Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle and Tomboyish Review

Friday, May 02, 2014

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Pretty & Polished colors. Thermals are so much fun to have despite their short shelf life. I feel like Pretty & Polished has some of the most unique thermals available. Unfortunately, most of my experiences with their thermals haven't been positive.

Let's rewind for a second, back to before I blogged about nail polish.

Last Summer I purchased Cuttle Fish and April Showers. Cuttle Fish changed like a champ and exceeded all of my expectations. I love thermals so much that as soon as I took off Cuttle Fish I knew I needed to wear April Showers. Unfortunately, April Showers was super gritty and anywhere a piece of pigment appeared the polish had issues transitioning between colors. I contacted Pretty & Polished with photos and was told that the gritty texture was normal and that they had no reports of issues with April Showers. After a great deal of back and forth over a month they finally sent a replacement bottle and a bottle of top coat as an apology for taking so long to replace the bottle.

It's been about a year since I had that experience and Pretty & Polished was having a 25% off Spring Cleaning sale, so I decided to give them another try. I ordered four colors, two of which are thermals. I decided to wear and photograph The Fifth Beetle first, so let's take a look at those photos:

The Fifth Beetle (bottle 1)

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

It's kind of hard to see in my photos because I used Poshe top coat over the top of everything, but there are a ton of gritty spots. I took a moment to circle a few of them for you:

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

It seems as though this gritty texture is not uncommon with their thermals. This also had issues changing color where the gritty dots exist. I emailed Pretty & Polished with the photos I presented here, and was told that they weren't having issues The Fifth Beetle. After a few emails back and forth I received a replacement bottle a few days later along with a missing polishes from my prize pack I won in mid February (more on that in a separate post). 

The Fifth Beetle (bottle 2)

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

Pretty and Polished The Fifth Beetle

As you can see from my photos, the replacement bottle Pretty & Polished sent out was actually worse than my first bottle. I did not top coat this because I was pretty irritated and didn't want to waste more time and product.

At this point the dread set in. I had purchased one more thermal during the sale, and had received two thermals in my prize pack. I knew I had to swatch them right away to get to the bottom of things. 

Tomboyish

Pretty and Polished Tomboyish

Pretty and Polished Tomboyish

Tomboyish (the other color I purchased) was also super gritty. I didn't even bother with a second layer or a top coat because I was so frustrated with the situation. I swatched the other two thermals from the prize pack and found that they were also extremely gritty.

I emailed Pretty & Polished on April 19th (the day after swatching) about the current issue. I did not receive an email back until I posted a note on their Facebook page on April 22nd. They stated that they had not received an email from me and were so sorry that their email wasn't working properly. (This was the second or third time they had claimed that their email wasn't working properly.) I was then directed to email them at info@shopprettyandpolished.com. I finally got a response from that email address and requested a refund for the two thermals I purchased. I ended up with complete silence, and no confirmation that they were going to send me a refund. I then posted on their Facebook page again, asking if they had seen the email I sent on April 22nd regarding the refund. I was emailed back on April 24th stating that they had refunded my money. It took until April 29th for that to show up on my credit card. 

Our exchanges have been nothing but polite and civilized, but it was incredibly difficult to get a response to any email I sent. As a customer I hate having to post my issues regarding lack of communication publicly in order to get a response. I only did it as a last resort. I really do like Pretty & Polished colors, but I feel like their customer service and their thermals need some work. 

Share This Story

Tags:

You Might Also Like

3 comments

  1. Lisa N.May 2, 2014 at 12:15 PM

    There does seem to be issues with their thermal polishes from your pictures above. Its such a shame to hear their customer service wasn't the best because they do make some amazing colors. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. breedlovehoopsMay 2, 2014 at 12:18 PM

    They still have some lovely regular polish, and I've enjoyed every bath & body product I've tried. I just plan on staying away from thermals for now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. kendahl a.May 2, 2014 at 12:46 PM

    This reminds me, I need to swatch my thermal I got from them ASAP. :\

    ReplyDelete