Swap board on Beauty talk

[mermadelove]

Taking a Poll:

How many of you would like to see a Swap Board on beauty talk?

I have successfully participated in swaps on other boards, and miss being able to do that here, which is my favorite e community by far.

Maybe if enough of us express an interest, the administrators will create a space for us to have a swap board!

Thanks!

PLEASE NOTE: The intention of this post is to see how many people WANT a swap board on Beauty Talk. I do respect that people have had bad experiences with swaps, and that there are always potential risks involved. I feel that the Beauty Talk community is a very positive one and that there would be less chance of negative experiences here. Also, for every negative swap experience you hear about, there are 10 good one you don't hear about. Bad news gets press. We have successfully completed two and are well into a third Traveling Sephora Box. Everyone has been honest, generous and respectful.

If you don't want to participate in a swap, you don't have to. There are dishonest people out there, but there are also many loving, positive, generous people out there.

Thanks!

[strmysony]

I would be interested in a Swap Board for sure.:)

[katie1724]

@tenngal: Why, thank you 😄

[dreamyone]

@lashreece and tenngal and everyone else who's interested in creating their own personalized palettes - There are quite a few companies selling palettes specifically made for "repotting."  Basically, what they sell is a box, usually plastic.  The bottom of the palette is magnetized so that any eye shadow, blush, or bronzer, or potted lip color,  which is in a metal "pot" or casing will attach to the palette's thin lightweight magnetic backing.  The shadows, blushes, or bronzers can be moved around, or removed, as desired. Many eye shadows sold in palettes are contained in those metal casings, which are usually surrounded by the manufacturers' other packaging (making the casing a little bit difficult to see). They're generally easy to pop out, although sometimes a short burst of hot air from a blow dryer at the back of the shadow or blush will loosen any glue securing it to the original container. In addition, I've glued strips of magnetic film (which can be bought at most office supply stores) to shadows that have been surrounded by plastic instead of metal.  This works just as well.  You can find a huge amount and variety of these empty palettes available for sale if you Google "magnetic makeup palette" plus you can find some basic directions on You-Tube. There have also been some of the palettes for sale on eBay, although the choices are fairly limited on eBay.

The other really nice thing about these palettes is that you can save a lot of money on certain products if you use these palettes.  You can just buy the refills of products and place them in these magnetic palettes, instead of buying a filled compact or palette.  MUFE and Stila are just two examples of companies which sell the shadow without any type of additional packaging.  Having experimented with various palettes, I do recommend that you buy them with clear plastic tops so that you can see exactly what you've put inside.  The other nice thing is that these can be purchased in varied sizes, so you can create one for purse, and one for office, another for travel, and one for home. 

I used to prepare my palettes with the shades I wanted to keep.  I then repotted the remaining ones in other palettes which I'd give to women's shelters. I have recently discovered that some women's shelters won't accept them anymore, even though unused and unswatched, because of recent health code regulations which don't allow for resale or regifting of makeup products. 

I've been very pleased with my refillable palettes, because I can create palettes filled with my favorite products.  They look really good, when filled, too.

[tenngal]

@dreamyone:  Thanks for the tip.  I'm off to Google "magnetic palettes" right now...:)

[mermadelove]

@ tenngal: I got mine from Beaut From the Earth. I'll pm you a link!

[mermadelove]

Ok . All of you interested in swapping, I had an idea: I know that some of us are already on Make Up Alley. What if those of us from beauty talk that were interested in swapping with each other all made up accounts on Make Up alley and just swapped with each other there? This way, we would be swapping with mostly people that we have already had great experiences with while simultaneoulsy building up our positive trade tokens on MUA. This would make us more able to swap with other people on MUA who have lots of positive tokesn without risking getting swaplifetd, etc. Also, since we would all be 'new' swappers, we would be patient with each other about negotiating the new (to us ) system of MUA and learn from each other.

Anyone game?

I have the same username at Make Up Alley that I do here.

If people are interested, PM me with your makeup alley username and I will make a running list of who from beauty talk is on makeup alley and we can safely swap there since Sephora hasn't responded to this thread or PM's about it as of yet.

Let me know!

