Sunday, August 7, 2011

Finger Paints – Peace, Love & Color Collection - Summer 2011


I wasn’t so sure about this collection, so I waited until Sally’s put it on clearance before I bought.  I have only bought a few Finger Paints before, and they haven’t really thrilled me (swapped one, two awaiting new homes!), but this collection seemed special, so I couldn’t resist for $.99 each!

Before I post the swatches though, I gotta tell you guys about my experience in purchasing these.  I got an email from Sally’s saying their clearance stuff was 1/2 price online and I’d been eyeing these, so within 2 minutes of getting the email, I had placed my order for 8 Finger Paints (Artistic Azure, Give Pink a Chance, Psychedelic Sunshine, All You Need is Color, Outta Sight Orange x 2, and Peaceful Purple x 2 – extras for a co-worker), so $7.92 for 8 polishes, plus $5.95 shipping.  The shipping was really hard to swallow, but I wanted to make sure I got them all, so I just went ahead and paid it.  Who knows what would be at my store?

I got a shipping notice from Sally’s a few days later, nothing unusual looking – it didn’t have any notes or anything, so I just tracked the package.  When it arrived, it only contained 4 polishes – Give Pink a Chance, All You Need is Color, and Outta Sight Orange x 2.  I checked my invoice and it said “w93” in the spot for the other polishes, which was printed at the bottom saying "item was not available in warehouse at time of shipping” or something really similar.  I was like WTF… are they out of stock or something?  I checked their website and they were all still listed and I could add them to a cart.  I then looked at my shipping notice again and sure enough, it only listed the polishes I received, not the other 4 I had ordered.  Nothing was stated in that shipping notice to say if they were out of stock or anything.

I started looking around on Sally’s website and found that if an item is out of stock at the time of shipment, Sally’s will notify you, but they will not ship backordered items.  They are dropped from your order and if you would like them, you will have to place a separate order when they are available again.  That is about the craziest policy I have ever seen.  Most places will contact you, and then give a choice of holding your order or cancelling the items, and some nice companies will even ship backordered items later.

The thing that really bugged me is that Sally’s never notified me that they did not have the items I ordered.  No little note in the shipping notice, nothing.  I was furious at this point – I paid $5.95 for shipping on $3.98 worth of merchandise?  If I knew I was only going to be able to get a couple, I would have just went to the store and taken my chances!  I shot off an email to their customer service – not too mean, but I complained that their website says customers will be notified of OOS items and that I found it unethical to cut over half the merchandise from the order without informing the customer.

I didn’t expect a response, but I got one within 24 hours – and a refund of my shipping charges!  I am usually not one to complain to companies about how bad they suck, but I might have to start, since Sally’s worked to fix their mistake.  The letter I got back apologized and said they would be speaking with the shipping department to find out why I wasn’t notified.  I don’t know if anything will change, but at least they are now aware that customers are NOT happy.

Fortunately, I did stop by my local Sally’s later and found the missing polishes.  I do have a gripe there too though – the summer display was still out with the new stuff and was not marked clearance in any way, so I assumed I would be paying full price.  Finger Paints were buy 2, get 1 free in July, so I got Psychedelic Sunshine and Peaceful Purple from that display, then chose Sketch n Etch from the regular display, since it seems to be dupish to Essie’s Dominica Green.  I figured getting 3 for $10 wouldn’t be that bad, so I trudged up to the counter and paid.  My total seemed really cheap, but I hadn’t really paid attention to the Beauty Club prices on a couple of the items I picked up, so I didn’t really look at the receipt until I got home.  Those summer Finger Paints were clearanced for $1.98, so I paid $4.99 for the regular one, $1.98 for 1 summer, and got 1 summer free.  It seems like a great deal, but had I known the summer ones were that cheap, I would have picked up one more clearance polish instead of the one from the regular display and would have gotten 3 for $3.98!  Argh!!!

Sally’s sucks!  >:P  Anyhoo, thanks for reading my rant (if you did – if you didn’t, I don’t blame you!), here are swatches as a reward!  ;)

FingerPaintsGivePinkAChance

Give Pink a Chance is a pinky-corally crème – I think it really depends on your skin tone what color tis one is on you.  For me, It’s pretty pink, but Scrangie said it was red-orange-coral on her.  Formula on this one was pretty smooth and opaque in 2 coats.  Maybe a hair thick.

FingerPaintsGivePinkAChanceVS

I do have some similar colors in my collection – Essie Too Too Hot (ring) and China Glaze – High Hopes (index).  They aren’t dupes though, surprisingly enough.  Too Too Hot is a bit more red and is more of a jelly finish, while High Hopes (which I hate, btw… one of the worst formulas I’ve dealt with!) is brighter and more orange.  Give Pink a Chance is a great pedi color for me, I will use it often!

