I recently posted up a video on my youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnOanGE3mjc) on my recent experiences shopping from TesterKorea, an online cosmetics store specifically dealing with Korean cosmetics. I recently filmed this video in hopes to share my own experiences with online cosmetics shopping from various sites. The first site I would like to review is Testerkorea.
TesterKorea is an online cosmetics shop that ships directly from South Korea, casting all doubt away from the fear of fake/counterfeit cosmetics. It offers a wide variety of skincare/cosmetics at quite an affordable price. Their website link is: http://www.testerkorea.com
I decided to purchase my first parcel from TesterKorea as the reviews online seemed to be good. I also was attracted to the affordable prices as well as the fact that it ships directly from South Korea.
WEBSITE PURCHASING EXPERIENCE
The website was very easy to navigate. I had no problem looking for brands or products. The layout of the website is pretty straightforward and isn't too over the top with colours or pictures. It is very minimalistic, which I quite prefer over a busy looking website. There was also a currency converter on the side of the webpage which made everything quite easy to calculate. Prices do however appear in Korean Won (원) (₩) (KRW).
PURCHASES
My purchases included:
1)Missha All-Around Safe Block Waterproof Sun Milk
2) Etude House Face Conditioning Cream
3)Etude House Color Pop Tints (mini) in Berry Pop & Passion Pop
4)Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner
5)Skinfood Lettuce & Cucumber Watery Emulsion
6)Skinfood Lettuce & Cucumber Watery Essence
7)Etude House Pearl Aura Brightening Essence
PACKAGING:
The packaging was quite nice. Pictured below you can see that they packaged everything individually in bubble wrap for extra protection. They also had a few styrofoam peanuts in the parcel as well. The box was not made out of cardboard but nonetheless was still sturdy. I definitely had no complaints about the packaging.
SHIPPING
As for shipping, the costs added up to approximately $16.00CAD. I placed my order on November 13th and received my package on December 22. Since I have not purchased anything else being shipped from South Korea, I have nothing to compare it to. I imagine this time span to be medium to slow coming from South Korea to Canada.
SAMPLES
TesterKorea was kind enough to include two sets of skincare cosmetics for free!!! Who doesn't like free products right? YAY!!!!! I am very excited to try these out.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
This is an area that I definitely feel TesterKorea has to improve on. Two weeks after purchasing my products, the status of my package on their website was still on standby. I finally decided to email them regarding my concern. A few days later they did send me an email to inform me that one of the products I purchased was out of stock. They told me to just pick another item to replace the other and that this process would take even more time to get the products to my front door. I find this quite disappointing as I strongly feel that it is their responsibility to contact me if one of my products are out of stock. It is not the responsibility of the customer to do this. If I had not sent the email two weeks later, I wonder how long it would have taken for them to contact me...
UNIQUE POINT
There are some very unique things about the website I really like. For example there is a "WANT" bulletin on the website that allows users to request korean skincare/cosmetics that they would like to be available for purchase. There is also a sample sale section where the website offers a variety of samples of full size products that customers can purchase to try out instead of buying the products right away. Furthermore, there is a rewards system for customers as well. You can gain points based on the sales/promotions they have as well as the products you purchase.
FINAL THOUGHTS/RATING
Overall, I feel that my shopping experience was good and that I was quite satisfied with my package. The only downfall is the customer experience incident which I do strongly hold on to. For these reasons, I would give TesterKorea a 3.5/5.
Thanks for reading you guys and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment down below :) Also, if you are interested in other videos like this, please check out my youtube channel and subscribe!!
