HAPPY NEW YEAR! Our office will close January 1-2, 2018. All orders received during this time will be processed the next business day. Stay safe and enjoy your holidays. Thank you for being with us during this wonderful year.

Source photo: Pexels.com

Well, it’s a joke :). But literally, you can eat our biodegradable peanuts foam you get in the boxes we ship to you.

According to Reference.com,

Biodegradable packing peanuts are edible and digestible. However, they have no nutritional value and are not manufactured under food-safe conditions. The manufacturers of the peanuts generally advise against eating them. They are made out of starches derived from various grains, chiefly corn.

We want to take a good care of our earth. One way we do that is by using used packaging materials and used/biodegradable loose fill in the boxes we ship to you. This packing peanuts are biodegradable. Put them in water, they will dissolve. Put them in a compost bin or bury them in soil. The insects and rats will eat them.

It’s just one way we strive to make your shopping experience the best it can. To see a cool science experience with this loose peanuts, check out this video.

Dear readers,

We would like to share this information from Nail Harmony, the maker of Gelish, about counterfeit Gelish nail polish.

These are the characteristics of the fake Gelish base and Gelish top coats.  Make sure you buy genuine Gelish Nail polish, not a fake! Beware of Gelish products that are too cheap or are sold from bogus salesman.

FRONT VIEW

• Background of the floral is dark
• The information under “Top It Off” is the base information
• The label is not double with multi-language inside

REAR VIEW

• Both labels have foundation information for instructions
• No variance in tone (color) of writing

BOTTOM VIEW

• Item codes are wrong
• Production dates are not valid

UPC CODE VIEW

• The same item number on both items
• The same UPC code on both items

Esther’s Nail Center only sell genuine and new products from US authorized distributor. We guarantee that we don’t sell fake Gelish products. Check out our store.

Updated March 14, 2018:

Gelish Base and Top Coats now have a new look and cap. So it’s easier to see the genuine ones. Esther’s Nail Center only sells the new Gelish Base and Top Coats. We no longer sell the old bottles.

To celebrate Earth Day this April, we launch a Nail Polish Collection project, a FREE collection event for your unused nail polish or gel polish. When you recycle your nail polish through us, we’ll give you a store credit. So, recycle and get rewarded!

How To:

1. The collection time frame is from April 10th to 30th, 2016. If we receive the polish outside this time frame, we’ll not reward you with the store credit.
2. Pack your unused nail/gel polish properly and send to this address:
   Esther’s Nail Center
   PO BOX 503673
   San Diego, CA 92150-3673
3. Please include your name and email address on a paper inside the package.
4. After we receive your package, we’ll email you the store credit of $5 toward your next order at EsthersNC.com
5. Package limit is between 1 lbs to 5 lbs.
6. This program is only available for US residents.

All nail polish we receive will be disposed properly at a local hazmat disposal facility. Thank you for taking care of our beautiful planet!

For celebrating this year Earth’s day, I would like to rewrite our old article about why and how you can dispose your nail polish properly so we can be more kind to the earth.

But you may said “I usually just throw them away in the trash bin.” So, is it alright to just toss them in the trash?

According to US Environmental Protection Agency, nail polish can’t be thrown away in the trash just like other household waste.  The reason is nail polish is flammable and it’s categorized as household hazardous waste. It means nail polish is as hazardous as your household cleaners or your car oil. And to dispose it improperly would pollute the environment and post a threat to human health.

So what can you do with your old nail polishes? You can recycle or you can dispose of them properly by participating in your local household hazardous waste collection program. Contact your city or county’s environmental health, solid waste, or public works department for information regarding which wastes can be recycled in your area.

For city of San Diego where I live,  there’s a household hazardous waste transfer facility nearby that accepts not only nail polish, but nail polish remover, batteries, light bulbs, paints, etc. It’s open to City of San Diego residents only. And an appointment is required. So, I called them and made an appointment. I didn’t wait for a long time until somebody took my call. And I got an appointment on a Saturday (they open only on Saturdays).

Dropping the waste off was quick. Just drove in, had my ID checked, then drove to a designated area where some people were waiting for taking all my old nail polishes from my car’s trunk and I was ready to leave. Best of all, it’s free! The whole process from setting up appointment to dropping of the waste was actually pretty easy.

I believe you can bring up to 50 pounds of waste at a time. You can also bring all sort of hazardous waste. I brought some used batteries along with my nail polishes in a plastic bag. Make sure your nail polish bottles are securely closed before disposing them.

