Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My thoughts on the Stardust/AL drama

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for responding to my last post and advising me to open a Paypal dispute. If someone could email me and tell me how to do this, or if I even CAN do it since I used an e-check, I would really appreciate it. Now to the real issue here... I do have opinions on the drama that has gone on, and I wanted to share my own feelings on it. I am NOT here to point fingers, tell you where to shop, where your loyalties should lie, etc. I would just like to share how I see the situation. I will also say this right now, some of the comments I have read on other people's posts about this are hateful and nasty, to people who don't even have anything to do with this situation. Discuss THIS issue, not any past issues that are completely irrelevant and unrelated. I am NOT going to tolerate people leaving such horrible comments on my blog- if I see them I will do the responsible thing and DELETE them, or I will set all the comments to be approved first. I refuse to allow people to leave derogatory comments about anyone and use my blog as a place to pick fights. I hope I don't have to do this, it's really pathetic that some people can't act like an adult over something like makeup. I welcome your opinions, different as they may be, as long as they are respectful. :) For anyone who doesn't understand what's been going on, I invite you to read this post by Phyrra. I think it seems like a pretty accurate timeline of events. I also think you should read this. I simply do not believe that Jenna had any kind of malicious intent here. I believe her when she says she just wanted some straight answers, and being the owner of another company, any way she tried to find out would be seen as her trying to "sabotage" Aromaleigh. Do I think that creating a fake identity was a good solution to the problem? No, but I can at least see WHY she did it. Do I think she took it a little too far? Yes, at some points, but as I said, I think her intent was just to get answers, not to harm Aromaleigh as a company. People seem to be looking only at the "facts" that demonize Jenna, and not even attempting to look at her side of the story. I looked at her email to MMM, and her blog entry, and they don't seem to be saying two totally different things to me, which is what is being implied (saying this makes her two faced and hypocritical). It DOES seem to me that people are twisting around a lot of what she said to try and make her out as supervillian #1 here. I also don't like how people are doing the whole "I'm being cyberstalked" thing. She didn't say that. She told people to stop harassing her. It is not the same. I also respect the fact that once she was found out, she gave an apology that I personally find to be sincere, and tried to show her side of the story while still not trashing Aromaleigh. I looked at Kristen's twitter and she's not exactly being professional here either. I think calling people psychos and nutjobs and using her kid to make Jenna feel even more guilty is a little ridiculous. I think if this had happened between Stardust and any other company besides Aromaleigh, people would be looking at things a little more objectively. It seems to me that many people ignore any wrongdoings of Miss K, while eagerly scrutinizing other companies. This doesn't fly with me. I don't feel comfortable ordering from Aromaleigh anymore because of some of her actions. I think people are manipulating what Jenna said and putting words in her mouth because they support Miss K. If this is way tl;dr for you- here's my short summary- I don't think Jenna went about handling this in the best possible manner, but she has also apologized for it, and I don't believe she had any intent in harming Aromaleigh. I think there are a lot of people who would follow Miss K and slam anyone else, regardless of the situation, and Jenna's words are being twisted to make her look bad. I will still continue to shop at Stardust because I think Jenna is a nice person who had good intentions, but didn't necessarily cary them out the way she should have. Thoughts and opinions? Keep it civil.

33 comments:

  1. I agree with you.
    Personally, I'm not taking sides. I have not ordered from Stardust (only because I never really browsed the site) and I still continue to use my Aromaleigh products as well. The only thing I'm seeing here that's 'bad' is how she hid her identity. But honestly, she came clean very soon afterwords and just imagine what would have happened if she brought it to everyone's attention under her real name.

    As for Kristen, I do feel a bit of sympathy for her only because I've dealt with people trying to bring me down in the past, and it really sucks. I'm one of those people that lets personal attacks get to them, whether I show it or not. I agree with a commenter on another site that Kristen gets a lot of drama thrown her way because she responds. I've gotten myself into messes exactly that way.. and learned it's best to ignore it unless it's a serious threat that would require legal action. I have no bad feelings towards her, as I've only experienced very good customer service with her company.

