An Expensive, Limited Website That Cares More About Your Money Than Your Satisfaction.
Illuminare Cosmetics
I saw an ad in a magazine for Illuminare Cosmetics touting it as all natural liquid mineral make up and the ad sucked me in. I wanted to see what this stuff was all about. I like the idea of mineral make up but can't wear the powdery stuff because it looks cakey on my dry skin.
I ripped the ad out of the magazine (Sorry, Dr. O.) and, when I got home, took a peek.
I strongly believe there are several components to shopping on the web especially for cosmetics. I believe that the site should be pleasant and simple to navigate, the products should be as represented, and if, there is a problem, customer service should be pleasant and helpful.
Illuminare Cosmetics batted two out of three for me.
What the Site Sells
The site sells only Illuminare brand mineral make up — foundations, blushes, and eye color — as well as brushes and other tools for application.
Navigation
The home page is inviting and looks elegant with the flawless face of a young woman peering out at you on black and gold with white writing around it. You feel as though you have come to a high-class site and the prices of the products reflect that feeling.
Since they only sell a few products, navigation is very simple. You can click on the following links across the top: More Information, Foundations, Blushes, Eye Colors, Trial Sizes, and Closeouts.
These links take you to their respective categories where you can choose a formula that is right for you and a shade. Click to add items to your cart.
Normally, shipping is free over $99.00 and terribly confusing under that which I will get into later. Once you are done shopping, you go to the checkout where you will give all your info and pay by credit card or Paypal. Since I got free shipping during a special around the holidays, I don't know how the shipping charges are calculated for those who do pay shipping.
You will receive an order number and then and email. The products arrive quickly and boxed. If you have no problems and like what you ordered, everything will be swell.
But if you have a problem, then you need to read on.
My Experience
I will admit I was taken aback to see that a one half ounce tube of the mineral foundation was $24. In my opinion, $48 an ounce for ANYTHING is crazy. The blushes are $18 for a one-quarter ounce tube. The eye colors are also $18 for one quarter of an ounce. These are prices as of the end of January 2006. Prices may rise as time goes on (I doubt they will go down). Still, the info page really sold me on this liquid mineral make up and the woman in the photo was so flawless that I caved and bought a foundation, blush, and a packet of trial sized eye colors. I also bought a foundation brush which was overpriced and broke (I use one that I bought at ELF Cosmetics for $1.00 and it's better!) and an eye color brush. I got a free gift of a small make up bag because I spent more than the the $75.00 needed for free shipping.
I went by the color chart and the fact that the color of the foundation and the type I got were exact matches on the screen for my own skin color and that it was the one that most women wore. Usually I can go a shade or two one way or the other with foundation without a big problem.
The products arrived, boxed, fairly quickly via FedEx.
As soon as I tried the foundation, I knew it was wrong for me. It was way too light textured and too dark colored. I gave it one try and it didn't work well for me at all.
Having seen that they had a 30-day return/exchange policy, I wrote a letter to customer service telling them that I needed a lighter shade and a different formula and wanted to return the tube I had for an exchange. I was instructed to call customer service for a RMA number.
I did do that and spoke to the rep ("Lauren" I believe) for a long while about colors and finishes. I had decided to go with a trail pack of foundations to see which would be best for me but the rep said that she thought the foundation in a lighter shade and coverage would be perfect for me. She gave me a RMA number and told me to return the product and write on my receipt what I wanted in exchange.
Fair enough.
I taped up the original box after writing what I wanted (as suggested by the rep) and sent the package, with the RMA visible, on its way to California. Several days later, it came back to me with the address crossed out and some scrawling across the box. I wasted about $3.50 on that and had no idea why it was returned except all I could make out was something about an RMA number.
I should have quit but I put the product in bubbled envelope and plastered the RMA number all over it and resent it to the company. Another $2.00 (with tracking). This was getting quite expensive!
Fairly quickly, I received my replacement with a hand written note that they were sorry my first box was returned and they added a little sponge type thing in there which I thought was a nice touch although I don't use sponges for foundation application. But still, a nice touch nonetheless.
I later noticed I was charged $5.00 shipping for the product (which weighs, mind you, one half ounce). I couldn't figure out why on earth I was charged $5.00. I returned the product at my expense (which was $6.50 for the two attempts) so what was this charge?
I wrote the company, pretty angry, asking why I was charged a fee since I didn't go under the limit for free shipping and only exchanged a product. I was told that the representative should have informed me that I would be charged shipping back. I said I had certainly NOT been informed and, had I been, I would have kept the foundation and either used it or passed it on to my sister. Back and forth we went in emails. I said that it is bait and switch to tell people you have a 30-day exchange policy, yet not tell them that you will charge them $5.00 or more for that exchange and they said they are a "small" company who has to charge exchange shipping to stay in business.
Please, I saw the ad in a very prominent magazine. Me thinks they can afford to send a one half ounce product to someone without charging five bucks. This came to me via the mail and couldn't have cost more than a buck or two meaning they made money on my exchange!
What a rip.
