FAQs

Where do you deliver?

We deliver worldwide via Royal Mail.  For more information, please check out our Shipping and Returns page.

Where is my tracking number?

We offer the option to purchase both Tracked and Untracked shipping services in order to offer a lower cost alternative for international shipping. If you did not purchase a tracked shipping option, then we cannot provide a tracking number. 

If you did purchase a tracked option and did not receive a tracking number, please respond to your shipping conformation e-mail and we will provide it to you. 

Where is my order? I think it might be lost.

If you choose the standard shipping option, or free shipping, you will not be given a tracking number and we cannot look up your order ourselves as it is not being tracked through the system. It is rare that packages are lost and those that are assumed lost often just show up later than expected. They can be held up at customs or delayed for any number of reasons. 

However, if you have been waiting a while and are worried your order may be lost, please contact us by replying to either your order confirmation or shipping confirmation e-mail, or by sending us an e-mail directly quoting your order number and we will do our best to accommodate you. 

How long does it usually take to ship orders?

We have an overall turnaround-time of 14 business days in which to ship orders. This time frame begins the day after you make your order. This is to account for potential high order volume and the time-consuming nature of handmade products, as well as to account for any potential delays outside of our control. However, we usually ship orders well within that time frame, often within less than 10 business days. 

If for whatever reason we are delayed beyond 14 business days, we will e-mail you to let you know and make an announcement on social media if the issue affects more than a couple orders.

How long does delivery take once orders have shipped?

This can be quite variable, but most domestic orders reach their destination within three business days, and most international orders reach their destinations within 2 weeks. 

International orders can occasionally be delayed by customs inspections and airport delays and so it is not unusual for them to take 3-4 weeks to arrive. 

Why do I have to pay a customs charge to my local postal service?

We do not collect customs fees on behalf of other countries and our products are not priced to include taxes, so your order may be assessed at the border and charged sales taxes. There may also be an assessment fee charged by your local customs enforcement body. 

We are not responsible for these fees. If you refuse to pay the charges, the package may be returned to us. If it is returned to us unopened, we may refund your order. We cannot refund any packages refused and destroyed by customs officers.

Can I cancel my order?

Yes, you can cancel if you contact us as quickly as you can. Please e-mail us within 2 business days to cancel your order.  You cannot cancel any orders for which an order fulfilment e-mail has been sent. 

If you would like to cancel because you have made a mistake in your order and want to place the correct order again, please e-mail us about what you'd like to change and we can edit the order for you on our side. We can update incorrect shipping addresses, remove duplicate items or replace them with something different, and add any items you might like. 

Can I add items to my order or make changes?

Absolutely! Get in touch with us within 5 business days to add or make changes to your order.  

If you are adding extra items to your order or upgrading the size of any items, you will receive an invoice to pay the balance and your order will rejoin the filling queue once the balance is paid. If you are removing items or reducing the size, your order will stay in its spot in line and you will receive a refund for the difference in order value. 

I don't like my choices, can I return what I've bought?

Due to the nature of the products, we cannot accept any returns unfortunately. 

There's been a mistake in my order, or something has arrived broken. What can I do?

Please e-mail us to let us know about the mistake! We will happily replace or refund the mistaken or defective item.  Please include your order number and tell us what went wrong and we will do everything we can to make it right. 

How long after my order fulfilment email arrives is my packages actually shipped?

Usually they are scheduled to be picked up by the post office the next morning, so if your tracking number does not update before the next day, that is normal. Occasionally, order fulfilment emails are sent on weekends or holidays, in which case your order will go in the post on the next business day. 

If there are unpexpected postal delays, I will make sure to let you know that your order will have to wait to be sent even if you have received an order fulfilment email. If you are worried, please get in touch and we can let you know if your package has left our hands. 

Can you use an alternative courier or delivery service for me?

We are happy to quote a price for an alternative courier service. Please let us know who you would prefer and we will quote you the price.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept all major credit cards and debit cards. We also accept express checkout through ShopPay, GPay, Amazon Pay and PayPal. 

Why does your checkout have an option to add a tip?

It is an option provided by Shopify that we have elected to offer. It is absolutely not necessary or expected for you to choose to include a tip, and whether or not a tip is offered does not change our level of service regarding your order.  It is simply there if you'd like to help support Crow & Pebble even more.

I want to pay by some other method, is that possible?

We may be flexible about payment options; please get in touch with us directly by e-mail to make arrangements.

Please be aware that your order will not begin its processing time until payment is received.

Can I pay in installments?

We do not currently offer the ability to pay in installments, sorry. 

Why didn't my card work?

