To sell or not to sell – Sample Etiquette
You might have noticed that I recently added a lot of polishes to my blog sale, and doing this always seems to bring up the much debated issue of selling (or not selling) samples. By samples I mean any polish (or indeed other saleable items) that has been sent to a blogger by a company or a PR agency, regardless of whether a review has been promised in return for said products. I thought it was about time I put my two pence into the debate, because I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as “do” or “don’t”.
I should clarify before I get stuck into the meat of this topic what my perspective is so that you’re all little clearer on my motivations and opinions. I blog about polishes I’ve bought with my own money, and ones that I’ve been sent by brands and PR companies. I get samples from indies and mainstream brands. Some are one-offs and others are arrangements as a regular blogger for a brand. While I’ve been paid for my services for nail art (Scotch Tape and TICKR are a couple of the brands that I’ve worked with), I have never been paid for a review other than in the form of the product I’m reviewing. I rarely approach brands to be their blogger and more often the relationship is initiated by the brand or their PR firm. If I approach a brand I will guarantee a review (that’s only fair as I asked them, right?), but if I’ve been approached I do not guarantee a review. Irrespective of how the relationship was initiated, I will never guarantee a positive review and will always be honest in the sharing of my opinions. I think that’s enough transparency, so on with the discussion.
Why not keep them?
I’m not inundated with offers of samples, but I get more than enough to keep me busy. This means that my collection can become quite bloated, quite quickly, so I’ve developed a bit of a mantra for myself when it comes to what deserves to stay in my stash: if it doesn’t make my heart sing, it doesn’t belong. Many of the samples I’ve been sent make my heart sing, so they’re not even up for debate. Others are part of a collection of sorts. Examples of these might be Barry M, Pretty Serious and Powder Perfect, which are three of the brands that I love enough to ‘collect’ the whole range whether they make my heart sing or not, because on balance the whole range does make my heart sing. I do the same thing with a couple of vintage brands because having a complete collection is something I take satisfaction in (if you’re interested at all, those brands are Urban Decay, StreetWear and old Sally Hansens). This shouldn’t be read as ‘some of the polishes are shit but I’ll keep them anyway for the sake of a complete collection’. Just because a polish doesn’t make my heart sing and my face grin like I’ve seen a unicorn crapping out rainbows doesn’t mean that I don’t see the merits of an individual polish; I don’t love pastels but I will review it and make recommendations on formula, opacity, quality and value for money based on the assumption that there are different strokes for different folks. What I simply don’t feel drawn to may be the polish that sets someone else’s heart ablaze. Many of the samples I’ve been sent fall into this group; they’re nice, but they just don’t thrill me for whatever reason, but because we’re all beautifully different there might be someone out there who would welcome the opportunity to buy a bottle that has been swatched once.
Don’t sell shit you wouldn’t give your mother
There are the polishes we want to keep until we die and there’s the ones we appreciate but don’t lust after. Then there’s the polishes that should just never have been made. If you ever needed proof that I am not unfairly biased towards the brands that send me samples then I refer you to the Barry M Sequins. This is an example of a polish that I don’t want to keep, they were not worth the time I spent reviewing and I don’t particularly consider them a worthy part of a complete Barry M collection. So I would never sell such a sample. If you wouldn’t let your mother put the polish on, because it stains like turmeric on a white t-shirt, it’s a lumpy mess or it’s just too tragic to know where to start, then why would you let someone else give you money for it? Not cool.
Why not give them away?
You can, and by all means please do. I do. But I also think that a polish is more likely to find a loving home if the new owner has searched for it rather than randomly been donated a polish that they too might not be delighted by. Not loving something you’re gifted doesn’t make you ungrateful, but that polish might make a welcome addition to someone else’s collection via a blog sale or eBay. As a vintage polish collector I can’t even begin to describe the joy that I can get from finding a half used bottle of polish on eBay and I couldn’t care less if the seller got the item as a sample or not. Frankly sometimes I wouldn’t care if they’d got if from the back of a truck so to speak, because the value it adds to my collection, monetarily or otherwise, can be immeasurable to me. I am the loving new home for that sad and dusty bottle, and I like the feeling I get from being able to provide that for other people by selling polishes that they’ll love more than I will. Then there’s the other reason for not always giving polishes away…
Compensation
I don’t get paid to review, but I pride myself on giving as thorough a review as possible. The only thing I don’t comment on is wear time (unless it is particularly pertinent) because to do so I would only be able to review about 60 polishes a year. Given that I was recently sent in excess of 60 Rimmel nail polishes I think you’d all be a little bored if I spent an entire year reviewing one brand, and besides, one of the other things I love about my blog is that I show a range of polishes from indie and boutique through high street brands to high end and vintage. A thorough review generally consists of application, photography, editing, writing the review for the blog and accompanying social media posts. Sometimes there’s not much to say (it doesn’t mean it’s a bad polish) but on the whole I put far more time into a post than the value of the product I’ve reviewed could cover. I’m by no means rich but I’m a working professional, and a lot of my job nowadays consists of writing. I can tell you categorically that I have never been sent a product with a monetary value that would come close to the rates I would charge for hourly documentation writing. And that’s assuming that I actually like the polish, because if I don’t then the perceived value is even less than the RRP. I work hard at my blog, and yes the blog in itself gives me joy, and yes it’s my choice to give time to my blog. I could say no to samples and only blog the things I buy, in which case compensation wouldn’t be an issue. What many people don’t consider though is that many bloggers do turn down samples. I do. I’ve turned down samples because I don’t believe in a brand ethos, because it was a collection of straight up holos and I am not the best blogger at capturing holos and I don’t need the added pressure, and I’ve turned down samples that just feel dull. But if any of you can honestly say you would turn down samples from your favourite brand then I’d love to hear from you. Whether I love a sample or not though, at the end of the day I’ve put time, energy and love into reviewing it for no monetary compensation and often at the request of the brand, not myself. Why shouldn’t a blogger find some form of monetary compensation for this effort, and contribution to sales figures, so long as it’s in a fair and respectful manner?
