A repackaging update

 

Most of you have already read about this, but I wanted to post the information again

You can see the base ingredients of the colors (Tangerine & Lemon Drop) and the ingredients of one of my bases (C-Smax) If I repackaged, my ingredient list would only consist of the ingredients on the colors.

My company was accused of repackaging on a blog review reply. I wanted to post my reply here as well, to share with all of you.

The review was made here: http://swatchfreak.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/dark-heart-designs-some-swatches

I would like to take a moment to say that none of my products are repackaged. There are numerous statements & comments on my website, my Etsy site, and my Dark Heart blog concerning repackaging, and my opinion on it. I would be ashamed of myself if I allowed anything to be repackaged.

While I do use the pop colors in my shadows, I only made them into shadows because they're not available to people in my area, or to people outside of the immediate makeup community. Also, the pop colors have been discontinued from TKB. If my company was repackaging them, we would have to come up with an entire new line, including lip glosses, or discontinue the current one. I am not doing either of those. I'm trying my best to reformulate the recipes and save as many colors as I can by mixing new color combinations.

The name Silver Bullet is used by another company, which I was not aware of at the time. However, you will find a lot of companies that do the same and I see no problem with it. Vampire Heart contains carmine, but it is not straight carmine. It's a combination of carmine and mica to create that particular shadow, as is Toxic. The only difference is, Toxic contains more raspberry pop than Vampire Heart, but if you'll look, the ingredients are the same.

Also, I've taken a picture to show you the ingredients of a base ingredient (the CS Max) and two raw micas. You can clearly see the ingredients of each item displayed on the bag. If you compare them to the ingredients in my shadows, you'll see they are not repackaged as both ingredients are in my shadows. Also, anyone who has worked with straight mica is familiar with its low adhesion.

I'm sorry if you don't agree with my price, but there is so much more to running an indie business than the cost of pigments and jars. I maintain my website, Etsy shop, Twitter, Facebook page, and more by myself. I pack, ship, create labels, personally stamp each package, write the personalized notes to my customers and more. There's a lot of time involved in that, and when you add it all up, the profit made from the product doesn't cover the overhead. Most of my company is run out of pocket, with the profits going back into supplies. While this may not seem intelligent, I do it because I truly enjoy it.

As to the lazy, greedy lies; a few others and I are working on a site called Project Safe Indie. It will help people find companies that are not repackagers, unsafe, or any of the other problems in the indie community. If I were really guilty of all that was said, I'd be putting the noose on my own neck by starting this project, because lies always surface eventually. There's a lot of time involved in something like this, and someone who was lazy would not attempt it.

Also, I believe you meant INCI ingredients, which I am working on. I am human and I do make mistakes. I apologize for that and the INCI names are being gathered and will be posted shortly.

This is the last that I'll be saying on this matter, as I feel it rude to do so on someone else's blog. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to email me at tina [at] darkheartdesigns.com (remove the [at] and replace with @) or comment on our Facebook fanpage, Twitter, or blog. Also, if anyone has any doubt to the validity of my products, I will be more than happy to swatch them alongside raw mica, or have another trusted blogger do so.

I'd also like to say thank you to Tamara for her honest review. I have no problem with people not liking my shadows. I do have a problem when peopling make statements against me and my company without any proof.

-Tina