More emails were exchanged with me explaining that I felt they should disclose this information on their site and not rely on a rep to tell someone because, like in my case, the rep may NOT tell someone of the charge. They refused to relent and told me all the things I did wrong and they did right and held their ground.
I sell now and then on eBay and, if a buyer is unhappy with a purchase for a legitimate reason, or if I do not disclose something I should have, I always go out of my way to make things right so that the buyer returns and I build trust. This company didn't do that and they are supposedly this Hollywood company who wants to garner a solid customer base who comes back time and again. At the prices they sell things, they NEED to go out of their way to make customers happy. Not many people I know are willing to pay $48.00 an ounce for foundation — plus shipping!
Had the company — in good faith because I was not informed of the charge ahead of time as I should have been — refunded that shipping charge, I would have been a customer who would have returned as I did like their eye color and blush. Now, I wouldn't go near that website if I was going on TV and every make up company on earth was unavailable to me but them.
They got my five bucks but lost me as a customer and proved they don't care about customer service just the almighty dollar.
Shipping and Returns
Shipping is free over $99.00 in general. Under that amount, it is $2.99 for up to $15.00, $5.00 for up to $35.00, and "real time Fed Ex rates" over that amount. I have NO idea what that means and I guess the only way to find out is to order products that total over $35.00 but under $99.00. I know I sure won't be doing any of that in the future.
The return policy is confusing and sketchy. You can return products (except trial sizes and closeouts which are not returnable or exchangeable) up to 30 days after purchase. Obviously you must pay to send the products back. If you return a product, you can get a refund but if you dip below their free shipping amount (if you got free shipping) you will be charged shipping taken from your return amount. Otherwise, you will be credited for the product but not the shipping you paid, which is standard.
If you exchange a product, you will be charged shipping back to you as per the shipping rates above. You don't KNOW this, but you will be. So conceivably, if you bought a $24.00 foundation and paid $5.00 shipping for it and found it wasn't the right shade or density, you would have to pay to return it and pay another $5.00 to exchange it making that $24.00 foundation cost about $37.50 for one half of one ounce of foundation!
Get outta town!
It is important to note that, while all their information is very easy to find, their return policy is buried and tough to find and is confusing even when read a few times. A line was added after my "full disclosure" letters which at least sort of discloses that you will be paying both ways to get the right product.
Contact Info
There is a customer feedback page on the site for questions or feedback of any type. You can also email "Ruthie" at AskRuthie@IlluminareCosmetics.com with any questions about the products you may have. For customer service or order status, you can email SalesInfo@IlluminareCosmetics.com.
Phone:
916-939-9888
Toll-free Number:
866-999-2033
Fax:
916-933-9884
Address:
4970 Windplay Drive, #7 1st Floor
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762-9659
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday 9am-5:00pm PDT/PST
Conclusion
I must have shopped at a few thousand websites over the course of a few years. I am an internet shopping junkie. I love to try new things and discover websites and companies that are out there just waiting to be discovered, as well as going back to my old favorites over and over again. I have had terrible experiences but not often. I have had wonderful experiences much more often. I have had good experiences most of the time.
This experience, to me, was poor (but not terrible). While everything seemed to be fine, and probably would have been fine, if I didn't have a problem with my order, the way a company handles their customers tells me so much about them and whether I want to continue to do business with them.
Considering they admitted that they did not tell me about the return shipping fee (this was before anything about return shipping was on the site) and, knowing I spent well over $80.00 and would probably be back, had they simply refunded the $5.00 as a good faith one time refund, I would have known the policy and bought accordingly in the future and all would have been fine.
Instead, the VP of Operations and the Office Manager chose to go round and round with me, getting snipping and accusatory about how no one else ever complained about the fee and about how I did this, that, and the other thing wrong, essentially saying I was lucky they allowed me to shop there at all.
With that attitude, they'll be lucky to keep any customers!
I strongly urge you to order the trial packs before buying any full size products but more, I urge you to bypass this site completely. Other sites sell this same product. In fact, The Skin Store sells this line for the same prices but with no shipping and NO return/exchange shipping fees. And they have some killer specials and deals on these products and others. So why patronize a website that patronizes YOU?
Shop where you will be treated fairly and will be valued as a customer. There are too many websites out there willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to keep the consumer happy — why shop at one that overcharges for exchange shipping without telling you about it and then refuses to correct the problem at the expense of losing you as a return customer? To me this says they don't care. And if they don't care, I sure don't.
I give this site 2 stars. If you have no problems, you'll get 4 star service. (I am not here to evaluate whether their products are worth the price. They aren't. But they're not bad either. Email me if you want to know more about their products and quality.) If you have a customer service issue, be prepared to do things their way and to spend money both ways for an exchange.
I personally feel that they were SO concerned with that $5.00 they charged me that they overlooked the most valuable part of the whole shopping experience online and that is the customer service aspect. I have been to sites much, much smaller that have given such exemplary customer service that I go out of my way to shop with them because of their obvious caring for me as a customer. In this case, I will go out of my way to avoid this site for good.
Recommended:
No
