Yesterday I blogged about buying cosmetics on eBay, and while I don’t buy them on eBay, there are plenty of online beauty stores out there I love and happily purchase from. When it comes to cosmetics and things that we apply on our skin, particularly near our eyes and mouth, it’s vital that we go for genuine, good-quality products. Trying to save a few bucks on counterfeit cosmetics may jeopardise your health. I’m not saying that all cosmetics sold on eBay are bad. Caveat emptor and all that. 🙂
These are the online stores I’ve shopped with over the years and the ones I’d recommend to you. These websites have a good amount of stocked brands and their shipping rates are reasonable. So far, I’ve not had any issues shopping on these websites but with all activities online that requires a credit card and personal information, it’s still important we exercise caution regardless of how popular they are.
Cult Beauty
I’ve purchased cosmetics from Cult Beauty several times and I love that UK-based website. They stock brands like Caudalie, Sunday Riley, Alpha-H, Zelens, Emma Hardie, Pixi, Tata Harper and much more. My favourite skincare guru, Caroline Hirons, have collaborated with them on several beauty boxes that are so incredibly popular, they sell out within hours. Shipping from Cult Beauty is also very quick; they usually arrive within a week (this includes weekends!).
Feel Unique
Feel Unique is another online beauty store based in the UK. Would you believe it, I managed to get a large jar of the popular Emma Hardie Moringa cleansing balm at 50% off from Feel Unique! They don’t do sales very often, but when you do, oh the bargains you can snag! Shipping from Feel Unique is not as quick as Cult Beauty’s. My orders usually arrive within the 2nd to 3rd week mark.
Beautylish
I love shopping from Beautylish. If only their items aren’t so terribly expensive! Then again, they do stock premium brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Omorovicza, Chikuhodo, Wayne Goss, Viseart and many more so I suppose I should know what I’m buying, eh? 😛 Shipping from Beautylish is quick; I get my packages from that US-based website quicker than I do packages from Australia!
Kiss and Makeup NY
There are mixed reviews to this website where some customers complained that the items were not packed properly or that they never arrived. I’ve purchased makeup from Kiss and Makeup NY several times and I never once encountered that issue. This was my go-to for NARS makeup before Mecca lowered their prices in 2014. Before that, a NARS blush in Australia would retail for AU$60! Kiss and Makeup NY also stocks brands like Trish McEvoy, Laura Mercier, Fresh, Kevyn Aucoin, Tatcha, Tata Harper and many more. Some of their prices are slightly lower than retail.
Adore Beauty
This is my number one Australian beauty online store to go to. While most of their items are the same price as retail prices in stores, they do sales and promos very often and you’d be able to score a quick discount every now and then. If you’re looking for Dermalogica products, you can get them cheaper on Adore Beauty compared to departmental stores like David Jones. Their customer service is impeccable and you always, ALWAYS get a Tim Tam with every order. The one time they missed out on placing a Tim Tam with my order, I jokingly tweeted them that I was looking forward to that Tim Tam. In my next order, they popped in three! 😛
Mecca
Even though there are plenty of Mecca stores in Melbourne and I do like popping in every now and then, I actually prefer to shop via their webstore instead. This is not to say that their brick and mortar customer service is bad; most of the time, their service is excellent. The good thing about buying online from their webstore is that you don’t have to brave the crowds, especially on late night shopping Thursdays and weekends. Those are the times when the level of service drops drastically. For me, it’s just easier to buy the same items online. PLUS, you always get free samples with each order. I only get about one free sample out of every ten times I buy from the actual stores.
iHerb
iHerb isn’t typically the website to go to for cosmetics but they do sell a lot of the natural brands that aren’t easily available here in Australia. It’s a great place to buy makeup from Physician’s Formula as it’s so much cheaper on iHerb than it is in Priceline pharmacies here. Their shipping fees are reasonable and shipping times are quick, especially with DHL shipping.
SASA
There are plenty of mixed reviews to this website where customers complained about the poor customer service and how cluttered the website is. While I’m still not a fan of the amount of “stuff” they have on the home page, thankfully I’ve not had any problems shopping with them. This is where I go to for Asian cosmetics. I’ve purchased boxes of My Beauty Diary masks from Sasa’s online store. They stock plenty of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese brands. I wouldn’t touch the brick and mortar stores with a ten foot pole (annoying sales assistants who would stick to you like glue even though you tell them many times that you’re just browsing) but shopping on their website? It’s all good!