    The one thing that's been bugging me out and annoying me is how everyone is putting Jenna down for leaving the AL forums and starting her own company. She had a dream and she went for it. Was she supposed to stay on the AL forums forever, just suppressing her desire to create her own makeup? Of course not. I also think this has absolutely nothing to do with this 'drama' going on. Just because she left doesn't mean she had bad feelings towards AL. I saw on another site how someone had said she 'then posted a myspace bulletin to everyone on her friends list, including Kristen, about her new company.' I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with that, as she told everyone she was leaving to start a business. Myspace is, after all, a social networking site and a great way to get your company out there.

    Ugh, sorry for the rant, I just don't see why this is blowing up so much. I love the cute animal pictures though, I can't imagine anyone leaving a hateful comment after seeing that. :) haha.

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  2. Wow, is there always so much drama within the internet makeup community? I HAD NO IDEA!

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  3. Jenna should have handled this with her real name. Of course, then she would have still been in trouble because she is a business store owner.

    But truthfully, to me, Jenna's motives don't matter that much to me because what she helped me to confirm matters more.

    It seems like people are trying to create a drama fest so that the real question of aromaleigh's ingredients doesn't get answered. Seriously, now I am checking all my makeup ingredients. Luckily, as of yet, I have found no other ingredients lists using non-FDA approved substances.

    Thanks to whoever tipped me off on Jeniffae's blog, I am now a much more informed consumer. And that was one, if not the only, intention of Jenna in my opinion. I am about to purchase something from Bella Sugar. But now, before I do, I make sure all the ingredients are eye safe. And I can't thank anyone enough for that.

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  4. And thanks for not just following the pack and having your own opinions. I wish more bloggers would post both sides of the story like you have, linking to two opposing views.

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  5. Hey Heather! I actually really like the way you brought forth the information. Would you mind if I linked to this on my blog?

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  6. @casey aimee: I knew there was something I forgot to mention... I hate how people are painting her as some kind of backstabber... because she started her own company? That logic doesn't make sense to me... I always include a Cute Overload picture at the end of a not happy post :P

    @Lissa: There has been so much lately... so frustrating.

    @Tally7: It's only fair to display both sides in a case like this. Let me know your experiences with Bella Sugar, I'm interested in trying their shadows out.

    @KinkyKambria: Go right ahead! :)

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  7. Thanks for saying that much better than i would have. I agree with you completely. I haven't browsed stardust but this "incident" wouldn't make me not shop there. I do however have reasons for no longer purchasing aromaleigh. It doesn't mean i'm going to go around bashing aromaleigh, although it does kind of bother me to see fans rush to her defense every single time when i don't think it is always deserved. I agree that the owner of stardust made a mistake, but who hasn't messed up? And she owned up for making a bad choice. Everyone is willing to cut aromaleigh a break, but it seems everyone else is being held to some other level and it just doesn't seem right to me.

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  8. Yeppers, I will let you know :D. And I just bought some Sassy and agree that they are pretty awesome :).

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  9. Thanks for your objective opinion. I agree, the hateful and nasty comments that are being posted are a little over the top for me. I guess when stuff like this happens it can stir up strong feelings. Jenna may have been in the wrong, but I don't think Kristen's response to the situation was very professional.

    I think these companies need to focus on themselves, their products, and their images. As a customer, it will now be our decision if we chose to shop at these companies after they have been involved in this drama.

    I just received my first order from Stardust yesterday, and I love the products! She nailed the lippies! Love them!

    I hope both Jenna and Kristen will learn and grow from the experience.

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  10. Heather, Thanks for your objective post. It is sad that anything Jenna has done in the past is being thrown into this whole mess. As for Miss K - she can be extremely vindictive and is very quick to take offense. I made a comment on her facebook account one night & got the most vile diatribe from her. I sent an email to customer service explaining myself & apologizing. Never did get any response & I chose to do it via email because there is no other non-public way of contacting her.

