Buying Skin Care Online

I didn't buy stuffs online up until two years ago, however, after I first bought a aluminium bathroom rack from a shop in Rakuten. I became quite addicted to online shopping, the highest record was three orders per week and I am a member of Rakuten, 11street, Zalora and Lazada. I am ok right now, I just bought what I needed, if there's any sales, I would buy first to stock up. But the urge to buy is really toned down now. 

The first skin care product I bought was from the Guardian Pharmacy shop in Lazada, My night cream then was almost finished, so I was thinking to get a cheaper night cream, I saw the Olay All In One Fairness Night Cream when I was browsing the Lazada website. It's priced at RM25, for me, it's quite reasonable, however, I kept this in my cart until I had enough items in my cart to qualify for the free shipping. When I finally have enough items, actually the total price was way much higher than the minimum required for free shipping. Hahaha! I bought four items from four different vendors and all arrived at different time. This Olay Night Cream came last. Initially, I thought after I bought the things, all items would be sent to the Lazada warehouse to consolidate (like the one people did in Taobao), then only sent to the buyer. Instead, all came at different time. For this night cream, since it's only one item in the parcel, it's not properly transported, some of the creams stayed on the lid. It must have gone through very rough handling So, I started to use the night cream by scrapping it off the lid. I didn't find it difficult though. 

Olay Natural White All In One Fairness Night Cream

Then, after the Olay Night Cream, I saw the promotion of StrawberryNET in Rakuten. The Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion was priced at RM89.10 and the shop offered free shipping. I have never buy Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion from the beauty salon before. However, from the other Exuviance products that I bought from the salon, I would say that it's very cheap for the 212ml lotion. Even the Exuviance cleanser that size was priced more than that from the salon. Plus, I tried the soothing lotion before (the salon gave me some free samples after I bought almost RM600 of Exuviance products), it's not bad. So, I planned to switch to Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion after I finished up my Shiseido D Program toner. Seeing the price was so tempting, so I put it in my cart along with a Fascy Moisture Bomb Hand Cream. I bought the hand cream because it looks beautiful. 

Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion and Moisture Bomb Hand Cream Milk (bought from Strawberry.net)

Although it shipped from other country, I got the package in two weeks time, it came in a white box with a cute ribbon. However, when I opened the package, I was quite shocked to see the colour of the Toning Lotion, the colour was different from the samples I got from salon. The one I got from salon was clearer than the one I bought from StrawberryNet. Since it would be used on my face, I struggled inside my heart, finally I decided to try it. The toning lotion I got from StrawberryNET smelt a bit different from the salon's sample, this has more "sweetness" to it. I didn't know how to accurately describe it, it's just different. Anyway, I tried it on my face anyway, less than one week after I started to use this, small pimples started to grow on my face, it's different from the pimples I got before, it had less pus, but harder. Since I started to use the ampm Super Triple HA Night Gelly and Olay Night Cream around the same, I suspected all were causing to the problem, so I stopped to use all. After a while, I started to use back the Exuviance Toning Lotion, the pimples came back. So, now this Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion from StrawberryNET is sitting on my table and I plan to use this on my feet. Too expensive to just throw it away. Anyway, the Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion from the salon is ok, I have no issue with that. I didn't know the skin care products from StrawberryNET were genuine or not, I googled and some mentioned that some items sold at StrawberryNET were not fake but maybe expired or old product, one netizen mentioned that she bought a fragrance from the website, and was horrified when she received the package, the design of the packaging was discontinued years ago, she knew because she has been using the same brand's fragrance for years. Scary! 

Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion 
(A) bought from StrawberryNET
(B) free sample from salon

Exuviance Soothing Toning Lotion (colour intensity was different)

(A) bought from StrawberryNET

(B) free sample from salon

Anyway, the hand cream I got from StrawberryNET was ok, This Fascy hand cream was my first from this brand and I have no prior sample to compare with. At least when I applied this to my hands, it didn't burn and it was absorbed into the skin quite fast and the smell was not bad. I will repurchase hand cream from StrawberryNET if the price is cheap enough though. However, there're very decent selections of hand cream in Hermo Online and it's not that expensive, thinking to join Hermo too! 

