Wednesday, November 20, 2013

xoVain says nail polish dupes are plagiarism

I mean, I already knew that it was the worst of the beauty websites, but come on. The comments are so much more informed and insightful than the article itself.

One point that I haven't seen in the comments is the fact that a lot of cheap dupes actually existed before Chanel or whatever other bajillion-dollar beauty company decided that they were going to release and promote that shade. That's the case with the Chanel dupe I posted about, as well as the Cult Nails one. It's not ripping off Cult Nails (an indie designer), because I bought the F21 version in July, months before Cult Nails started selling theirs. It's not that the bigger/more expensive company copied the smaller one either, in most cases, as the author tries to argue in the comments. Wet N Wild was not being ripped off by Chanel. It's just fucking teal duochrome nail polish. Someone has already made it. There are limited possibilities. (I know that sometimes indie designers and sellers do get ripped off. That's really not what this is about.)

It's snobbery masquerading as ethics.

10 comments:

  1. Eyeroll at that article. Makes me wonder if it was written just to solicit a lot of page views and comments. You know, it is possible for two companies to independently come up with similar colors - SHOCKING! And until somebody decides that colors are intellectual property it's not plagiarism. :P

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    Replies
    1. Exactly. Even when another company puts out something that seems like a deliberate dupe, it's almost a year later, and Chanel has moved on to something else. These things are in development for a long time. Certain colors are popular at certain times. Even by the time Maybelline etc. started selling speckled nail polishes, the indie polish sellers who had started them had mostly moved on to new things.

      I really think that writer is just clueless, though. She works in the prestige beauty industry.

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    2. aghghalghdlgha;h.

      Lots of things influence popular cosmetics trends. TV shows, movies, fashion, art, the Pantone people determining the color of the year, etc. Does NARS have to pay George R.R. Martin for calling their lip pencil dragon Girl?

      Delete
    3. Yes. Dragons and girls are original inventions.

      Delete
  2. I can't wait for mother nature to come collecting all our asses for plagiarism, I mean Crayola is in some serious trouble.

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    Replies
    1. I know! All this time, I had no idea how much I was hurting the Dior nail polish artistes by using colors.

      Delete
  3. I was actually going to Tweet this article at you because I know you hate XO Vain and this is just...UGH. Like, the biggest UGH.

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  4. Interesting. What about fashion? Does the writer ONLY buy and wear "originals" from ludicrously expensive designers? Better not be any Gap items in her closet.

    ReplyDelete

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