How do you shop on the site??

[Die Marchen]

I shop all the ways)

And I'd love to see many pics and swathes on the site:
one swatch with similar colors, one with the ideas to match - other shadows, even blushes and lippies)
And some looks - that'd be very useful. And make us buy and buy)))

Another thing is a note - 'good for olive skin' or 'perfect for pale and cool girls' that'd help)))

And some season looks would be nice too.

[MyLavenderHeart]

This will help Silk Naturals shoppers who doesn`t use this forum:

I shop only because of swatches by the way. No swatch - no buy..

And I love to see swatches of colors I normally wouldn`t give a second thought just by looking at the name of it, or in the jar...

I know for a fact that my friends who shop SN colors are NOT frequenting this forum so they don`t see swatches or new info here.

They don`t want to register and ask questions or search through the forum to get an answer to a question about whatever, so they give up and ask me for help, which is just fine by me, but maybe not everyone has a friend who know about the products and can help. And although the possibility of emailing SN , that isn`t an option as they aren`t very confident in their own english.

But I think there is a way for non-forum visiting Silk Naturals shoppers to see the abundence of swatches and get help without asking anyone if thats why they prefer.

Yes I know there is a link on the shopping page that you can see swatches together of glosses and eyeshaddows, that is great...
BUT many of those colors are unfortunately discontinued colors... both several eyeshaddows and lipglosses.

Sooo, my suggestion is this:

1) Put up a link "swatches" under categories, so it is easy to spot right away, and you don`t have to click this and that to find it.

2) Then group the swatches by sub categories, like "Eyeshaddow", "lipgloss", "liner", Blush" (and also please include swatches of the concealers please )

3) Group the swatches by color for easy navigating (if possible), so if you are shopping for a green eyeshaddow you can click "green" under eyeshaddow swatches.
If you are looking for a red blush you click "Blushes" and then "Red". If you are convinced by this swatch maybe a button so you can put a sample in the cart, but that is not neccesary, just brainstorming here...lol

4) Remove swatches with DC products so it doesn`t confuse anyone (lol, when I was new I wanted sooooo bad to get the colors Fearless and Rhonda untill I gave up, and it wasn`t before I had read this forum a coupple of months I got that they were DC )

Yes I know my suggestion this will take a lot of work , but I don`t know HOW many times I was sure a color wasn`t any good on me until I saw a swatch of it and completely changed my mind about it.

Haven`t gotten a eyeshaddow yet that I can`t use!

HTH

[JenW]

All good suggestions (keep them coming).

We do need to update the collective swatch pages. Most of those are at least a few years old, and we definitely need to get rid of the ones with items that are not available. I am not sure how we will handle this overall. I may post them in an unpostable thread on the forum and link to them from the website. That kind of solves two problems at once....they will be on the forum and linked to the website and I think I can edit them when and if something is discontinued. I am also considering a blog for the swatches.

If you want to take a look at the swatches of late....they are on my flickr. They will eventually be posted elsewhere. (Don't mind the occasional kitty, yarn/sewing projects!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyjenw/

[lilychemgirl]

I prefer for the colour to be organised by finish (matte, shimmer, pearl and similar definitions for lips maybe including how sheer they are?) and by colour. I also love swatch pics, especially with lots of colours in the same pic, so you can compare colours that you do have to colours that you don't.

[zooeyblue]

I agree with others . . . organized by finish and color, good swatches a must. I also like when suggestions are made--what colors work well together.

[ChristineLynnP]

I agree with finish and color. I like how the eyeshadows are by color, but I'd also like to be able to shop from catagories like Matte, Pearl, Shimmer, or with blush, matte, shimmer, bronzer, or with lips products clear balms, flavored balms, shimmer, matte, etc.

I also find swatches to be really helpful. I don't know if you were aware, but there are a few swatches throughout the site that don't apply to the product listed. I came across a few eyeshadows recently that weren't depicted in the swatch included. If I come across them again I'll let you know, but I guess I assumed it was trivial at the time because I never even thought to mention it.

[zeebs]

I can remember whether I've said this before but I'd looove a random shadow generator! Just for when you want to try something a little different that you wouldn't usually go for? The way I pick my shadows is either suggestions on here or if I see a look I like I'll have a look for the colours.

