Rude email from "vegan" company re: beeswax
I can't hold this in any longer. I have no one to rant about this to and i kinda wanna get the word out there on this company also. I used to want to get the word out on this company in a GOOD WAY, but they single handedly changed that.
And of course, it steams from the Vegans use bee products "argument"
Ok. I love lip gloss and balm and all that. I am always on the look out for AMAZING vegan lip stuff. Someone got me the PETA pack of vegan lip balm (has no beeswax) and i love it! But...i personally like to support OTHER AR organizations, so i saw the company that made these for PETA on the label. It's called "My Lip Stuff" and it touts over 400 flavors of balm to choose from. So I thought "Great! I can support a small business instead of Peta"
So after picking 6 flavors to buy for their "bundle' deal, i started getting confused....cause i noticed that they had a "100% Vegan" section. Their website is a bit busy and lots to choose from so i hadn't noticed that ALL the products aren't vegan. The "normal" formula uses beeswax. But it said any flavor can be made in vegan formula. So i placed my order and put in the comments to make with vegan formula. No prob. Still a decent company as far as i was concerned and great that they have so many flavors that can be made vegan.
So shortly after I place my order I get an email that the Vegan balms don't count for the bundle pricing. They are more expensive and you have to select from the existing Vegan formula flavors to bundle. She said she would make an exception on the price but i had to pick the existing vegan flavors. Ok...fine...
Out of 400 flavors.....only 7 ARE VEGAN (ready made). She also noted that she can make ANY flavor vegan, but you have to buy a minimum of 10 of one flavor for her to do it.
I think that is super lame that 7 (crappy may i add) flavors are vegan out of 400!!!! WTF! And i can't afford, nor need to be buying in bulk at this time.
I wrote her back in a VERY NICE MANNER. Stating that i would prefer to support her company directly but I am not interested in the vegan flavors available and to cancel my order and asked that i be added to an email list so i know when the vegan selection expands. I did apologize for the mistake and i though all her balms were vegan.
SHE EMAILED ME BACK A FRICKIN' LECTURE!@!@!@!@!@!@
5 BIG PARAGRAPHS!!!!!!!!!
Here are some choice bits:
"As I'm sure you know, veganism is different for each person. There are no rules that say you must do this or you are not vegan. I am a vegan - and I use bee products. That is my personal choice, and I have extended that to my company. So in my eyes, My Lip Stuff is a vegan company. In your eyes, apparently we are not. To avoid confusion for someone searching for beeswax free balms - we show the 100% vegan/natural line as different from our regular version stating our regular balms are made with butters,oils, & beeswax."
I am SORRY....as i have said before....there is a BASIC SET OF RULES to be vegan. Use of animal products is one of those things. I know some vegans DO use bee products...and whatever...i'm not even addressing that. What i am saying here is that an item with bee products SHOULD NOT BE LABELED VEGAN!!!!!!!!!! That is a ridiculous comment to me. A product with bee stuff in it, would never be certified vegan. By her locgic, people can be vegan and eat burgers if they want. Beeswax is not a vegan product, and it saddens me that someone is touting their business as vegan because they don't think it isn't. Ingredient wise...it is not vegan...sorry.
"We do use precautions and purchase only beeswax that is harvested naturally without harming the bees. The reason we use beeswax in our products is because it creates a smoother superior lip balm, with the added benefit of natural sun protection (around SPF 15). We do not use chemicals, and therefore there is no possible way to have a true SPF balm, without the use of beeswax (candelilla wax offers no sun protection). It's nearly impossible to have a balm that is everything everyone wants it to be without bending in some direction. Since we use cruelty free beeswax, we chose beeswax over chemicals."
Personally, i LOVED their bee free stuff that Peta had. But whatever makes you sleep at night....
"The reason we only STOCK a few flavors in the 100% vegan/natural beeswax free line is because it's a NEWER line, it uses ONLY ESSENTIAL OILS (versus flavor oils in our regular balms), and frankly the sales do not warrant a gigantic increase in flavors."
