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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Where to buy?


The most frequently asked question in my comment section is where I purchase my beauty products.
Here I'll give you a small list of shops/seller I rely on. Of course all of them ship worldwide:


Japanese makeup/beauty products:

www.adambeauty.com
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he's always my first choice as he has the most reasonable prices online. His items are most of the time around Japanese retail price or slightly higher. Shipping is free however per package you pay US$2 for registered mail. Ships out very quick, usually within 1 business day.
Accepts paypal payments only.
Based in Hong Kong.

www.ichibankao.com
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I always buy from this site when I don't find the item I want from adambeauty. She's my usual supplier of High-End brands like Lunasol, Jill Stuart etc. There is a mark-up on items but the service is great (very quick dispatch of the packages).
With the current strong Yen the prices are actually quite ok considering the included shipping, paypal fees etc.
Shipping is included in the items' prices but I usually upgrade the shipping to EMS for an extra US$6 (available for order over US$100 I believe) and there is also the option to get registered mail for US$2.
Payment by Paypal only
Based in Japan.

www.gooddealer.com - (click on shopping mall to enter the shop)
Has a lot of stuff but the site is a bit annoying to navigate. They charge shipping fees & on top of that handling fees so I only order here when I am desperate for an item lol
Takes credit cards and I believe paypal, too
Based in Hong Kong

www.x-a-n-a-d-u.com -
I haven't actually ordered here but the prices seem to be just about retail and a reasonable shipping fee on top. I will definitely check this store out soon but right now they only have brands I am quite stocked with already (Lavshuca, Love Clover, Majolica Majorca etc.)
Based in Japan

www.strawberrynet.com
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I think I only ordered some Anna Sui items here before. They have free shipping but I see some quite old products on the site.
The service was good but the selection of items doesn't appeal to me really
Based in Hong Kong

Do a search on ebay to find some good deals, too!


Japanese and Korean makeup:

www.facial-shop.com -
This is the store I probably order most as there are always great deal popping up. You'll also find Western brands like Bobbi Brown, Chanel, Dior and others. She stockes Japanese and some Korean makeup especially Laneige.
From this shop I purchase my CL Sheet masks (listed under Mayblesally).
There is most of the time only 1-2 pieces of a product available so one has to be quick to score a good deal.
Shipping by Registered Airmail is free worldwide and if you buy 3 or more items you'll get 5% off (you'll get a refund after sending payment)
Paypal payments accepted only.
Based in Hong Kong.

www.sasa.com
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Sasa is the best source to order heavier items like shampoos, body care items etc. as their shipping is quite low (and free for order over US$75!) and EMS shipping upgrade is quite cheap, too (I love getting EMS as they're trackable online and arrive here super fast!).
They have an interesting assortments of brands but I'd not order most of the Japanese makeup there as it seems quite more pricey than adambeauty and the other shops listed above.
Sasa does however stock Clio now (they did before but discontinued carrying the line)! It's a Korean brand and not easy to get and the sasa prices are just a bit over the Korean retail price! YAY! I highly recommend picking up a marbled clio blush!
Accept credit cards or paypal
Based in Hong Kong


Korean makeup:
I haven't yet found online shops dedicated to international sales of Korean makeup. Away from Sasa (they also stock dodo club, palgantong and a few other smaller brands) and facial shop (for Laneige and some Etude) I have to order on ebay or do deals with ebay sellers to get a bit discount on larger orders.

Gmarket -
This is a very huge site and offers lots of beauty care and other stuff. Many sellers don't ship overseas but I highly recommend getting your Skin79 stuff from here (seller is skin797979 and I believe this is actually the manufacturer) as there are some really good sets around and all items are retail or discounted.
I had problems with registering at first (it took me like 2 hours to figure out how to be able to sign in as my registration wasn't completed even though I had clicked on the link) and the process of ordering, then sending payment, then waiting for confirmation etc. was a bit exhausting.
You pay an estimated fee for shipping upfront but they deposit whatever you paid too much in your Gmarket account (on the other hand if they under-charged you you'll have to pay the difference before they ship your items).
I really love that you pay retail or even less and actual shipping (by EMS so it's more worthwhile to order more items at once) instead of inflated rates.
You can pay by paypal and combine orders from different sellers that ship international. It seems that all sellers ship their item to the main Gmarket headquarters (most don't charge anything for the local transportation) where the Gmarket staff prepare the packages for international delivery.
It took exactly a week from the moment I ordered until I received it so the service is quite fast.
Be sure to check your Gmarket account to always see the current status of your items (they only email you the order confirmation but not when it's shipped etc.)
Based in Korea/Seoul.

