We're now back to our regularly scheduled Korean beauty programming. Today's post is a haul from Kosmeshop, a lesser known Asia-based Korean beauty retailer. That sample service though. O.o Also, have I ever mentioned to you how awesome Korean socks are? They're the real MVP of Korean exports.
SOURCE | Kosmeshop.com
ORDERED ON | 9/12/2015
SHIPPED | 9/16/2015
RECEIVED | 10/07/2015
Just a little background information for you - I purchased some of these items, and other items were sent to me for (honest) review. Back in August, Kosmeshop reached out to me to see if we might partner on a post or two in the future. Long story short, we hit it off, and we entered into a partnership where I may select a few products to review periodically. So if, we entered into the agreement back in August? Why have I not posted a haul or review until now? Basically, I'd never purchased from Kosmeshop before, and I wanted to get a good feel for the customer experience before talking them up to y'all. (It's part of my sponsorship policy which you can read about here). I don't want to be getting STANK EYE from anyone who ends up having a poor experience with them. >.<
So let's break it doooown now. Links to products included in line with the reviews this time around.
1 | Sheet masks are a given in any haul, and in this round, I picked up the Banila Co Miss Flower and Mr Honey Hydrogel Mask Sheet, a The Saem CHAGA Anti-aging Biocellulose Sheet with fermented chaga extract 20ml, a Skinfood Marine Food Gel Mask in Jellyfish, and an IOPE Bio Essence Facial Mask^no longer carried at Kosme.
They arrived at my door just in time for Glow Recipe's Instagram challenge and giveaway! While I'm usually pretty lazy and only get around to masking every other day or so, their 5 day daily masking challenge (which is actually probably still going on) was super fun and may convert me to the 1 DAY 1 MASK life that I know many others live.
There are mini-reviews on each of the masks on my Instagram. If you're interested in Banila Co Miss Flower and Mr Honey, go here (be prepared for a shocking assessment, I didn't love it, but please don't hate me for that). For thoughts on TheSAEM Chaga Biocellulose, go here. For the SkinFood Jelly Fish Gel here. And lastly, for the IOPE Bio Essence mask, go here. <- This mask was so good I'll definitely be doing a full review on the blog at some point.
2 | The Holika Holika Aloe 99% Soothing Gel is just a no-brainer for anyone who wants a body moisturizer that sinks in instantaneously. A recent convert to using gel moisturizers on the bodeh, I'm really enjoying this product. While it does smell of aloe vera, the scent is not very strong and I don't use it near my nose.
3 | TheSAEM's Saemmul Jelly Gloss in Strawberry Pink^no longer carried at Kosme is a vitamin E and fruit-infused 90's style glittergoop lip gloss. I wear it for nostalgia reasons, and also because it does moisturize the lips without too much stickiness. But, the color is super sheer and the glitter chunky. I move we leave glittergoop lip gloss part of the 90's behind, I'm not going to recommend this one. Well, unless you have a niece or nephew in elementary school who might be interested.
4 | Nature Republic Help Me Ceramide Cream Samples - The fact that Winter Is Coming has been top of mind for awhile now... As someone with really dry skin, it's just a fact of life that I have to prepare way earlier than the rest of you "normies". We're in the 50's (Fahrenheit / ~ 12 degrees Celsius) in my part of the world already and that means two things... (1) my indoor heating kicks on, blasting HOT DRY air at my entire being (2) causing my skin to shrivel up and start 'creasing' even more than it usually does. This yearly phenomenon sometimes causes me to melt down in public, but this year I'm armed with a lot more skincare knowledge than I've had in years past. (Quick shoutout to the people in this post and this beauty forum among others). And the answer my dry-skinned skin twins, is CERAMIDES. I've been on the hunt for a ceramide cream and while the most popular Korean ceramide cream is undeniably the Dr. Jart Ceramidin Cream carried at your local Sephora, Walgreens, or Drugstore.com, it clocks in at a whopping $48, and well, this is a self-funded blog lol. So I picked up a few samples of the Nature Republic to see if I liked it enough to get the full-size. I do like it, it's richly moisturizing and smells lightly botanical (albeit in a perfume-y way). It's probably even just a tad bit richer than the Dr. Jart cream because of the shea butter and beeswax included. Below is a quick table comparing the top 10 ingredients of the two formulas. Both formulas contain Ceramide-3 and Squalane, and common ingredients (in the top 10) are highlighted in buttercream, which coincidentally, is not unlike the feel of this product.
