Hi There, I’ve never done this before so I hope I’m doing it right. There is a shop on Etsy called Hearts & Bows Bath & Body (http://www.etsy.com/shop/heartsandbows494). This girl has copied Flourish Bath & Body almost to a “T” (http://www.etsy.com/shop/flourishbathbody).
It started with packaging that just looked kinda similar. Her shop announcement/profile was pretty similar too, although that’s been changed. Then she stole the wording from Flourish’s listings for multi-packs of lip balm almost word for word. Her soap looks nearly identical to Flourish and she had soap samples listed that looked exactly like Flourish’s too. I can’t be certain of course but I’m pretty sure she’s aware of what she’s doing.
Flourish belongs to a soap forum that I’m also a member of. When a thread got started on our forum about Flourish having an “admirer” a few things started to change in Hearts & Bows shop. It was like she was reading the same forum and suddenly realized what she was doing was just wrong. But then she must’ve had a change of heart ’cause it got worse.
If you compare the shops side by side her product labels are now almost identical. She started out with just lip balm but now has Flourish’s entire line of products copied (well except for a few, which she states in her shop announcement are “coming soon”). Her photos are almost an exact copy, the only difference for the most part being that she lines her products up in the opposite direction. The font on her labels, the colors, the wording…it’s almost all nearly identical.
Flourish is one of the top B&B sellers on Etsy. She’s had a lot of exposure, seen a lot of treasuries and been on the FP quite a few times. She was also a featured seller. The owner (Brooke) has put a lot of hard work and dedication into getting to where she is. Now all of a sudden this little copycat comes along and it’s Hearts & Bows being plastered all over the FP, the treasuries, and in an Etsy Finds e-mail. She was even on Heartsy. I really think people are getting the two shops confused because the copy is nearly identical, especially now with the new labels and photos that were just posted in the last few days.
You can also see more product photos on her FB page. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hearts-and-Bows-Bath-Body/153060104750262?sk=wall) Take note of the picture posted on 28MAY11 of lip balms in progress. Flourish has an almost identical picture on her own FB page. It’s also amazing that the product Flourish most recently commented on on her FB page was her saltwater soap, and the most recent product Hearts & Bows commented on on her own FB page was her own saltwater perfume. It goes on.
I normally like to give people the benefit of the doubt but seriously, unless they were born with the same brain I just don’t see how this could not be intentional. There was also a thread started about this on the Etsy forums, but of course it got closed by Admin (http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/8559149/). Please could you maybe put this in the blog? I really think a lot of Flourish’s hard work is about to go down the drain because this other person has copied her so well that people seem to be confusing the two. Thanks for anything you can do.
Tags: heartsandbows494
