Nail Polish and Customer Service ... Rant!

I love nail polish. Fun colors that catch the light and brighten your day. Dull colors to calm a wild wardrobe choice. Deep, dark shades that give winter mystery. And the unending search to find the perfect orange-red for that bit of pop when I'm feeling down.

Nail Polish companies, on the other hand, make me want to tear my hair out in frustration.

I've emailed CND once for suggestions regarding their new line. No response.

I've emailed Zoya half a dozen times requesting color suggestions. They have NEVER responded. I guess I'm much too small potatoes for a happening company like Zoya. Grrr. I'd probably buy more if I could get some half-way decent color suggestions. Which brings me to my second gripe.

Apparently Nail Polish companies are far too busy creating for their pink powderpuff customers, that the rest of us get left in the cold. I happen to know some of those pink powderpuffs, and I am thrilled that they can instantly find a color by closing their eyes and running a hand down a display, "Eeny meeny miny moe, with which one of these pinks shall I go?"

What about me? I can't wear pink. And don't tell me about all the "warm pinks" available. They are pink. I don't wear pink, I have too much yellow in my skin tone. I wear peach. Which brings us to Nubar.

I can, at least, get Nubar to answer my emails. But I'm not sure that puts them ahead of Zoya. This is how a recent exchange went ...

Me, "Salutation, etc. I need warm, spring and summer polish suggestions. I cannot wear pink or orange, instead I need peaches and and other orange based reds. The best examples I can give you are China Glaze's Yee-Haw and Zoya's Amber. I like both shimmer and cremes. I've got an abundance of fall and wintery dark shades, but my lighter colors need some expansion."

Nubar CS, "Check out the Corals Collection."


Okay, let's look at what a coral shade is ... orange. Can we see what I wrote above, I cannot wear orange. Obviously, I've run into another Customer Service group that either: 1) cannot read the email for all those pesky letters, or 2) is where the familial problem child is placed so that he/she cannot cause business difficulties.


Additionally, since Nubar's cart wasn't working, I had to place my order by phone (I detest those infernal devices). AND they sent me the wrong shade. They were quick to fix it, but ... mistake.

I'm not sure what I have learned from this little experience, regardless, couldn't someone who knows basic color theory and mixing describe polish colors on the website itself? Act like monitors still come in shades of green. Spell out for me what your polishes look like.

Zoya's site IS coming along. I've seen a great deal of improvement since I started ordering several years ago. They describe the color, opacity, and skin tone family. But you still can't do an indepth search. If I want an opaque cream ... I'm out of luck unless I want to go through the website bottle page by bottle page. Their search engine is limited to: color family and finish. And that is a pretty restricted list on both sides.

If I were selling polish, I'd have: a great color description, a swatch of the color in natural light, skin tone designation, opacity/translucency characterization, an awesome search engine that allows you specific requests, and shading suggestions (i.e. this color looks great on light warm skin tones OR this color looks best on dark cool or strongly tanned skin tones).

I wish, I wish, I wish ...


Anyone have a good orangy-red peach suggestion in 3-free formula?