Normally, this seems to occur when the incorrect billing address is used. Please make sure that your billing address matches the address your card issuer has on file. Typos in the card number or the CVV/CVC number are the other usual suspect. If you have checked all of these things and the card still hasn't worked, please check with your issuer to ensure that they have not blocked the purchase for some reason. 

Do you give out discounts?

We do run sales occasionally and have discount codes available through our loyalty system. There may also be loyalty codes available through some of our relationships with cosmetics blogs and social media personalities. 

The best way to know when we are running a sale is to join our newsletter or follow us on Instagram or Facebook. We make all of our sales announcements through these three avenues. 

We may also give out discounts on a case by case basis for makeup artists. Get in touch with us to enquire. 

Do you offer gift cards?

We do! You can find them here for purchase at particular price points. If you would like a gift card loaded with an amount not listed on the site, just get in touch with us so that we can create a custom gift card for you. 

Our gift cards are digital cards so the gift card code will be emailed to you. If you would like a physical product, you can also get in touch with us and we can see what we can do. 

How long have you been in business?

We have been in business since May 10, 2017. 

Where are you located?

We are located in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. All orders ship from here. 

How can I get in touch with you?

The best way to get in touch with us is via e-mail. You can respond to the shop's automatic emails and get a response that way - this is the best method for questions regarding a specific order because it will include all the information we need about your order. If you haven't made an order, you can e-mail  karen@crowandpebble.com or crowandpebble@gmail.com directly to get a quick response. 

We also have a contact form on the website - you can find the link in the footer of the website or click here. Be aware however that these e-mails are organized separately from direct e-mails and so do not necessarily send an instant notification.

You can also DM us on Instagram or Facebook - we are @crowpebble on both - and chat that way. 

Please allow 2-3 days to get a response. We normally respond to enquiries within a few hours of receipt, but occasionally must prioritize other things. If you do not get a response within 3 days, please do contact us again! It is never intentional that we ignore a customer enquiry. 

How do I join your mailing list? How do I unsubscribe?

In the footer of our website, there is a text box where you can submit your e-mail address to our list. You can also check the 'E-mail me with news and offers' box at checkout. 

If you would like to unsubscribe, just click the 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of any newsletter e-mail we send you.  

I want to get in touch with you about a business proposition, can I send you an e-mail?

Absolutely, get in touch, but please be aware that we do not respond to business solicitations if we are not interested in the product. There simply is not enough time in the day to respond to every business solicitation e-mail we get. 

We are not interested in SEO, web development or content creation services at this time and will not respond to any e-mails offering these services, thank you. 

I want to buy a large number of items from you at once. Do you offer discounts for large orders?

We do offer bulk order pricing. If you would like to make a wholesale order, please e-mail karen@crowandpebble.com. The wholesale pricing depends on the size of the order in question and we would have a minimum order quantity to qualify as a wholesale order, however we are happy to work with both businesses and individuals looking to place wholesale orders. 

Do you make custom products?

Yes! Please get in touch if you would like something custom made. We are happy to discuss your vision and help bring it to reality.  Custom items will be priced differently to our stock items, but the price will vary dependent on factors such as product exclusivity and order volume, but we are always happy to entertain all requests for custom products, so please don't hesitate to reach out even if you're only interested in a small number of items. 

How many people work for Crow & Pebble?

Just one! Karen, the owner of Crow & Pebble, runs the business by herself. This may change in the future, but for now, it is a one-woman show!

Where do you source your ingredients from? Where are your products made?

All of our ingredients come from UK-based or EU-based businesses and distributors. 

Our products are handmade in-house in the United Kingdom. We ae a small-batch artisan company. 

Mica mining has a bad reputation of labour exploitation, and particularly child labour abuses.  Does your mica come from an ethical source?

Our mica distributors have issued a statement that they do not work with suppliers that commit any form of human exploitation, child or otherwise. They state that they do not deal with traders or exporters, so they know the origins of every item they stock.  They also work closely with the manufacturers that process the raw materials to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of their workforce is a priority. Also, none of the minerals they supply are sourced from India, where child labour at mica mines is an ongoing issues. 

You can read more about their human rights statement here.

Are your products vegan? Are they cruelty-free?

Yes! Our products are all vegan and cruelty-free.

We do not test on animals, and none of our ingredients are tested on animals. We do not commercially export to China and so our products are not tested on animals in any market, as animal testing has been banned across Europe for some time now. 

All of our ingredients are vegan and not derived from palm oil if at all possible. The product's vegan status will be confirmed in the notes section of each product. Our stearates are derived from vegetable oils.

Occasionally, we may host products created by other businesses that include animal products as an ingredient. This will always be noted in the notes section of the product pages as well as highlighted in the ingredients list.  As of writing this answer, the only animal-derived ingredient we have hosted is beeswax.

