Shipping and other details

  While we do know that a lot of people are uncomfortable with the phrasing and days listed for the time frame on our site, it's done this way for a reason. Remember last week when there was a sudden shortage of the tiny jars? So perhaps due to courier delays or supplier shortages, we were to run out with numerous orders in the queue. Well, then those customers will be waiting longer than our usual 3-7 business day time frame (in which case, if it was more than a reasonable amount of time, everyone with delayed shipments would receive partial refunds for the wait. It's happened before but not on a large scale). Hence why the phrasing has  been "Please allow up to...", as in, there's a chance it could be that long.

  Orders are sent within a few days. Most of the time it's anywhere from 1 to 10 days, depending on the size of the purchase and how busy we are. They're generally pulled in sequence, but we also try and get the smallest ones, or single-item purchases sent as soon as possible. During new releases, or after major blogger reviews, as the purchase volume increases greatly it does take a few days longer to ship most. After our Winter 2013 release, some were at the two week mark, which is too long for us, but can't really be prevented. This is why upcoming releases are rarely mentioned far ahead of time if at all. It's chaotic all at once. No orders are ever in the queue for even 20 days (and very few hit 14). The last time that happened was, as I recall, about 4 years ago. But, it could happen.

I'm at work daily from about 7 or 8am to at least midnight, often well past 3am. So that short window of of morning is when I'm home to shower, sleep, and tend to cats/house (aside from a short midday break). This probably sounds like a dramatic exaggeration, but anyone who knows me knows that I don't do anything but work. The others here are usually gone a few hours earlier, but one or two may stay as late as they can when we're swamped. Everything is shipped first thing in the morning, so I'll be in the studio nightly until the last parcel scheduled to ship is packaged up.

  Speaking of everything shipping in the morning, either USPS is scanning less, or their systems are just borked constantly, because there have been quite a few that just seem to vanish for a few days after leaving the area. The tracking will show that the parcel left the local PO, but then nothing for several days. They also aren't usually scanned as incoming at the local post office until afternoon or evening, but we do take them there by 8-9am most days, never later than 10am. Sometimes they don't scan the label at all, then finally do at delivery (and from things I buy, I can see this is a delightful little issue nationwide).


  By sudden requests, the bright semi-mattes are being reconsidered. They're much in finish like Automatic Toaster, but somewhat more silky and blendable. In the meantime, welcome our two newest shadows, Kraken and Debonair. Kraken was a pain in the tentacles to photograph properly, but at about arm's length or in low light, the shimmer does have a bronze-gold cast, it just kept appearing green in pictures. There may be a new Lustre or two upcoming as well.

 We hope all of you are having a great week so far!

Several minor things, which I pen a novella about.

   You should see our tables right now. There are several long steel tables (the sort used in kitchen prep), and one is used only for working on new shades, product changes, or any needed shade reformulation. It's currently covered in little test plates, numerous large bags and pails of colourants, two microscopes, and a mess of notes in my horrid handwriting. I had a couple of really neat shades, which worked great in two tests, then once I mixed a larger amount and added the rest of the ingredients to check, they went to Mudville. The satiny green highlight I had on one didn't play nice at all with the particle size of one of the main base colours, so it morphed into an uninteresting, rather mucky appearance. Layering 150µm sparkle onto a matte or blending into 25-50µm shimmer is no problem, but 5µm gets drowned out by the larger particle shimmers, so instead of an obvious highlight, you end up with a blend of shades. That can be fine sometimes, but wasn't going to work with these hues. On the other hand, we have a lilac shade which turned out quite beautiful, it just hasn't been named yet.

   Also, I am now re-thinking the satin mattes we had ready about three months back. Mattes just are not hot sellers, and these, albeit bright and easy to blend, are rather basic shades. We'll see. There's a tangerine-yellow, which I know won't do well. People should buy yellow shadows more often! It looks really good on many people, especially when in a look with vibrant greens or warm red/pink.


   Royalty sure has been selling rather fast. Years ago, Seduce was rarely purchased, but I'm guessing people are getting more comfortable with purple blushes? I did consider bringing back our red (Intrigue - it was a real red, more vibrant than Spellbound), and perhaps will in the future.


Why it takes us so long to get the pressed shades re-stocked:

   For several years we've maintained a rather unique (at least I assume it is) production process of eye shadow. Some are much more involved than others. For instance, due to particle size layering, heat treatment, and such, a shade like Because Cats takes considerably longer from start to finish than Space Kitty. Housework Pearls takes much longer than Koala. Most can't be done in a very large volume at once. We prepare the shades for being pressed with their loose counterpart, then separate out what's needed for pressing (usually about 500g or 1kg) and finish each respectively. The pressed shades need to be just the right consistancy before going into the machine, and the same ratio of wet ingredients don't work well with each shade. Mephisto doesn't have a high amount of mica, and mica is great for pressing because the microscopic platelets fit together almost like tiny puzzle pieces. It does have some silica and other ingredients which have a rounder or more uniform particle shape. So that one was slightly modified to work consistantly, though still ends up a bit fragile. The mixing and adjusting, then the cleaning up parts between shades...all adds up to a very time-consuming process. We can't very well manage more than two or three pressed shades per day, and those are done when there isn't a very large pileup of other tasks. Always, current purchases in the queue take precedence over all else, so re-mixing of needed colours and package filling is done before pressed re-stock or tinkering with new things.


Sample/freebie amounts:

   It's been asked, and sometimes mentioned in blog posts, regarding the size of the blush, finishing powders, highlighter, and free samples. It's varies. The eye shadow Minis (we started calling them that when the size was changed from 1/4 to 1/3 tsp on the regular shades a few years ago; plus if you get more than just a few uses out of something, It's not really a "sample") are measured uniformly: we have these little scoops which hold exactly 1/3 tsp and 1/4 tsp of powder. But for the face products, one generally uses more each time than with eye shadow. So, these are usually a tiny bit more than 1/3tsp; the measure is rounded when we fill the jars. The free samples are not really measured, it's generally a little more than half the size of a mini or regular sample size of that product. Except when we include a trial size Lip Lustre or Pixie Epoxy free, those are all the same volume. 


Since this is a holiday weekend and no shipments are outgoing Monday, that gives us a little extra time tomorrow, so if the Giant Pile Of Things To Get Done is mostly finished by tonight, a couple shades may get prepped to press tomorrow. At any given time there are 200-350 orders in the queue (we average 50 to 100 incoming each day), but with every new release that amount doubles right away. 


* Edited to add: Sorry about the little jars being out from the 21-22. The missing ones turned up, fortunately.