Popular Polish Company 'Borrows' Bloggers' Images - Readers Revolt

Updates are live. Continue checking for more.

UPDATE 8:44AM 7/26: Mary and Jeanette have both taken their posts down until the issue is resolved. This is likely a result of the Facebook post made by Revlon.

In the wake of Lynderella and Julep, Sinful Colors comes riding in with a whole new nail controversy to shake up the polished world.

Sinful Colors stole images from bloggers The Swatchaholic and Swatch and Learn without express permission for use in their promotional pamphlets.

I strolled into Walgreens after my workout yesterday to pick up a Gatorade. (I swear that was my only intent.) The draw of the polish aisle was too strong, so I meandered over. I'd read about the 99 cent sale Sinful Colors was having, so I looked at the colors. What caught my eye was a small flyer that read "Nail It" on the front. I couldn't not pick it up, it being so close to this blog's moniker.

The alarm bells started ringing immediately after seeing the first image in the centerfold.

I said to myself "I know those nails!" The shine on the nails, the shape of the nails, and the curve of the fingers are signature The Swatchaholic. But where's her watermark? Where's that curved text that I myself emulate in my own pictures? It's certainly not on the picture, and there's no mention of her in the pamphlet.

I raced home, took some phone pictures and promptly emailed her inquiring about this possible copyright infringement. I calmed down a bit, did my own manicure, and headed to bed.

Waking up the morning revealed that there was indeed a blatant case of copyright infringement. She'd written back and informed me that they had indeed stolen the pictures.

Twitter further fueled the fire lit under all the bloggers butts when Mary at Swatch and Learn alerted us that her image was also lifted without permission. Here's hers:

Now read that text accompanying Mary's picture.

Using a toothpick, gently swirl the colors together to create a fun and unique design.

Or...ya know...buy a stamp to get it perfect, like Mary did. 

So not only has Sinful Colors pilfered images without permission and removed watermarks, they've flat out lied to their readers, claiming that the technique used in Mary's stolen picture can be accomplished with a toothpick. That's clearly a stamp, which they'd known if they'd read Mary's post.

Let's go back to Jeanette's picture. What's up with that bottle Sinful Colors? Did you change your branding since publishing this picture? Oh that's right, it's a COLOR CLUB bottle. In fact, both of the images use no Sinful Colors polishes. Wow. 

The kickback from readers has already been uproarious and angry. Check out Sinful Colors's Facebook page and their community page for just a bit of it. 

So what can you do? Share this info with your friends and reconsider your purchases of Sinful Colors. This is outright theft and copyright infringement.

If you have additional updates you'd like to share, leave a comment and I'll edit this post accordingly. If you know who the owner of the following image is, please let me know so we can contact her in case her work was also stolen:

 
Also for your reference are some helpful links:

---

Updates

• Reddit (I'm the author of this post)

The Swatchaholic Links

• The Swatchaholic Blog
• The Swatchaholic Twitter
• Original post with image stolen by Sinful Colors
• Post detailing the theft

Swatch and Learn Links

• Swatch and Learn Blog
• Swatch and Learn Twitter
• Original post with image stolen by Sinful Colors
• Post detailing the theft

 Sinful Colors Links

• Facebook Community page
• Facebook Page
• Website - currently under construction

Revlon Links (purchased Sinful Colors)

• Contact form
• Phone number: 1-800-473-8566
• EDIT: 7/25 Revlon's apology

Walgreens Links

• Contact information 

change.org Links

• A petition to properly credit the bloggers, destroy the pamphlets, and issue an apology

Shame on You Julep

This morning, my sister told me about a blogger faux pas, made by a company I'm sure many of you have heard of, Julep. I had already had my doubts about this company, because in my opinion, their "deals" seem like rip offs, and I'm not wowed by many of their colors. I feel I can get the same colors they have from companies I trust like OPI and China Glaze.

So last night, they made the fatal error of taking work from one of the most well-known nail bloggers, Erika at Chloe's Nails, removing her watermark, and placing her photo on their Facebook page, sans any credit. Girls went nuts and furiously commented about what Julep had done. Julep played it off by not only removing their edited photo and saying nothing happened, but also re-uploading the original photo (with watermark) by Erika, unapologetically saying they didn't mean to remove her watermark and not give her credit. Hm...odd.

I wasn't aware of all of this until after the incident, and after the photos had been replaced. Luckily, Katie at Paws to Polish snapped some screenshots and put them up for everyone to see.

This seedy behavior is unbelievable, especially from a well-known and constantly blogged about company. I'm not sure who was in charge of putting that post up, but they should be examined and repremanded. To think they could get away with putting such a well-known blogger, and honestly, well-known photo on their site without any credit is unheard of. It would be one thing if the polish used was Juleps, but it's not, as you can see in Erika's original post here. It's all OPI, if that weren't obvious enough by the bottle shot she used.

I haven't purchased Julep, but I don't think I will be from here on out.

As Katie said...shame on you, Julep!

Please feel free to link back to this post and spread the word about this misguided blogging.

Thank you to Katie for her informative post, and to my sister for the heads up! Show your support for Erika by leaving her a nice note. She's been going through some difficult times, but I'd love to show her how much we all care.