Website and products

[missyjean]

Okay,I feel like I'm cheating on my old mineral makeup company...but I loved my samples so much I really just want to completely switch to this now! Plus I hate ordering from a bunch of different places.

One thing I'm going to miss from my old company is the jars. I love the WIDE jars.So much easier to evenly coat your brush with that design,especially using fuller and fluffier brushes for finishing powders.

Another thing mentioned on another thread: a pimple healing concealer. Main thing is to hide the zit,but why not add something to help heal while your at it? I know some other company made one with sulfur,which is great dryin' them pesky pimples out.

What about a neutral to slightly yellow pigment? Ebony is neutral to slightly pink,why not yellow instead? I have neutral skin(I'm pretty sure lol) but the tinge of yellowness would help counter some of my acne redness and such...plus I think there is a negligible amount of yellow in my skin.

How about a kit for pressing your custom foundation? Easy,mess-free touch ups through the day? Slap a bacteria resistant sponge in there for sanitary reasons?

Two great things for acne I've found is apple cider and vinegar and tee tree oil,if those two things were ever put into a toner together I'd stock up on it big time.

Unfortunately,my main issue is the website design. You see,it gave me the wrong impression when I first ordered from here. The website is very bland and the picture thumbnails need work. It's a shame since your products are of such a high caliber,yet the website does not reflect that.Getting someone to revamp your site would cost you,but maybe some of your customers have connections? Heck,even my boyfriend has some graphics and programming experience...I hope it's not rude to mention this,and if so I'm sorry

[Rhys]

Usually you can find small Chinese sauce bowls and equally small saucers around - they have them in all the grocers here, but even in most countries I've seen similar in dollar shops and the like - and those are about the perfect size to put MMU in. That's a better option than the jar lid for powders because it'll keep your makeup from getting contaminated with stray skin cells, oil, and whatever else might be on your brush.

The rest of it I can't speak to.

[lilychemgirl]

Hi Missyjean
wouldn't warm gold count as a neutral to slightly yellow colour? Also, the olive here is much more neutral than many, I wear the olive here and I think I am pretty much neutral to slightly yellow, not strongly green anyway, lol.

[JenW]

I can adress a few things, too.... Honest feedback is a good thing. There are always little things we can improve, and that will never end. We are a young, small, indie company. Our main focus is on customer service and product quality, which is what made me fall in love with this company in the first place. I am very happy that has not changed since I switched over two years ago (the company is just over 3).

For website things, I think we have a pretty good bare bones website. Yes, we can work some on the pictures, text, etc., but we are at a point where spending time on products makes more sense for us. That could change one day.

On the packaging, I also don't recommend using the jar lid unless you wash it after every use. A swirly bowl or sauce bowl is much more sanitary, and it loads the brush more evenly, too, for more even application. The only time I might not consider using the bowl is if I am out and about. Also, there isn't any reason you can't put your foundation in a different container. I use a tall profile jar with smaller holes because I have a small daily makeup bag and am clumsy. I guess what I am try to say is that great product and great customer service wins for me every time over prettier packaging and a slick website. One day, we may have all of those things. Wouldn't that be cool!

For the foundation... From you description, you could try the yellow booster in your mix, or try Olive (this would address the redness much better than yellow as it is only very slightly olive).....I am assuming the Warm Gold was too peachy? Warm Gold is also pretty neutral, but slightly yellow and slightly peach.

[karen]

Yes...the site could be better, and there's never anything wrong with constructive comments. The back-end of the site is wonderful. It does the points and rewards, and lets you keep track of your orders, and for us it lets us generate the packing lists really efficiently so we can focus on getting the orders out the door. It's a pretty specific package, and to change the design means you have to make templates for it...and it's a little more involved than just straight HTML or a Photoshop template. I don't have a problem spending the money to do it, I just haven't gotten around to really thinking about what I want it to look like. I've put more focus on making our customers look great rather than making the site look great. Honestly these days, I'll be happy when it stops crashing every other week. I agree with you..it needs a makeover. I'd love to be able to find the time to reshoot the pics.

