Nail mail and my experience with MBeauty Lounge

A few weeks ago I received some unexpected nail mail. In the chaos of moving house, going on our honeymoon, the holiday season and going back to uni, I had completely forgotten about my order from MBeauty Lounge. I had assumed that I had already received the order, as I had placed it in October last year, and I was so convinced it must've been a mistake that I checked through (almost) my entire collection. While I was very relieved that I did actually receive my polishes in the end, I was rather annoyed at how long they had taken to get to me. I placed the order on October 15, received a shipping notification on November 6 and received the package on April 10. That's a total of six months - wtf?! And on top of that, my order was missing one of the polishes with a scribbled note on the included packing slip saying "$6.75 - credit refunded." As of yet there is no sign of a refund in my account, but I haven't contacted them about it as I'm not sure it will be worth the headache, based on my experience with their customer service so far.

My invoice - I've highlighted the date and circled the missing polish

Not only had they not included one of the polishes, not informed me of this AND not actually processed the refund, the polish I was missing was from the Mariah Carey Christmas collection and trying to find it in April (and in Australia) was near impossible. Thankfully, I managed to find it on eBay for a not-too-exorbitant price, but I was actually in the United States in November for my honeymoon - if only they had let me know that they were out of stock when they sent the package, I could've picked it up there.

L-R: This gown needs a crown, Miss you-niverse, I'm feeling sashay, 
Baby please come home, Silent stars go by, It's all San Andreas's fault

OPI - Baby please come home

Thankfully the rest of the polishes arrived safe and sound. I got the OPI Miss Universe 2013 mini collection, two of the Liquid Sands from the OPI Mariah Carey Christmas 2013 collection, and the one Liquid Sand from the OPI San Francisco collection that had been out of stock when I ordered the others from a different supplier. I also picked up the Zoya Pixie Dust Autumn Collection.

L-R: Dhara, Chita, Sunshine, Tomoko, Carter, Arabella

As much as I was thoroughly annoyed by this whole experience, I will point out that I have ordered two other times from MBeauty Lounge before and I received my orders within six weeks with no missing items. It may seem that I'm giving them a bad review, but I do think MBeauty Lounge has their place in the online nail polish world, especially for those from countries where some brands just aren't available (I'm looking at you, Zoya). Their prices are good (very good for us Aussies, where OPI's retail for at least $20 each) and they have a pretty big range, including new collections. The polishes seem legit as far as I can tell (which isn't very far), although the OPI's do have their serial numbers scraped off. Shipping does take a long time however - at least a month to Australia, plus the order turn around time which seems to be about one or two weeks, so you're looking at about 6 weeks from the time you place the order to when you receive it. The shipping costs are pretty reasonable, especially compared to other online sellers - it's usually about a quarter of the cost of the polishes (e.g. about $20US for 10 polishes), depending on the size of the order. Their customer service is atrocious, as I've already described, but if you're willing to put up with this and the long shipping times, you can get your nail polish fix for a pretty good price.

Have any of you ever ordered from MBeauty Lounge? How did it turn out? And what are your recommendations for online nail polish stores?