What's with your envelopes and packaging? It all seems to be made of paper. 

While we cannot avoid using plastics in our product containers, we do strive to make all of our immediately disposable packaging recyclable or compostable.  Our envelopes are made entirely of recycled cardboard and can be composted or recycled, and our internal packaging is all made of bio-degradable cardboard, washi tape, tissue paper and shredded paper.  

I have some requests for my order, how can I make sure you know what they are?

For simple requests such as alternative invoicing or extra secure packaging, you can simply include a note in the 'special instructions for seller' section of your cart page. This would also include any preferences for custom or mystery bundles if you have not otherwise already included them. 

For any larger, more complex requests, please e-mail us to discuss what you'd like done. 

Do you offer free samples?

At this time, we do not offer free samples. We have sample sizes of each of our products available for sale if you would like to try them out before you commit to a larger size. 

What packaging do you use for your fragrances?

For our samples, we use miniature amber essential oil bottles with a capped reducer. We find these easier to open than slim perfume vials. 

For our full sized fragrances, we use 5mL glass rollerball bottles with a steel roller ball. 

How much perfume will I get in a sample or a full size?

We fill our bottles by weight in order to ensure they stay consistent. Our samples contain 0.9g of product and our full sizes contain 4.6g of product. Most of the materials used in perfumery are less dense than water so this roughly translates to 1mL and 5mL respectively. 

My perfume smells a bit different this time to my last bottle. Why is that?

There are two major reasons that your perfume may smell slightly different. The first, and most significant cause is that we use natural components in our perfumes which can smell very different based on their growing conditions and even the origin of the particular plants being used in the aroma extraction. This can cause some variation in the smell of the final product. 

The other reason is that our fragrances are hand-blended in small batches which can also cause some slight variations in scent.

The fragrance should always smell pretty close, however. If it smells completely different than another bottle you've tried or what you would expect given the scent's description, please get in touch so we can sort out what might have happened. 

I am allergic to certain essential oils or other perfume components. Can you tell me what you use in your perfumes?

Each perfume's product page includes  whether or not the scent contains one of the 26 common fragrance allergens classified by the European Commission. You can find this information under the 'Contains' heading in each product description.

If you believe you are allergic to something not on that list, please do get in touch to enquire about our ingredients. We are more than happy to help you. 

What do you use as your carrier oil/diluent?

We use Isopropyl Myristate as our carrier oil. It has no scent of its own and is not subject to oxidation and rancidity like natural, vegetable-based oils are. It is also lightweight and non-greasy. 

What's the difference between regular spray perfumes and oil perfumes like yours?

It really comes down to the material used to dilute the perfume compounds. regular spray perfumes are generally diluted in alcohol, while oil perfumes use a carrier oil of some kind as a diluent. Usually, this is something like fractionated coconut oil, jojoba oil or rice bran oil, or in our case, isopropyl myristate. These oils would clog up an atomizer on a spray bottle, so are usually applied to the skin as droplets or using a rollerball bottle.

Alcohol perfumes are sprayable, and the alcohol allows the perfume to evaporate more quickly. This leads to more 'projection' or 'sillage' - your perfume sort of wafts around you a bit like a cloud. Alcohol perfumes also tend to have brighter, more noticeable top notes, like citruses and herbs.  This can often make alcohol-based perfumes seem stronger and more diffusive, especially when first applied.

Perfume oils, on the other hand, sit much closer to the skin so tend to be a more intimate scent than an alcohol-based product. They sit closer to the skin and tend to be detectable only if you are really close to the person wearing them. The top notes will tend to settle into the blend more quietly and the rounder base notes may be more noticeable. 

What do the scent descriptions mean? Do your perfumes contain essential oils or extracts of all of those different plants?

The scent descriptions are essentially a list of 'notes' that make up the perfume blend. These notes are more like a wine-tasting profile than an ingredients list. It is somewhat subjective and intended to give you an idea of what the perfume will smell like.  

 

The notes do not tend to correlate with any specific ingredients across different brands. There are a number of different ways to blend a scent to fit a specific note and a number of different components that can be used to create particular impressions. The perfume may contain a particular note's essential oil or it may not so it is always worth asking if you are concerned about how a particular part of a scent description is achieved. 

Do you work with social media influencers? Do you want to collaborate?

We will entertain arrangements with social media influencers on a case by case basis. We are more likely to be open to working with you if you have tried our products before. 

We do not have any sort of promotional list or brand rep system currently in place. 

What do you do with my personal information?

Please see our Privacy Policy for complete details of how we use your personal information.