8 Tips to Care for Your New Swimsuit

Congratulations on finding the perfect, sexy swimsuit that fits you perfectly and makes you look and feel sexy! I am sure you will want to wear that swim suit for several seasons, so how do you keep it looking it’s best?

Even the highest quality swimsuit can be damaged by salt water, chlorine, sweat, tanning lotions, suntan oils, sand and surf — all hard on the fibers of your beautiful bathing suit.  Here are tips that should keep your swimsuit looking great:

1. Rinse your suit in cold water after each wearing. Do NOT wash in a washing machine. Even cold water washing in a machine can stretch and ruin the shape of your suit. Always wash by hand using mild soap. (if you must wash in a machine, use a lingerie bag or tie your suit into a pillowcase using cold water on the gentle cycle with mild or no detergent).
2. Avoid long exposure to high levels of chlorine. Chlorine is corrosive and can break down the spandex of swimwear that gives it that resilient stretchiness and also cause the colors to fade faster.
3. Avoid rubbing against textured pool decks or cement paths that can ruin the surface of your swimsuit. If you snag your suit on anything and it breaks a fiber, gently pull the fiber thru to the inside of your suit and tie it off before cutting any ends to help preserve the integrity of your suit.
4. Avoid excessive lotions and oils. I suggest applying your lotion or oil before putting on your suit. Let it absorb fully into your skin before slipping on your swimsuit. This also allows for more even coverage of sunscreen. When reapplying lotion during the day, massage gently into your skin – not your suit.
5. Don’t wring or twist your swimsuit to dry it as this can stretch and misshape your suit. Lay it flat between two towels and roll them up, then gently press to absorb extra moisture. Then remove your swimsuit from the towels and lay it flat to let it air dry away from the sun.
6. Never dry your bathing suit in an electric dryer. Even low heat can cause the spandex fibers to deform and lose their stretch.
7. If you get a stain on your new swimsuit, dilute one part white vinegar in three parts warm water and soak. Then wash as normal in cold water with mild soap.
8. Alternate between 2 or 3 swimsuits if you swim a lot. If you love the sun and water and swim more than 2-3 months of the year, I suggest you have multiple swimsuits and changing off between them. This is especially for those who enjoy water and beach sports like volleyball, jet skis, water skiing, etc. as the high degree of movement combined with sun, water, and sweat can make your suit lose its stretch faster. Rotating between several swimsuits prolongs the life of all of them giving each one time to relax and reshape itself while drying.

Following these simple tips can take you thru many swim seasons looking awesome!

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Article by Lori Anne Brown – All Rights Reserved. Originally published at SensualElegance.com

Order Tracking is Back!

Not sure how it disappeared but I discovered the “Order Tracking” box was missing from the Account Page of the stores! It’s back now and working properly. I added a “Track Your Order” link in the footer too – just click on it or “Account” to view the tracking box in the top left column of the store.

Just enter the email address you used for your order and your order id number. This will redirect you to view your latest order (even if you didn’t register with us for an account). If your order has shipped, you will see a link for the tracking number in he history section at the bottom. Just click it to view the tracking and delivery information via UPS, Fedex, USPS or DHL. Easy!

If you did register, you can also view this information from your Order History.

Sensual Elegance Relaunches with 25% Off

One of the oldest online lingerie stores, SensualElegance.com, has relaunched with a totally improved site!

Sensual Elegance originally launched way back in 2001 with lingerie, clothing and hosiery by Leg Avenue and a very simple, hand coded website. Over the years, they expanded to include many more manufacturers including Elegant Moments Lingerie, Allure Leather, Dreamgirl International, Coquette, and shoes like Ellie and Pleaser USA and have updated the site as new technology has become available.

Now, Sensual Elegance has relaunched with an all new look and improved features like the ability to create a Wish List and directly compare products. Information on shipping and sizing has been improved to help you make better purchasing decisions and an all new return and exchange system has been implemented to make sure you love everything you buy.

Those who prefer to use their smartphones or tablets to shop will also now see a totally updated mobile site formatting everything better for these smaller screens. Just visit SensualElegance.com from your mobile device! QR codes are available for every product to let you quickly access and share everything on the go.

Launching with just about 2000 products with a 15% off Summer Sale, over 10,000 more items will be added by the end of the year. All products can be shipped worldwide.

Sensual Elegance has always included sexy clothing, lingerie, and corsets, but their expanded selection now includes swimwear, club wear, and tons more shoes! From club wear to beach wear, if it’s for women and sexy, you will find it on SensualElegance.com.

To celebrate, they are offering a whopping 25% off your first order – and always offer free shipping on orders of $100 or more within the US. For details, see http://www.sensualelegance.com/special-offers-LABEShops

Updating shipping information for each product

Since the current cart software lets me specify more delivery and shipping options than I could before, I’ve been tweaking and refining this information to try to make it as clear as possible and standardizing it for all my stores.

When you look at the product page for an item on one of my online shops, you will see the product title with a photo of that item on the left and information about that product to the right of the photo. After a brief description of that item, you will see the “Brand”, “Product Code”, and “Ships In” information just above the price.

This “Ships In” line gives you the standard handling time it takes for that specific product to leave the warehouse heading to your delivery address and these times are further described on the Shipping tab below the product photo with even more detail given on the Delivery Information page. Note this is the usual handling time – there are times when shipping might be delayed including invalid or unclear shipping address, holidays, peak seasons, warehouse inventory, natural disasters in the warehouse area, or other delays beyond our control, but this gives you a time valid 99% of the time.

