Beauty chat - freebies/gifts with purchase/offers THREAD SIXTEEN

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New thread. Everyone welcome to join to chat about beauty bargains or just beauty in general.

Thanks to everyone who regularly contributes and keeps us whizzing through these threads.

Now we're in June we might be seeing the first Advent reveal before the month is out! Exciting times. 😍

I second using a hairdryer to get labels off, my mum taught me this years ago and it was a game changer. The amount of gifts I’d bought that had damaged packaging because of stupid labels was ridiculous (and yes, TK Maxx were always the worse for it).

@pinkchampagne1 I am currently using the Murad eye cream at night, along with their night cream. I have gone through a few bottles of their eye cream over the past couple of years (for both day and night), I like it.

I am currently using the MZ skin eye cream during the day, which I like. Agree with others it’s a little thick, but I like it because you don’t need much.

I haven’t yet tried the Lancaster face or eye cream, so I’m interested to hear your opinions on it.

Oh, in my TK Maxx haul I also got a Neom mini pod for £34.99…I’ve been after one of these for ages but missed it last time it was at this price and refused to pay any more after that.
Same issue with the label placement again, but as it’s for me not a big deal.

Perfect timing on the MZ Skin eye cream reflections as I was just coming on to ask everyone their thoughts, as I’ve got one in my TKM basket right now. I don’t really need another eye cream, tbh, esp as I’m using BoJ retinol at night happily (and it’s enormous so will last forever!) and still have an almost never ending supply of mini Elemis tubes from my JL Crackers for daytime, along with a couple of Cerave creams in the stash. On the other hand, I quite fancy trying it as I’ve not tried any of the MZ creams yet. Ah, decisions, decisions….

I can’t remember who it was that loves the Dr Gross daily peel wipes, but they’ve got the strong variety in stock at TK Maxx at the moment. Also some Zelens and Omorovicza creams too.

The MZ eye cream gave me milia. I just received their other eye cream in the Liberty box though (depuff & define) and it looks much lighter so I'm looking forward to trying that.

I've been using the BoJ one for about a week but it's done absolutely nothing so far. It doesn't irritate though, which is rare for me!

Is the mz eye cream from the advents the same as the depuff one in Tk maxx? I’ve been using the Tk maxx one for a week or so and it’s very light . It’s highlighting so I wouldn’t use this at night. It’s the same as the one in the recent Liberty edit.

Meant to say, I’m a bit disappointed with the Shiseido vital perfection cream. Loved the night cream I had in an edit a while back, but this one feels a bit oilier. Trying to use it up on gym mornings but not loving it at all.

@Beautyfox ah, thank you. That’s the one I have in my basket - exactly what I’m after!

I used the Lancaster serum and cream in March. It’s ok - absorbs well, didn’t really feel like of dud anything much tbh I have dry skin though so prefer the richer creams like MZskin.

I'm trying the Zelens power d serum. It's a weird one. It's oil based but not all oil. So I'm expecting moisture and perhaps it to be a little cloggy and struggle to absorb. But that's not really what happens. I don't think it really moisutrises but traps moisture, it's not cloggy at all in fact my skin seems smoother with fewer bumps the next day especially forehead, it does struggle to absorb but it's not terrible. Layered with with avene cicafate (or whatever it's called) serum last night, again no issues. My skin is a bit dry at the mo. It's been in boxes so chances are some of you will have it in your stashes.

I finished my mini pot of MZ Skin Rich moisturiser last week, and immediately went to check the price - my skin looovvvvveeed it, drank it all up, and felt amazing. But too expensive, and too many others in the stash to try/work through first!

I'm trying to ignore the MZ eye cream post about it in TK Maxx - i don't need more eye cream at the minute either 😂 But it is a good price.

The MZ skin eye cream from advent is different to the TK Maxx one. I was close to purchasing the TK Maxx one to try but I’ve got a few eye creams to use up and they seem to last ages, whereas I get through moisturisers pretty quickly.

I have used the BoJ face mask a few times now and I really like it. Although last night when I used it, my skin didn’t feel as soft as it usually does. That said, I didn’t put as much on, so perhaps that’s the reason.

I have used the Shiseido cream this morning, initial thoughts are that it’s nice enough but I wasn’t wowed by it. It had a familiar scent and texture but I can’t quite decide what it reminds me of.
It is quite perfumed, which is fine for me but maybe not for others.

I have the zelens power d @Hicuppingand I feel the same, I don't really like it so I've only used it occasionally.

I've just used the Emma Lewisham cream and it's very beautiful but very shiny! Literally makes me look like I have glass skin - which I know is very hyped but not exactly the look I'm going for. No immediate irritation from the niacinamide so I'll see how it goes over the day.

Keep an eye on TK Maxx for The Rich Cream. That’s where I got it! It was £39.99 for 50ml and I’ve seen it pop up again since it first sold out.