There's always trade-offs when you deal with an indie company. There are products that we make that we can only make because we're relatively tiny- like the lippies. Cranberry oil is pretty rare, and it's not something a company like MAC or Avon can buy in enough quantity to keep up with their customer's demands- they just don't make enough cranberry oil. The moisturizers have to be made by hand- you can't really mechanize that. When I clone eye shadows the recipes are all really simple- they're generally just a few pigments blended together because they have to "dumb down" the recipes so some guy on the line can make them quickly without much training. I'm not sure if you've heard of the Mineral Makeup Mutiny against people who just repackage straight micas. I've seen BIG companies doing it too. Chanel, MAC (one of the pigments in their holiday collection was called something like Aqua Reflects...they didn't even change the name), Bobbi Brown- they all do it- they take a straight mica, press it and sell it. Ours tend to be more complex because the person making them (me) is willing to take the time to get it right, and make it interesting.

The trade-off is that we use stock packaging because any time you get packaging made the minimum order is something like 100,000 units. We just don't have room to store that many jars. I like being a small company for a lot of different reasons, but yes I wouldn't mind having a bit more freedom with packaging- it's the really nightmare part of being a tiny indie. There are other trade offs, but I like to think the good outweighs the bad- at least most of the time.

[missyjean]

Hmm,I should try that yellow booster. I'm really new to the whole mixing thing,but I certainly love the heck out of it.I'm so pale that it's scary to put much colorant into it.

I never really thought about the sanitary issues with the bigger jars,that makes sense. I wash and exfoliate before every application,but I'm sure stray cells get into the mix all the time...hmm,That's gross!

I'm very impressed with the quality of your line,and I do think it greatly surpasses a lot of the more expensive brands out there. I really appreciate your dedication and love that you put into it. Even if none of my suggestions are taken into action,I'm still obviously going to be a buyer and if in the future you want to work on the site layout then hit me up,my boyfriend does that kind of stuff as a hobby!

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to the thread Karen,that's pretty awesome of you!

[BlowFarAway]

IMO, if the site is functional, and not flakey, why should it matter how "pretty" it is? There is a company that constantly tries to make their site prettier, and with that loses functionality more and more.

As for the jars, I prefer these ones MUCH more to companies that use silly low/wide jars. They waste space, look ugly, and are a huge pain for leaking product and travelling with. The lids here are plenty big enough to get the kabuki in and swirl, which is much larger than other companies.

The toner idea is nice, and no doubt Karen's always on the look out for more simple, healthy recipe ideas.

[missyjean]

People judge a company by the website looks,that's why there's businesses for graphic/website design. Colors/layouts subconsciously attract us. While I agree that it shouldn't matter,others' think differently.This company already has a nice sized following so maybe it just doesn't matter anymore lol,my bad.

[feyith]

I agree with you both - to a point. I think if I was shopping around for new MMU companies and knew nothing about any of them, I would have passed on SN based on the web site. I get suckered in by the shiny neat looking things. BUT...all it took was one person I know getting me to try their products once, and now I am a customer for life. I don't care what the web site looks like, as long as it is functional, which it is. On the other hand, tons of people have been trying to get me to try Earthen Glow for several months now and I keep thinking about it but just can't seem to get myself to do it because 1) their web site makes my eyes bleed and 2) it's annoying and difficult to navigate. There comes a point when that makes a huge difference and the web site just screams lack of effort but I think SN's doesn't have that problem.

[Silverfern]

Yeah I gotta say I DID pass over SN last summer cause I couldn't figure out the website. There are different products all over. Like some blushes are in the dupes section but I couldn't find them under Blushes. I've still discovering new things here and there. Word of mouth brought me back. Now I find it fun. Now I report stuff, like there was a wrong price listed on a kit once. And they fixed it in about 10 mins! It really feels like we're all in it together, you know. That is really nice of you to hint at your guy offering to help someday, missyjean. My web developer husband would laugh if I told him that cause I've volunteered him many times, haha.