JewelMint - Worst Customer Service Experience Ever!

I normally don't take time out of my day to complain on internet forums about the questionable customer service I receive from various places when it occurs. However, my experience at jewelmint was so horrendously bad, I thought I had to share it, in case anyone was ever thinking of buying from this company.

As I'm sure most of you know, Jewelmint is that Kate Bosworth backed jewelry of the month club that advertises a lot through youtubers and web ads (and even on my beloved dlisted.com, where Michael K definitely doesn't have the nicest things to say about Kate, her style or her lack of shall we say, nourishment?) I've been buying pieces on and off since earlier this year, because I was attracted to the price point and the uniqueness of some of the pieces. I love costume jewelry, and this seemed like a fun way to shop for it.

Everything had been going fine up until a month ago, when I received a very enticing e-mail promotion - buy a piece, get $7 off, and also receive a free gift with purchase from some of their overstock. How cool I thought - I hadn't been thinking of getting anything that month, but with that e-mail I decided to order an Egyptian themed necklace I had been eyeing. Cut to several days later, I get my Egyptian necklace in the mail, but no GWP. What? I was sure it was a mistake. Because Jewelmint's customer service line is only open during the business hours that I work (really, how convenient is a customer service dept if it only operates during the times when most normal people are at their offices or school?), I went ahead and e-mailed them...and waited. For a week, all I got was a response saying a ticket had been opened. Not very helpful. I e-mailed them back and asked, "so the ticket is open, what exactly does that mean?" I finally received a response...and it floored me with its tone of complete disrespect.

I learned from a CS rep that the promotion was only for the first 500 orders. Okay, I would beg to disagree - if it was on the ad at all, it was purposefully made so small so that anyone looking over the ad would have to squint to see it. Plus, upon check out, I received a confirmation that my discount code had applied, and I would be getting my $7 off and my GWP.

This isn't what really annoyed me though. I can really live without receiving a 2nd piece of jewelry. What took me aback was the wording of the e-mail, which was, and I quote "I am sorry you didn't read the ad correctly and you should have seen it on there."

This is where I go from calm Matryoshka, to this:I work with clients each and every day. They are the back bone of our business, and we have a strict code of conduct in terms of how we communicate with and serve them. If I had e-mailed anything along the lines Jewelmint's response to any of them, that would be a first class ticket into my boss's office, or more likely out of the office, on my butt and holding a box full of my personal effects. For a business that is trying to grow, and is relying heavily on the blogger/vlogger community to do so, I found that to be an egregious customer service FAIL.

Sadly that wasn't even the end of my saga. Before I received that e-mail I had ordered something from my September showroom. Needless to say, this was going to be my last piece. I e-mailed Jewelmint back, letting them know how disappointed I was with their customer service, and asked that my account with them be closed immediately. Again, I never heard a response from them, but when I went to log onto my account, it seemed as though some member features had been shut down, leading me to believe they did close it. However, receiving an e-mail confirmation would have been nice!

Now here is the finale - I received the last piece I ordered from them, and it was completely and utterly defective. Take a look for yourself:

Totally lopsided.

There is a huge gape between the horn and the casing, showing how poorly made it was.

Now if I was paranoid, I would say they were almost doing this to spite me, but I honestly thing it is bad luck. However, I do want it corrected, so I e-mailed customer service yet again, and they have yet to respond to me. Once more, I shake my head in dismay and awe over how horrible one company can be to its customers.

If you have had good experience with Jewelmint's CS in the past, then I am glad for you and hope it continues. I'm not saying my story is everyone's story, but I thought it was important to share. Take what you will from it. I know that I will never support this company again.

Mozart's Sister & Wedding Dress Ideas

I haven't had much inspiration to post lately - I feel like there is only so much I can say about makeup without showing an actual FOTD, something I'm not read to do yet. I do have a collective haul post planned shortly, but I thought I would begin with something that did inspire me, which as the film Mozart's Sister.

If you know me at all by now, you know I adore historical dramas. The one that is the gold standard to judge all others by is Bright Star. Mozart's Sister was rather "quiet" for a historical movie, and mostly focused on family dynamics (interspersed with amazing music performances of course) and never let the set overtake the story. For example, when the family was eating supper, they ate by candlelight and you could only see what they could. In that way, the scenery was a part of the movie, but not another character, as it so often is in these types of films.

Likewise with the costumes. There were minimal costume changes (Louise de France wore the same dress days in a row, quelle horror!), yet from them I got an idea for my upcoming wedding dress (which I've already decided that I need custom made. It is too hard to find something that isn't your run of the mill strapless confection billowed by tulle). What I most loved was the idea of the train or "cape" running from the back of the dress:For wedding dress purposes, I'd want it to be longer of course, something that would need holding up lest it get dragged on the ground.

Anyone have any thoughts on finding non-conventional wedding dress ideas?

Back from Hiatus, Plus Some Happy News

I never really meant to take a break this long from blogging, but somehow between work and school, I kind of got out of the swing of things. Consider me back from the dead though, since I'm going to be posting a lot more!

Nothing much of note has happened since I last posted, save for this:Yep, my boyfriend finally decided to make an honest woman out of me, and proposed on our anniversary. I'm very excited and so happy with the ring. I told him awhile ago that should we ever get engaged, I would want a ruby instead of a diamond. And he figured out on his own that I'd love a vintage style setting. The one that I have was designed by the jewelry store owner's great grandfather back in the 1920's.

As for the wedding itself, it will be awhile coming, because we still need to get some of our ducks in a row. However, I'm still thinking of the wedding dress (the most important element of any wedding, right?) and hoping I can find something that is not strapless.

