Choi's nails

This is not a post to show what I bought but merely a rant about my experience with Nailetc.com, a online polish etailer. I’ll make a separate post on what I ordered otherwise this would be too long to read. 

I’ve wanted Zoyas for a while now but I’ve never made the effort to order some. Right when I finally decided to I found that the sites that retail Zoyas for cheap don’t do so anymore and the official zoya site doesn’t even ship internationally. I did a search for other e-tailers but they’re either unreliable or too expensive. In the UK they’re priced at £8-10.50. I love nail polish but I’d rather not spend £10 on one if I could get them cheaper.

I’ve thought of using shipping services to obtain a US address that Zoya could deliver to and so they could transfer it to me but there are restrictions regarding nail polishes so I didn’t want to risk it.

I eventually came across a site called Nailetc.com. I’ve did a bit of research to see how reliable this etailer was to which I came across mixed reviews. Every company has bad reviews and since there weren’t too many on this one I decided to give it a try. Oh, how I wish I didn’t because I’m NOT happy.

I purchased 9 polishes on the 25/05/12, a set of 6 bottles from the True collection for $42 and 3 from the fleck collection for $21. Shipping was $19.99 and I found a discount code for 10% off so the total came up to almost $80 which is equal to £49. When I paid I received an email confirmation, the next day I was notified that my order was shipped. I paid through their site with my debit card as they didn’t’ have PayPal as a payment method.

I checked my bank account one day and saw they hadn’t processed the payment of £49, even until today 08/06/12 the payment still hasn’t been processed because it’s not showing up on my bank statement. Instead, I realised a payment of £42.02 was being pulled out of my account. Since it takes days before the details show up I was left puzzled as to where this money was going. I suspected someone had been using my card but if they did why did they take only £42? I had a feeling it was Nailetc.com as well since that was the only site I purchased from recently.

I went to my bank to see if they could find out any details but they couldn’t help. What they see on their screen is what I see on my online bank account too so I’d just have to wait until it’s been processed before I can actually do anything.

I emailed the company four times regarding the order/payment, FOUR times. I even wrote on their FB wall but they never replied and I don’t think they’re going to. FLIP! Now what?! I have a £49 payment that’s processing and an additional £42 gone out of my account. I’d wish they’d just process the £49 because then I could notify my bank to cancel the transaction but instead they’re doing nothing to it and I can’t contact them. My money’s floating in the middle of nowhere. Great. By that point I was flipping out. I lose sleep over stuff like these.

I received my items on the 08^th June, took almost two weeks to reach me which was good enough. I almost thought they weren’t going to arrive. My order confirmation said my order was shipped first class international but I read the sites shipping information and it said my order would have been shipped priority mail international. They are different right? 

When I received my package it was in a USPS priority mail small flat rate box in a flat rate envelope packaged with foam peanuts and bubble wrap. I considered giving them another chance but here’s where I got annoyed again. I ordered 9 polishes but only received 7! My order receipt had the notes 5/6 and 2/3 written beside my items. I guess that’s the items they’ve managed to pack. There was more which read -1x584 and -1x590, which must be the refund I received in US dollars. That explains why I was charged the £42 rather than £49.

Why couldn’t they notify me that I was being charged less? That I would be receiving two polishes less. Why couldn’t they process my original payment and issue me a refund instead. I didn’t even give them permission to take any other amount out of my account; they could at least send me an email! Now I don’t know what will happen to that money.

I’ve learnt a good lesson from this haul and that is do thorough research before you purchase anything from a site you’ve never bought from before. Don’t risk it even if the products are a little cheaper, it’s not worth it. Pay a little more elsewhere where you’re more likely to experience a smoother transaction. Unless it’s a trustworthy site then pay with PayPal! You have more security by doing so.

I’m sorry for my long rant. I needed to get it out of my system. Would I even consider purchasing from this site again? FLIP NO!  Would I recommend? Certainly not! No one likes to deal with a company that helps themselves to their bank account.

Here's a preview of what I purchased

Does anyone know if the seller doesn’t process my payment will it automatically reverse back into my account after some time? Or will it stay stuck in the middle of nowhere forever?

EDIT:
Just checked my bank account and just saw that I don't have any amount processing. They might have cancelled the £49 payment sent to them. Hmm, I'm still not so sure about this company though. I just hate their lack of response to emails.

I’ve added many colours to my favourites but purples still remains as one of them. This is OPI’s a grape fit which is a lavender purple crème. It somewhat reminds me of China glaze’s Spontaneous but I can’t say how similar they are because I haven’t compared them. It’s the only other polish that comes to mind when wearing this.

The formula was good enough, it was runny but not too much so two coats still did the job. Considering the formula and OPI’s wide brush you just have to be careful how much you loaded on the brush.

Once again my camera is not capturing the true colour, it’s either looking lighter than it is or the colour is leaning towards a blue-ish purple. I guess it could be the lighting too since it was between 6-9pm when I took these photos. I would say the first photo is the closest to the true colour but a little darker.

Before I’ve even managed to snap a few more pictures I ended up denting the polish on my middle finger, twice. Yeah, it had to be that middle finger didn’t it. Since it was smudged I gave the glitter gradient manicure a try, mind you it was a lousy attempt so I didn’t picture any of it. I’ll have to remove it pretty soon.

What's your favourite purple polish?

I removed my previous water marble manicure (not shown on this blog) as it didn’t turn out how I wanted it to but that didn’t stop me from wanting to do more nail art. Just this time I opted for something much easier something I’ve tried before, nail stamping.

I used Essie’s going incognito with the BM image plate 210 using Essie’s Blanc. Poor Blanc, whenever it comes to nail art it’s always the first polish I go to because it’s the safest option and the only white I have. Pretty sure I’ve used it and abused it so many times.

Essie describes going incognito as a ‘deep emerald green’, fairly accurate description. It’s deeper in photos than I actually think it is in person. My camera just refuses to picture how it really looks. It’s slightly, just a little lighter. It looks more like how it is in the bottle.

Even being such a deep-ish green it still needed two coats. One thick coat might have done the job but it’s always been two and above for me. I added a top coat after, just before I started stamping in case I made any mistakes which I did in the end.

I chose the leafy looking image because I felt it would have been most appropriate considering going incognito reminds me of a tree. Essie’s Blanc wasn't thick enough so image didn’t transfer properly and fully so I had to use cotton bud (Q tip) to lightly remove the part that didn’t look so good.  

I added four light green rhinestones I bought from Ebay at the tip of the leaves. After almost a week three out of the four still remain on my accent nail, I’ve even attempted to pick them off but stopped after I thought my nail might break before it comes off.

I can’t figure out if I like this shade or not. I think it’s alright but nothing special. I guess me and greens just aren’t the best match. 

How’s everyone feeling recently? What’s your current NOTD? :)