Priceline selling grey market fragrances

Today I was sent a press release from Priceline which included a gift guide for Mother's Day. Ordinarily, I quite like these press releases as it gives me some good ideas about what to write about. Amongst other beauty items, the press release contained four perfumes - from Lancome, Estee Lauder, Juicy Couture and Marc Jacobs. You might have seen my little rant yesterday about how I was pissed off that Priceline sold grey market Orly polishes. In light of this, I decided that I would contact the PR's from each of these brands to find out whether Priceline was an authorised stockist for the perfumes. This is what I found out from the PRs:

Priceline is NOT an authorised stockist of Lancome.

Priceline is NOT an authorised stockist of Estee Lauder.

Priceline is NOT an authorised stockist of Juicy Couture.

Priceline is NOT an authorised stockist of Marc Jacobs.

This means that Priceline are also selling fragrances sourced from the grey market.

What is so bad about grey market fragrances?

I have gone into the whole issue of grey market cosmetics in much more detail here, but basically grey market fragrances are fragrances sourced from a non-authorised seller. This means that the authenticity of the fragrance cannot be guaranteed. So, you might be buying a cheaply made fake perfume or a genuine perfume that has been diluted to make it go further, or a genuine perfume that has been sitting in a warehouse for the last 10 years. This is bad, not only for the consumer who might end up purchasing a fake perfume made with dodgy ingredients that could cause a reaction, but also for the brands. If someone buys a perfume that they believe is genuine and it smells terrible, or has really poor staying power (due to being diluted), or worse case scenario they have a severe reaction to the dodgy ingredients, then they will never buy that perfume again. They will also most likely complain to their friends, or complain online.

StrawberryNet are probably the most well know seller of grey market cosmetics. I don't think that any brand would authorise them to resell their stock. However, when you purchase from them most people do so knowing that they are taking a risk that they may end up with a sub-par product. The problem with Priceline selling grey market cosmetics and fragrances is that the majority of people would believe that they are buying genuine products from an authorised reseller. Now, I am not saying that Priceline are selling fakes. I don't know know whether the fragrances they sell are fake or genuine - but that there is the problem - I don't know if they are fake but then I also don't know if they are genuine as they have not been sourced from an authorised distributor.

I am not trying to bad mouth Priceline here as I have happily shopped there for years. However, I do believe that we have the right to know whether we are buying genuine stock or not. As long as you are educated and are happy to take the risk of buying grey market cosmetics and fragrances, then go for it. But, I would hate for people to end up disappointed with their purchases and not know why it was not as good as they were expecting. Not all the fragrances in the press release I was sent were cheap. One was selling for $140, which is a lot of money to spend on something that cannot be guaranteed to be genuine. Up until yesterday I had no idea that Priceline sold grey market sourced goods, so I suspect that many other people would be similarly blinded to this fact.

Anyway, I am not saying don't shop at Priceline. Just trying to educate. If you are looking to purchase genuine fragrances, your best bet is Myer and David Jones. Or, if you are in doubt, go to the website for the brand of fragrance you are purchasing and it will either provide a list of authorised stockists or a customer service number that you can call.


Has this changed your opinion of Priceline at all? What are your thoughts on the grey market? Do you prefer to steer clear and spend your hard earned cash on genuine products or do you prefer to hunt down a bargain?

Orly Purple Crush + Be Brave...I'm very much in love

I attended the Maxted Thomas beauty blogger event yesterday and, along with other great brands, the Orly team were there doing manicures. I left the colour choice up to them but just told them I love brights and/or fluoros and I love glitter. They came back with Purple Crush with a Be Brave glitter top coat.

The first step of the manicure was to apply Bonder. This is Orly's hero product. It is a rubberised base coat that grips the nail allowing greater flexibility of the polish so that it doesn't chip as easily and lasts longer. I had actually never heard of this product prior to my manicure but will now be going straight out to buy it I am usually too lazy to bother with a base coat but if it helps the polish to last longer then it is a winner in my books. You can buy it for $19.95 (18ml) or $10.95 (9ml).

Purple Crush is spectacular! It is from Orly's Hot Neon range and is a real neon purple. It hasn't photographed as well as I would have liked - it looks more pink in the photos below but it is a definite neon purple. It takes two coats to become opaque. Man I love this colour!

Be Brave is a glitter top coat with long thin sprinkles of glitter. It is from the Flash Glam range. The sprinkles are hologram so the final result is subtle but super sparkly. The glitter disperses easily - only one coat was used in this mani. I love that it doesn't detract from the base colour but instead enhances it.

