Comments on: Review: Sobe Botanicals

By: Jessica Urban

Jessica Urban — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:14:28 +0000

If you truly think your photos have not been manipulated on the Sobe Botanicals swatch page, you are sadly mistaken. I won’t go so far as to say that they’re all manipulations of the same four photos, but the color has definitely been changed. Unless your skintone varied dramatically during the time you spent making those swatches, they have definitely fallen prey to Photoshop. Examples here: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6025/5910471729_71e99795b6_z.jpg

The little rectangles off to the right are samples of you skintone copied from the photos and pasted to the white for comparison. One of them can definitely only be called green, which I assume your skin is not.

By: Muffy

Muffy — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:19:58 +0000

@missjupiter
I’m not sure if you’re using dud software, a bad monitor, have poor vision or are just lying. Whichever case, you’re wrong.
Here is an animation of the two colours you specifically mentioned, Harlequin and Purple Rain – the two you dubbed “the exact same image”: http://i55.tinypic.com/153l1ex.gif
The bottom of the bottom lips match up, but nothing else does. Notice how the lines on the bottom lip are almost identical, but everything else changes? That’s because they’re two different photographs.
Admittedly, the pictures from the site do look a little more similar due to the corners of the mouths being cut off, but not enough to justify your claiming them to be the same photograph with such assurance.

By: shatteredshards

shatteredshards — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:16:21 +0000

Unfortunately, MAC’s eyeshadows almost never looking as expected by their product photos when I use them is one of the reasons why I do not use MAC. :(

By: BLIX

BLIX — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:31:42 +0000

Nobody is onto anything here in regards to photos. Reputable makeup companies such as MAC have been photoshopping product images for years. They have the same exact photo edited dozens of times to make it look like numerous other colours, yet I have not heard anyone calling MAC a dishonest company over it.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:13:32 +0000

I don’t think the images provided by Blix have been altered by anyone at all. She’s actually put an image on her own blog showing the photos she herself took and they look identical to the ones on Sobe’s site. Even Harlequin and Purple Rain look different to me. The shine on the lips is not the same. If a colour had been changed by Photoshop then the shine should be the same in both photos. But it’s not…

I can appreciate that even the best of indie companies will have a few unhappy customers. Making your own formulations means occasionally you’ll make a mistake. However I smell a rat regarding Miss Jupiter’s claims of transparency inlays etc. Why? Because she has not shown us the evidence. If you are going to make such a statement online the you must link to a blog and upload photo evidence. You can’t just make such a statement without providing people with proof, it’s actually very irresponsible and if untrue, then libellous and potentially damaging to a company’s reputation and financial revenue. If you have the ebidemce of all the work you did then the responsible thing would be to upload it so we can all see the ‘proof’ for ourself. At the moment you are making a very damaging claim without backing it up. If in fact you are correct and you show us the screenshots, photo evidence etc then I would be the first to apologise for being sceptical.

My sympathies to the original poster. It’s always so disappointing when something like this happens.

By: shatteredshards

shatteredshards — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:27:06 +0000

It’s not even pigmentation – they literally are on the chalky side, like too much base was cut into them. They look pastel right in the bag, nothing like the product photos.

Had it been one of the colors only, I would have assumed it was a bad batch. But both of the ones I picked are like that, which leads me to believe the entire collection is formulated that way.

By: Lossa

Lossa — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:20:50 +0000

Just looking at the pics above from Sobe of the eyeshadows you can tell that Gleam and Capri are from the same shot with altered colour and the orientation of the shadow changed (just look at the crack going through them!) and Shacked Up and Parfait are the same images also.
Very interesting. I am going to withhold my judgement on this company for the moment though you may be onto to something here. Try contacting the owner to see there perspective on these issues and also the pigmentation problems with the eyeshadows – they are just disappointing for what could be lovely shades.

By: shatteredshards

shatteredshards — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:31:18 +0000

I can’t speak for the lipsticks, obviously, as I did not order them.

But I will say that it’s not fair to state that how it looks in the packaging usually doesn’t compare to how it looks like worn in regards to the eyeshadow, as the product photos are Photoshopped, and are not actual photos of the product I ordered. If you have any trouble seeing what I’m referring to with that, I will be happy to post screencaps of the product shots compared to each other in Photoshop.

Also, I have to disagree, because I can name a few companies/sellers whose products reliably swatch out as expected with their product shots.

By: Amatrix

Amatrix — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:48:58 +0000

Sobe was introduced to me from another blogger. I ordered and she forgot to include one item totally by accident. It was the small vegan art brush. When I let her know she immediately offered to pay to have it shipped immediately/expedited. I was so pleased with the colors I received I told her to wait until I placed another order… which included everything and extras for free.
If you look at the swatches Blix did you can see different angles, and shapes to her lips and eyebrows- not to mention the placement of the eye.
I am sorry you had a hard time with Sobe’s shipping, this is a company ran by someone who I know works hard, as does Blix for swatches.
But… what a product looks like in the packaging normally doesn’t translate immediately like that to anyone’s skin.
I think you have the right to express your opinions and such- I am sorry you didn’t like the products.
But more Sobe for me! XD

By: BLIX

BLIX — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:00:58 +0000

If you have software that can provide proof of what you’re saying, then back it up with screen shots showing every single layer including the “original” photo. If what you’re saying is true, you should be able to provide it easily.