You cannot imagine the joy I feel writing this post.
Getting this particular package has been quite taxing, which made me realize how spoiled I've been from ordering from both local and online sites such as Bon Marche, Make Up Pro, and Sephora. It's been a long time coming, but I can finally share with you my Colourpop Haul!
In the event that you're unfamiliar, Colourpop is an affordable make-up brand from LA that makes amazing products, especially their lip and eye products. I've wanted to try their products for a long time, but international shipping only became available this year! I could have purchased from online stores in the PH but the prices were always so inflated. -_-
Come November, their Black Friday sale combined with their international shipping promo was enough for me (and my friends, thank you Tari and Bella for hoarding with me) to take a chance and finally try their products!
Note: if you're here for the haul, just skip the next few paragraphs ahead.
Buying Experience
I ordered as per normal and used my PayPal account to pay. Normally, Colourpop takes 3-5 days to process your order before shipping it out, but the Black Friday + Cyber Monday sale slowed it down to 8 days. This is forgivable to me as I can imagine the massive inflow of orders they received at this time.
As soon as my order was confirmed, I got an invoice plus the tracking number for USPS or the US Postal Service.
Shipping to the Philippines
Now this is where it gets a bit...messy. Colourpop estimated 15-21 business days (meaning not counting weekends and holidays) for the order to arrive. While I was able to track my package as it moved from Canada to Santa Clarita to Los Angeles, as soon as the package left the US, all tracking updates stopped. This isn't their fault, more on the PH Post really.
See, the Philippine Postal System is very outdated, and this is me putting it lightly. It takes ages for packages to arrive and they can never be tracked unless an external courier (such as LBC, DHL, FedEx, etc) is used. I knew this well before ordering but I underestimated just how slow it was going to be. I do realize that it was Christmas time, but the package shipped out December 9. I should've gotten it at least before the end of the year.
Claiming the Package
I received my postal notice on January 12 (!!!!). Yes, they will
not deliver it to your house. You have to go pick it up at the post office. I got mine at the Quezon City Central Post Office. They will indicate to you what window you have to go to, where they will check your IDs and let you sign in their logbooks (
log. books. No joke).
After waiting for them to retrieve it from the stock room, the customs officer will call out your name and open the package in front of you. They're checking to see for any suspicious content. Afterwards, all you have to do is pay the storage fee (not sure why I have to pay this considering its my package?) and you're done. I went in the afternoon and took about thirty minutes.
Know this now -
don't order more than 10 lip products. The FDA put out a memorandum that anything more than 10 lip products will be confiscated by customs. Why is this the case? I'm not sure, but best to be safe than sorry! Luckily my friends and I only had 4 (plus the free lip glosses makes 6) so this was not an issue.
Another note is that
Customs + Philpost should not charge you anything more than PHP 112. There is a law that states that packages worth lower than PHP 10 000 for personal use is non-taxable. They should indicate the amount you have to pay on the postal notice. Don't let them charge you anything more than that!
Whew. Okay. Pain over, breathe! Let's move on to the good stuff!
Actual Haul (yay)
Unfortunately the entire box is not mine. :( I ordered 2 eyeshadows and 2 cheek products as these were the things I've been eyeing since I heard of Colourpop.
As the order was processed late, I got two free minis of lipglosses!
These notes are probably randomized but...how did you know I liked cats, Colourpop?
It's a bit messed up now because I opened it prior to taking pictures (oops) but luckily, everything arrived in good condition! It was very exciting to receive a package with this many things, even if they're not all for me. Another time, perhaps?
From left to right, I got their Super Shock Eyeshadow in Game Face, their Highlighter in Butterfly Beach (isn't that such a cute name?), Blush in Aphrodisiac, and another Super Shock Eyeshadow in Hammered.
Game Face is described as a 'true penny copper' while Hammered is a 'blackened olive with gold sparkles'. Both are very creamy and apply beautifully on the lids. I find it works best with a finger vs a synthetic brush, and it's much faster.
Honestly I did this haul purely for Game Face alone and I'm already so happy. You have no idea how long I have wanted a penny copper eyeshadow. Hammered is a bit darker than I was expecting but its beautiful nonetheless.
Aphrodisiac is described as a 'soft beige' while Butterfly Beach is a 'warm peach with silver highlights'. The blush is pigmented but not overly so, and is best applied with a synthetic duo fibre brush. The highlighter on the other hand is a lot more pigmented, and I personally prefer using my fingers for application.
I've been looking for a neutral blush/contour and Aphrodisiac hits that spot perfectly. It's definitely cool toned but not so much so that it looks off on my warm skin. It's also easy to blend and really adds colour while still providing a bit of structure to the face.
Butterfly Beach on the other hand is simply beautiful! It really catches the light and blends into the skin seamlessly. I normally don't wear highlighter as my skin enjoys producing all those natural oils for me, but for this, I'm willing to make an exception. It also looks beautiful on the bridge of the nose, inner eye corners, and on top of the cupid's bow!
All in all, I am extremely happy with my purchases and I'll definitely be ordering more soon. It might be better though if I wait for friends or relatives to come home from America as I really don't want to deal with package claiming and all the anxious waiting again. If you live in America or a country with a better postal service, take advantage of the free shipping above 30USD/50USD!