    Jenna has some very nice products & has definitely has some learning curves with moving from US to Canada and learning our crazy mail system. Let's hope this drama settles quickly & everyone can get back to enjoying makeup.

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  11. Here's my take: when your name is associated with a product or company that is well known on the internet everything you do or say reflects on what you're associated with, negatively or positively. Your guard must constantly be up. It's very difficult to let your guard down and post an opinion without worrying about negative reflections. Much easier to get another internet identity and post that way. It's done all the time.
    Aromaleigh has been around a long time and will continue to be around, no matter what the latest drama is. I'm sure that Stardust is not the first company whose owner got her inspiration from Aromaleigh, nor will it be the last. When you're as big in the makeup etailing business as they are with an owner being as vocal as she is, there's going to be controversy. As long as I've been using MMU there's been drama. I remember being on a forum years ago and the settings were such that if you tried to type in the name "Aromaleigh" a bunch of swear symbols would show up in the post. The forum owner had a fight and didn't want Aromaleigh mentioned on her forum, this was her way of assuring it didn't.
    So in my (never humble) opinion, it's a new day, a new drama. This one will blow over and there will be another one.
    As an aside, I'd like to mention that I'm also checking the ingredients on my eye shadows and tossing those with questionable ingredients. I started this before reading any post made by Jenna, and I would like to thank the person who pointed it out. And I would like to know why the ingredients lists have changed, and whether or not there are still questionable ingredients in what I already own.

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  12. @Sarah: I agree.

    @The Peach: I just can't believe some of the comments people are leaving on the blogs... I wish companies would stop fighting and just coexist in harmony >_<

    @Marcey: I REALLY hope all the drama calms down... it's not even something I wanted to post about, but seeing as how I shop at Stardust and JUST posted about them, I thought I should.

    @Jayne Dough: Wow, that thing with the forum is slightly ridiculous. Let's all censor everyone's speech, yeah! I hope the next batch of drama will be over something silly Xenia has done so we can all agree with each other and get a good laugh out of it :P

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  13. So much drama in mineral makeup world lately. That's frustrating. :( I totally agree with what you said, Heather.

    There is so much attention to the safety of ingredients lately. It's a good sign - people become more aware of what they put on and INTO their bodies. It's pity that companies try to ignore that and say it's just "a tiny bit, that won't harm you". Btw, I'm not speaking about AL here, it's the current "trend" in the whole beauty industry.

    Would you mind me posting a link on my post about green beauty here? I really wish more people could read those books I mention in that post. Would be great to hear your opinion. Feel free to delete it. http://heavennrj.blogspot.com/2010/04/green-beauty-truth.html

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  14. First, I do want to point out that while everyone is questioning why the ingredient lists are changing, Kristen did blog months ago that there would be reformulation going on. People can speculate and make assumptions as to why, but it all boils down to the fact that the ingredients are changing slightly and whatever problem is there is being fixed. Why is there such a need for so many people to bash that it's being fixed - it's a good thing!

    Second, I didn't see Jenna's actions as so severe until I saw that she had been having conversations with herself by posting as the fake identity on the Stardust company blog - and then responding to the fake comments as Jenna. I don't care how you slice things, that right there is not right.

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  15. from what i've seen, i don't think jenna was wrong in what she was doing. the name might have been better if it wasn't so obvious but i don't see how something that is valid and important with the pigment stuff is something wrong to question just because you own another company. it didn't seem to me to be a fight to close another company down. she asked questions but she didn't go through straight accusations. (if) i might be a business owner, but if i saw something isn't right and knew it then, as with anyone, i'd have the right to question that and find the truth. i think just the minor points of what has been happening has blown up bigger because she is an owner of a 'competing' company. and i always think there are 2 sides to every story and that in nearly every situation like this, the fault was at both ends of the scale. (and i have to agree but miss k can be a bit too defensive. it's a bit of an excessive reaction, which if she didn't say anything it might have just blown over)

    this won't affect me buying from either company (yet...)