[kalex]

@mermade - That's a good idea!  Are we going to stop doing the TSBs then though?  I don't know that I have enough swappable stuff to really do both... and the TSB is working great for me with clearing out stuff I don't use.  Although I suppose we could swap stuff on MUA that isn't eligible for the TSB like Bath&Body works stuff?

[mermadelove]

@kalex: I suppose we could just stick to TSB's or if we want to swap something specific with a specific person we could do MUA. TSB is fun and awesome, but sometimes some thing that you want gets traded away byefore it gets to you. MUA would be a way to avoid that, I'm thinking. And to swap non Sephora things.

[lashreece]

Some things are not really TSB material.   Large jars of pigments that your willing to break-up before using and unused color palettes may be best swapped.  Other things like samples are better traded via TSB.    Just a thought.

[prettyinpa]

I'm new to Make Up Alley, I would have to figure out how to use it, computer and website navigation isn't my strong suit. But I could try. I definitely have a lot of MAC stuff that I would like to trade, which sort of isn't appropriate for TSB's and some palettes too, so a swap place could definitely help me out!

[dreamyone]

I've swapped with friends I know, and occasionally with people I didn't. I will only swap for totally unused products, since it's so easy to contaminate eye products with germs that can result in serious eye infections, and extremely easy to contaminate liquid products with bacteria that can grow and mutate in the moist environment. Boshes and powders can also be contaminated.

I love swapping, because many times collections, sets, and/or palettes come with products or shades I know I'll never use or already have. With palettes, I immediately "repot" the products that I don't want, in preparation for a swap. The ones with magnetic backs fit into unfilled palettes that are sold by a variety of companies. They palettes come with a magnetic backing so that any powder in a magnetic backing automatically attaches to it. (Those palettes are also good for creating my own palettes filled with favorites). When I have a full palette of unwanted and unused shadow, I trade it. I always label the shadow with manufacturer and shade name, so that whomever takes the palette can replenish the shade if so desired.

While I'd love to see a swap board here, I doubt it will happen, as swapping would cut drastically into Sephora's sales. Additionally, there may be some liability to Sephora even with a disclaimer. Some of the other swap boards are not involved in selling cosmetics, but are review boards, which makes a difference.

One other thing to take into consideration, is that when you swap, in addition to the potential for contacting/catching from a contaminated product, there's also the issue of making a trade with someone who has no intention of trading. I've had experiences with women who even show (what turned out to be fake) delivery confirmation slips. They had no intention of shipping, and just wanted to get what I had to swap. I heard a myriad of excuses in a few swaps, and never received anything. One woman was new to the process, made a huge amount of swaps with a lot people, and never carried through. One person wasn't new to it and had great feedback, but all of a sudden, a bunch of people never got what she had swapped for. One other person had great feedback, and then tried to substitute inferior dollar store products in six swaps with different women, so I and five other women got ripped off in a substantial way. In other cases, palettes that were supposedly never used nor swatched, arrived half used up.

I suspect that if Sephora allowed swapping here at Beauty Talk, they'd be taking on some liability risks, even with disclaimers. Conditions like conjunctivitis can easily be transported via eye makeup. Elizabeth Brooks, MD, ran a major study a few years ago. She pointed out that "Wherever you see E. coli, you should just think 'E. coli equals feces. That means someone went to the bathroom, didn't wash their hands and then stuck their fingers in the moisturizer" (or other product).

In Dr. Brooks' study, researchers discovered found staph, strep, E. coli bacteria on every SINGLE product tested that had been tested or swatched by others. They additionally found the virus herpes andconjunctivitis (pink eye). The US FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that women should never ever share any type makeup, and in particular, warns against sharing eye makeup, according to its Web site.  "Don't share or swap eye cosmetics -- not even with your best friend, the FDA warns consumers. "Another person's germs may be hazardous to you.