I’m still wading through Liberty Eye Patch at night and Ordinary Caffeine drop thing for daytime. It’s still going to take weeks to finish the Eye Patch and probably months for the Ordinary! I did start Eye Patch during the day but it migrated a lot and made my eyes very smeary and greasy.

But I think I’ve got to grips with the Laneige moisturiser - it’s less shiny than I thought and feels nice.

I’m going to do some beauty shopping at Jarrolds tomorrow, I need a new Trinny Elevator. And I have a gift card so I’ll go and inspect the Jigsaw sale.

StyleKorean have changed their shipping policy for the UK. They are no longer including VAT in their pricing at source, which presumably means that buyers will receive a bill upon delivery in the UK.

Has anyone on here ordered since this change came into effect? It must have only happened very recently as I was last on the site only a few days ago. My basket has updated to show this new arrangement.

I am reluctant to order as I do NOT want a huge customs bill. I was already annoyed with myself for not spending my nearly $30 credit before the increase in spending needed to qualify for free shipping and now this 🙀

I am ridiculously miffed about this - SK was by far my favourite place to shop 😿

Further to my previous email: I have just had a quick Google. I wouldn’t mind paying the VAT charge on delivery, (I was already doing that under StyleKorean’s old system, albeit at time of order). However, apparently there is a handling fee of £10-15 payable at point of delivery to DPD for facilitating the VAT payment.

That I do object to!

I can’t imagine that there would be anything from SK that I would want so badly, (not even the wonderful edits/boxes), that I would pay an extra £15 handling fee to DPD for. I am really really fed up 😿

@IlovePond that’s really frustrating: ive only placed 2 orders with SK but was really happy with them & would definitely have used again. I’ve got some experience with the new process (via RM not DPD): it’s a pain in the bum & significantly increases costs & faff. It’s the reason I stopped ordering from one of my favourite clothing brands in Australia after many years of happy shopping.

@IlovePond , I've ordered from SK since the VAT change, but i hadn't realised that there had been a change until I read your post. The parcel should arrive on Tuesday next week, it's still in Seoul at the moment. I've compared the recent order with one I made in April, but I'm not sure what the implications are? I've never had any customs or additional charges with previous orders. I'll let you know what happens.

Edited now that I've ready our post properly - so the implication is that I'll be asked to pay a fee once the parcel reaches the UK? I'd have probably ignored any payment request thinking it was a scam if I hadn't seen your post.

I did use my $57 discount on my latest order, so that takes the sting out of it a bit

I think ill test this if poss before opening 👍
Im not keen the glowy look 🤣

@keepincool - I think so - DPD will ask for payment plus a handling fee - at least that is what it looks like.

You might get lucky and the parcel slip through without charges being added, but I know UK customs are having a bit of a crackdown atm. Please let us know what happens.

Depending on what you report back, I might do one last SK order using my nearly $30 credit, but that would then be it 😿

At least SK have added this tax warning to their checkout, but I wish they had given us advance notice! By contrast, there is nothing on the Stylevana site that indicates extra customs/tax charges, so I would imagine some customers get a nasty shock on delivery.

Meanwhile, YESSTYLE are still charging VAT at time of order atm, but who knows how long that will last 🤷‍♀️

I would order some of my favourites from YESSTYLE but it’s much more expensive than SK or Stylevana.

I know I don’t ‘need’ anything, and it’s very much a non-problem in the scale of things, but I had pretty much decided to switch completely over to K-beauty products once I got through my HUGE stash. That seems unlikely now. I am ridiculously sad about it 😿

No, it sounds horrible. I think I once had something in an Advent calendar, might have been a H&B one from a few years ago and it went straight into the bin.

I

I’m not into the idea of snail products either. I was wavering on it, though, until I discovered that it’s best to avoid snail mucin if you have allergies- particularly to dust mites/dust!

FWIW never had any customs etc issues with Yesstyle. They don't do beauty boxes as well as SK but everything else is good.

Thanks @Hicupping - that’s good to know. YS have good reviews and some of their stuff is cheaper than at SK, but they don’t have the generous freebies. (I have had some great stuff for free from SK, and I absolutely love their boxes!)

I wonder how long it will be before YS do the same as SK and stop including the VAT in payments upfront. I have a full basket but am resisting checking out for the moment.

It’s the handling charges I am objecting to with SK orders, (as well as not knowing exactly how much VAT customs might decide to charge). £10-15 on top to DPD pretty much negates any saving you might make ordering direct from SK unless it’s for a couple of their spectacular boxes. (Even then, paying the extra would stick in my craw!)

Oh what? So paying postage and then paying a handling fee? Nope. I don’t set the free delivery levels, that’s all on SK. DPD are already being paid for their service, why do I have to pay extra?

Has anyone else received the Father’s Day fragrance gwp from CB? It never clarified what was in it but it put a value at £50. It contained a creed 1760 tiny sample card (1.5ml) and. Jo malone cypress and grapevine tiny sample (1.5ml). There is no way this has a value of £50! 🙄 these are the samples the SNK send with every order!