    (not to argue. i don't know if i'll be back here to keep talking about this (so busy!), but even if someone is fixing something, if there is a problem and people have reactions, etc, etc then the company is still liable, blah blah blah. and it was sold on sale, not just taken out, so if there is a thing to be fixed that's a problem for the consumers also. it's not always going to be "well at least i fixed it"... sorry, but i promise i'm not ranting)

    good luck with you're paypal dispute. i've never had to open one which i should be thankful for, but unfortunately i know little about it. maybe you should look around paypal and see what you find?

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  16. This is an excerpt that I took from Phyrra's post about items that glow in the dark.

    "
    Edited to Add:
    I contacted Aromaleigh regarding the change in the Rocks ingredients. Here is the response that I received back from the company:
    When Aromaleigh first created the Rocks line, pre-mixed base colors were used with a 'may contain' list on them. It was the same for the lipsticks, too. Pre-mixed liquid color toners were used to create the shades, not powdered dye. Just like the lipsticks, all of the 'may contain' ingredients on the premixed tone colors had to be listed. When evaluating ways to improve Aromaleigh, the company realized that it was more cost-efficient to make the shadows from batch-certified dyes that did not have any 'may contain' ingredients. This is why the ingredients list changed.

    From my understanding of what Aromaleigh said, the 'may contain' stuff means that it could have trace amounts from being made with the same machinery/tools as stuff that does contain it. It's the same with a box of Organic Truffles that I have. It says it 'may contain' nuts, but it doesn't contain nuts. There can be trace amounts of nuts in the box.

    By buying batch certified dye colors where there is no 'contamination' aka trace amounts, Aromaleigh can say 'it only has these dyes.' This certainly reinforces that the ingredients that are being used match up to the approved dyes from the FDA List."

    With that in mind, I thing we have our answer about the "non-FDA approved substances" found in some Aromaleigh shadows (AS WELL AS THOSE FROM OTHER COMPANIES.) People are freaking the hell out over nothing.


    As for my personal opinion, I saw kudos to you. When I first heard all the drama, I immediately sided with Phyrra without reading the facts. I also know that there have been instances in the past where Miss K truly has been screwed over by other people. However......I agree with you. Miss K's words and actions on Twitter are extremely unprofessional and uncalled for. Any lawyer will tell you, avoid retaliation. Let people say what they are going to say, because it will incriminate them. Once you open your mouth and say things, you begin to incriminate yourself.

    I do not know what Jenna's intentions are or were. Things like that are always hard to interpret over the internet. I do see that she admitted to doing something very stupid. I believe that people deserve second chances, and I acknowledge that they don't always make the right choices. I feel that other people should remember that as well, and stop holding grudges.

    Will I continue to order from Aromaleigh? Yes! I want many things from her company.

    Will I order from Stardust? I see no reason not to. I was non particularly wowed with my purchase of samples in the past, but I also acknowledge that I ordered colors that are boring to me. If I happen to see something I want, I will get it.

    Whew, ok did I ramble on long enough? lol.

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  17. Personally I don't think Miss K took this situation very well. I believe she could have handled it a little better but on the same hand how are you suppose to react when your business is threatened? I've never ordered from Stardust but I don't really order much from Aromaleigh either so this won't stop any business, just change which MMU companies I recommend. Also... ugh please no more MMU drama. It's getting hard to keep up with. :P Bleh.
    <3 Your post was very insightful, I saw a different way of viewing this whole situation that wasn't presented before. Good job honey.

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  18. Gosh, I tried to read up on what was happening but everything is so long and I'm not feelin' that right now. So honestly I don't know wtf is going on and I'm not sure I even care, to be honest.

    It seems like way too much drama for something that's not really that huge of a deal? But I'm just looking at this from an uninformed party's view.

    I've never shopped at Stardust, but I've thought about it. I've never shopped at Aromaleigh and definitely won't because she can get pretty unprofessional.

    Also...what does her son have to do with anything? Did Jenna insult him, or what?

    Shoot. My head is gonna explode with MMU drama.

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  19. Heather, I applaud your decision to write this post and to continue to support Stardust Cosmetics.

