Disclaimer first!
I've not been paid by anyone to write this post. This is purely my own online shopping experience for skincare/makeup items in Malaysia. I have real life friends who are very curious as to where I shop online, because many of them are not really familiar with the online shopping realm. Well, I dare not say that I am the guru for online shopping, because hey, everyone can shop online and this post purely serves as a guidance for beginners who want to search for some info before they shop.
I know for first time shoppers you can be scared, confused and most importantly, don't know where to search for those hit items people have been talking about.
Well, for most first time shoppers they have heard of horror conmen stories so it can be really really scary to shop online.
To take the first dip, pick a reputable seller. I won't suggest buying from Instagram, Facebook and the likes. Shop from a registered company. And if there is a review/testimonial page, please read it so that you will know what other people felt about that certain seller :)
Depending on what you want to buy, you can find popular sites that sells these stuff.
But first, you will need
an active online banking account with any major banks in Malaysia. If you don't, you need to have a
credit/debit card. If not, it can be a pain to bank in personally to the seller every time you want to make a purchase.
There's several common payment portals that are used by online merchants:
 |
| Ipay88 |
Ipay88: Supports Credit/Debit Card, FPX, internet banking
MOLPay: Supports Credit/Debit Card, FPX, internet banking, (you may also earn BCard points using MOLPay)
Celcom AirCash: Never used this
PayPal: Never used this too
Online shopping in the gist is browsing for your items online, pay for them online, and receive your goods a few days later. There are also several leading online merchants that supports COD (cash on delivery), which means that you pay to the delivery company when your item arrives.
Now where have I shopped before? I've only shopped locally because shipping fee is seriously expensive if you wanna ship items from overseas to Malaysia (ie Gmarket 1st kg is 10000 won?).
The online shops I've emptied my wallet to before (by alphabetical order):
11Street
I guess 11street needs no introduction? It has been in the news, everywhere since it first launched in April 2015. It has different sellers on one platform, and also some crazy coupon giveaways every now and then. You have to be really lucky to get those now yaw.
I bought from one of the sellers who sells Naruko. And other times I bought different stuff, like movie vouchers, Chatime vouchers, an external HDD (Got it at RM99 discount, believe it or not) and my Shin Ramyun and other stuff which I can't remember right now.
OK, back to topic. It sells pretty much everything like Lazada, and it has a really smoothly designed interface. Hassle-free transactions, quick, fast and easy. Thursday is the day where they give out coupons for Health & Beauty category items but you have to camp and grab those at 11am.
Sale Items: There's no sales section, but you can keep your eyes on their Shocking Deals or their coupon giveaways.
Shipping Fee: Varies from seller to seller. Usually RM7 for WM.
Bad Experience: Nope.
Hermo.my
Sells mostly Korean products and has limited discount items on rotation so you can get them cheap! Quite fast in picking up trendy items to sell on their website. Also has Japanese brands and Taiwanese brands.They sell YADAH, 3CE, Nature Republic, Innisfree, Laneige etc. Hermo has a product called the MaskBox where you can pick min 12 different masks so that you can try a lot of different brands. Has a strong blogger/social media presence. Bought twice from them and items are also shipped in cardboard box.
Sale Items: Their Anniversary Sale. Huge discounts. Subscribe to their newsletter for exciting promos all year round cuz they have limited deals every day. The items changes every few days :)
Shipping Fee: (WM) Buy 2 items free shipping
Good Experience: I bought so many masks. Please kill me.
Bad Experience: Nope.
In2Face
They sell CLIO, Peripera, Goodal, Purish, Rich Baby and Diamond Lash. I've only bought once from them, and I bought some cheap masks
which were kinda expired. Hahaha. Anyways, they have sale items from time to time, all under each respective brand category. Sometimes you can find cheap eyeliners, bb creams, lipsticks that I presume is nearing their expiry dates :o
Sale Items: Can be slashed to 70% discount or more, you just have to browse through their page to see if you see something you like.
Shipping Fee: Klang Valley RM 4.50, WM should be RM7? Or you can pick up at their office in Southgate Commercial Center.
Good Experience: cheap masks~
Bad Experience: Nope. It was quite a long time ago when I bought something from them huh.
Iqueen.my
Carries mostly Taiwanese brands at very cheap prices. Brands include 1028, My Beauty Diary, My Scheming, LUDEYA, Coni Beauty, Sexylook, Sister Diary, KYL etc. Found them when I bought from them on 11street.my. THE MASKS ARE SUPER CHEAP!
Sale Items: Not many items but super cheap omg!
Shipping Fee: (WM) RM7, above RM 80 free shipping
Good Experience: Very good packing. Every single item I bought is wrapped using plastic bag and then a layer of bubble wrap. Generous gifts. 5 facial masks for my RM80 purchase.
Bad Experience: Nope.
NARUKO Malaysia
Carries NRK, Naruko, Dermalane, ampm, 京城之霜. Has set promos but no huge discounts.
Sale Items: Christmas Sale but it wasn't held in 2014. Dunno if they gonna have it this year. They also have regular set promos going on.
Shipping: (WM) RM 6 or free shipping above RM 100
Good Experience: All items come in bubble wrap but not in a box tho.
Bad Experience: Nope. But doesn't have MOLPay or Ipay88 and you have to online transfer to one of their bank accounts and notify them.
Natta Cosme
Sells a wide range of Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese brands and also some Western brands, such as Klairs, Thayers, NARUKO, .Mainly sells hit and popular skincare/makeup items. Also sells supplements, makeup brushes and some other beauty/fashion accessories. Had a shop in Seremban 2 but closed it to focus on its online business.
Sale Items: Has a lot of heavily discounted products in their SALES section. Also, do subscribe to their newsletter and you will be updated with promotions from time to time.
