Tuesday 15 January 2013

Sephora Hauls and Parcel Forwarding Comparisons

I came home from work today to find 2 Sephora packages waiting for me! :) I spent about 2 hours sorting through my hauls, taking photos and finding a place for everything :P I've actually run out of room in my makeup storage unit and I'm desperately waiting for the acrylic makeup box that I got for my birthday to stop smelling like chemicals so I can start using it :)

I won't go through everything that I got in detail as not everything is for me. I got some birthday presents and some stuff for a swap that I'm doing at the moment. I also want to fit in a little bit about the Parcel Forwarding companies that I used.

I placed my first Sephora order through PriceUSA (parcel forwarder). I use PriceUSA for pretty much all my orders from the US as they don't charge any fees other than shipping fees when I pay via bank deposit (rather than Paypal or Credit Card).

2 Sephora parcels

There are 2 Benefit sets behind this but I won't show them as they're for birthday presents and giveaways :) I dropped my iPhone a few times today and now the camera is a bit weird so while I did take photos, they were too fuzzy to use. I've put links on each item that you can click on to see the item on the Sephora website.

Dior, YSL, Duo
1. Dior DiorSkin Forever Wear-Extending Invisible Retouch Powder in 002 Transparent Medium $42
2. Yves Saint Laurent Volupte Sheer Candy in 02 Dewy Papaya $30
3. DUO eyelash adhesive in black $8


How pretty is this lip balm?!
My second Sephora order was placed by me (using a friends Sephora account and credit card due to Sephora not accepting international credit cards) and sent to Hop Shop Go who then forwarded it onto me. This was my first time using Hop Shop Go and I'm so impressed with them. They're more expensive than PriceUSA but so so worth it!

Samples!
I'm super excited to try samples of the Urban Decay BB cream and the Benefit Fine One One. They're new releases from both companies.

Lancome, Tarte, Benefit birthday gift,
YSL mini lipstick, Bobbi Brown
In this order, I got the Lancome set for $34, a Tarte set for a swap that I'm doing at the moment, a birthday gift from Sephora, a free mini YSL lipstick and the Bobbi Brown Concealer kit.


Look how pretty the mascara is! It's all
glittery on the bottom :)
Birthday gift and YSL mini lipstick

Sorry for the really bad photo quality!

So.. for the comparison of PriceUSA and Hop Shop Go:

First Sephora order placed through PriceUSA:

21st December 2012 (midnight or so) : Emailed PriceUSA for a quote
21st December (2.03am): Received quote
21st December: (sometime between 2 and 7am) Paid PriceUSA the deposit
21st December: (2.21pm) PriceUSA placed order
22nd December: Advised that Sephora had shipped my order
29th December: Advised that PriceUSA had received the order and sent me the invoice for the remaining money that I need to pay
29th December: I paid the remaining amount that I owed
30th December (8am): Advised that they had received my payment
3rd January: Advised that they had shipped my order to me
15th January: Received order

Obviously the times have been affected by the public holidays but the shipping time was less than 2 weeks when it normally takes about 3 weeks.

My order was 3lbs (1.36kg) and cost $24.14 to ship. There were no extra fees that I had to pay. If I had shipped this with Hop Shop Go, it would've cost me about $40 to ship but the shipping time would've been drastically reduced.

My gripe with PriceUSA at the moment though is that I placed the Sephora order as Sephora were giving away the Fresh Sugar Lip Balm sets with any order over $25. These sets were the 2012 birthday gifts and I really wanted to try the Fresh Sugar Lip Balms so I asked PriceUSA to add it onto my order. I also asked them to add the free YSL mascara sample to my order IF the lip balms were out of stock (you can only use one code at a time on the Sephora website). So while I didn't *need* any of the stuff that I ordered, I really really wanted one of those sets.

So when I opened the box today, I was expecting to see the Fresh Sugar set but instead I saw the mascara... I was really confused as the Fresh Sugar sets are still in stock so I'm really confused as to why PriceUSA ordered the mascara instead. I know that it's only a small thing but it actually really ruined the order for me. I think it was just the fact that I've had a crap day and it's affected me when really... when I think about it, it's just makeup and not the end of the world.

The reason why I've had a crap day is because I managed to superglue my hand at work today and the medical centre couldn't get it off my hands.

Super glue and some tissue paper that got
stuck to it.

Now onto Hop Shop Go...

