** UPDATED ** My unluckiest beauty product purchase

Saturday 14 May 2011

Following my blog post, I was extremely honoured to have had a reply from Andrea Fulerton herself. I have posted her reaction into a separate post but also wanted to preface her statement on here.

Hello Liloo and ladies,

Firstly thank you for your constructive and very honest comments. I am of course mortified that these problems have occurred and sincerely apologies for any upset or disappointment caused. At launch we realised that the wrong brushes has been placed in some of the Trio bottles however I was assured this had been rectified and clearly this is not the case so again thank you for letting me know.

As for your comments on the formulation I tested if over two year with Europe's top manufacturer and we are looking into this [to see if a 'rogue' batch is out there]

Words can't express how disappointment I am to read your comments and I am working with my team to ensure this is all put right as soon as possible.

Best wishes
Andrea

Following Andrea's statement, I really wanted to make one edit to my original post and wanted to change its title. My post was formerly called 'my most hated beauty product'. I have now wanted to call it 'my unluckiest beauty purchase'. I feel extremely honoured and impressed that Andrea Fulerton saw my post, took the time to read and wished to respond to it. I don't know of many companies who care so much about their products, who would want to get back to their customers, especially after the brutally honest review I have left. Please find below my original post, untouched.

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Saturday, 9 April 2011, a day which lots of us in England will  remember as a truly glorious day. The sun and the warmth we had today  has just been unbelievable and too good to be true. It felt like  Summer. Wait, it was even better than Summer. I had been waiting for a  good occasion to review this product. A day when nothing could spoil  my mood and I could write in a calm and diplomatic manner about a  product which I hate to the core didn't impress at all.


Did it work? Nope. The minute I  start thinking of this product, the minute I get all wound up inside  and want to throw plates on the floor. In fact, it is probably fair to  say that no other beauty products has wound me up so much that these:


Introducing the ANDREA FULERTON Trio Colour Layering System (£8.19  for 2  x 4.4ml)





What it says on the box:

A unique and genius new colour layering system giving you the creative  freedom to choose from 48 shade choices to suit your mood or occasion!  This space-saving, double-ended bottle of nail varnish contains a  different colour at either end. Choose from either of the two colours  or layer them over each other to create a unique 3rd colour or effect.

The idea is genius and the colours are lovely. When I saw in the giant  Superdrug in Sheffield, I fell in love. I wanted to buy the whole lot,  but I decided to be sensible and buy just 2 (thanks goodness) and  limited the damage at £16 worth of products. At this stage it is worth  mentioning that the most I would generally buy in a nail polish is £5,  so spending £8 in a nail polish was a rare indulging treat.








The first thing which let me down was the packaging and you need to be aware of this. You know the same way as they don’t fill up a packet of crisps or a pot of yogurt to the very top for safety reasons (that air is needed, bring your packet of crisps in a plane and you’ll see what I mean) the same is true for this  layering system. Be aware that when you remove the polish from the box, you end up with a much smaller bottle than you expected:





 



The first one I bought was SMILE IN A STORM. You have the most  gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous micro pink glitter which I totally fell in  love for and which I had never seen before and your usual gunmetal  polish. Now if I could have bought the pink glitter top coat on its  own, I would have, alas it was not available on its own.






Put it bluntly, I just cannot believe that Andrea Fulerton and the  team thought it would be acceptable to release this product and demand  money for it. Let's start with the brush: absolute scandal. We're not  talking about a few stray hairs here, we're talking about a fully  slanted brush, as if it's been chewed by rats, or used to clean the  floor or been cut by a bad hairdresser's. That's for the micro glitter  part.



  



Bad luck? The brush on the gunmetal side is no better. I mean  un-be-lie-va-ble. Just typing this makes me want to bash my keyboard,  I am so bloody wound up  arrrrrrrrhgh nbv/lafd?LJBeaflbL/LKB Fycadelpk.





I realise that my photos are not the best to show the  brushes. I did set my camera on 'macro' and took tons of photos but I  just cannot for the life of me capture it.





Wait. It gets worse. Now for the formula. Man, I've been buying lots  of nail polishes in my life. From £0.49 polishes, to a bit more  expensive polishes. But hand on my heart, I've never ever seen a such  a thick gloopy mess ever in my life. It's just too thick, it just  won't apply (what chances have you got anyway with a brush like that  anyway) and it will never never dry. Now you're supposed to wait till  the first coat has dried to apply the lighter one. What are you going  to do? Wait till for 3 hours for the first coat to dry?


What upsets me the most in this, even more than the absolute scandal  that someone would release this useless trio layering system (it's not  trio anyway, there are 2 things in there, so for me it's a duo thing)  is that the light colour of 'smile in a storm' is just stunning and  that it's a crying shame.


Now for HARD DAY’S NIGHT Layering 'Trio' System. You have the most  awesome coppery gold colour as the light colour to layer over the most  stunning electric midnight blue. You see in the shop and you got to  buy it cos it's just too gorgeous for words. Look at the gold here:







For this one, I was 'lucky'. Both nail polishes on this combination  sported a normal brush, until you start to apply them. The formula was  exactly like 'Smile in a Storm', the thickest gloopiest messy formula  ever. You have to be the most patient person ever to apply this. 


Everytime you pick up polish from the bottle, the brush picks up way  too much products and deposits itself like glue. I bet tarmac is  easier to apply to your nails than this. How on earth has this product  been able to pass quality control. I also need to mention the label on  this product. Now I would expect something which cost £8 to have a  label which looks a bit more decent that this.






Now for the last straw for 'Hard's Day Night'. The combination doesn't  work as a layering system. Total shambles. The coppery gold is too thick to apply on top of the midnight blue and is not sheer enough. I did my best to apply the thinnest coat of gold, alas it just wouldn't work.






Index: gold on its own
Middle finger: blue on its own
Ring and little finger: gold layered over blue


 


Many cosmetic brands try to widen the range of products they have, for example, brands who start doing nail polishes, whilst their speciality is eyeshadows, or false lashes and I wouldn't ever expect a company who offers so many products, on top of their main attraction / speciality to wow me. But for a company which specialises itself in PRECISELY nail polishes, I just find it appalling.


Andrea Fulerton: your idea of layering system is a genius. Your colours are gorgeous and I love the concept. But you need to throw everything away, as in EVERYTHING away and start again.


* n.b: I realise the title of this review is very strong, but the products wound me up so much that I couldn’t find a diplomatic phrase which yet could summarise my feelings around the product. ‘Hate’ *is* a strong word, but then again, the products provoked a rather unique feeling of frustration. I have waited nearly 6 months to write a cool, calm  and collected review, yet the strong feelings re emerge as soon as I try to put it on ‘paper’.