I have to say that I am quite in love with both of these colours, especially in combination.

With flash

With flash (out of focus to show sparkles)

No flash, artificial light

No flash, artificial light

More flash, another angle!

No flash, sunlight

No flash, sunlight

Be Brave

Purple Crush

Now I need to have a bit of a rant. The rant isn't directed at Orly but at Priceline. I was chatting with one of the Orly reps and she mentioned that Orly isn't currently widely distributed but that is about to change as it will soon be stocked in all Terry White Chemists. She happened to mention that Orly wasn't stocked in Priceline. Hang on...I had bought Orly at Priceline. In fact, I had bought 2 bottles for $5 and used them in a blog giveaway. She then asked me whether I had heard of the grey market as that is where these polishes would have come from. If you haven't heard the term 'grey market' before, have a read here for an explanation. I wrote a post on the dangers of buying grey market cosmetics - basically they are stock bought from a non-authorised distributor. It may be old stock or could possibly even be fake stock (last year Target got stung buy selling MAC cosmetics sourced from the grey market that turned out to be be fakes - MAC then went on to sue Target for selling fakes).

It really pissed me off to find out that Priceline was selling grey market stock. Most people know that stock from places like StrawberryNet are grey market, and so knowingly and willingly take the risk of buying old or fake stock. However, I suspect that most people would assume that they are purchasing legitimate stock when shopping at Priceline. I know I did. I prefer to pay more and know that I am buying genuine stock than to get a bargain but potentially be buying fakes or old stock. It pisses me off to find out that I have bought off the grey market as I didn't buy the products for myself. They were for a giveaway. That means, at worst I might have potentially given away fake Orly or at best it was probably old stock. Obviously I didn't test the polishes before giving them away so don't know the quality but there is a very good chance that the quality would be sub par. If the recipient hadn't previously used Orly, this could potentially turn them off the brand. I you might be thinking 'well, if you paid two for $5 for Orly then you should expect that they are fakes' but the thought just wouldn't enter my mind when shopping at Priceline. Myers only sell stock that they are the authorised distributor for and they often have products greatly reduced in the bargain bin. I assumed the same was happening at Priceline.

Brands hate the grey market but their reason is not loss of revenue. It is the damage that can be done to their reputations. If people are buying stock that they assume is genuine and fresh and then it doesn't perform as expected, it can really turn them off a brand.

Anyway, that's enough ranting for a Sunday! Orly polishes retail at $18.95 and can be found in Terry White Pharmacies, Salons and Spas. If you are not familiar with Orly then you will be pleased to know that they are 4-free (they do not contain formaldehyde, formalin resin, toluene and DBP - nasties that you don't want on your nails).


Are you hoping that the neon trend goes on forever? I know I am!


All opinions are my own and I received no remuneration for this post. Be Brave and Purple Crush were provided to me by the Orly Team at the Maxted Thomas Blogger Event for consideration.

Winner of the SpaQ Facial announced!

Thank you everyone who entered my SpaQ Facial giveaway. This was my first time using Rafflecopter and from my end it worked really well - I would love to hear what you thought of it.

Anyway, that's not what you are here for...you want to know whether you won, don't you!

The winner of the SpaQ QT Facial Giveaway, as drawn by Rafflecopter is:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Carlie! I will now email you to let you know that you were the winner.

Thanks everyone for entering. Make sure that you come back next Sunday as I will be launching my biggest giveaway ever (think - a beauty product for just about every part of your body!).

DOVE REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES: How you see yourself vs how others see you

I have little white dots under my eyes. I think that they might be milia but maybe it is just my skin. In high school, for some reason, it really bothered me. I remember smothering thick layers of moisturiser on the skin in the hope that it would smooth it out. In hind sight, if it was milia, then that would have just made the problem worse. Now I have accepted that is just how my skin looks.

Other little things also used to annoy me about my skin - the presence of pores, an uneven complexion and the like. Some time in my mid 20's I had two light bulb moments. The first one was that I realise that when I study my skin in the mirror to find imperfections that annoy me, I do so at a distance of about 15cm. When I talk to someone it is usually at a distance of at least 2 metres (unless they are a damn close talker!). I then stood 2 metres away from the mirror and check out my imperfections and they really weren't that noticeable. I also realised that when I talk to someone I stare at their eyes or mouth - I really couldn't tell you what the rest of their face looked like. As I soon as I realised that, it occurred to me that they would be doing the same to me.

The second light bulb moment I had was that I had been comparing myself to air brushed models in magazines (I wrote a whole post on how Photoshop distorted my perception of normal). As soon as it occured to me that no one's skin is that flawless I finally fell in love with myself and became comfortable in my skin and much less critical of my perceived flaws.