FingerPaintsOuttaSightOrange

Outta Sight Orange is a glass fleck orange with almost duochrome flecks – sometimes it’s gold, sometimes it’s red!  I <3 it!  I’m sorry for the glare on the pic, my camera hates me.  It’s dead now though, so haha, I get the last laugh.  Or maybe it does, cos now I have to buy a new one.  Ugh, read on for more info on that situation.  Anyway, back to Outta Sight Orange… the formula on this one was fantastic.  2 coats to opacity.  If this one looks familiar to you, that’s because it is VERY similar to Nicole – Fresh Squeezed in the bottle.  However, Outta Sight Orange is the winner of the two.  It is what I hoped Fresh Squeezed would look like!

FingerPaintsOuttaSightOrangeVS

4 coats of Fresh Squeezed on the index and it still isn’t opaque.  I’ve went up to 6 before, and I don’t think it ever got there.  It’s streaky too – not a fave.  I also put China Glaze – Orange Marmalade on the ring so you could get an idea of what the base color looks like.  Outta Sight Orange has become a fave orange for me, and I <3 oranges!  :D

FingerPaintsPsychedelicSunshine

Psychedelic Sunshine is a really gorgeous and unique color – sunny yellow jelly with iridescent glitter.  I don’t have anything in my stash like it.  I’m not sure there *is* anything like it out there!  The glitter is small and sparkly and the yellow is such a happy color.  Gorgeous!

FingerPaintsPsychedelicSunshine2

Slightly less blurry to see the glitter bits.  My camera did not like how sparkly this one was!  I don’t have anything similar, so I didn’t compare it to anything.  In my pics, it kinda looks like China Glaze – Lighthouse, but next to each other, they aren’t very similar, especially since this is glitter and the ChG is glass fleck.

FingerPaintsPsychedelicSunshineLumpy

This one has some big flaws though… it is so thick, I don’t think it would be useable if you didn’t own thinner.  I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a polish so thick before.  It’s syrupy and chunky and kinda gross actually.  I have added a TON of thinner, I even have had the bottle overflow twice and it still is really thick.  I dunno if it isn’t making it all the way into the bottle or what, but it is a mess.  It also dries extremely lumpy.  I dunno if you can tell in this pic or not, but it is dull and gritty.  It looks beautiful until it dries and then it’s like WTFBBQ IS THAT?!?!  A coat of Gelous before your regular topcoat will fix the problem, but it’s pretty blechy until without topcoat!

Next up in the collection should be Groovy Green, but it looked frosty, so I skipped it.  Frosty is icky!

FingerPaintsAllYouNeedIsColor

All You Need Is Color is a gorgeous glitter, pretty opaque too.  I don’t have another teal glitter to compare it to, can you believe that?  However… I’m pretty sure this is a dupe to Butter London’s Henley Regatta.  I purchased it for a swap and noticed that it had a mix of teal, green, and cerulean glitter – I really wanted to keep it at that point, but sent it off.  When I got All You Need Is Color, I noticed it had the exact same colors – it isn’t just a straight teal glitter!  Woo hoo for cheap dupes!  :D  This one is also very thick, though it has taken well to being thinned and is perfect now.  This is 3 coats and a topcoat.  It’s a bit gritty without one, but it isn’t a hungry glitter, so one topcoat should be enough!

FingerPaintsPeacefulPurple

Last up we have Peaceful Purple, an opaque purple glitter.  This one is just straight purple, no other colors hidden in there.  This is two coats, but it looks a bit patchy on the edges, I probably should have done 3.  Also very thick, but was perfect once thinned.  Again, I didn’t have a purple glitter that was similar.  Weird, eh?  Scrangie says it is a dupe for Urban Decay’s Xanadu, which is in that new Rollergirl mini set I refuse to buy.  I got one the Apocolyptica one and felt like it was a rip off.  Those bottles are TINY!

This collection was perfect for summer – now I’m a bit said I didn’t pick it up until summer was almost over!  If you can still find some of these at your Sally’s, get them – they should be cheap and they are all gorgeous.  Make sure you have thinner though!!!  If you don’t… well, don’t bother.  You won’t enjoy them at all.

This might be my last post with lots of pics for awhile – my camera (which is less than 2 years old, I might add), worked fine on Tuesday this week, but would not turn on on Wednesday morning.  It won’t even charge.  I bought a new battery thinking that would fix the problem, but it still won’t charge.  The only other thing I can think to try is to buy a new cable for it.  I’ve contacted Kodak to see if they have other suggestions, but I doubt they will.  Of course, I am broke (as usual!) and really didn’t want to spend money on a camera.  :P  I kinda need one though… do you guys have suggestions?  I am trying to spend less than $150, looking for a good macro setting and something that can actually take decent indoor pics – I haven’t had a camera that could do that yet.  :P  I’m thinking about the Canon Powershot A3100 IS – what do you guys think?  Let me know if you have any experience with it, or if you know of something else in my price range that you think will work well!  :)

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