You’ll probably notice that I didn’t include the very popular beauty website, Strawberrynet, in this list. I hesitated putting it in because it’s a grey market website (this means that Strawberrynet is not the official distributor for the products they sell on the website). As such, authenticity and safety of the products cannot be guaranteed. Having said that, I have purchased from Strawberrynet many times and thankfully, I’ve had no problems with any of the products I bought. Still, many of the websites mentioned above stock what is available on Strawberrynet albeit more expensive. It’s up to you if you’d like to buy from Strawberrynet. I haven’t purchased anything from them in a while now and I don’t see myself buying anything from them in the foreseeable future. Just beware of the items that are heavily on sale; they’re often the ones that are close to meeting their use-by dates.
There you go, my favourite online beauty stores to go to. If you’re looking for recommendations on good online beauty stores, I hope this will answer some of the questions you may have. I’ve willingly handed my money over to these stores many times and I don’t see myself stopping. 😛
Out of that list, I’m truly a regular on Adorebeauty. The service is top notch. I remember there was once I quit on them because they revamped their website and I threw a hissy fit because I couldn’t check out. Had a massive tanty that UAT wasn’t done properly before launch la-di-da (basically doing what I do best – armchair critic) but good on them for sorting it out. I’m back with them and have never been happier.
I love net-a-porter as well for beauty products. Certain items are cheaper than Mecca and niche brands like Tata Harper and Charlotte Tilbury can be found on NAP. I usually toss in a cheeky item or two into my shopping bag when I’m shopping. Free DHL shipping for anything above $300 and honestly, it’s not hard to reach $300 on NAP 😛
I’ve checked the beauty items from Net-a-Porter. While some of their items are retail price, some are more expensive. Eg their Tata Harper is more expensive than Cult Beauty. I’ve never purchased any beauty items from NAP. In fact, I try to avoid buying from that website, mainly because I can’t afford most of their stuff. 😛
i used to buy a lot from Strawberrynet. Usually item shipped from sweden so it will takes a month to reach malaysia. I stock up on stuffs that i cant find in kuching such as Eve Lom. It is much cheaper too than buying in Malaysia. But now that i moved to US i can get things in store easily so rarely shop online now.
Haha if I was living in the US, I’d probably just buy in store too! 🙂
Actually, Sasa is grey market too so they’re in the same category as Strawberrynet 🙂 I’ve heard stuff about them but I’ve only had good experiences so I don’t mind shopping there. But with their newly revamped site, prices are higher, I’ve noticed and the discounts are less attractive. I still shop there occasionally and did a humongous order when they gave me 20% off and then I had my loyalty discount so lots of lovely perfumes and stuff went in my cart lol! I’ve only shopped Sasa a few times. Their stuff takes ages! I much prefer the UK based sites so Cult Beauty and Spacenk are my to go online stores now.
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Oooh I had no idea SASA was grey market! Does that mean that brick and mortar stores are too? Is that legal? 😛
It’s been a while since I’ve bought anything from the website (mainly because I buy a heap of facial sheet masks whenever I’m in Malaysia, so there’s no need to buy them online). I cannot stand their actual store, especially when most of their staff don’t understand the concept of personal space. *shudder*
I’ve never purchased from SpaceNK. I should check them out!
Yep, the actual stores are also grey market. The importer/distributor label on the products will say Sasa instead of the regular distributor. I haven’t gone into a store here in a while, so I don’t know if they still sell the brands that have an actual distributor presence e.g. Estee Lauder, Lancome, Dior etc. They used to, at lower prices. But in HK, they do. Usually these brands will be at the back of the store, or in glass cabinets. Not sure about the legality to be honest. They seem to get away with it though 😛
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I haven’t bought anything from Beautylish in a while because they are so darn expensive but as you said, they have such gorgeous brands. I haven’t purchased from SASA in ages either, but I’ve found that they’re a good source to get Asian brands though I sometimes just buy through Amazon though I’m always a little nervous about it – no problems so far though
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I wish I could just buy everything from Amazon. Would make life a lot simpler than having to source one by one. Shipping from Amazon to Australia is a killer. 🙁
I find Asos a great place to pick up some things especially when you’ve got a discount/promo code. Also BeautyBay!
Oh hey I forgot about ASOS! I bought some beauty items from there before, thanks to their frequent discount codes. 🙂
Hey Tine … just discovered your blog last night and loving it! Have you tried vitagrocer or beautybay? They are great for US drugstore brands at really good price … spend over $25 to get free shipping to AUS … probably take like a month tho lol 😉