I usually collect nail polish with batteries and old light bulbs for a year. Then, I make my yearly trip to the facility. I also volunteer to collect the waste from friends and relatives to make my trip worthwhile.

If you’re a resident in another city, you may contact your city’s website or Earth 911 website. At Earth 911, you can search a recycling center near you based on a city or zipcode.

And if you feel creative, reusing your old, unwanted nail polishes is always an excellent idea. From preventing rust at a deep scratch on your car to color coding belongings in your house, nail polish could be handy.

Photo source: hellogigles.com

What do you do with your old nail polish? Do you recycle or dispose? Feel free to comment below and if you like this article, please share it to everyone you know. Let’s be kind to our earth.

First of all, pardon me for posting something unusual today. I just feel the need to share this with other business owners who may find the information useful.

(photo for illustration only)

Last week marked a record of the most credit card fraud transactions we ever got in a weekend.  It makes me wonder how many stolen credit cards out there are used for credit card fraud.  And how much money the businesses have to lose.

Before we go further, what I mean with credit card fraud transaction is when a buyer, with stolen credit card information,  place an unauthorized order without the knowing from the original credit card holder. I will discuss tips especially about online credit card fraud.

Business owners need to distinguish fraud transactions among the legitimate ones. It’s even more difficult if you have an online store as you can’t see the physical card. So what you can do?

My tips are:

1. Don’t assume just because you never have one fraud, you won’t have one. The more popular your store is, the higher probability you will frauds.
2. Don’t assume the credit card or the shopping cart system you have is safe. You need to be vigilant and to look through all of your orders and know which ones are the bad ones.

Credit Card Fraud Detection

You need to detect credit card frauds by looking for the characteristics below:

1. Order is unusual

Unusual means different than regular orders you receive daily. For example, the quantity per item is high or the total order is significantly higher than usual. It should give you an alert.

Don’t feel too happy yet when you see an order with a high amount. Take a deep look into. Search on the internet to find more information.

2. Shipping and billing address is different

If there’s an order with a high total order amount with different shipping billing address, I will cancel it right away. Most often, it’s fraud. Don’t feel bad to cancel it. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

3. Shipping with Express mail. 

The thief usually wants to have the goods shipped right away to their place. They don’t care how much the shipping cost since it’s somebody else’s card anyway.

More Ways to be Safe

1. Enable AVS on your online store. Address verification is helpful to weed out illegal transaction.

2. Most fraud transactions are originally from Russia, USA, and some other countries. Search on the internet for it. And restrict shipping to those. I don’t ship to those countries (I ship to USA of course) now since there are higher risk that the purchase is fraud.

The tips I share with you is only a part from the big picture and it’s just the first step. You will find a lot more by searching on the internet.

Do you have any information you want to share or any experience with credit card fraud? Feel free to share in the comment below. I’d love to know your thoughts. Thank you.

The CND Flora & Fauna Spring 2015 Collection is released this month and available now at EsthersNC.com. The colors are available in Shellac or Vinylux.

CND Flora & Fauna, featuring blooming watercolor pastels and glistening landscapes that inspire this season’s approach to color and style. The all soft, natural colors in the Shellac version are:

1. Dandelion (Peach)
2. Fragrant Freesia (Fuchsia)
3. Salmon Run (Darker peach)
4. Wild Moss (Shimmer Greyish Green)
5. Creekside (Pastel Blue)
6. Field Fox (Dusty Rose)

Plus 2 more for Vinylux:

1. Blush Teddy
2. Thistle Thicket

For swatches, check out this awesome CND Vinylux FLORA & FAUNA  blog post from imabeautygeek.com. Shellac colors are similar to Vinylux.

Photo source from imabeautygeek.com.

You can find Shellac and Vinylux at EsthersNC.com. We also have Daisy, Gelish and other popular brands of nail polish.

Hello all! It’s time for Esther’s Nail Center Giveaway! One winner will win a set of 4 Rainbow Honey Nail Polish full size.

It’s easy! Just enter here.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The details:

• Contest begins 10/2/14 at 12:00 am PT and will end on 10/12/14 at 12:00 am PT.
• Contest is open in the US only
• Winners will be contacted via email within 48 hours of the end of the giveaway. The winners will then have 48 hours to respond and accept the prize. If the winner does not respond to claim the prize by 48 hours after notification, a new winner will be selected for that prize.
• The prize will be shipped to the address provided.
• Only entries through the Rafflecopter widget below will be counted.
• All entries will be verified. Invalid entries will be thrown out.

Good luck!