Saturday, January 21, 2012

My first Gmarket haul ^^


My first Gmarket haul just arrived (well, yesterday but I wasn´t home so the mailman came today ^^). 
As you see the box was pretty big.



It was very empty and I got the feeling that the next time I shop I need to fill it ^^ It had a mini box from Tony Moly and a box from Holika Holika.


The mini box from Tony Moly had my products wrapped in bubble wrap.


I ordered two concealers and the seller also put in Luminous Goddess Aura Beam and Aura BB Cream samples ^^ . 
   
The box from Holika Holika was bigger as I order many products.

As you can see, it was all pretty full, with the products that had boxes wrapped with bubble wrap.

It contained my three bb creams, the loose powder and the cream I ordered.

I got many gwp with this order : a mask, a mini brush set, 2 samples from The Chal line, a sample from the Praha line a a pen shaped as a feather.



My whole order with samples included. ^^



All in all, I love this things, the shipping was fast, the products are great and the sellers put many gwp ^^ . I´ll definitively buy again from Gmarket. 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

My 1st Gmarket Experience

After weeks of browsing; hours and hours spent in front of my computer adding and deleting things from my cart...I finally placed my first order. I only bought cosmetic items as I´m almost out of mine so I needed new things, and with brands such as Holika Holika, Etude House, Tony Moly, baviphat, Dr. Jart etc. etc. existing I knew I should buy them at Gmarket.

I knew that I could get some great products at great prices as I had to convert the wons to dollars and then the dollars to euro, and I tell you you can get very very cheap things.

One of the things I hate from Gmarket is the EMS shipping prices to Spain.  They´re huge!! And as I bought things alone the price for my order was pretty high. But nevertheless, even with the huge shipping fee, it´s still cheaper than buying this things on ebay or on the official online shops.

For example I bought:

  • 1 Holika Holika Peach Girl BB Cream
  • 1 Holika Holika Baby Bloom Light BB Cream
  • 1 Holika Holika Petit BB Cream
  • 1 Holika Holika Baby Bloom Powder
  • 1 Holika Holika Water March Moisture Full Cream
  • 2 Tony Moly Baby Doll Pot Concealer


Holika Holika was having a 30% discount, but I had to pay domestic shipping for the concealers.
The final price with the shipping fee included was aprox. 75.000 wons (aprox. 68$ or 53€).

I ordered on Friday 13th as the Holika Holika promotion was only for 3 days. On 17th my package was already at the international shipping office so it´s a pretty great time as there was a Sunday in the middle ^^.

The Tony Moly shop sent the package the same day I ordered it (7 hour time difference with Spain) but the Holika Holika shop was slower. I know that maybe it was because I bought many products.

I didn´t realised that I made a mistake when I placed the order until almost all my products were at the warehouse. The mistake I did was that when you normally add a thing to you cart yo choose what option you want if it has, like almost all my products that you had to chose between one color or another. I didn´t noticed that when I placed the order only the products were there buy the options you had to write it down in a space they give you, so now with the exception of the Baby Bloom Light BB Cream that the name says it´s light I don´t know what I might get. I don´t worry to much as I have a 20-25NW depending on the season, I can make any makeup tone work. ^^

I´m so excited about this haul ^^ But I´m already starting looking for thing for a new one. Gmarket it´s addicting.

I´ll make another post when my package arrives with pictures and all so stay tuned ^^

Any questions, doubts... ¿Just leave me a comment?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Gmarket: How to Use?

Gmarket is a Korean online auction and shopping mall website, where people from all around the world buy and sell goods and services.
Aside from shipping fees , Gmarket does not charge any sort of fee for using their services.



After you registere (like on any site), it´s time to start shopping ^^.


When you start looking for something you can write it in english if you don´t know hangul. When the results appear you have to tick the "worlwide shipping" and then click go. You can also click "free domestic shipping" in order to get to pay less shipping, but then you don´t get as many products.