Shipping Fee: (WM) RM 6 for orders below RM 70 and free shipping for RM 70 & above.
Good Experience: Okay and smooth transactions.
Bad Experience: Nope. Bought twice from Natta Cosme and they had huge discounts the day after, so a bit sam tong. My fault for bad timing lol. Items were packed in boxes so lesser risk of burst bottles and what not.
Oslee Malaysia
Only sells O'slee items. Limited range of products. Has monthly promotions for set items and they gave me lots of samples.
Shipping Fee: (WM) RM8 flat
Good Experience: Free samples!!
Bad Experience: Nope. Although they required the customers to forward payment email to them before they process the order. I feel that it is quite redundant, because I used Ipay88.
Qoo10.my
I think it's the first site I bought skincare from. Mainly Korean sellers but they now have more and more local sellers. It's Gmarket's venture into SEA and I visited the site in 2012 and forgot about it until early 2013 I think. Previously it had many great sellers who sells the latest items from Korea, but recently I've noticed that they pulled out from Qoo10? Anyway, if you buy from Korean sellers, your item will be shipped from Korea, which takes about 2 weeks, 1.5 weeks if you're lucky,
SuperStarK- previously sold Sulwhasoo, HERA, Whoo etc. 30 pcs of samples for RM 13 ish. Where can you find such price now. The seller's page now is empty T.T
Good Friend- sold hit popular low - mid range items with FREE shipping summore. Price is the same as what you will find in Korea. Crazy or not? But I've found that the seller disappeared from Qoo10 already. Probably due to the complaints of lost parcels and having to resend them hit their business badly. sob. I've probably bought 3 or 4 times here.
sweetbox- Sells a huge range of items. Price is not necessarily the cheapest but you can find samples of low-mid range Korean brands such as Etude House, Tony Moly, Missha, Laneige, The Face Shop, Nature Republic etc. They also sell samples of high end brands such as Sulwhasoo, OHUI, Su:m 37 etc. Bought once from them.
2plus1- Sells some popular Korean brands at a pretty good price point. I think I bought once or twice from here.
Always- Sells only Etude House items. Cheap price too. Almost the same as what you will get in Korea. Most importantly, the seller offers FREE normal mail shipping omg. For most items that is. Bought 3-4 times from here.
Allcos- Sells alot of stuff from different brands, Current item count is at 1000+ but previously they have over 6000 items for you to shop. Bought once from here.
Other sellers I've bought from are KSCO, Secret Key, Mizon Korea and many others which I cannot remember. They had funky names haha.
Other popular sites I've heard before, but have never shopped from:
Well, I only have 1 face. and only 1 wallet. Haha.
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Althea.kr
New contender for Korean beauty shopping here in Malaysia. Very competitive in pricing, and strong fanbase too! Prices are almost the same as on Korean soil. Free shipping for orders above RM150, shipped from Korea.
Sale Items: It's gotta be their Daebak Deal.1+1 (If you are unfamiliar with 1+1, it means 2 or buy one free one) items at the price of one. In July I saw 1+1 Daebak Deal for Laneige'sWater Sleeping Mask, guess how much was it? RM 77!
RM77!!!!
My eyes nearly popped out. But of course, I spent too much on Hermo in June so I didn't buy it. 捶心肝啊啊啊. Anyway, just so you know to look out for their daebak deals in the future.
Western mid - high range brands. It has a lot of presence in other countries as well. Has flash sale/cart discount now and then. And then you can stock up on your SKII.
They send me very nicely designed newsletter. Very pretty~
Shipping Fee is free if you purchase above RM80. Otherwise it is RM20. Previously if I remembered correctly free shipping was provided for orders above RM40.
Sale Items: Flash sale or storewide discounts. If I remember correctly, there was once a 40% storewide discount. Didn't buy but cc'ed to my SKII user-friend. Haha.
Watsons and
Guardian
Yep, the chain pharmacies also has an online store where you can buy most of the skincare/makeup items. I live in Klang Valley so there's a lot of Watsons & Guardian stores nearby, and if I need something I'll just pop over to buy them.
There are a lot of other beauty brands that have their own online store such as Clinique, Crabtree & Evelyn, The Body Shop, Melvita and the list goes on!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Have I been cheated by shopping online?
The answer is no.
I have had wrong items sent to me or parcels lost in the mail, all settled with the seller. No biggie.
I have once bought an item from a seller on Qoo10 and for 1 month they did not confirm purchase or send out my stuff. So I just cancelled the order and got my money back.
Never once I paid and got nothing. You just have to buy from reputable sellers and trade safely. Of course I have friends or relatives who bought high value items online at a lower price which turned out to be fraud cases. Sad.
2. What can I do when the item I received is not the same as what I ordered?
Do not use that item and contact the seller ASAP. It will depend on whether you need to ship back the wrong item or you can keep it and the seller will send the correct item to you. (It really depends on the policy of the seller)
Communication is key. Timing is key. Don't wait till it's 10 days after you have ripped opened the packaging, or have used the item then you contact the seller. Not good.
3. I paid the seller and no parcel is sent out. Nothing. What should I do?
Highly likely the seller is a fraud if the seller does not respond to you AT ALL for a few days (except holidays). You can either file a police report (which is unlikely that you will get your money back), or you can find other victims and raise awareness so that you don't see other people falling into the same scam.
4. Where can I find cheap skincare/makeup?
Ask around. Maybe that friend of yours have something to share!
Or you can subscribe to your favourite shopping sites so that you will not miss their sales/promotions. Watch out for CNY, Mid Year, Raya, Merdeka, Christmas [insert celebration here] sales. Online stores usually have sales for every single holiday. Or you can browse through the site's sales sections for some heavily discounted goodies ;P
I think that's about it.
Ciao!
