Shop: StyleKorean Experience
Joanna shop with me? Shopping at StyleKorean
StyleKorean was not the first site I encountered - I browsed some of the other sites before (like Jolse and YesStyle), but with the USD prices of the items I checked there versus how they are priced if I get them locally, I haven’t tried purchasing from them (maybe when they’re on a super sale!). Then I discovered StyleKorean, at a time where a lot of the things I was interested in buying were on sale on the site, and much lower than what I’d pay if I bought them locally. This begins my add-to-cart and eventually check-out journey with them.
I’m a newbie at this and not an expert at hauls, but I thought of sharing my experience and a few tips on the deals I snagged. This post is not sponsored, I chose and paid for everything myself. There are some things that may differ from situation to situation, like shipping amounts and timelines, customs/duties, freebies, etc., I’m just basing these notes on my own, personal experience ordering from the site. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments portion in the bottom as well.
Overall Experience
There are a lot of really good deals if you browse the site, and some items are just really so inexpensive. The catch, however, is that the purchase required for free shipping is pretty steep ($70 for free shipping to my country, Philippines), and if you don’t reach that amount, you have to pay a steep $20 for shipping. So I recommend this if: you want to buy / try multiple items, you’re restocking your old favorites, and these products you’re interested in are on sale. Admittedly, this could lead to buying things that aren’t in your initial list, just to reach the minimum for free shipping, which kind of happened to me. Honestly, the deals just seemed really good that the bargain hunter in me could not resist. Keep in mind that the % off might not be an accurate measure of how good the deal is since their “original” price could be more expensive than the usual. Keep track of the price you can usually get it at and compare it to the “sale” price in the site. Sometimes it will end up the same, or even more expensive even if it’s supposedly on sale. Overall though I had a good experience shopping there, and even repurchased the day after I placed my first order. But will definitely repurchase again, maybe 6 months from now or so when I run out of products!
Item Selection
StyleKorean has a wide range of Korean products from the known (and not-so-known) brands. Most of the Korean products that you see reviewed would probably be available here. While there are a lot of Korean Beauty products in Shopee, here in the Philippines, some of the items are hard to find or are sold by resellers, which makes it harder to order if you don’t have trusted resellers yet. I find that they also have a wider range of products and newly released items as well. It’s nice to see the different products that are available. Not all products have reviews in the site though so I usually check other sites/reddit/blogs/vlogs for more detailed product reviews.
Payment
Payment is done via Paypal - if you have an existing account, you can log-in and proceed with paying. Otherwise you can also continue and pay as a guest via Paypal using an accepted credit card. The default setting when paying foreign currency in Paypal is they will convert it for you so you pay in Philippine Peso. While this seems convenient, based on experience, it’s better to pay in USD or original currency and let your bank convert it for you, since Paypal tends to have a high exchange rate. Be mindful of the charges of your bank, if any. I prefer using my BPI credit card as it has the lowest foreign transaction fees from all the cards that I have. I also sometimes use my GCash Mastercard to pay since they generally have good rates too.
Shipping
As mentioned earlier, the paid shipping is quite pricey so the best thing to do if you want to order here is to reach the minimum spend for free shipping, which varies per country they ship to. For the Philippines, the minimum spend to get free shipping is $70.
Based on my experience, I ordered on June 2 and the package arrived on June 15, or around 2 weeks (although my 2nd order seems to be taking a bit longer). It was delivered by EFS (through RAF) to my doorstep and no customs or tax fee was collected. You may want to check your local regulations and courier information in case you’re in a different country.
Shipping timelines:
June 2 - Ordered from StyleKorean
June 3 - Shipping details were made available. Upon checking EFS, status is “Shipping Scheduled”
June 7 - EFS Status is “Shipment picked-up”
June 10 - EFS Status is “Onboard”
June 14 - Arrived in Manila
June 15 - Out for Delivery and received my items
Packaging
The items were packed in a medium sized box with a sticker outside containing your details and some of the items ordered. Upon opening the box, there’s a folded sheet of bubble wrap on top as well as the list of all items ordered, and below that are the items wrapped in bubble wrap as well. All in all the package was very secure and all my items, even my eyeshadow palette, arrived intact.
Freebies
The only freebies included were the ones that were included in my order details/item list as “Free Gift” - usually this depends on the amount you purchase and the brands you purchased from. In this case I got 2 samples: Heimish All Clean Vitamin Blemish Spot Clear Cream 10ml and Espoir Water Splash Sun Cream Fresh AD SPF50+PA++++ 20ml. Wish they gave more free samples or sachets of products but I’m still happy with what I got!
The haul
The items for my first order are mostly make-up, and it’s my first time trying all these products. I’ve had my eye on them for a while and decided to buy them when they were on sale. I’ve never tried rom&nd products so I think this is a good introduction to them. No reviews on the products on this post since I still have to test them out.
For the second order, these are skincare products that I’ve been hearing about and when I saw them at a good price, I had to get them (and not shop for a couple of months until I’ve finished some). The ready, set, glow promotion also pushed me to check out right away because of the insanely good price I can get the Skinfood Royal Honey Propolis Essence for. It’s my first time trying all of these products too so I can also review these in the future.