In a few cases, women have even been blinded by shared cosmetics. In addition, there is some risk of herpes of the eye being transported in eye makeup. I read a blog about how one woman had rather gleefully swapped makeup after she herself contacted an eye infection, possibly from a swapped product. It turned out that the original swapper had been told to discard all her makeup in order not to re-infect herself, once her infection was cleared up. Instead of getting rid of it as instructed, she traded it and thus, shared her infection with innocent unsuspecting women. Then one of the women who received it felt that if one person could do it to her, it was okay to do to someone else. The woman who contributed to the blog complained that she had lost a lot of money, plus had the additional expense of medical visits and expensive medicine,even with her insurance, and worse, a lot of pain and inconvenience. yet, she had no problem trading the contaminated makeup with someone else. This story stood out in my mind, partly because I have a medical background, and also because, at the time, it hadn't occurred to me that anyone would ever use a makeup product that someone else had previously used or tried. Additionally, the lack of scruples exhibited by all involved in trading makeup that was definitely contaminated with some sort of bacteria and knowing full well they were exposing others to an expensive to treat eye infection was shocking to me.

That said, use care in swapping, wherever you do it. In my opinion, Makeup Alley seems to be a pretty good place to go to, if you want to swap, since it's established, and seems to have very responsible swappers involved as indicated by the feedback system.

[lashreece]

@dreamyone - I love the idea of creating your own palette of unwanted shadows to swap.   There is always a color or two that I don't use.  If I could pull thouse out before I ever used the make-up -then that would be great!

[tenngal]

@dreamyone:  I agree with lashreece that your idea of gathering up products and making your own palette is a great idea.  I may go through my stash and see what I can put together.  I hadn't even thought of doing that before--great idea! 🙂

[mermadelove]

@dreamyone: I've gone to MAkeup alley and they do have a well established swap system. However, their boards are not user friendly at all. More than one person I've spoken to found that not to be as friendly and easy a community as this one, for a variety of reasons. The other community I mentioned that has a successful swap board is Naturally Curly. They have a huge webstore or products for curly haired folks and they also have a section on their boards for swaps. Although it's possible  that a swap board could  reduce Sephora's online sales, it is equally true that it could increase sales. I for one would be more likely to buy sets that had one or two items that I don't personally love if I knew I cold swap them later. This would also be a way for me to try things out that I wasn't sure about without having to spend money on them aside from minimal shipping costs. True I could alway buy these items from Sephora and return them for free if I didn't like thm, but that is definitely money lost for Sephora, considering they throw away returned items AND pay for return shipping on returned items. Swapping would cut down on these kinds of returns, from me at least~! And then I could use the money I saved to buy more items from Sephora!

You do bring up valid points, but I do believe that because the Beauty Talk  community is relatively small compared to Makeup Alley and even Naturally Curly that a swap board would be something that could be successful and fun. Of course no matter what you do in life there are risks, and it's each person's responsibility to decide what is worth the risk to them, and if they trust who they are dealing with.

[katie1724]

@mermade: You know I'm in, since we discussed it originally. : )

Re: Sephora -- We never expected Sephora to facilitate or take any part of this, host a swap site, etc. Many of us have gotten to know each other via this site, and we were simply looking for a space to post info about items we had or were trying to find -- and if we were able to find someone with whom to "swap," the transaction, if you will, would then be completed outside of Sephora's boards. No one was asking Sephora to support this.

Additionally, like anything else, swapping cosmetics requires common sense. I have many unused, untested items -- I lost the receipt or couldn't return them, forgot I had them, etc. In terms of tested products, I would not use someone's lip gloss with a wand, or mascara, for example, but powders can be sterilized. For those who are leery of swapping for trust or for sanitary reasons, that is fine -- we were not trying to advocate swapping or persuade anyone to do the same.

: )

[tenngal]

@katie1724:  Very well said, katie!  I second everything you said. 🙂

[dreamyone]

@mermadelove I agree with you that the swap section of  Makeup Alley could be more user friendly.  I wish they'd revise that area. It needs to be more consistent and easier to use.  I'm not familiar with Naturally Curly and the associated swap board but will check it out.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I appreciate your comments.

