Wednesday, September 12, 2012

K-Cosmetic group order has arrived! Koreadepart Review

Nothing wakes me up better than the delivery man knocking on my door! After scaring the poor guy with my morning breath (and the fact that it I was still asleep at 11am…), I am happy to announce that the package has arrived safe and sound! DesiSmileys.com

Initially, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough people for the group order. There was little interest to begin with—very surprising, considering the content of my blog—and those that did say yes all ended up not responding or withdrawing...But that’s okay; it turns out that three people is plenty for a successful group order! DesiSmileys.com

What follows now is a review of Koreadepart, plus plenty of pictures! This group order was not instigated by Koreadepart in any way, and I write this from my perspective as a customer. ^^


At first sight, the box is sturdy and neat:
 (Hover for dimensions.)









Now, the box was much smaller than I imagined...But turns out, everything is just packed very very neatly and efficiently! It’s a little easier to tell after I remove the samples:


As you can see, not an inch of space is wasted! They definitely took into account all the different types and shapes of packaging. Boxes were placed next to boxes, stick-shaped things were bundled together, and everything fragile was wrapped in 2-3 extra layers of bubblewrap:


(You can hover over this image as well.)



Despite how compact it is, nothing got crushed. There was just enough wiggle room in between, just not enough that they toss around during shipping:


I will say that one of my eyeshadows came ever so slightly “disturbed”. It wasn’t broken, but there were a few loose specks on the inside. It’s extreeemely negligible though.


Here are our samples. Again, you can hover over to see what everything is~



Admittedly, there were less samples than I expected. But I’m guessing it’s because of the fancy gift set we got as well! It happens to be the same brand as the Mochi cream I wrote about~ DesiSmileys.com


And this is everything unpacked! 
(Click on it for a larger view!)

Just to clarify, not all of those are mine! That is the entire group order! Here are some of my buys:

Holika Holika Black Cavier SkinEmulsion:


Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam: I liked the mask, so I thought I'd try the cleanser!

Holika Holika Wrinkle Focus Syn-Ake Spot Effector: I thought it might be more economical to buy a cream instead of Syn-ake masks! It also came with another free cream inside, woohoo!!

Etude House Wonder Pore Brush: Can't wait to try this!


And some stuff for my giveaway:
Etude House Dear My Crystal Gloss (CPK002 & CPP501)
Etude House Tear Drop Liner (No. 2No. 4)


Also for the giveaway.

That's not everything I bought, but you'll see the rest sooner or later!

Now onto the store review!



The ordering process is a little different from your usual. But if you’re familiar with buying from taobao through an agent, it’s basically like that! You pay for your items first and then international shipping later. Also like buying from taobao, you have to send money manually if you choose to pay with Paypal; there’s no Paypal checkout.




Here’s a calendar of the process:
(Click to make bigger!) 

All in all, it took a little over a week! I imagine it would have been faster had I not placed the order on a Saturday (Sunday in Korea), thereby causing extra delay from the weekend. >.<" There's also the time zone difference, which would cause a day lag in between me paying and them confirming.



Here’s the breakdown:

Total quantity: 41 items + 14 samples + heavy gift set
Total weight: 5kg (4.94kg when I weighed it)
Shipping Cost: $56.49 (orig. was $66.46 before 15% discount)
Shipping per item: $1.38 

While $56.49 shipping might sound a bit off-putting at first, I think of it as buying all my items for a mere $1.38 more than the retail price in Korea—which is very cheap to begin with—and basically getting free EMS shipping! :D

Plus, with the big selection to choose from, it sure beats purchasing bits of lip glosses here and there and paying $5-15 above the base price...It might seem expensive now, but it saves a lot in the long run. I probably couldn't afford buying 10 Etude or Holika Holika products if it meant paying $50-100 extra because of the overpricing (and that's accounting for EMS shipping). 



That being said, it’s no secret that EMS can be quite expensive. If you look at the shipping costs to the US, it's very expensive up until 2kg, after which it increases steadily at $3 increments. In other words, you really need to order over 2kg for it to even out like ours did. Now, cosmetics are light. Skincare is a big heavier, but still. So in order to make the most of this store, you either need to group up or buy a lot!

For your reference, I've weighed out each of the items in this haul and tabulated them here. I will be updating this list with every new item I receive from them. ^^ 


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I hope this review helped anyone who is interested in ordering from them! Let me know if you have any questions~


Anyone else have experience with group orders? I’m tempted to join a group order for Taobao now! Don't tell the bf~ DesiSmileys.com (He doesn't like taobao.)

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