Price comparison to Shopee stores
All in all saved around $20 and $40 for both orders, give or take, and no hassle of ordering from multiple stores.
Assumptions:
- Original price (what StyleKorean notes as their Original Price for the product) and listed Shopee price as of June 4, 6:05PM Manila Time
- USD assumption of $1 = PhP54 (allowance to include international credit card fees)
- Shopee prices listed are from their official Shopee stores (except the Elizavecca which cannot be found on legit stores here, Beauty of Joseon, Apieu, and Tonymoly also did not have official stores but got their prices from popular resellers) - could maybe find it cheaper from resellers or if there are special, discounted rates on 6.6 or other dates
- Set a 10% discount for Shopee purchases in case of cashback vouchers or brand promos. Did not factor in shipping costs to offset possible additional discounts. Could potentially get more or higher discounts on Shopee depending on the brand and available offers.
Deals & Discounts
(Screenshots are taken from browsing their website on an iPad so the page may look different when using a different device or accessing StyleKorean via the app)
New Member Deals: $1 product
So at the time of my browsing, I saw a slider in the header that said “New Member Deals” so I went to check it out. For new members, you can choose 1 product from the items listed there that you can get for $1. Yes, just $1! None of them were particularly of interest to me, but for a dollar, I don’t think I can complain. I ended up getting a full-sized (150ml) Pyunkang Yul Calming Deep Moisture Toner. That’s a really great deal as if I buy it locally, it’s around $10. If you’re not a member of StyleKorean yet, you might want to check that out.
Pop-up banners
These pop-up banners show up when you load the site. These are usually their highlighted promos, which are limited time only as well. It will show you how long the promo will last (the upper left side will have a countdown until the end of the promo) and you can also choose to not see the pop-up for 24 hours by clicking a button. Clicking the photo will lead you to the promo page.
Time deal
As the name implies, these are deals that are available for a limited time. They would usually show the date the offer ends. They won’t all end at the same time, so if you’re eyeing a particular product listed in the time deal but aren’t sure about checking out yet, you can check until when it’s available and plan accordingly.
Other deals in the slider
You can check for different deals or brand promotions in the slider on the home page. Sometimes there are some brand specific promotions wherein that brand is x% off and/or you can get a free gift from the brand when you buy an item. At the time I bought, Clio and Espoir had a brand promotion so there were items I was able to get on sale and I also got a free mini Espoir sun screen.
Deals in the home page
So aside from the pop-up banner, slider, and time deal and clearance links on the page, there’s also additional deals in the home page, below the sliders, that you can take advantage of. These are deals outside of the ones mentioned earlier that you may be able to find a product on sale that you’re interested in. There are usually themes or categories to this like for sunscreen, moisturizing products, or brand-specific ones as well. Clicking the photo will lead you to the event.
Special deals (in exchange for reviews)
While browsing the site a day after I made my first purchase, I saw this “Ready Set Glow” promotion where you can get 3 items for $9.99. When I checked the products, there’s one there that I really liked using in the past and to be able to get 3 of those for less than the regular price of 1, I was sold! There were also other products available, that would be good again if you’d like to try new/other products, as it doesn’t hurt the wallet as much. However, caveat for these is that you’ll have to write a review of the product/s on social media and submit the link to StyleKorean to be eligible for similar deals in the future. That doesn’t seem like a bad deal, and their definition of social media is broad so I think it’s easy for people to do, if you want to avail of the bargain.
Hidden deal upon check out
When you go to your shopping cart, there may be some items that you can get for a special price. You can see this at the bottom of your list - in my case I got the Heimish Marine Eye Cream at $9.99. I’m unsure if this is always available, or just every now and then, but it might be worth a check. Do note that you can only get one of these items in an order, and you can’t get it when you use the $1 new member deal as well. In my case, for my first order I used the $1 new member deal as this is applicable for new members’ first purchase, and then for my next order I got the $9.99 special price.
Other coupons or codes
I was able to use a FB new member coupon code I found in the dropdown on my first order (I created my account via FB sign-in), and on my second order I was able to find a promo code online, both gave me around $4 off from my $70ish order. Even if my final amount to be paid was less than $70 after the coupon, my order was still eligible for free shipping.
tl;dr
If you’re looking to expand your beauty product collection or would like to re-stock existing favorites all in one go, you might want to check StyleKorean to see if there are good deals that you can take advantage of to get the items at a cheaper price, keeping in mind the minimum required spend for free shipping since paid shipping is a bit pricey. It’s good to cross-check different sites to make sure you’re getting the best offer. It might be a bit harder if you need the items right away since shipping takes a while and the deals can fluctuate, so what I suggest is to keep an eye out for the different promotions and sales and then check out when most of what you like is being sold at a good price. Overall, would use them again when I need to buy a big order, or if they have crazy good deals. Would also like to try out the other shopping sites though so I can have a point of comparison.
Comments
Post a Comment