Dove has released a really interesting campaign highlighting just how harshly we tend to view ourselves. They did a global beauty study and found that only 4 % of us regard ourselves as beautiful. To prove how distorted our views of ourselves have become, Dove did  little experiment with a FBI trained forensic artist. Without realising that they were being drawn, women were asked a series of questions to describe their features. From these descriptions the artist drew an image of what the woman would look like. The women were then paired up and sent away to get to know each other. They were then called back in to the artist and were again questioned but this time about the woman they had just gotten to know. Finally, they were presented with the two images - how they saw themselves and how others saw them. The woman's reaction to the images is very moving and you can see it in the video below (it goes for 3 minutes).





If you have 6 1/2 minutes to spare then the extended video is below:





Finally, you can view each woman's reaction to her sketch.

Here is Melinda's video:


Kela's video


Florence's video:


Gil Zemora, the forensic artist, describes his experience with the Dove capmaign



What are your thoughts on these videos? How do you view yourself? Are you in the 4% who think that they are beautiful or are you too critical with your appearance. I have to say that I do think that I am beautiful. I am realistic enough to know that I couldn't make a living from my looks but I am very happy with how I look.

Aveda hair cut-a-thon to raise money for clean water

I just received this in my inbox and thought that it might be of interest to some of you. Aveda are holding a worldwide cut-a-thon to raise money for clean water. Australia is kicking off the cut-a-thon and have 3 salons which are participating:

Mien - Fitzroy North VIC

www.mien.com.au

Prema - Surry Hills, NSW

www.premalove.com.au

Robertson and Kirkwood - Rozelle. NSW

www.robertson-kirkwood.com

Haircuts will be $40 with all proceeds to be donated.

If you are in need of a haircut then now might be the perfect opportunity! The cut-a-thon will be running for 24 hours on Monday 22nd April.

Winner of the Aphelia Skincare Set

Thank you everyone who entered the Aphelia Skincare Giveaway. There were 18 entries and I used random.org to pick the winner:

The winner is Tracy Boulter! Congrats Tracy. I will email you now.

Don't worry if you didn't win this one, I still have a voucher for a facial of your choice up for grabs. This giveaway closes on 21/4/13 so get your entries in ASAP.

Why detoxes are a waste of your time and money

I repeatedly see people asking advice on forums as to which is the best detox to do. Whenever I see this question I want to scream at the person 'no, don't do it. It is a waste of your time and money'...but I don't. I don't want to cause a scene, or start a barrage of backlash from people claiming that it worked for them. Instead, I will present the facts and let you decide for yourself if it is worth doing.

Before I start, I just want to clarify that when I am referring to detox I mean the ones that you buy where you have to take a million various tablets a day and stick to a very restricted diet. If you are going to 'detox' by simply eating healthily then all power to you. That will most definitely do wonders for your body. These detox kits won't. They will produce results; however, the results will be temporary.

Why detoxes don't work

Firstly, the companies who are marketing the detoxes talk about removing toxins that have built up in the body. So, what are these toxins? They don't say. They remain vague and just leave you to let your imagination run wild. Do they mean chemicals, waste products from digestion, bacteria? I guess I imagined it as the waste products from digestion but it would be interesting to hear what other people perceive as the 'toxins' in their bodies.

I read an interesting article on British Beauty Blogger about how Veet gave Chinese women a problem they never had. Chinese women naturally have very little body hair so hair removal products have always been poor sellers. Therefore, Reckitt Benckiser (who own Veet) devised  a marketing campaign to convince Chinese that any body hair is unsightly and released ads equating hair free skin with health, confidence and "shining glory" (the full marketing concept can be read here). I feel that this is the same as what is happening in regards to detoxes. The marketers of the products have convinced us that our bodies are full of these so called 'toxins', from our unhealthy lifestyles, that need to be removed with a detox.

Toxins don't build up in your body. We have a liver and kidneys to filter out waste products. That is their job. If toxins were to build up in your system you would be incredibly sick, and most likely on dialysis. It would be a sign that you are in end stage kidney failure. You would not simply feel sluggish or have dull skin.

EDIT: one of my readers has correctly pointed out that there are certain cases where toxic chemicals can build up in your system. She gave the example she gave is a condition called MTHFR where the body lacks an enzyme making it unable to break down B vitamins. Another example is that some people are unable to break down iron and so it builds up in their livers. Also, exposure to heavy metals can lead to heavy metal poisoning. These are all very serious cases with serious implications (my reader had 5 miscarriages before her toxic condition was discovered), but are easily diagnosed with a simple blood test. If you suspect that toxic chemicals are building up in your body, don't go on a detox. Seek medical advice as you will most likely medical intervention to treat your problem.