 Fascy Moisture Bomb Hand Cream Milk

The Fascy Moisture Bomb Hand Cream Milk was sealed with a small layer of Aluminium layer. However, when I ripped away the Aluminium layer, there was still some adhesive on the mouth of the tube. Maybe the tube was kept in the warehouse for quite some time before it was shipped. Anyway, since this hand cream didn't give me any discomfort, will continue to use this. 

Moisture Bomb Hand Cream Milk

Other than StrawberryNET in Rakuten, I bought skin care items from Soukai in Rakuten too. Soukai always have the Super Rakuten Point promotions, sometimes even up to 25x Super Rakuten Point. 1 point in Rakuten equal to RM1. Normally, when there's no promotion, a RM100 purchase will only result in 1 Rakuten Point. When there's Super Rakuten Point (if the promotion is 10x Super Rakuten Point), a RM100 purchase will result in 10 Rakuten Points. Although one cannot directly uses the point on the same purchase, she or he can use it on the next purchase. I saved a lot with this Soukai. 

Soukai is like a dry items supermarket and it sells food, skin care, household items, etc. When I wanted to buy something from Soukai and the items were not more than RM99, I would slip in some cheap items (something I can use or eat) to make it until more than RM99 to qualify for free shipping. I bought many body care stuffs from Soukai, including Head & Shoulders shampoo, Antabax shower cream, Nivea lotion, etc. One of the items was Safi Minyak Zaitun Plus Ros Hip (Safi Olive oil with Rose Hip oil). It came wrapping in plastic bag, hahaha, quite thoughtful, if it spilled out during the transportation, at least it wouldn't contaminate other items. Oh, before I forget, Soukai sent the items in a corrugated box, so, normally no plastic bag. 

Safi Minyak Zaitun Plus Ros Hip

The latest products I bought from Soukai in Rakuten were Hada Labo face wash and Shiseido Aqualabel Moisture Lotion R. Both were new products for me and I have started to use both, so far so good. 

Hada Labo Face Wash Mild Sensitive & Aqualabel Moisture Lotion R

Lastly, another shop from Rakuten too, it's Natta Cosme. I was using products from Naruko and I felt that it's quite good, when I finished up my Shiseido D program lotion, I was thinking to get moisturiser from Naruko too. However, from the Naruko official website, they only provide free shipping if the order is over RM100. The item I wanted was less than that amount. My area's Watson didn't carry the Naruko products. So, I turned to Rakuten again, Natta Cosme provides free shipping for any order above RM70. Actually, I needed the Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturiser EX only, however, since it's still less than RM70, I bought NARUKO NRK Rosehip Perfecting Elixir too. So, the total amount was RM71. Hahaha! I read a lot about the benefits of oil and wanted to try it. This Rosehip Perfecting Elixir was the cheapest that I could find online.

The items from Natta Cosme came with a black box with many shredded paper inside. Both items were still wrapped properly when it reached my hands. The expiry date for the Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturiser EX is on 2017, but for the Rosehip Prefecting Elixir, it is going to expire on April 2016. I bought this on July 2015. Maybe the elixir was not a very popular product and the turn over rate was not that great. Anyway, I used both the moisturiser and Rosehip Elixir for around two months already and it didn't give me any problems. So, products from Natta Cosme should be genuine products, I think. 

NARUKO Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Moisturizer EX & NARUKO NRK Rosehip Perfecting Elixir

There was free gift too. I got a Klairs mask and two small sachets of cream, not sure what it is for, haven't google yet. I used the Klairs mask already though, didn't feel any special about the mask. 

Free gift from Natta Cosme

For the last cyber sale 2015, I bought more products from Natta Cosme in Rakuten. The total amount was RM134.80, however, with the 10% discount and I had some Rakuten Point, So, I only paid RM97.32 for it. Rakuten had many super point promotion during the Cyber Sale. So, for this order alone, I have 58 super points now. Time for shopping because 45 points of it will going to expire on early of December 2015! The second purchase had lesser free gift, well, only less one mask than the first purchase. 

second purchase from Natta Cosme

There are more and more online shops coming up and the offers are quite good, it's very attractive to me because I do not like to go out, going out to shop is quite a hassle for me, imagine the jam or lack of parking space, such a huge turn off. However, I need to control myself, do not want to be a hoarder. Hahaha!