The domestic shipping it´s because when you order something, the seller sends it to Seul, to the central office, where the put all the products you ordered in one box , weight it and then they ship it, so you get all your products once. 
Some sellers have a domestic shipping charged, normally I think it´s 2500 wons; or they have a condition charge, *if you buy more than... free shipping*, or it´s directly free. 


There are two important things right here you need to know. 


  • First: International Shipping. Unfortunately not every seller on Gmarket sells internationally so always make sure this says they do before you purchase an item. 


  • Second: Item Weight. It´s estimated, but you have to pay it and then,so  when they weight your parcel if it´s less, they give you back money (gcash) and when it´s more you have to pay the difference (in gcash).

If the seller sells internationally, you can see,that in the description of the product before the weight it says "Available countries & overseas fees". Click that. This gets you to a chart that puts the prices for the EMS shipping, depending the region or the area. Spain, in this case it´s at the end, separated from Europe ^^.


When you decide to make an order, you go to your cart and click "Place an Order". They get you to a page where you have to write many things but don´t worry.


I recommend paying with Paypal as it´s safer.


 It's now time to enter in your information. It sounds easy enough, but yet again there is another odd thing about this form.

When you get to this section your e-mail will automatically be entered in where it says "sender's e-mail". And your phone number will be entered in as well under "Telephone".

Well that doesn't make sense does it. We are not the senders we are the ones who will be receiving the product. And that's another thing odd about this: it appears that there is a mess up and it should say "receiver's e-mail" instead of "sender's email". But for all other parts where it says "receiver's" put your info and senders put there info.

Now when filling out the form you will notice that it asks for the "sender's name". Here you can put anything like for example your favorite idol ^^ (I <3 Lee Taemin). You have to use Latin alphabet.

Once you have everything filled out look for your country. The shipping charge is only the estimated shipping charge , which could go up or down when the actual item arrives at the warehouse where they weight it.


In the warehouse they weight it, and if you have to pay more you have to purchase gcash (what they use on gmarket) and pay it with them. If they have to give you money back, they put the money in your gaccount, in gcash. 

If you pay with paypal, don´t forget to permit the pop-up. 


After you paid, the page should get you to your shopping list. There  you should see the following
[Date][Seller Info][Item][QTY][Payment][Shipping]
Shipping:it here will show you what step your product is in.

When you first order that spot will say Pre-Request . This means that they have notified the seller that you have purchased there product. Once the the seller returns the notification it will now say On Request or domestic shipping. This means that the item is currently on its way to the ware house. The shipping to the warehouse depends on the sellers or depends on how many products you bought. 


Once it arrives they will weight the item and notify you if there is any difference in the weight that would result in a change in the shipping charge. This you can see it if you click on any product from the order, at the downside of the page, before your data you can find the payment shipping info.
After you have payed or received any money for the shipping it will now say Now Shipping/Departing. 

You can track any shipping, whether domestic or international. 



Shops: 
There also many official shops, like skinfood, skin79, or innisfree that don´t sell internationaly, so in that case you would have to look for them at other sellers.



¿Any doubts?¿Questions?
 Just comment ^^

BB Creams


BB creamsalso known as Blemish Balm, Blemish Base or Beblesh Balm, are like the Holy Grail when talking about make up. For a short history lesson, it´s said that BB creams were invented in Germany and that they were initially used by dermatologists to help laser surgery patients protect, soothe and refine highly sensitive skin while providing light coverage for post-laser scars, acne and other blemishes.


Even through it´s mainly sold mainly in East and Southeast Asia this cosmetic item is growing more and more famous all over the world. Why wouldn´t? After all now BB creams nowadays can  have skin whitening or brightening properties, others are anti-acne, some are anti-wrinkle, some are intended to even out skin tone, and others to lighten blemish scars. Even you can find BB creams with no color, but most of them are tinted and can have functions of primer, foundation, moisturizer, sun block, pore minimization and skin refining together, which saves a lot of money and also a lot of time when putting on make up. You can get BB creams with light, medium or heavy coverage depending of what you like. You can find them for any type of skin. Also most BB creams have sun protection so you don´t need to apply any sun block.
The only bad thing about BB creams is that normally you can find them in only one or two tonesusually bright beige (#21) or natural beige (#23) even thought some brands have darker or lighter tones depending of the BB cream.