Claims

The marketers will claim that you will lose weight after doing a detox. That is true. In fact, I  guarantee that you will lose weight. I also guarantee that you will put the weight straight back on.

Why do you lose weight? Two reasons: firstly, the the detox will likely have a laxative as one of the tablets that you have to take. Our intestines contain a few kilos of fecal matter, water and food in various stages of digestion. A laxative speeds that out of your system so, essentially, your intestine are empty. In addition, the detox will often be liquid based so you are not refilling the intestines with food to digest. This will also give you a nice flat stomach. However, the second you resume eating solids and quit taking laxatives your intestines will refill (as they are meant to) and hence, your weight will go up. Late last year, thanks to The Crazy Kid, I got a nasty case of gastro. I spent 12 hours being violently ill from both ends followed by another two days of being very fragile and unable to eat much at all. After three days of this I had the flattest stomach and looked like I had lost a tonne of weight (we don't have scales that work). I have to admit that I was a bit excited that I had finally shifted the last of the baby weight who was carrying. Well, my new post detox gastro body lasted all of a week. Thanks to the gastro, my intestines had been totally emptied of all of their contents giving me a flat stomach. As soon as I resumed normal eating, out popped the tummy and I realised that I hadn't actually lost any weight - well not any fat, anyway.

The second reason you lose weight is that the detoxes often put you on a low carb diet. When carbs are stored in you body to be used as energy at a later time, they are also store water with them. Therefore, when you go on the low carb diet, you will use up your stored carbs and release the water that is stored with them and, voila, more weight loss. You will probably notice that you need to urinate often whilst on the detox. This is partly due to the stored water being released. But, again, once you resume eating carbs your body will exactly what it is programmed to do and will store them to use as an energy source and when it does it will also store water with them; hence, the weight will come straight back. 

Another claim you will hear associated with detoxes is that it will make your skin glow. Again, I can pretty much guarantee this will happen but it isn't really due to the detox but more to the amount of fluid you consume. You will often have to drink litres of fluids whilst on a detox and that is always going to do wonders for your skin. The best my skin has ever looked was just after having The Crazy Kid. In hospital, the nurses were forcing me to drink a 500ml bottle every hour or so and when I got home I just continued doing this. My skin looked amazing. It glowed like it never had before and was so plumped out and fresh looking. When I had Kiki I wasn't as diligent at drinking so much water and I never ended up having the same amazing glowing skin. 

Another claim marketing angle often used with detoxes is to give your liver/kidneys a break from processing toxins. This is ridiculous. You would never say to yourself, I must lie in bed for 3 days and avoid exercising to give my heart a break from pumping; or, go on oxygen to give your lungs a break. Obviously, if you are abusing your body by consuming excess alcohol or other poisons then yes you should cut back but the detox kits are unnecessary.

You won't do yourself any harm being on a detox (as long as you are not on it long term), and I guess if you want a flat stomach quickly for a special event it is a way to do it; however, you have to be aware that you will be cranky as all hell as you would not have been consuming enough kilojules; you will most likely be headachy and you probably won't be feeling great at all. Plus, in a few days time you will go straight back to how you were before the detox. I guess you have to weight up whether it is worth it (if you are planning on doing this before your wedding then I would STRONGLY advise against it - your wedding will be the happiest day of your life but also one of the most full on days and you need to have a good energy reserve to get through it. The last thing that you want on your wedding day is to have a rip roaring head ache or be woozy due to lack of energy). 

If you feel you need to ‘detox’ then, rather than spend your money on one of these kits, you are better off eating as clean as possible. Eat foods as close to their natural state as possible and rather than do this for a couple of days make it part of your life style (easy for me to say whilst I munch on an Easter Egg as I type this!).

The majority of the info in this article I learnt at uni. I did try searching the internet for facts to back up what I was saying and was bombarded with website after website offering dodgy detox ‘facts’. A few sites claim that there is such thing as ‘mucoid plaques’ which are faecal deposits on the linings of the intestines that could be from food you ate years and years ago. They claim that if you do their detox you will release these plaques into the toilet (they provide pictures that are quite disgusting – long snakes of poo). There is no such thing as a mucoid plaque. The long poo snakes come from the bulking agents, such as psyllium husks, in the detox. It is very tough navigating the internet to find trust worthy information that.

What are your thoughts on detoxes? Worth the pain and discomfort or a load of crap?