As for makeup posts, I'll be doing a collective haul soon. :-)

Nightly Face Routine

So I'm back from Vegas and was all set to do a haul post, but then I realized I accidentally left some haul items at my mom's...oops. I get kind of lazy about packing when I know I can just have my mom send or bring my stuff with her when she visits. So anyway, I thought I'd make this post about my current nightly skincare routine, because I've surprisingly been getting compliments on my extremely unideal skin type (oily, with some uneveness due to freckling and hyperpigmentation). To start out with, I've been removing my makeup with Josie Maran's Bear Naked wipes:They are called Bear Naked because a portion of the sale price goes to help protect polar bears and their environment. They also smell nice and are very gentle!

Next I've been cleansing with Lush's Coalface charcoal soap:
I've been using the wedge for about a month and a half, and there's still a good amount left. There are little beads inside the bar that exfoliate, so it's really a cleanser and exfoliator in one. And despite the fact that it's charcoal based, it still smells good! Next I apply Clinque's Even Better Serum:I wasn't too sure of this product at first, because I didn't see much of a difference. With this, patience is key, because it took about a month before I saw my complexion get more even. Normally I hate gazing in the mirror in the harsh Nevada sunlight, but this time I was stoked to see the improvement in my skin! And then comes my favorite party of my nightly ritual - applying my whatever my current Haus of Gloi lotion is! Right now it is Selkie Pumpkin Butter, from the spring line.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Vegas- The Cosmopolitan and Bellagio Atrium Pics

Ahhh, free at last - last least for one week. After a rather dramatic start at John Wayne airport (a "code 5" was announced over the loud speaker, which was followed by blasting sirens and the airport basically going into lockdown mode), I made it to Las Vegas, and only an hour late after all the drama cleared up. I spent yesterday napping, and then my mom and I went to the shopping center that has an Inglot in order to do some makeup shopping (About a year ago I inducted my mom into the cult that is makeup obsession). Today we ventured over to the strip to meet up with my half brother and his wife. We took them out to the Cosmopolitan's buffet at Wicked Spoon for his birthday. It was delish! I also went into full on tourist mode and took a whole bunch of pictures. At the Cosmopolitan:

A "Steam Pump" Sculpture

Yummy dessert noms from the buffet

More random shoe artI have a couple more photos from the Cosmo, but they're mostly random family stuff.

Next we headed over to the Bellagio, because I seriously cannot visit Vegas without seeing their seasonal Atrium exhibit:

These flowers almost looked too perfect to be real

The symmetry inside astounds me

This is based on a Hockney from the Bellagio gallery

I also took tons of butterfly photos inside the greenhouse:

Hope you enjoyed! I don't have too much planned for the rest of the week other than sleeping in, seeing some movies, going to some outlets, and some routine maintenance stuff like seeing the eye doctor and dentist.

Updates Coming Soon

Substitute "kitteh" with "blog" and basically that's what's been happening lately in terms of me paying attention to this site. Without going into too much detail, work has been a beyotch and a half. In addition to our usual work load, we got sprung with two major (one good, one sucky) surprises that has been requiring extra hours on the clock. On top of that two coworkers have been out on vacation, so we're understaffed to boot. But the good news is that next week is my vacation! And as usual, I'll be visiting my family in Vegas. So in addition to sleeping in, I'll have lots of time to take pictures and post!

I still have had time to do some makeup haulage this past month though, which I still thought I'd share, even though I don't have pics:

MAC
*Giggly mineralize blush from Quite Cute
*Sakura mineralize blush
*Playing Koi lipstick (promptly returned though, it was terrible)
*Candy Yum Yum lipstick

Chanel
Summer just came out at my Nordstrom's Chanel!! I got:
*Morning Rose nailpolish
*Aurore Glossimer
*Pensee Glossimer
*Khaki Discret eyeshadow duo

So how has everyone else been? Anyone else feel kinda meh about Quite Cute?

Bye for now, next time I log on I'll be in Vegas baby!

Latest Obsession: Animal Cocktail Rings

Admittedly I am not a very sophisticated person when it comes to jewelry. I get bored at the thought of Tiffany's robin's egg blue boxes. If I had the serious dough to invest, I would much rather splurge on Victoire de Castellane's baubles. But since that is only a fantasy, I have started to try and collect equally ostentatious, but much more affordable items, all animal themed. I've gotten several in the past few months:
This is a Betsy Johnson snake ring my boyfriend gave me for Valentine's Day (interesting fact: our first anniversary he did get me something from Tiffany's, because he thought that's what girls just like. He knows me way better now. Likewise, I did once err in almost getting him a Lacoste polo shirt only to find out he was in a "no Lacoste upturned collar" club in college or something like that).

This is my Rachel Rachel Roy owl ring. His name is Justinius, because I paid for him with the jury duty stipend I received last winter.

This is also a Rachel Rachel Roy ring. It's a jaguar or panther or some other type of exotic cat. I was going to wear him along with my teal nails to the wedding from hell I had to attend yesterday, but the thunderstorms made me change my wardrobe plans last minute, so I had to put him away in favor of this more subdued piece:This is a vintage knotted snake ring I picked up at a monthly antique fair they hold in my area.

So there is my small but growing collection of cocktail animal baubles! I guess I will end this by making a plea to any of you planning a wedding - for the love of your guests, please include a bar, any bar, for your reception! It doesn't matter if it's open or cash, nothing is worse than going to a 4 + hour long event only to find that the only drinks available are unsweetened lemonade and punch. (By the way, this was my boyfriend's friend's wedding, my friends would definitely have had better sense than that!) I was this close to live tweeting my misery last night, but remembered my manners at the last moment :-)