Taylor Made by TKB
A week ago I finally placed an order with TKB. I needed sample bags to de-pot my jar samples, and I thought I’d purchase samples of the micas I suspected to match the eyeshadows I ordered from Taylor Made. Matching a few colors to Aromaleigh Pure Hues is pretty suspicious, but not particularly damning.
There were a couple simple blends that I didn’t quite match this time; one small TKB order and I would be able to.
Pretty scary, huh? This was my first order from TKB, too, not a trial and error process, and the only other color that I ordered, which is not pictured here, is Sparkle White.
But it gets worse.
While I was waiting for my TKB order, I emailed Taylor Made myself to outright ask if they made their own stuff. The response Phyrra received from them was months ago, but all I received is the following quotes amongst a lengthy response that mostly explained to me how I can spot repackagers (oh, the irony).
While many MMU companies do choose to purchase pre-made cosmetics, there are a myriad of companies that formulate their own. We happen to be one of them!
If you see several companies with seemingly identical products, don’t write them off! The beginning ingredients frequently used are some-what limited and are provided by only a handful of suppliers and manufacturers within the US. (We opt against importing due to the number of hands shipments must go through as well as the amount of time required for delivery. We’re just like our customers and we hate to wait!) “Dupes” are not only an inevitability for those who constantly strive to create more and better shades, but they are also an inevitability of competing with the market. For example, we formulate all of our own pigments using base ingredients but we also do matches or “dupes” based on customer request. Customers can send in samples of shades that they would like matched and when we are able to get an accurate duplicate we provide it on the site and supply the requesting customer with a sample for approval. It pains us a bit to not be the ones who conceptualized the dupe but more often than not we are able to offer it at a lower price, which makes us happy!
How you could be formulating your own stuff when there’s only one ingredient (Fern and Throne), I don’t know.
I haven’t ordered anything from Taylor made but those pictures are quite scary :/
I have a poll in my blog and in the moment 55 have said that repackaged product is “whole sale mica, also with added base” (meaning that there is something added but the color is the same) and 45 have said that only “wholesale mica” is repackaged. I don’t think many companies understand this!
Heck, at least half of the ones I have don’t even have base in them for sure, whether the base is listed in the ingredients or not.
*sigh*
Okay, another lengthy explanation that doesn’t really help. i remember convo an etsy seller politely about her primary colors – aka pop colors. She wrote so much but doesnt really explain why… She’s going a bit off topic here – I only care about the finished, creative products, not where she got her micas and sell them as they are or simply add a base. Seems like a lot of repackers start to up their game a bit; at least try to mix them a bit, so that customers don’t feel cheated. In the past I thought I saw similar colors from Meow, Aromaleigh or Fyrinnae (in baggies/jar); however, when swatched they are really different. Those are not dupes, rather identical twins.
That green in one that I didn’t quite get, but I had a hunch it was based on a mixture of those two Pop! colors. if I doublecheck ingredients, I might be able to accurately dupe it with the greens I have on hand.
Aromaleigh sells a bunch of brights in the Rocks! line, but that line is a mixture of mineral base ingredients and artificial colorants. The Pop! line is entirely mineral, for anyone who’s wondering, and while I think I have a few colors that may have been based off of Pop!, they were also scattered through multiple limited edition collections.
Fyrinnae may have some shades that are based on Pop! shades, but generally their shades are complex enough that it’s very obvious they’ve done some blending, and more than just “half color A, half color B.”
Wow, that is some extensive matching you did! I can’t believe that Taylor Made is still selling obviously repackaged pigments.
When I had first matched dupes for Bishop, Gale, and Mission, I was put off. But then reading the response TM gave when Phyrra contacted them asking them if they repack? That just makes me mad. You don’t lie to your customer base, you don’t treat them like idiots.
The fact that they continue to lie, instead of being honest about the fact that some of their stuff is straight-up repack (as other companies have done), is more than enough reason for me to justify the time it took to find the dupes, IMO.
I have a list of other probable TM eyeshadow/TKB mica dupes, but I’m not sure I want to place another order with TM to confirm them.
OMG! I just discovered your blog and I’m stunned by all this repackaging! I just can’t believe TMM is one of them and Envy is one of my favorite pigments! :/
Thank God I didn’t spend *too much* money on their pigments. :/
I would estimate that about 1/3 to 1/2 of TMM’s pigments are repack, unfortunately.