Aromaleigh drowns under wank
It probably says something about a company when I see them going out of business and my immediate reaction is to make popcorn and look for wank. Some of you might remember Aromaleigh from the last makeup wank. For those of you who don't, they're a small mineral cosmetics company whose founder, Miss K, was known to frequently be involved in wank, including:

-Founded Mineral Makeup Mutiny, a website founded to stop people from just repackaging wholesale minerals at giant markup, shortly after she got caught doing just that and had to discontinue a rather large line of eyeshadow.
-Guilt-tripping epinions reviewers into taking off anything even remotely negative with 4 page emails, at least until they go "fuck you and write a lengthy screed detailing exactly how Aromaleigh sucks
-Responding to random bloggers who say anything negative whatsoever
-Being pissed off very publically because the musical artist she sponsored doesn't give her free stuff back.
-And probably more, but these are just what kept popping up while browsing the wank.

For you see, Aromaleigh is closing, but not before having a several month clearance sale! Why? Well...apparently news was breaking that she might have used non-FDA approved dyes in her eye shadow. Whoops! Especially considering how many people buying mineral makeup chose it because they're afraid of chemicals.

Regardless of the issue at hand, it quickly becomes apparent that both sides are drama queens who have had issues brewing with each other for years. Especially considering the biggest name on the other side is Jenna, the (former?) head of a rival cosmetics company who used to be a major Aromaleigh fan before she broke off to do her own business, and who originally thought it would be a good idea to investigate the whole unsafe dye issue with sockpuppets. On a site where she'd been an active member of for years and when she was directly communicating on a contentious issue with the very owner who knew her IP address. Sadly, the best wank from that seems to have gotten deleted with the Aromaleigh forums.

Miss K's cosmetics are full of unsafety

Jenna closed her business SOLELY so she could focus full time on driving Miss K into closing hers

I am dirtying myself on this sight only to warn all you pure, good people to stay away because this rant site is full of people only looking at the negative side of things

Those pictures of me on your website are copyright infringement now that I hate your guts

What why's Aromaleigh closing?

IT'S NOT A COORDINATED SMEAR. REALLY

Aromaleigh's closing...and she's blaming us?

Yep, it's all the fault of the mean people who kept picking on her for using unsafe ingredients in her cosmetics

Miss K is welcome to post ~~an apology~~ at a site that has spent the last couple months ripping her behavior for the last several years to shreds. Riiiight.

Nonsensical tl;dr is inspiring tl;dr? I can't even tell what side this is on, probably because my eyes keep glazing over

Why are you issuing chargebacks just because it's been 40 days since you've ordered and there's nothing and you know I'm going out of business? Oh, the cruelty of it all

So, does anyone know where I can find a good foundation for pink people now?

ETA: Oh hey, someone was nice enough to screencap Jenna's sockpuppeting. Posting with your sockpuppet to drop dark hints about other cosmetics companies using unsafe dyes on your cosmetics company blog is totally a non-wanky thing to do, right?

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eleutheria
2010-08-02 12:51 pm UTC (link)

Wow... and I was going to order from them, based on how pretty Phyrra's looks are. I had no idea about this stuff!

Between this and the LimeCrime scandals and the thing with Bitchcake (? Bitch something, I can't remember if that's the right name or not) putting freaking paint in eye pigments, WTF is it about mineral makeup that makes people go completely shady and batshit?

Is Fyrinnae safe, or are they bad too?

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sarracenia
2010-08-02 02:19 pm UTC (link)

Mineral cosmetics reminds me a lot of the heyday of HP fandom, except that BNFs are the people making their living off it, with the ensuing increase of wankery.

Fyrinnae was mentioned a few times as being pretty drama free, though I don't know about the safety. If you're worried about it, you might try checking the rant4theugly.com's Fyrinnae forums, since they seem to be pretty up to date on any negative news.

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	fernmonkey 2010-08-04 10:21 am UTC (link)
	Mineral cosmetics reminds me a lot of the heyday of HP fandom, except that BNFs are the people making their living off it, with the ensuing increase of wankery. You see similar stuff going on in the knitting comms with indie-dyed sock yarn. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rewil 2010-08-02 04:31 pm UTC (link)
	I asked Phyrra over on the BPAL forum about a good replacement place to get makeup, with a bonus for any company not involved with this sort of wank on any side, and she recommended Fyrinnae. I placed an order and have been happy so far — mmm, lychee-scented lipgloss. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	faultypremise 2010-08-02 05:46 pm UTC (link)
	Lychee scented lipgloss?!? Hot, I'm so there. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rewil 2010-08-02 06:03 pm UTC (link)
	It looks like they only use lychee for one (boo), so it all depends on whether you like wearing red. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	faultypremise 2010-08-02 07:53 pm UTC (link)
	Why yes I do, actually. Red is a great color on me. buys one now (Reply to this)(Parent)

	cleolinda 2010-08-02 05:45 pm UTC (link)
	PAINT? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sarracenia 2010-08-02 08:00 pm UTC (link)
	Here's a blog post summarizing the whole situation. My eyes hurt at the thought of putting that anywhere near it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hallidae 2010-08-02 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	Ohgodohgodohgod. That would be an allergy attack just waiting to happen for me. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	judyhazeleyes 2010-08-09 12:51 am UTC (link)
	I had a friend who used paint (I don't know which kind, I'm no artist) on her eyes because nothing else was metallic enough for her tastes. It always made me shudder, because even liquid liner makes my eyes sting and water for days - I can't imagine what paint would do. (Reply to this)(Parent)

wankismyfandom
2010-08-04 02:51 pm UTC (link)

Don't worry, the FDA said it was all just a plot to destroy Aromaleigh:
Excluding the initial one hour & 26 minute wait to get the number for the cosmetics division, I have spent over 4 hours on the phone with three different people from the FDA going over all of the "may contain" issues that have been brought up about dyes in Aromaleigh products. One woman I spoke to at the FDA said that in her opinion, R4TU was and I quote, "tantamount to a witch hunt". The gentleman at the FDA told me that R4TU was obviously focused on targeting one business to discredit it's products with misinformation.

If you'd like more details about the conversation, let me know, I'll post them for you. The bottom line is, not one of the three were concerned, even after I emailed them scans of the top & bottom labels of my AL rocks! shadows with the ingredient lists on them.

I also had a friend who is a chemistry doctorate graduate at Yale test about half of the collection for dyes. He did not find any of the dyes that are not approved for use around the eyes by the FDA.

... makeup wank sucks me in like nothing else, and I don't even wear the stuff.

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	feenix 2010-08-06 10:20 am UTC (link)
	I just. Girlfriend did not just say that the lady at the FDA talked shit about R4TU. She didn't. ...I hope she also mentioned that us wankas are just like the mean girls in high school who told Miss K she could never be a mineral makeup guru. Because putting down R4TU while leaving us alone? So fucking unfair. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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