5th January 2013: Ordered from Sephora
7th January: Sephora shipped the order
10th January: Hop Shop Go received the order
10th January: Paid Hop Shop Go for the shipping fess
15th January: Received order

So all up, it took 10 days for me to receive my order and the shipping time was only 5 days.

The order was 1.5lbs (0.68kg) and cost $32 to ship. I think that's actually pretty reasonable considering that they use a fast method of shipping and I was able to get my order really quickly. If I had shipped this with PriceUSA, it would have cost me just over $18 in shipping fees and I wouldn't have been able to get the Benefit birthday gift.

I think overall, I'm actually going to start using Hop Shop Go for my Sephora orders. This way, I can accumulate Sephora points (I spend enough in a year to qualify as a VIB) and redeem my points for deluxe samples.

25 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. OMG how jealous I am....I love pretty make up....the YSL and the Lancome mascara I want!!!!!

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    Replies
    1. I'm thinking about giving away some of the stuff :P Stay tuned...

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  3. Sorry to hear you had a rubbish day, hopefully these packages made it a little better!
    x

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  4. cancel that! hahah sorry I just saw it when I read it again!

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  5. I directly envy you!!! I heart this mascara most!!!

    Aree With Umbrella
    Facebook

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  6. Great comparison. I'll give Hop Shop Go a try the next time I need parcel forwarding.

    Sorry to hear about your day. I completely understand being upset about your order. It's always the little disappointments like that that upset me most.

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    1. I know it's such a little thing but I really really wanted that set. It'll cost me over $15 to buy it off eBay when I could have gotten it for free :(

      At the end of the day, it isn't anything major and totally a first world problem...

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  7. I did a PriceUSA order too and something is missing. I'm waiting for them to reply!

    Have you tried rubbing your hands with a cloth that has been soaked in nail polish remover? Also, apparently olive oil will do the trick but that'll take about 15-30 minutes.

    P.S. I really want that YSL lip balm! *ebays*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've never had an issue with PriceUSA before so I'm a bit disappointed.

      I've tried using nail polish remover. The medical centre also tried eucalyptus oil and methylated spirits :P I'm pretty much just slowly scraping it off.

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    2. aww poor thing! Hope you've managed to get it all off by now!

      Did you send an email to PriceUSA expressing your disappointment?

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    3. It all came off last night but the guys at work had a good laugh at me today.

      I did send them an email and they apologised but said that it was probably because it was a "one time use" code only and they must've already used it for another customer as they kept getting "invalid code" messages. I made a Sephora order today and sent it to Hop Shop Go and I found that the code can actually be used numerous times... so I don't know what the deal is.. it's ok though as I'm going to try to get all my Sephora orders through Hop Shop Go :)

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  8. Oh dear, your hand! :O Poor thing!

    I want to give both of those a go but I'm still so unsure! I honestly think I'll give Price USA a go, as it's cheaper, to start with!

    Thanks for sharing the comparison! xx

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    Replies
    1. Go with PriceUSA :) Hop shop go is more expensive but they use faster shipping.

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    2. Well I have plenty of time to browse haha until my spending ban ends but I'll definitely go with PriceUSA to start things off :P
      Thanks hun!

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  9. The shipping fee's not bad at all! :O
    A forwarding service sounds awesome, too bad I'm broke :'(

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    Replies
    1. It's actually pretty good :) If you ever want to buy makeup, it can be a LOT cheaper buying it from the US :)

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  10. You definitely have the right to argue with PriceUSA for not fufilling your order as required if you are up for it though I know it can be stressful to do so. Best of luck if you decide to.

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  11. Thanks for all of the awesome info Jen, this comparison was really useful! :) I am sorry that you had a bad day! Maybe I will give Hop Shop Go a go in the future. The shipping time is definitely something that effects my purchases!
    x

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  12. Thanks for this post, i have been wondering about those shipping service for quite a while, and yes it is annoying that sephora do not accept international credit cards, bummer..


    YURI
    http://twothousandthings.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. If you have a friend in the US or who's going to the US, could you possibly get them to buy you a gift card? You can use those online as well.

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  13. I will suggest you to use parcel forwarding for shipping. I have used many shipping services/companies but I did not get much difference in cost. Recently I used http://www.parcelbound.com and I must say it is really amazing reliable and have fast service and its offer very low rates then other's.

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    Replies
    1. If you read my post, you would know that I already use parcel forwarding for shipping. I'm not sure so please correct me if I'm wrong but you sound like you represent parcelbound.com.

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  14. Hi Everyone i came across a website that may be of help with buying cosmetics in the USA
    http://forwardshipping.webs.com

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