This is the time to be packaged and leave the warehouse and NOT a delivery time. Total delivery time includes the packaging/handling plus transit time. Expected transit time is given on the Delivery Information page but averages 2-9 days within the US. Again, delays beyond our control can happen and delivery is out of our control once your package is shipped and in the hands of the USPS, UPS, Fedex or other delivery service – especially for international delivery.

The delivery confirmation or tracking number is now provided via email and/or your order history page for every shipment so please use it to for more detailed delivery times once your order has shipped.

SSL not reporting correctly? Your security

I’m getting some reports that our SSL certificate is not reading correctly on all stores in all browsers. *sigh*

Just to clarify, yes, I have an SSL certificate installed and yes, information is encrypted. It’s actually encrypted twice – once by my cart software using a random encryption key and once by the SSL certificate. Furthermore, my cart software only stores your name, address, phone, email and order information in the store database – encrypted so it cannot be read by any one but me. All credit cards are processed but never stored utilizing Paypal’s Website Payment Pro service if you pay on the site, or via their own servers if you select “Paypal” as the payment method and then select “Pay using a credit card” instead of using or setting up a Paypal account. I’m also working on getting Google Checkout (or Wallet as they call it now) set up again and plan to add Amazon Checkout in the near future allowing you to checkout via their secure servers).  Any way you pay on my stores, I never see or have access to your credit card information.

Browser SSL verifications have always had problems reporting security status for pages that include dynamic content like Twitter and Facebook as it considers those services un-secure (even though they don’t send data out!) and I believe that’s the main issue. But I am working with my web hosts as well trying to figure out what the problem is with it registering properly on all my stores. If in doubt, you can buy any of my products via Labeshops.com which seems to be showing “Partially encrypted” (due to Facebook/Twitter) on most browsers at least or call in an order at 407-574-5327.

My apologies for the confusion.

Just a quick test

Testing doing a post from my tablet, so just ignore.

Paypal problem finally fixed!!

I think the problem with orders paid via Paypal not showing to me as an order has finally been fixed!!! Keeping my fingers crossed as the orders in the last few days paid via Paypal have come thru properly!!

For those of you not familiar with Paypal, it lets you pay anyone online via an email address – basically like an online bank account. When you set up a Paypal account, you can deposit funds to it from a bank account or credit card but instead of using checks, you send payments to another Paypal account via their email address. The recipient never sees your bank account or credit card information which is one reason a lot of people like using it for online purchases. It is safe and secure all the way around.

By the way, you do not need to have a Paypal account to pay with Paypal – you can use their service to pay using your credit card as well giving you the extra peace of mind and security. Of course, our carts don’t store your credit card information and I never see your card information if you choose Credit Card as your payment method either, but I offer both methods for you to choose.

Slowly getting the stores back to normal

Thanks to a fouled up software upgrade, I had to basically redo the new stores, so over the last few days you might have noticed they were down or just looking weird.

I’m slowly getting everything back to normal and they should actually be better, stronger and faster once everything is completed.

Messing with code the last few days has put me a little behind processing orders too – I should be caught up again by the end of the day March 7. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Womens shoe store now online!

Mild to Wild Shoes is being worked on this week! It’s fully functional now, though I have a ton of features/design that will be added to it over the next few weeks and of course thousands of styles added over the coming months.

While I’ve always included shoes on Sensual Elegance and Gothic Plus, I’ve added so many other brands over the last year I realized the now thousands of pairs of shoes I carry would be overwhelming on the clothing stores. So while my clothing stores will continue to feature small collections of shoe styles relevant to that store’s theme (Demonia Gothic shoes on Gothic Plus for example), Mild to Wild Shoes is nothing but women’s shoes in all their awesome variety! From flat, low heel casual or every day shoes to the ultra high high heel shoes with stiletto heels and platforms! Genuine leather shoes and more affordable faux leather options in shoes and boots for women from size 5 up to size 16 for select styles!

Brands include Ellie, Pleaser USA, Demonia, Bordello, Funtasma, Pin Up Couture, Metropolis/Hades, Wild DNA, China Doll and more.  Stop on by my great new online shoe store and take a peek – and book mark it to come back to see all the new styles – you can also subscribe to our RSS Feed of new products.

Oh and I haven’t forgotten the guys either – watch for another announcement soon with a store for shoes for men, women and children!

Find out shipping charges right from the product page!

One of the most asked questions we get is “How much is shipping of x?”. Now you can find out right on the product page!!

While you’ve always been able to add an item to your cart, view your cart, and estimate shipping (on the old software you had to register and could see shipping charges before you finished your order), a lot of customers didn’t realize it and would call or chat with us to find out shipping charges.

Now just look for the Calculate shipping under the “Add to Cart” button*, select your country, city and zip code and find out the shipping options!! See image below.

Any other features you wish our stores had??? Please let me know and we will try to add them!

*Labeshops.com and all the stores running our new software has this feature  (look for the color bar with logo at the top of the page). Mysticconvergence.com, EgyptianMarketplace.com, GothicPlus.com and Sensual-Desire.com still use the “old” software as of this writing so you must still view the cart and register to estimate shipping on them.