    I do agree that much of what has been said is quite nasty and judgemental. I also agree that the questioning of Jenna's motives is a little uncalled-for. Some of what she said has been twisted, in particular the 'cyber-stalking' comment.

    Yes, going about it more publicly, as the head of Stardust, would have made things difficut for Jenna. I understand that. However, the sock-puppeting and the multiple posts from multiple accounts is something I VERY strongly disagree with. Jenna should have stuck to ONE seperate account to conduct this 'investigation'. She went very far beyond doing that, and as such I will be taking some time to think about whether or not I will be ordering from Stardust Cosmetics in the future.

    Again, props to you for posting this, and I am glad that Jenna has someone sticking by her as I'm sure she's feeling particularly awful at this time.

    As to the whole Kirsten thing - she does act terribly unprofessionally at times and while yes, she is busy and stressed and the company is close to her heart etc., I do have a problem with the way she reacts to criticism and questioning. I've seen too many accounts of genuine, loyal customers being absolutely demonised by her and her fan-base over matters that should have been handled camly and professionally by her, or if she was incapable of doing so, she should have handed the task off to someone else.

    Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play with my Fyrinnae shadows and send them a gushing email about Glitterboi (which they included as my free sample AND NOW I WANT IT).

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  20. Porcelaine, I definately understand what you're saying, that's a completely valid concern of course. But the comments I'm seeing are more like "OMG I saw the ingredients list changed, she must be hiding something, she just throws illegal ingredients in her stuff and doesn't care!" It's so conspiracy theory, ya know?

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  21. I respect you sooooooo much for this (not that I didnt before, haha). Even though I think Jenna replying to herself on comments is weird as hell, and she didn't go about this in the best way, I think her behaviour is much more mild than some of the stuff Miss K has gotten up to and said in the past.

    And oh god, the part about her son bothers me so much, regardless of whether she showed/told her son about the drama, or she lets her son surf the interwebz and he found it himself :| and I've also got to wonder if he even KNOWS, or it's just her trying to make Jenna feel bad. Ugh and I wont even go into the other stuff she said on her twitter.

    And I agree so much with the first commenter, I dont see how it's bad that Jenna started her own MMU company after being on the AL forum. It's not like she set out to deliberately copy AL or something.

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  22. @HeavenNRJ: Go right ahead. :) I didn't care about eyeshadow ingredients at all before, and it's still not that important to me personally, as I've never had reactions to any makeup I've tried. I did however give someone all my Pure Luxe shadows, some of which I now know are not approved for eye use- she ended up getting a really nasty infection on her eyelid. So I see why it's important for some people!

    @Shattered: That's what I have the biggest issue with.

    @Porcelaine: Well thought out, I agree with what you said.

    @Dominique: Yeah, I agree with you about the "may contain" thing. It can all get confusing. I do agree with you that people have genuinely targeted Miss K before, but I don't think this was one of those times. If you still want to shop both those places, go for it! :D Whatever makes people happy is most important. I'm glad my post made you look at both sides.

    @Pixie: I see how she would be so upset, but of course as a business owner, you should always be professional, and it's too bad both parties didn't really act that way. I'm happy that my post is showing a different side to everything and that people are responding to it!

    Julissa: Mine too, ugh. I think after today I'm going to close comments on this.

    @Jade Carver: The posting back and forth between herself is the thing that I have the real problem with. The rest of it really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. I'm on par with everything you're saying. I WANT GLITTERBOI!

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  23. And for me, Stardust is definitely the lesser of two evils. I could get over the drama and shop there eventually, but I will never be able to justify supporting AL.

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  24. Heather, thank you, dear! But it's not only about eyeshadow ingredients, it's about ingredients in all beauty products. And it's not only about being allergic/getting reactions, it's also about accumulating toxic substances into your body (invisible for our eyes). Ever wondered why there are so many people with cancer, or with birth defects nowadays?