The ebay sellers I like most are:

ipinkorea:
(VERY high mark-ups but always throws in a lot of samples and freebies).

skinfood2you:
Currently my favorite seller as her prices are more moderate than ipinkorea (still inflated though). If you don't see something in the store you can always email for a quote. Also generous with samples.

rumistyle:
She has some nice things listed and you can do the "best offer" feature so you can always save some $ off her listed price.

If you know of any Korean or Japanese sites with reasonable prices and worldwide shipping please let me know in the comments section

I hope this helps someone!

19 comments:

Amelia Yap said...

Oh my gosh..
will definately bookmark this entry :)

very useful!
Thanks!

Wang Yang said...

Thanks! Very useful! :-)

I want to share these websites:

http://www.mycutelady.com/

http://softpeachyshop.googlepages.com/Shop.htm

Have you ever ordered from: http://global.gmarket.co.kr/

Anonymous said...

Are there any websites that have English? I've been to some of the Korea/Japan websites and about to place some BB creams and other products but they're all in Korean or Japanese so I don't understand it at all - please help.

Anonymous said...

Are there any websites that have English as suppose to Korean/Japanese. I've been to some of the websites but they're not English so when I placed the others like BB creams and other products I couldn't understand what they are saying. Please help.

Kathi said...

sasa and gooddealer have English versions, adambeauty is semi English/semi Chinese but it's navigable, Ichibankao is only in English, most ebay sellers include English item descriptions, too.
Just check out the sites I listed in my post.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info Kathi. I will definitely check it out. Not sure why the comments showing up twice. :-)

shana said...

babe, really love your blog! It's so informative! you might want to check out http://korean-fashion.blogspot.com.

http://global.gmarket.co.kr/ though offers English but majority of the products info are still in Korean =(

JJU said...

Your blog and reviews r just amazing and very helpful.. Now i'm collecting BB cream and always bought from Gmarket. It always give best deal.

http://global.gmarket.co.kr/

Ps. Luv ur lip collection a lot. So lovely!

JJU said...

http://www.lotree.co.kr/

Hi ^0^ Kathi,

I just think u might like this brand too as Lotree has very pretty Anna Sui-styled package and their powder is great.

melanie said...

Have you ever ordered from Bobodave before? I haven't so I was just wondering if you had any experience with them. :) Thanks for compiling such a great list. I am loving Gmarket!

Anonymous said...

hi, can i ask how to register for Gmart? i registered but when logging in, they keep telling me that my signing in information is not valid and asked me to sign in with the right information. Can someone help?

Kathi said...

I know, the same thing happened to me. See if you got a confirmation email from them that includes a code.
Go to Gmarket and click on "Customer Service" (on the top right on the page).
A pop-up window will open. On the bottom of the pop-up window there is a button to click "Complete registration". Click on it and then enter your confirmation code from the email and the email address you used to register.
After doing those steps I was able to log-in.
Hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

Thanks^^! But, I've tried. but still cant work. =(

Anonymous said...

hi, when ur order from global mart, your usually choose which package? and the price beside the example: w25000( $25.43) is in sing dollars?

Kathi said...

No, the $ price is US$

tho said...

hi. just curious whats the estimated shipping you have to pay for each transactions? or maybe in the past you paid?

cos i tried checking out. and realize it cost so much..

Unknown said...

This is so helpful! Thank you!

Junnie said...

Hi everyone, my friend is going to korea for holiday any ideal will it be cheaper to get it there in stores? or in Gmarket?
If were to purchase items from Gmarket how much is the shipping charges like? say only 1 tube of BB cream? would like to knw so that i can compare the prices.
Can somebody please advise me on that? thanks in advance :)))

Andrea, Mi Yeung Cho Lim 11.1 said...

hiii!! this is really helpfull yeayyy!! exactly waht i was looking for hehehe. but i have a question, when your order arrives, do they give you samples of the brands you ordeed too??

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