Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Future of Mentality Nail Polish

Today’s blog is about business and being in the business of nail polish. The integrity of the Mentality Nail Polish brand is extremely important to us, and to all of our fans that wear our polish. We have worked very hard to bring you the best and highest quality pigments that are to be found and will continue to do so at the most affordable price that we can. We often refer to it as “T-shirt boutique”. It’s boutique made affordable.

We have seen comments in various forums regarding the quality of our polishes versus the low prices that we strive to keep them at. It has been our goal to drive down the cost of inputs so that we can keep prices low. This means we have sought out the primary manufacturers of raw ingredients wherever possible.

To this extent, we are in the beginning phases of registering with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the FDA. We believe in the product that we make and believe that our government will stand by it as well. It is an ongoing bureaucratic nightmare at times, but the effort is worth it every time that a fan posts another one of what is becoming a relentless stream of nail art pictures to one of our pages. Those pictures keep us motivated.

International shipping

Nail polish is a big deal. It is a really big deal. I mean it is an every world government United Nations controlled dangerous goods throw you in federal prison tax collector postal inspector and men in black kind of big deal. Nail polish is a flammable substance and mail goes on airplanes. We do not have the luxury of ignorance in the 21st century regarding the actions of hateful people and what they might do to their fellow human. We have even been required to sign anti-terrorism papers by our major suppliers just to be in this business. It is a massively big deal.

So, we are now certified with the International Aviation and Transportation Administration. MSDS sheets are available for our product including ingredients declarations for the European Union. We have secured a special permit with the US Postmaster to ship via the United States Postal Service. Mentality Nail Polish is registered with the US Department of Commerce as an official cosmetics manufacturer. We are registered with the US Customs and Border Protection after registering with the US Transporation Security Administration as known shippers of dangerous goods so that our products can legally leave the country. We are even authorized to use the US Customs Automated Export System so that we can be tracked in the official import/export GDP numbers of the US and every country that we ship to. We have done this to secure the integrity of the Mentality Nail Polish brand so that our product can make it legally onto the hands of our fans.

That said, we cannot knowingly an international package to a domestic address for international forwarding. Don’t ask. We can’t do it because we are required by law, like every other nail polish manufacturer, to tell the government where our product goes, what it is packaged in, and how it gets there. That is what the shipping label is about. It is an automatic registration of the route each bottle of polish has taken. It is information communicated directly to the governments of the world that can be tracked to anyone that handles or receives our product.

If you live overseas, we will only ship via Fedex legally which is reasonable only for very large orders. Otherwise please see Sally Magpies or Edgy Polish for international orders. They have taken the time and made the investments necessary to retail our product at the international level.

Prices, Coupons, and Black Friday

You will notice that our prices have changed. Domestic orders still receive free shipping. Some polish prices have gone up. Many, many prices have gone down. Reasons range from accounting adjustments to changes in the real costs of inputs at the manufacturing level. Where we can save our fans money, we have aggressively done so and will continue to. We will send you a bottle of top coat for $5.50 shipped domestic. The Brilliant Collection went up to $9.25 to reflect the real cost of materials. So for all of those pictures that our fans have submitted with Rapture or Fervor on a shelf next to one of the more costly designer or boutique polishes, you are correct. That is where a high-quality boutique stained glass holographic polish belongs, and we are delighted that we can bring you such a product as inexpensively as we can.

Black Friday is coming up, so everyone expects their favorite brands to offer incredible discounts. We are less-than-fans of Black Friday. The news is filled each year with people hurt in stampedes, mob fights over the latest toy understocked, and people forgoing holiday time with family to camp in front of their favorite store for a chance to out-sprint the next person in line for a soon-to-be-discontinued thing. We would rather not participate in that type of activity. There are no coupon codes active. We will instead continue to offer our current promotions: free domestic shipping and free shipping to Canada on orders of $50 or more.

Thank you for reading and we hope all of our fans around the world have a happy and safe holiday season.

Danny and Hillary

Mentality Nail Polish

6 comments:

  1. As a gal who works with CBP and the FDA (and other bureaucratic nightmares) I have to give the Mentality Polish team huge high fives for doing all that you have. Double high fives for not giving into the madness that is Black Friday.

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  2. High five and kudos for all your efforts, Mentality :)
    scholar54

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  3. I'm bummed you had to defend your product, I love your brand. So many indies are (in my humble opinion) way overpriced, then gouged again with shipping costs. Nothing but gratitude to you for keeping prices reasonable and making an awesome, unique product that allows me to continue fueling my polish addiction. :)

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  4. Tanya, thank you so much for your kind words. We will work as hard as we can to continue to earn your support. :)

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