    Once again, this comment was NOT related to discussion about AL, it's just me talking about green beauty vs toxic beauty stuff. :)

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  25. I'm really relieved that you posted about this. I was considering it, but didn't, partly because I didn't want to prolong any drama (I know, I'm a coward) but also because I was just so disappointed by the whole thing that I didn't even want to write about it.

    On the one hand, I agree with you that Jenna probably didn't do herself any favours by going down the 'fake identity' route. But on the other hand, it bothers me that some people who are defending Aromaleigh are not even touching upon the issue which Jenna raised in the first place: that of potentially unsafe ingredients.

    They're dismissing her as a sabotager without even engaging with what she's said. They're just hung up over the fact that she used a false identity, and sometimes it seems like they're trying to divert attention away from the FDA/ingredients thing - for which I have yet to see an explanation or reply which holds up, in my opinion.

    As someone who has used many of the allegedly-unsafe products not only on myself but on other people, I'm concerned. Why the heck is nobody addressing this in detail to reassure AL customers!?

    The reason I'm disappointed is that I feel my trust in Aromaleigh (which was by far my favourite MMU company) has POTENTIALLY been broken (I say 'potentially' because I do not claim to know the truth about the ingredients situation), and neither do I feel entirely comfortable about ordering from Stardust, which, as I think I mentioned here and in comments on other blogs, I was intending to do.

    However, I actually feel that I'm more likely to order from Stardust after seeing Jenna's expression of regret over the 'false identity' business, because she seems like someone who is primarily concerned with her customers' health and safety. And I'm not saying this to be fickle or to hop on any bandwagons. As I said, Aromaleigh was my favourite MMU company and I haven't taken this whole business lightly or without sadness.

    But of course the above is just my personal feelings and I'm not trying to persuade/discourage anyone out there from buying from either of these companies.

    Sorry for using your blog as a venting place, Heather =P

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  26. Hendrix (I'm too lazy to sign in today :P)May 5, 2010 at 12:57 PM

    I hate how we all have to overrun our blogs with "this is just my opinion! I'm not trying to tell you what to do! this is just how it went this once, with me! something that doesn't work for me may work for you! personal feelings personal feelings!". Everyone knows that's code for "sweet Jesus, please don't sue me", which we wouldn't need if more people knew how to be upstanding business owners (and upstanding reviewers).

    All parties involved need to put on their big girl panties and stop being such effing drama queens. The way Jenna acted was legit, but, well, weird. And are we really surprised by Miss K anymore? Criminy.

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  27. Thanks for the eye opening post. I saw the blogpost on Phyrra's blog last night, did have a look at the links and all that, I was like "so what?"
    And then I started wondering why the list had changed, why she wouldn't get a reply from AL etc etc... is there something to worry about, because I'd really like to know !
    OK the various IDs biz is a bit dodgy and can't really get my head round it. But then if she'd posted as herself, on what seems to me a genuine concern, I assume everyone else would have fallen on her like a ton of bricks. So that way I think she probably tried to get an answer, as one would answer an anonymous customer.
    Heather your post is very interesting, in a way that it's not a one-sided one like a lot of the ones I have seen since yesterday. I am not going to make a post because I don't really know what's going on, and TBH it all seems a bit childish for me.
    But today I am still worrying. I felt so good about getting into mineral makeup. Not using stuff tested on animals (to a certain extent), and just getting into the natural makeup kind of thing. And now I hear that my eyeshadows could have had harmful stuff... and I still don't know whether they do or not.
    Obviously MMU companies are not as regulated as the big brands. But big brands use chemicals that have been approved. Nevermind we'll only know if they give cancer 50 years down the line, but they've been researched and tested and we know a bit about them. But potentially anything could be put into mineral makeup stuff. Is this what happened?

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  28. Thank you so much for this post. You've covered all the bases in a level headed fashion.

    I've had a bad reaction to exactly two MMU pigments, both AL Rocks! black light reactive pigments. My eyelids swelled, turned red and eventually the skin peeled (sloughed) off. It took almost a full two weeks to heal with emu oil. I have very sensitive skin so didn't think a lot of it. Now I've got more information and realize that I need to be more proactive and not depend upon anyone else having my best interest at heart.