I own a woman's accessory store (although I'm not active in the day to day management as I have responsibilities in a different profession).  We also have an online store where customers can buy accessories from us.  We wanted to add a swap section to the online store, both for cosmetics and for accessories.  We were told by our Legal Counsel that even with disclaimers, we might be held  liable under certain circumstances, if someone was injured by cosmetics being swapped. (We could even be sued - even with disclaimers of no responsibility for a trade gone wrong. The legal fees would obviously be much greater than the loss to the buyer).  Disclaimers don't necessarily protect business from claims.  One of the examples (among many) that the lawyer gave us was that almost all service stations have signs posted which disclaim liability if a customer enters a service bay and is injured.  That disclaimer would never hold up in the case of an injury even though most service centers post warnings on every door and throughout their service area.  The same would hold true if a person contacted an infection from a traded product. Making this even more difficult than the service station injury, where the cause would be specifically related to an accident on the premises, the lawyer pointed out that disproving that the injury/infection came from the traded product might conceivably become our responsibility.

He also indicated to us that even with disclaimers, anyone can sue.  The average lawsuit these days can cost tens of thousands of dollars in costs and fees just to defend oneself. In the case of a lawsuit regarding injuries by a cosmetic product, medical depositions would most likely be required.  The depositions themselves could cost thousands of dollars, plus travel costs must be paid to the participants in the case of a medical deposition.  Then those people involved in the depositions would have to be paid to testify at a trial and paid every time a trial is delayed or postponed.  The lawyer pointed out that as ridiculous as all this sounded to us, there are many many frivolous lawsuits that make it to court, and this probably would not be taken as frivolous. Frivolous or not, a company sued still needs to protect itself.  Given legal costs, fees, and court costs, I doubt Sephora wants to risk its reputation by hosting a swap site which would also take away profits from Sephora's already well established business. 

Still, I agree with you...  A well run swap site would be nice. 

[therealsue]

A place to swap would be a nice touch. I live in upstate NY. My boss wanted to start a swapping site for makeup. Her lawyer told her the liability would be great for her even if she made people agree that the site would not be held responsible for swaps gone bad. The lawyer told my boss it was too risky.  I don't think Sephora would want to get into something that could cause negative publicity.  Fights between women on places like eBay have become vicious over petty disagreements. Sephora has a great reputation. I can't imagine Sephora getting involved in something like a swap site that could blow up in their faces. I also agree with others who say Sephora doesn't want to lose sales by allowing swap sites.  The other thing is that Sephora is really good about safety and won't even resell something that's returned, even if unused. I can't see Sephora becoming involved anything having to do with opened and possibly used cosmetics because of the safety issue. Did you know that in some places it's even illegal to give away makeup to shelters?  I tried to give away some of the makeup I didn't want  that came in sets I bought. Even though I never opened the makeup , the shelters told me it was illegal for them to take makeup of any kind because of the possibility of bacteria being inside.

I agree with people who pointed out that Makeup Alley is difficult to negotiate, especially for newbies. I tried to trade with a couple of women, and it didn't work out any of the times. Maybe I'm too trusting. I kept getting ripped off.  One swap was a big disaster and all were one-sided.  I lost a lot of money. For one, I made a deal with someone for something I wanted badly. In order to get the item I wanted, I had to BUY an Urban Decay Naked Palette to complete the swap. I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere else so I bought a brand new UD Naked Palette when they were real difficult to find right after they were first released.  I had to pay $20 more than the retail to buy it from someone at work.  It was brand new. Then the swap I wanted so badly never even arrived. There wasn't anything I could do. There were all kinds of excuses. I never got a thing back.

 A friend of mine swapped for a palette that was supposedly only swatched. When she got it, there was barely anything inside, and the powdery residue from all the different shades  was all mixed together. I wish there was a good reliable site for swapping. I also wish people were honest.

[tenngal]

I think this is a great idea!  I have so many items that I have gotten as a part of a kit that I didn't like and I haven't even opened them.  As far as the "sanitary" issue that was mentioned, it'll be posted whether or not the item has been opened or has been gently used so we'll have a choice as to whether or not we're interested in a used item or not so I don't think that's a problem.  And, as was mentioned, Sephora could post a disclaimer about not being responsible and that should take care of any legal issue for them.  I love the idea and hope to see it happen.

Good going, mermadelove! 🙂

[kristamarielund]

I would be interested. I have an unopened bottle of Purity that I got as a skin care challenge bonus. I like the product, but the bottle I use is lasting forever and I'd rather swap the unopened one.