I would like to see a private ranking system so that I can leave a one-star review (or a "not my flavor") based on the fact that a color didn't look good on me and a five-star review (or a "one of my favorite flavors") based on the fact it did so that the site could automatically make smart recommendations specifically for me.

This would IMO be separate from the public review system which is more about quality and performance than color selection.

This would be like Netflix or Amazon when it says "Users like you also liked...."

This way the system would (in theory), over time, figure out whose complexions/tastes were similar and begin to build smart recommendations for each of us based on that, all anonymously, privately, and automated.

To address sewwies suggestion: this system could also give "try something different" recommendations based on a similar/related algorithm, I'm guessing.

[cait]

I would definitely love something that "prescribes" shades for particular skin tones, eye colors, etc...not that we have to go by them, but I have bought a couple things (mainly l/g) that just don't work for a pale girl

[kookith]

Hi Karen

I was completely overwhelmed when I was a newbie, and to be honest I found the thumbnails don't really give me a good idea of the shades. I only started buying when I saw Jen W's swatches, so yes, I only buy when I see swatches. It would be great if you could have 3 photos on every product page - 1 photo to show the colour of the minerals in the jar, 1 photo to show a swatch with flash, and 1 photo to show a swatch w/o flash.

The reason why I particularly love Jen W's swatches is that they are clear, they are up close, and the lighting is great and she is always able to capture the subtle nuances of the colour. I have recently found her blog again and spent hours looking at the swatches and then looking up the colours on the site and filling up my cart. Her swatches are so bad for my wallet.

I also like them sorted according to texture. For eg, I prefer Matte blushes, so I will just click that.

A request: Could you make it such that if we want to read the reviews, we don't have to keep clicking one at a time? I find it troublesome to keep having to go back and forth when I want to read all the reviews of a certain product. Or if you can't have it all on one page because it's too long, then it would be nice if there is a "Read Next Review" button on the individual pages.

[Toby]

Agreed with what everyone has been saying here -- I prefer to shop by finish and then colour, so that if I'm looking for a pearly finish, for example, everything of a specific colour, i.e. purple, would be beside each other, or they would be sub-categories. & vice versa -- if I'm shopping for just purples, to have ones that are a similar texture grouped together. A big overall swatch image would be great, too, as I would love to see all the purples swatched beside each other, from lightest to darkest, for example. Swatches are really a priority for me, since I have trouble talking myself into buying an item without seeing a swatch of it -- it would be great if we could get swatches of everything applied normally, over primer, and foiled.

Lippies I would like to see grouped by formula, then colour and finish -- sometimes I'm surprised by the sparkliness of the products I get.

I also think it would be great if there were recommendations for specific "looks" (goth, an evening out, everyday, etc.) and skin/hair colour (I had a HELL of a time finding makeup that "suited" me as an East Asian until I decided I didn't care, & was just going to wear whatever I wanted!).

I agree that I would like to see all the reviews expanded under the review tab.

I miss having an ingredients tab, which was useful for things like skincare because I wouldn't be staring at a block of text to look at ingredients -- just the way my brain works, I think! I'd also love to see skincare recommendations for skin type -- what's good for sensitive skin? Combination skin? I realise that these things always need to be tested, but it's nice to have a big warning of, "Sensitive skin types might feel their faces BURNING LIKE FIRE" with this product!" or "Dry skin types will feel like all the moisture has been sucked out of them with this!" It would be nice to have hand/body moisturisers separated from facial moisturisers as well.

Lush (the bath & body company) labels all its vegan products with a small v. I wonder if it might help the vegan customers if you did something similar... I'm not vegan, but looking under that category, it might get troublesome trying to sub-categorise everything under there? I could be wrong, though!

I like zeebs's idea but don't necessarily think it has to be private. I can see it being helpful having a general rating for the product itself, then having a personal ranking for how it works for you (so under general, I might say that x eyeshadow applies smoothly & is a really lovely colour, & under personal, say that it makes me look diseased). It could be really great when combined with the option that's already there for mentioning hair/eye/skin colour, skin type, etc.