  So I fired back. As a fellow entrepreneur of sorts, I know how this all works out. So I thanked her for the guilt trip (bitchy, unprofessional move--I know) and reminded her that as someone who owns/operates a business, she needs to figure out how to get her clients taken care of in the event she cannot. Of course, I told her this in so many words and assured her that this wasn’t a personal attack, but rather one entrepreneur looking out for another. She, in the email, said she had her partner back home taking care of everything and that she’d walk her through the process in case they needed to resend my order (which was never sent out in the first place), but I am pretty sure she has no partner and she’s running this show solo.

After my reply, I heard nothing. While waiting, I did a little research and found nothing but negative posts and comments on this business! All stories seemed to be the same: packages never received and no to very little communication or packaged received with damaged items, little to no communication and no replacements offered. It seems, though, the one thing Hannah and “her team” are on top of is issuing refunds.

Growing tired of this debacle, I waited a few days before finding them on Facebook and tagging them in an edit to a post (if you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen it) I made asking if anyone has ever purchased from Tooth & Nail Cosmetics. She immediately commented and told me to email her personal email and she’d take care of me. I told her that I was actually waiting for a response from her on her business email and what do you know? Still no answer.

Finally I gave up. “Only $66″ turns into “that’s $66″ really fast. I messaged her through PayPal and told her firmly that I wanted a refund. The next morning I woke up to a processed refund and no message whatsoever. Mess cleaned, I guess.

The point of this post is simple: please beware of businesses like Tooth & Nail Cosmetics. It’s hard when you’re dealing with indie brands (and even larger brands), but just remember to do your research first and maybe even reach out to the owner to get a feel for who they are and how strongly they stand by their product. It will also give you an idea of how they might be with customer service. Kind of like a Try Before You Buy idea.

I have no products from this business to test, swatch or tell you about and that sucks. The next indie brand I find, though...I’m going to research them and hopefully be able to grab some goodies that I can test and share with all of you! I do not recommend this brand due to the headache I, and apparently a bunch of others, endured just trying to support, but take all of this with a grain of salt and check them out for yourself. 

http://www.toothandnailcosmetics.net/ XOXO Michelle

[distancebeauty]

[distancebeauty]

Didn't bring any face products with me so I could only do my eyes and lips! On my eyes are colors (banana, peanut butter, peanut brittle, spread the love and extra creamy) from @toofaced's #pbjpalette, @eyeko's skinny liquid black eyeliner and @toofaced's #betterthansexmascara. My lips have the beautiful #lookitslava from @covergirl's #liplava collection. 😘 *mk

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Trying to conquer my fear: falsies. Brittie, help! 😭 *mk

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Please excuse the ink residue still on my hands from work, but I'm in love with the color of this nail polish! 😘 *mk

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Last one for now! The @walmart beauty box! For $5, it's not bad. I can and will use everything in here! *mk

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January @birchbox! Truth be told, I'm kind of disappointed! I'm only excited about the eyeliner. Oh well, there's always next month! 😘 *mk

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January @ipsy bag for me! I'm late with sharing mine! I'll be posting pics of my birchbox and Walmart boxes too! 😘 *mk

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What's in/on it Wednesday! Here's what's on my desk at work--winter essentials to combat the frigid temps against my skin and the stress that sometimes comes with work! What's at your work station today? *mk

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I got bored and happened to walk by the Electric palette by Urban Decay. I grabbed it, sat down and swatched it! *mk

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Brittie and I were reunited today! So yes, are actually real life friends! ❤️ *mk & *bb

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Wet 'N' Wild Fantasy Makers lipstick in Hazardous Red, Purple Seduction and Pitch Black. The formula is very glossy, slippery, oily. Good for costume wear, not daily. I paid $1.99 each at Walgreens, but I believe these can be found cheaper! *mk

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU50nEITrxA)

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Gorgeous!

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$12)*Two of these swatches are for products not shown.

I went to Walgreens the other night to pick up prescriptions for myself and because the pharmacy is in the back of the store, I’m forced to walk through the aisles of things going back and coming back up to leave. The one thing I DO have control of in this situation is which aisles I walk through, so on my way out, I chose to walk through cosmetics.

I have two of the Wet ‘N’ Wild glitter Color Icon shadows and they’re not bad. I decided to buy the rest of the colors they had. At $1.99 each, they were worth a go. (Though, make sure you’re paying the right price unlike me, because they are only $0.99 on Wet ‘N’ Wild’s official website)

As you can see in the swatches, the purple one (354B Groupie) seems to apply the best. It’s dark and has better coverage than the other three colors. The formula is indeed smooth, despite the size of the glitters, allowing you to pat or swipe this on top of your eyelid without scratching up your skin.

The next item to catch my eye was the Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art pen in Chartreuse ($5.99). I haven’t swatched this, but that will come when I do my nails later this week! <3

Lastly at Walgreens, I snagged the most gorgeous CoverGirl Colorlicious Lip Lava lip gloss ($7.99 at Walgreens, cheaper elsewhere). The color is called Look It’s Lava! and in the tube, it’s this beautiful holographic magenta color. I’m not a pink-lovin’ gal, but this color stood out, so I grabbed it. They call it a gloss, but with the way it applies and sits on the lips, the color is so intense, I’d almost argue that it’s a lip color or glossy liquid lipstick. However, the product is easy to wipe off, so gloss may be an appropriate term in that case.

The color is opaque and the formula is thick. It smells nice, but chemical-y. The applicator is brush-ended.

I’ve already worn it for a day, so I’ll write up a report on that later. I liked it, but the bold lip requires a certain way to wear the rest of my makeup so it doesn’t look silly. That’s something I’ll need to work on! The other two lip glosses I show as swatches are Sephora’s Gel Gloss Ultra Brilliant Ultra Shine Lip Gel in the color 17 Pin-Up Pink ($12.00). I have to say, I do not like it and will not purchase it--the formula is thick, as it’s “gel”, but it’s also very sticky and just uncomfortable to wear. Luckily, what I have is just a sample size that I got from Sephora. (Hooray for samples!) The last one is a clear, glittery gloss infused with vitamins C and E from a brand I’ve never heard of--lune+aster. I guess it’s because it seems to be a brand exclusive to Bluemercury, a store I discovered while I was waiting for my appointment at the Apple Store. I like it! The applicator is the standard wand, which is very familiar and totally embraced. The smell is a subtle, inviting warm vanilla-type scent, which I actually really like...and I don’t really like vanilla scents. The glitters in it are very, very fine, allowing it to look very frosty in the tube. It’s beautiful and is almost comparable to (the now discontinued) Urban Decay Pocket Rocket in Julio. This gloss was pricy, ringing up at $18. I would definitely buy another one, though! Happy shopping!

XO *mk

[distancebeauty]

Bought two lipsticks I forgot about: RK by Kiss matte colors in Mojito Lover (minty color) and Blue Lagoon (blue). These were $2.99 a piece and were purchased just so I could meet the balance minimum to use a card to pay for my acrylic brushes at the beauty supply. They're exactly as priced: cheap. The formula is dry as most matte lipsticks are, but due to being low-end, they're dryer than most. It can be compared to wetting chalk and smearing that all over your lips. As you can see from my photos, it's blotchy as well--these were difficult to apply. The blue was smoother than the mint in application, though. The smell is chemical-y in nature but surprisingly mild. The taste? I didn't lick to find out. All in all, I wouldn't buy these seriously, but rather for costume purposes. These would be great for Halloween or cosplay! *mk