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/inspiremeELLE/featured?view_as=public
Peace and Love,
Elle
I think you should check your products for authenticity. Because I received my package yesterday and most of my full-sized items are fake. Too Cool For School Max in Pocket lipbalm, the box has different prints and words, the address stated on the box does not exist (the real balm does not have any address stated), the website printed states "www.toocoolforshool.com", a severe misspelling of the brand. I find it hard to believe that Too Cool will disseminate a product with such misprint.Also, the sticker on the underside of the balm itself looks grossly different from all the photos beauty bloggers have posted of the exact same item. Next, the Etude House Magic Tint balm has a lid with the swirly princessy design all blurred and mashed together. The product name printed on the lid is also unclear and mashed up. The sticker on the underside (with product information) looks very different from all the photos bloggers posted online and it smells very different from my own pot of the same balm (bought from Etude House Singapore, Causeway Point, two years ago). Also, this product came unsealed. Then, the Holika Holika sugar syrup gloss I ordered is #5 (Orange syrup). The sticker label is slapped onto the outer part of the plastic seal shoddily and while it does state #5, the color is a deep red, almost exactly like #1 but the print on the tube is like #2. The smell of this gloss is acidic - very much like how my Wet'n'Wild gloss smells when it goes rancid. Then, the Tony Moly Cherry Lipbalm came unsealed (again! just like the etude item!) but I am not sure if this is authentic because I have not tested or bought this item from the store. The only full-sized product that seems remotely authentic is the Holika Holika Dessert Time Orange Cupcake lipbalm. It LOOKS authentic, although at first, I thought it was also fake because it looks very different from what I ordered. But after googling, I managed to find out that Holika changed the packaging and the item testerkorea sent me is how the new series look like. The balm inside is unfortunately, of a different consistency from my plum pink cupcake (the same series, but older packaging). I don't have energy left by now to research whether the large amount of samples I purchased from testerkorea is authentic. I am guessing some are and some are not. I know that the items I listed above (with the exception of the Holika Dessert Time Orange Cupcake balm) are all counterfeits. I have since written an email to etude house global site, holika canadian site (because I needed to write in english and the canadian site is the first english official site for holika that I found) and will now write to Too Cool For School as well. If you are interested, the address on the product is "Too Cool For School Corp 42, Dongho-ro 20-GIL, Jung-gu, Seoul". Google it. A chinese page came up. The icing on the cake? Too Cool announced that they are CONSIDERING entering the china market only this year (2015). CONSIDERING being the key word here. This item is confirmed fake. So is the etude house.
ReplyDeleteI think you should check your products for authenticity. Because I received my package yesterday and most of my full-sized items are fake. Too Cool For School Max in Pocket lipbalm, the box has different prints and words, the address stated on the box does not exist (the real balm does not have any address stated), the website printed states "www.toocoolforshool.com", a severe misspelling of the brand. I find it hard to believe that Too Cool will disseminate a product with such misprint.Also, the sticker on the underside of the balm itself looks grossly different from all the photos beauty bloggers have posted of the exact same item. Next, the Etude House Magic Tint balm has a lid with the swirly princessy design all blurred and mashed together. The product name printed on the lid is also unclear and mashed up. The sticker on the underside (with product information) looks very different from all the photos bloggers posted online and it smells very different from my own pot of the same balm (bought from Etude House Singapore, Causeway Point, two years ago). Also, this product came unsealed. Then, the Holika Holika sugar syrup gloss I ordered is #5 (Orange syrup). The sticker label is slapped onto the outer part of the plastic seal shoddily and while it does state #5, the color is a deep red, almost exactly like #1 but the print on the tube is like #2. The smell of this gloss is acidic - very much like how my Wet'n'Wild gloss smells when it goes rancid. Then, the Tony Moly Cherry Lipbalm came unsealed (again! just like the etude item!) but I am not sure if this is authentic because I have not tested or bought this item from the store. The only full-sized product that seems remotely authentic is the Holika Holika Dessert Time Orange Cupcake lipbalm. It LOOKS authentic, although at first, I thought it was also fake because it looks very different from what I ordered. But after googling, I managed to find out that Holika changed the packaging and the item testerkorea sent me is how the new series look like. The balm inside is unfortunately, of a different consistency from my plum pink cupcake (the same series, but older packaging). I don't have energy left by now to research whether the large amount of samples I purchased from testerkorea is authentic. I am guessing some are and some are not. I know that the items I listed above (with the exception of the Holika Dessert Time Orange Cupcake balm) are all counterfeits. I have since written an email to etude house global site, holika canadian site (because I needed to write in english and the canadian site is the first english official site for holika that I found) and will now write to Too Cool For School as well. If you are interested, the address on the product is "Too Cool For School Corp 42, Dongho-ro 20-GIL, Jung-gu, Seoul". Google it. A chinese page came up. The icing on the cake? Too Cool announced that they are CONSIDERING entering the china market only this year (2015). CONSIDERING being the key word here. This item is confirmed fake. So is the etude house.
ReplyDeleteHello. Where do you buy your items to be sure that testerkorea sells fake products. The prices are really cheap :)
Delete