| NATURE REPUBLIC | DR. JART |
| Water | Water |
| Cyclopentasiloxane | Glycerin |
| Glycerin | Dipropylene Glycol |
| Caprylic Triglyceride | Caprylic Triglyceride |
| Shea butter | Hydrogenated Polydecene |
| Trehalose | Cetearyl Alcohol |
| Beeswax | 1,2-Hexanediol |
| Sodium Acrylate | Dimethicone |
| Cetearyl Alcohol | Cyclomethicone |
| Squalane | Vegetable Oil |
If you saw the ingredients list (linked here), you would understand why I decided to pick it up. We call antioxidant-rich foods superfoods right? Well, this is the skincare equivalent and deserves to be called a super-sleeping-pack. It contains extracts of black garlic, black bean, blackberry, grape, eggplant, acai berry, black sugar, aronia berry, black sesame, mulberry, black chalk berry, black currant, pepper, elderberry, chaga mushroom, cacao, shiitake mushroom, morus alba root...
It's got a really light, undiscernable smell with a touch of spice. The product is tinted midnight blue and has little light blue specks scattered throughout. I want to call them microbeads, but I'll leave it at specks in case someone mistakes them for the plastic ones... Now for the polarizing part. The texture. I'm used to sleeping packs with interesting textures but this one is really something else. It's looks, feels, and behaves like grape jelly. Or for another point of reference, it's like a gel moisturizer, but firmer. The firmness causes it to sink in a bit less and remain on the skin. When I apply it as a last step before bed, I get paranoid that its going to get on my blanket. I don't know, I like it enough to use for now, but I don't think I would repurchase this one. It does seem to be a matter of taste because others out there like Sample Hime really enjoy it.
7 | Holika Holika Floral Shea Hand Cream Adorably Innocent Freesia^no longer carried at Kosmeshop It's just a purse hand cream that does smell strongly of freesia. I mean, I'm sitting here with layers and layers of all of the earlier reviewed creams on me and nickel-sized dollop of this cream managed to overpower everything else. It's a great hand cream if you don't mind the scent. Very rich and moisturizing, and the perfect size to take on the go.
KOSMESHOP REVIEW
Kosmeshop has a wide range of skincare, makeup, and personal care products. To put it into perspective, they carry about 30 different Korean brands - everything from drugstore favorite Etude House to the more prestigious IOPE. They also have handbags, colored contact lenses (circle lenses), and some homeware.
Things are always flitting in and out of stock because they're constantly bringing new products, new releases onto the site, and retiring others. (Unfortunately for me, the IOPE mask is one of the most recent retirees).
Pricing wise, they're about on par with a RoseRoseShop, which is another very popular Korean beauty website based overseas.
As you can see, the winner of the price war for this particular product is Jolse. But Jolse isn't always the lowest price. I've seen Kosmeshop price products below the Jolse price.
It all depends on whether an item is discounted and whether you plan on purchasing enough to meet a free shipping minimum. If you buy over $50, you will receive free slow shipping. If you buy over $300, you will receive free fast shipping (EMS) which can have your products at the doorstep in as little time as a week. All shipping costs are based on weight.
I found the shipping and delivery timeline satisfactory. Whenever hauling from an Asia-based site, I tend to "set and forget." I make the buy, and if it arrives within a month, I'm a satisfied customer.
Complications do arise if any of the products you purchase happen to be out of stock. This did happen to me, and I was annoyed. BUT I ended up receiving my refund within 1-3 days by Paypal, so it was not the end of the world.
Anyways, one of the best parts of their customer experience is the fact that you pay by Paypal.
Ooh, and their sample service.
OTHER PERKS
Like Jolse, you can do a partial check-out. That is if you have 10 things you are thinking about buying, you can add them to the cart, and select 2 to check out/buy.
Customer service. You're dealing with the owner Olivia, a lot of the time, so you will receive really friendly and personal service.
You can get free 10-packs of samples if you post a picture of your haul on your social media. Learn about the details here.
Let me know if you want any in-depth reviews of any of these products (aside from the IOPE, which is coming).
Have you shopped at Kosmeshop before? What was your experience like?
Have you shopped at Kosmeshop before? What was your experience like?
P.S. This week's Get It Beauty episode was about hair, so I did not transcribe it. Here's a link to the episode for those of you who understand Korean, and any one else interested in hair tips, Beauty Bible did a similar feature, with English subtitles.
Disclosure: Some press samples, no affiliate links. Press samples are marked with an asterisk; samples were kindly sent with no obligation to review or review positively. If you are curious about my policy on press samples, affiliate links, and sponsors, please see my disclaimer and policies.
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