Everyday Minerals New Website
By now the blogosphere has erupted in protest over the new Everyday Minerals, EDM for short, website unveiling.
The site is a little buggy, in my humble opinion. The new menu system doesn’t work smoothly and consistently rolls away before I choose the category I want. I also don’t like having to click on an item to see it’s actual price, not the $2.50 USD sample size price. Oh, and the new site has apparently lost my history because my username is no longer in the EDM system. But I can access the forums no problemo.
But let’s forget about the minor glitches and talk about what people are really angry about: the removal of the Free Sample Kit (FSK), Personal Custom Kit (PCK) and Super Custom Kit (SCK).
Many come to EDM specifically to take advantage of these kits. Indeed, I have ordered one FSK, one PCK and two SCK. I have never ordered from EDM without ordering some type of kit.
In reality, losing the custom kits would not have accumulated near the current drama if for not what happened back in June when EDM first declared the SCK would be discontinued along with the launching of the new site in early July. This set off a buying frenzy. I was disappointed that I couldn’t scrape enough money together at that time to buy an SCK.
In the end, EDM announced they would keep the SCK at the cost of losing an international deal. Or so we thought. A few days ago, the EDM site launched and all of the kits are gone, replaced with two percentage deals and TRY ME FREE predesigned sample kits.
Understandably, many are upset by the chance. Why say the SCK are staying, when a month and a half later they are gone? My thoughts are that EDM managed to work out some international arrangement in the end. Or maybe the kits drained EDM too much and they felt this was a reasonable compromise.
EDM has so far been tight-lipped on their rationale.
TRY ME FREE
The new TRY ME FREE kits are a nice idea overall. You can pay $5.00 per kit and/or order ONE kit at no cost with any order (hmm, wonder if that still works if I only buy one $2.50 item 😀 ). So far, there are three blush sets including Lucent Face, two eyeshadow sets, two concealer sets, one finishing dust set, and six base sets.
If you are new to EDM, these sets should be helpful. However, for those of us who have already received several FSK, most of these kits are redundant. There are not a lot of options yet either.
For instance, the Try Me – Color Correct set contains Bisque Color Corrector, Abbott’s Perk Me Up Concealer and Pearl Beige. I already have two of these. There are many more color correctors, such as Lavender Color Corrector and Mint Color Corrector, to name a few. Why aren’t these in a set?
I also have most of the light Buff and Golden shades, but there are a few more I would like to try before I declare Buff-Ivory the winner. I could easily choose the three shades I need in the FSK, but now I need to get the Try Me – Fair (I already have one of the four and don’t need the cool shade) and most of the other Buff shades don’t seem to be offered in kits yet.
I’m guessing the TRY ME FREE kits will be expanded when things settle down. Hopefully, they will also be slightly customizable as well. Here’s to the future.
The Discount Packages
The PCK and SCK were replaced by the Beauty Perks and Special Invitations packages, respectively.
Beauty Perks allows customers to purchase 5-11 full size products and receive a 25% discount. In every sense, this is a good deal. Imagine if Zuzu Luxe held this kind of sale…
Special Invitations lets customers receive 45% off 12+ full size products. Yes, this isn’t nearly a good of deal as the SCK, but 45% is actually a substantial figure. The 50% Minerals deal e.l.f. has running right now, is actually a buy one get one 50% off.
I’ll give the price breakdown.
- Free Sample Kit = Free, but ~$4.00 USD shipping
- Personal Custom Kit = $5.67 USD per item with ~$5-6 USD shipping.
- Super Custom Kit = $4.17 USD per item with ~$8 USD shipping
The new prices work out as follows:
Original Price | Price after 25% discount | Price after 45% discount |
$12.00 | $9.00 | $6.60 | $10.00 | $7.50 | $5.50 |
$8.00 | $6.00 | $4.40 |
$6.00 | $4.50 | $3.30 |
To see this practically, I’ll use my latest SCK order as an example. I purchased two bases ($12 USD), two finishing dusts ($12 USD), four blushes ($8 USD), and four eyeshadows ($6 USD). The total for this order is $104 USD.
After the Special Invitation discount, this works out to $57.20 USD, as opposed to the $50 SCK. The increase is $7.20 and I intentionally purchased more high dollar products than I intended. I was a little surprised at the difference. Even I had expected the increase to be considerably more, say $15 give or take.
Also, I’ve heard shipping has lowered, which is great news if true.
Final Thoughts
It truly suxorz to lose the SCK. It really does. I appears they are gone for good this time.
The new deal still works well when purchasing 12+ items. It’s certainly nothing to complain about. If anything, I’m more upset about the loss of the Free Sample Kit. I’ll be forced to pay $2.50 for samples I probably won’t use. I suppose I can always swap them. I’m really hoping EDM will expand the TRY ME FREE sets in the near future.
This is all moot for me anyway. I’m satisfied with the products I’ve purchased recently and don’t need to make an order any time soon. e.l.f., on the other hand, is a different story.
If only e.l.f. would have another of those 70% sales. 😆
We poor internationals really got it bad – custom kits are long gone and we have to buy from resellers. No discounts and lousy product selection. I am truly disappointed in EDM.
I keep wanting to order form EDM again, but their prices have really escalated over the past couple of years and I don’t feel the products are worth increase. I’ve also realized that I don’t like their brushes as much as those from ecoTOOLS or e.l.f.