    Thank you!

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  29. I have no ill will nor loyalty to either company as I have not and do not use either. So I am beyon objective. I am also the owner of a very small Indie makeup company.

    My only real issue is that these two ladies were friends for a long time so why didn't Jenna just email MissK and say hey hun I noticed x ingredients listed and I'm concerned.

    So this does seem a bit underhanded in my opinion.

    I would think that a friend would go to their friend first and not publicly trash their reputation. That is dishonest and does make Jenna look not so sweet and innocent.

    Now MissK also should have confronted Jenna in private to at least in a good will effort try to get to the why's of her mishandling the situation.

    So in short neither party is right nor completly wrong but if you wiegh out the facts and who started what and past relationship etc. I do lean toward this being pushed out in public, instead of handled between friends, as an act of some intentional harm being caused.

    I do not believe Jenna is innocent.
    But I do not believe that MissK is perfect and without error.

    Honesty people if we all would use it more often a lot less drama and BS would happen in the world.

    So next time you suspect someone of wrong doing, go directly to the source and in a non threatening and honest manner confront the issue.
    You will save both parties a lot of pain and embarassment.

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  30. I'm not going to keep answering everyone's comments, but feel free to keep discussing if you'd like.

    I will say that I adore Evil Shades :D

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  31. @Evil Angel: I believe Jenna DID mail Miss K first, and got no response other than seeing the ingredients list changed overnight. But her mail was never replied to, as far as I've read. Good ol' internet drama *sigh*

    Doing my own research into colorants for cosmetics a few months ago, I found a few ingredients that were in (some) AL products which probably shouldn't have been, at least not without a warning about using near the eye area. I found it very odd that a company so well-known and so committed to cosmetic quality would have non-FDA approved ingredients in their products, that's for sure. Then, it occurred to me that it was probably why so much inventory was on clearance and slated to be reformulated- to get rid of the offending colorants. A good idea to get rid of them, but to continue to sell them to the public? Not such a great idea. I wasn't going to say anything, and was just going to avoid those colors, if I ever ordered from them again (nothing against AL, it's just that there's so many MMU companies, and so little time and money, you know), but I'm glad that Jenna did speak up for the people who don't look into things like this quite so deeply. I give her props for that, fake name or no- saying things that could be interpreted as going up against a company with such rabid fans as AL (and later, saying them a little more blatantly) had to have been difficult, to say the least. But it needed to be said.

    It's just too bad that there's all this DRAMA :( There's a certain level of trust consumers put into the manufacturers of the products they are buying. If you're buying eye shadow, you expect that all the ingredients used in it are classified as safe to use on the eye area- that's not an unreasonable assumption to make. Same goes for lip colorants, or any cosmetic, really. Buying baby food, you assume that the ingredients in it are approved for use in babies, right? You, as a consumer, shouldn't have to go researching every ingredient in every product you buy- the manufacturers you buy from should be doing that FOR you, and should refrain from using anything that is considered to be "unsafe" in the products they are selling to you, unless they add a warning about the potential risks associated with said ingredients. The same should hold true for cosmetics, and for the most part, it does. The details of this latest makeup drama, though, seem to say otherwise about certain AL products. It's just all so sketchy... I don't know what to think about AL right now. I do know I'll be looking very closely at their ingredients lists before purchasing from them from now on- and will probably do so for EVERY MMU company I buy from. Nothing beats being an educated consumer, I guess.

    My 2 cents *shrug*

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  32. I agree with you,too much drama for me! I'm using both companies shadows,I love them both.The whole situation is their own issue not mine.I will continue to shop from them.

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  33. Heather..you're adorable. :) I'm new to the MM community/world and I personally don't really care what I put on my face, as long as it's long lasting, beautiful, and unique. But, I know some people really really really seem to care. All I can say is, stay away from the drama and continue to purchase from and support the mineral makeup companies you're fond of. Personally, I bought some of the Aromaleigh Rocks! shadows and was sadly disappointed. But not enough to cause a riot.

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