Korean Beauty Haul & My Experience with Stylekorean.com

Online shopping is probably one of THE greatest things of our age. Nowadays, almost everything we need can be purchased online; even grocery shopping doesn’t require us to leave the warmth of our homes anymore.

While online shopping has undoubtedly made our lives a lot easier, there are also some risks associated to it. Unfortunately, not all online retailers are honest and it can be fairly easy to be tricked with prices that are just too good to be true, websites that sell fake articles or never send the promised objects. The list of possible issues is long and sadly, there still isn’t enough buyer protection in some areas of online shopping.

Personally, I’m a fan of online shopping. I love experimenting with cosmetics and products from all over the world and if it weren’t for online retailers, it would be very, very hard for me to lay a hand on all these exotic products!

After a couple of years of online shopping, I do have a pretty established list of favourite websites or sellers, such as Amazon for individual products or, if I feel like hauling big time, sasa.com is usually my go-to destination.

A few weeks ago I was looking for a new line of haircare and some other products I needed to stock up, and that’s when I came across a website called Stylekorean.com. From what I’ve read this website used to be called Honest Skin Shop but changed its name after some complaints by unhappy users and accusations about selling fake products. I have ordered from Honest Skin before using Amazon and never had any issues; my products always arrived in time and good condition, and the prices are normally very reasonable, so I can’t really judge or comment on that.

However, because of the negative feedback I’ve read about, I was a little bit weary before ordering, but since I was paying via PayPal I figured that if anything goes wrong I could probably still get my money back.

I ordered a total of 9 products and because there were quite some heavy ones included, it caused the shipping costs (which are calculated per weight) to spike! The products themselves were very reasonably priced (so much so I was a bit worried they could be near to expiration date or even fake) and I even had a 5% discount on the final price, but the shipping costs did make my purchase a lot more expensive. This is because the weight was trespassing the ‘allowed’ limit for standard delivery, and so I had no other choice but to use either EMS or DHL, which deliver in 5-7 but are also much more expensive. I chose DHL which was slightly cheaper and finally confirmed my order.

Annoyingly, a few days later I received a text message from DHL asking me to pay about £23 in Duty & VAT! Considering the pricey shipping I just paid, I obviously wasn’t to thrilled about it, but there was no way around it…

Once the Duty was paid, the parcel was sent off from South Korea and arrived less than a week later. The box was quite heavy, well sealed and was in good condition; no heavy scuffing or dents at all, which was a relief to me because there were some glass bottles inside.

All the products I ordered were nicely and neatly packed into the box, protected by several layers of bubble wrap so they wouldn’t break. While unpacking them I also found that they had included loads of different trial size freebies, as well as one full sized sheet mask from Tony Moly! How cool is that?!

After unpacking and examining all my products I am happy to say they were all in very good condition and all arrived with their original seals!

Here’s what I ordered (from left to right):

• [Missha] Time Revolution The First Treatment Essence 150ml
• [The history of whoo] Spa Oil Shower 220ml
• [Ryoe] Jinsaengbo Total Care Anti aging Shampoo for dry hair 400ml
• [Ryoe] Jinsaengbo Total Care Hair Conditioner for dry hair 400ml
• [Petitfee] Premium GOLD&EGF Eye Patch
• [Ryoe] Hambitmo Treatment (180ml)
• [Ryoe] Jayangyunmo Anti-Hair loss Treatment
• [Missha] Time Revolution Night Repair New Science Activator Ampoule, 1.7oz

The complete order. Never mind the news reporter in the back lol.

So many freebies!

I have yet to try the products and will be reviewing them in the near future, but I can say that I am quite happy with the order I received from Stylekorean. The products were all carefully and individually packed, in great condition and sealed, and they also added lots of freebies!

However, there are a few downsides such as the expensive shipping and eventual duty & VAT that comes with bigger purchases, so that’s something to be aware of when shopping online!

Stylekorean Summary

Pros

• Excellent prices
• Frequent promotions and discount coupons to reduce costs
• Products are original
• Careful handling, parcel arrives in good condition
• Shipping is very quick after purchase is made
• Lots of freebies

Cons

• Shipping is calculated by weight which can spike costs
• Limited affordable shipping options
• Might need to pay hefty Duty & VAT
• Didn’t receive a confirmation email about my purchase

Score: 8/10 

I’m very happy with my purchase at Stylekorean and am convinced they are a honest retailer. There might have been complaints in the past but it does look like they are getting better and better! The only improvements I would like to see are more affordable shipping options, so that people like me who like to make a bulk order are not hit with huge shipping and VAT costs!

Have you ever ordered anything from Honest Skin aka Stylekorean? How was your experience with them? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day ❤

Ara