This is really all she had to say to me, minus the rude caps. All would have been cool. I don't care if you sell bee products if there is a vegan option. I didn't lecture her on that or anything. All i said was i wanted to know when her line expands. I don't NEED 400 flavors available...but 7? And shit BORING flavors? Not even basic FRUIT FLAVORS~!~!~!~! She totally didn't have to get snippy. She could have been a PROFESSIONAL and just said "it's a new line, we are working on it" end of fucking story.
"You seem to have missed the option I mentioned - every flavor IS AVAILABLE in a vegan version - you simply have to custom order it."
That was just rude.
"My Lip Stuff fights for & protects animals, and supports many animal rights charities that share our same beliefs - and in doing so lose a large customer base that do not agree with or share those same beliefs. But to us, doing what we feel is right is more important than sales."
Except if you're a bee, in which case they make more money and a superior product...so eff you...you are not an animal we care about. (i'm just being super snarky at this point, cause her attitude pisses me off so much)
I totally respected that they were an eco-friendly, small decent company that offered great vegan balm. The site is confusing cause they sell SO MUCH. As i said, they had vegan options so i'm fine, i just wanted flavors other then orange-rosemary and stuff like that. The PETA balms are normal fruit flavors, i figured they would at least be stocked, but they aren't.
Maybe she would have more sales of vegan balms if she used "Regualr" flavors like fruit punch, cherry and stuff. And maybe if she wasn't such a snot to vegans asking about her lines. Maybe she would generate GOOD word of mouth instead of this.
So now, not only am i NEVER going to buy the product direct from her ever, I am not even going to buy her product from PETA! Which sucks cause this was the best vegan lip balm to date that i ever had. Any suggestions on other VEGAN balms would be appreciated.
I just needed to get this off my chest cause i am determined to NOT write her back and start a stupid argument. I'm trying to be the bigger person.....by ranting behind her back. (ironic...i know)
I was disgusted with the complete un-professionalism of her correspondence. She proly snapped cause she proly gets it a lot form other vegans that want ACTUALLY VEGAN product.
EDIT:
Thanks for all the suggestions of new balm products to try everyone! I got quite the list :D And as always, thanks for letting me get this off my chest as well.
And of course, it steams from the Vegans use bee products "argument"
Ok. I love lip gloss and balm and all that. I am always on the look out for AMAZING vegan lip stuff. Someone got me the PETA pack of vegan lip balm (has no beeswax) and i love it! But...i personally like to support OTHER AR organizations, so i saw the company that made these for PETA on the label. It's called "My Lip Stuff" and it touts over 400 flavors of balm to choose from. So I thought "Great! I can support a small business instead of Peta"
So after picking 6 flavors to buy for their "bundle' deal, i started getting confused....cause i noticed that they had a "100% Vegan" section. Their website is a bit busy and lots to choose from so i hadn't noticed that ALL the products aren't vegan. The "normal" formula uses beeswax. But it said any flavor can be made in vegan formula. So i placed my order and put in the comments to make with vegan formula. No prob. Still a decent company as far as i was concerned and great that they have so many flavors that can be made vegan.
So shortly after I place my order I get an email that the Vegan balms don't count for the bundle pricing. They are more expensive and you have to select from the existing Vegan formula flavors to bundle. She said she would make an exception on the price but i had to pick the existing vegan flavors. Ok...fine...
Out of 400 flavors.....only 7 ARE VEGAN (ready made). She also noted that she can make ANY flavor vegan, but you have to buy a minimum of 10 of one flavor for her to do it.
I think that is super lame that 7 (crappy may i add) flavors are vegan out of 400!!!! WTF! And i can't afford, nor need to be buying in bulk at this time.
I wrote her back in a VERY NICE MANNER. Stating that i would prefer to support her company directly but I am not interested in the vegan flavors available and to cancel my order and asked that i be added to an email list so i know when the vegan selection expands. I did apologize for the mistake and i though all her balms were vegan.