 But  BB creams have many good things: they are perfect for any kind of skin, they improve your skin instead of worsening it as almost all the makeup products do and they are also very cheap. Of course you can also find more expensive ones like everything.
The BB creams in South Korea are so popular that you can find A LOT of brands so you can have plenty of options while buying BB creams.
Brands on the market today include Dr. Jart, Lioele, Skin Food, The Face Shop, Missha, SKIN79, Etude House,Holika Holika, Hanskin, Baviphat, Mamonde, Peripera etc..
Depending on size and brand you can find BB creams with prices from 7 to 26 euros aproximatively, which when you think about it it´s very cheap comparing with European prices.
The problem comes when you want to buy a BB cream because many of the brands don´t sell them on their websites internationally so you normally have to buy them on ebay or other sites. Caution is needed when buying on ebay as many sellers sell fake products so it´s recommended that you buy BB creams just from South Korean sellers and even then it´s better to read the reviews on the seller to be sure.

I highly recommend the seller BELLO-GIRL if you want to but asian cosmetic products on ebay. She sells only original products,and has the contracts that prove it, has great prices, the shipping is free and the shipping time is very short. I bought some products from her and my parcel got to Spain in 10 days. She also sends you a hand written thank you note and some samples. You can also find her on facebook at www.facebook.com/bellogirl . She answers any question you can have and also recommends things if needed. Also, if you order on facebook she gives you a 5% discount. 
Other site where you can buy is www.yesstyle.com, sasa.com or english.gmarket.co.kr . 
BB Cream Review

I would recommend BB creams to anyone. I´m started using Missha Perfect Cover BB cream which has a great coverage, a SPF 42 PA+++ ( PA is used to measure the protection factor of UVA rays,there are 3 degrees of PA which are PA+, PA++, and PA+++, from less to more protection.), effective whitening (which doesn´t mean that it whitens your face just that it evens your skin tone) and anti-wrinkle properties.
I have read many reviews before buying it and this one is one of the best BB creams when talking to coverage (medium-high) an it also has a very good price 12.50 euros for the 50ml size from Bellogirl. I also have the 20ml size and I´ve been using it for the last month almost daily and I still have some in the tube as you need very little.





My second (and third) bb cream were also bought on ebay. As I wanted to try more bb creams, I bought the Peripera I Love BB Light  and the Lioele Beyond Solution (the 30 ml format). I also bought them from Bello- girl ^^. I tries the Lioele Beyond Solution before buying it, as Bello sent me a sample of it and I liked it. It´s only available in one tone. The downside of this bb cream it´s that it doesn´t have any oil control, so it´s great if you have dry skin, but if you have combination skin as I do you probably need to use some powder.It also, doesn´t have any SPF, so it´s great for when you go out at night. The coverage it´s pretty good , medium. 


The other bb cream I bought, the Peripera I Love BB Light it´s a bb cream that´s pretty much the same as the Missha Perfect Cover. It has a great SPF 50 PA+++, medium-high cover, great oil control. It says that it´s for all skin types, but I wouldn´t recommend it if you have dry skin. I´ve got  combination skin and this one it tends to get my skin dryer, so I have to use a moisturizer. Also, if you like to use loose powder, as I do, it can get easily cakey if your sky it´s too dry.Another thing that was a little bit of fail from my part was that I ordered this in summer. It´s tone is a little bit lighter than MPC nr 21, so you have to be careful with the quantity if you don´t want to look to white. Overall, it´s a great great bb cream and well worth it´s price. It cost me aprox. 15 euros from Bello-Girl.