Not everyone has the same budget
For some people, paying more than a few pounds for a bottle of polish means they may never be able to try lots of the wonderful brands that are out there. Selling samples not only benefits those who grab a bargain to suit their budget. It can also introduce brands to more customers. This isn’t intended to sound holier than thou as though by selling samples I’m doing brands a huge favour for which they should be eternally grateful, but the added exposure surely can’t be a bad thing? If the new owner loves the polish they’ve bought as an ex-sample then perhaps they’ll become a regular customer of that brand by allowing for the RRP in their budget. Or maybe they’ll also blog about that polish, or even just tell their friends.
It’s not just the buyers of ex-samples that have varied budgets. Bloggers do too, and keeping up with the Jones’s is a phenomenon that many of us battle with. Being able to afford new releases that you’re not sent as a sample can be a struggle, particularly when you feel the pressure (whether real or imagined) to stay on top of what’s popular and new. I’d bet money on the fact that many bloggers who sell samples put that money straight back into the nail polish market by buying more products.
Profit
Profit is not the same as the monetary issues covered by the compensation point. Profiting on the RRP from discontinued polishes really could provide enough content for an entirely separate post (Enchanted Polish anyone). However, I think we can all agree that while any product is only worth as much as some idiot is willing to pay for it, selling a sample for more than the RRP is not cool. Not cool at all. I don’t care if it’s discontinued, HTF or as common as Vicky Pollard, if you try to sell a sample at a price higher than the RRP I’ll chuckle to myself and likely never visit your site again.
Indies versus Big Brands
The impact of selling samples from independent indie brands is undoubtedly different to those from large mainstream brands. Large brands have collections that tend to stick around for a long time, or even just add to a core line. I think it’s polite to wait a while after swatching a polish before even considering selling it. I don’t think many of us would list our crappy Christmas gifts on eBay over the Boxing Day cold turkey sandwiches after all. However, the best readily available price that most people can find for an OPI polish tends to be around the £7.95 mark (thank you Nail Polish Direct, I do not like paying £11.50 in department stores) but that is double the price of a Barry M polish, which might still be very expensive to those on a tighter budget. Selling the occasional sample of an OPI polish for a few quid is unlikely to harm OPI or their resellers, and providing you’ve waited a while before selling it you’re unlikely to bother the PR agent who sent it to you. The cost of sending that sample to a blogger is also swallowed by a large and profitable corporation with mass production that means the cost of manufacturing a single bottle is so small that a sample won’t even dent their sales figures, nor would the resale of that sample in a blog sale. But doing the same to an indie brand can financially hurt the person that you’ve been building a relationship with as a blogger. That’s one less bottle that they’ve been able to sell of a run that may be as limited as 50 bottles. Some indie brands have core lines though, so selling a sample while the product is still available directly from the brand is more acceptable in my mind, but I would personally wait at least six months before doing this to allow the brand to make the most of the initial sales drive and the boosts in sales generated by swatches from their customers.
Don’t like it?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this post has expressed mine. I used this forum because I don’t think it’s appropriate to debate these things on someone else’s blog sale page or Facebook post, nor do I appreciate the passive aggressive approach of having a rant within closed but large groups where everyone knows exactly who you’re talking about because the link to their blog sale was posted just before your childish rant. While the comments section of this post are a welcome forum for different opinions I think it’s only respectful to our fellow nail polish addicts to avoid causing arguments directly on a blog sale page, or in a forum that exacerbates personal attacks.
Don’t agree with the contents of a bloggers sale? Then don’t buy it. It really is that simple.