SHE EMAILED ME BACK A FRICKIN' LECTURE!@!@!@!@!@!@
5 BIG PARAGRAPHS!!!!!!!!!
Here are some choice bits:
"As I'm sure you know, veganism is different for each person. There are no rules that say you must do this or you are not vegan. I am a vegan - and I use bee products. That is my personal choice, and I have extended that to my company. So in my eyes, My Lip Stuff is a vegan company. In your eyes, apparently we are not. To avoid confusion for someone searching for beeswax free balms - we show the 100% vegan/natural line as different from our regular version stating our regular balms are made with butters,oils, & beeswax."
I am SORRY....as i have said before....there is a BASIC SET OF RULES to be vegan. Use of animal products is one of those things. I know some vegans DO use bee products...and whatever...i'm not even addressing that. What i am saying here is that an item with bee products SHOULD NOT BE LABELED VEGAN!!!!!!!!!! That is a ridiculous comment to me. A product with bee stuff in it, would never be certified vegan. By her locgic, people can be vegan and eat burgers if they want. Beeswax is not a vegan product, and it saddens me that someone is touting their business as vegan because they don't think it isn't. Ingredient wise...it is not vegan...sorry.
"We do use precautions and purchase only beeswax that is harvested naturally without harming the bees. The reason we use beeswax in our products is because it creates a smoother superior lip balm, with the added benefit of natural sun protection (around SPF 15). We do not use chemicals, and therefore there is no possible way to have a true SPF balm, without the use of beeswax (candelilla wax offers no sun protection). It's nearly impossible to have a balm that is everything everyone wants it to be without bending in some direction. Since we use cruelty free beeswax, we chose beeswax over chemicals."
Personally, i LOVED their bee free stuff that Peta had. But whatever makes you sleep at night....
"The reason we only STOCK a few flavors in the 100% vegan/natural beeswax free line is because it's a NEWER line, it uses ONLY ESSENTIAL OILS (versus flavor oils in our regular balms), and frankly the sales do not warrant a gigantic increase in flavors."
This is really all she had to say to me, minus the rude caps. All would have been cool. I don't care if you sell bee products if there is a vegan option. I didn't lecture her on that or anything. All i said was i wanted to know when her line expands. I don't NEED 400 flavors available...but 7? And shit BORING flavors? Not even basic FRUIT FLAVORS~!~!~!~! She totally didn't have to get snippy. She could have been a PROFESSIONAL and just said "it's a new line, we are working on it" end of fucking story.
"You seem to have missed the option I mentioned - every flavor IS AVAILABLE in a vegan version - you simply have to custom order it."
That was just rude.
"My Lip Stuff fights for & protects animals, and supports many animal rights charities that share our same beliefs - and in doing so lose a large customer base that do not agree with or share those same beliefs. But to us, doing what we feel is right is more important than sales."
Except if you're a bee, in which case they make more money and a superior product...so eff you...you are not an animal we care about. (i'm just being super snarky at this point, cause her attitude pisses me off so much)
I totally respected that they were an eco-friendly, small decent company that offered great vegan balm. The site is confusing cause they sell SO MUCH. As i said, they had vegan options so i'm fine, i just wanted flavors other then orange-rosemary and stuff like that. The PETA balms are normal fruit flavors, i figured they would at least be stocked, but they aren't.
Maybe she would have more sales of vegan balms if she used "Regualr" flavors like fruit punch, cherry and stuff. And maybe if she wasn't such a snot to vegans asking about her lines. Maybe she would generate GOOD word of mouth instead of this.
So now, not only am i NEVER going to buy the product direct from her ever, I am not even going to buy her product from PETA! Which sucks cause this was the best vegan lip balm to date that i ever had. Any suggestions on other VEGAN balms would be appreciated.
I just needed to get this off my chest cause i am determined to NOT write her back and start a stupid argument. I'm trying to be the bigger person.....by ranting behind her back. (ironic...i know)
I was disgusted with the complete un-professionalism of her correspondence. She proly snapped cause she proly gets it a lot form other vegans that want ACTUALLY VEGAN product.
EDIT:
Thanks for all the suggestions of new balm products to try everyone! I got quite the list :D And as always, thanks for letting me get this off my chest as well.