So disappointed (Taylor Made)

[shatteredshards]

I had seen Taylor Made recommended by someone in another thread recently, so I thought I'd give them a shot.

I spent almost 2 weeks anxiously waiting for my little package to travel from Texas to Minnesota. The fact that it took over a week to even be shipped didn't help, but I digress.

The mail arrived, I cut the envelope open, pulled the baggies out...

...wait a minute...

I pulled out my stash to compare.

They sent me exact dupes of colors I already had from another company.

I've bought a few Pure Hues from Aromaleigh when they were on sale (50 cents!), knowing full well they were TKB micas because Miss K is upfront about the fact that Pure Hues are straight, unaltered micas.

So I was disappointed that I wasted the time picking them out (ironically, I couldn't tell they were dupes from photos) and wasted money purchasing them (also ironically, I hadn't found any comment of Taylor Made repacking in all my reading up on the topic). I hauled my butt back over to Phyrra's blog entry on original MMU companies and repackers (MMUs that make their own shadows) and commented about what had happened, since I didn't see Taylor Made on her list.

Then other people contacted her with the same claims.

And Taylor Made lied through their teeth and denied it!

Quote:

Thank you for contacting us. We formulate all of our own pigments using base ingredients but we do matches based on customer request. This would be why there are several that exactly match those of some competitors. We try to offer the largest range of unique shades and in our effort to do this, we found that matching existing shades was inevitable. Customers can send in samples of shades that they would like matched and when we are able to get an accurate duplicate we provide in on the site and supply the requesting customer with a sample for approval. There are also times when we inadvertently create a color that a competitor already sells and vice versa. The beginning ingredients used in formulation of the pigments are fairly limited so duplicate shades happen all on their own.

If they would have admitted to repacking, okay. But the lying just burns my britches.

Just a tip: never, never underestimate your customer base.


These are dry swatches, made with cotton swabs. The rocks! colors were swatched because the Taylor Made colors seemed very similar; I'm betting they are the base colors for the rocks! shades. Natural light is first, with moderate flash/indoors following.








Some Taylor Made colors and their suspected TKB counterparts:
Taylor Made Cypress - TKB Cyprus Green
Taylor Made Pop - TKB Blueberry Pop!
Taylor Made Mirrors - TKB Blackstar Blue
Taylor Made Willow and Taylor Made China Jade - TKB China Jade and TKB Shamrock Green
Taylor Made Platonic - TKB True Green
Taylor Made Manifest - TKB Glimmer Green
Taylor Made Turf - TKB Apple Green Pop!
Taylor Made Anther - TKB Emerald Green
Taylor Made Burn - TKB Black Amethyst Mica
Taylor Made Sucker - TKB Grape Pop!
Taylor Made Berry - TKB Strawberry Pop!
Taylor Made Mama - TKB Hot Mama
Taylor Made Lush - TKB Raspberry Pop!
Taylor Made Garnet - TKB Garnet Mica- the description is even the same!

[meemsoes]

I was thinking about ordering from them but now not so sure - I would order from TKB but only want a small order

The samples from Taylor - were they quite generous? or would it be better to try another place?

[shatteredshards]

According to TMM, their samples are approximately 1/4 tsp, at $1/each in bags (or $1.50 in little jars). The thing is, when I put those bags next to my Aromaleigh ones, which are only 1/16 tsp, it certainly doesn't look like 4x the product!

TKB's minimum order is $20. If you're thinking less than that, I recommend Aromaleigh - the customer service is way better, they ship faster, shipping is free on sample-only orders, you get bonus samples with each order, and because she's discontinuing the Pure Hues line, samples are $0.50 apiece.

[shatteredshards]

Quote:

We formulate all of our own pigments using base ingredients but we do matches based on customer request. This would be why there are several that exactly match those of some competitors.

This is a near-exact dupe, not even kidding. And seeing as how Taylor Made is about as honest as a United States politician, I'll bet a kidney that it was a deliberate copycat job.

Come on, Aromaleigh has over 400 unique colors, and in Taylor's mere fraction of that, they resort to copycatting and repacking? What a joke.