This should also be titled, “How to shop online 101 for Malaysians”. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be frustrated by the lack of choices in Malaysia and salivate at some of the brand selections available in the U.S. and maybe even start lemming for the newest releases. The simplest solution is to buy online and have it ship to you directly. But what if certain websites don’t ship internationally, and if they do, charge exorbitant shipping prices?

There is no straightforward way for this. In order to get the best price, lowest shipping quote and the shortest amount of time in order to get your goods, you need to consider a few avenues to source your items.

But first! Ladies, before you make any purchase unseen online, do your homework first and peruse makeupalley.com. You need to join as a member first before you can read the contents. Basically, it’s a place where you can find out honest to goodness reviews from real people like you and me. You can search for items, sort by popularity, and from there, find out what is the best in each category and which ones will suit you. I’ve had 80% success rate from it - the remaining 20%… well, it didn’t work out. I make sure to contribute back to the community by leaving reviews for others as well. When you’ve decided on what you want to buy… search for that item.

Ebay
Also affectionately known as flea-bay, Ebay is a great place to look for discontinued, hard to find items or items you wish to purchase in ones and twos. Not a whole lot there, you just want a few. Shop around, look into Seller’s Other Items and maybe save on shipping by combining your items into a package if you buy multiple items from the same seller. Contact them when you’re unsure about combined shipping - don’t assume they’ll automatically grouped together. I wish that Ebay will make some kind of search engine to search for multiple different items, to see which seller has BOTH or more items instead of doing all the manual work ourselves. :)

Online stores
There are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many stores, that if you’re new to this you’ll get a headache. But I can promise you - as long as you have the time and the love to shop, you’ll enjoy this task. I don’t claim to know every single online stores out there but I can list down some of the ones I love to get from.

drugstore.com/beauty.com: These two sites are linked. In drugstore.com, there is a VAST amount of things you can get - it resembles the Guardians and Watsons you know and love. Only bigger.

cherryculture.com: Cherryculture frequently has sales and this is one of the places you can source for the famous NYX brand.

nonpareilboutique.com: nonpareilboutique started out as an Ebay seller, before creating its own store and exploded in popularity. This is another store that sells NYX brand as well, and now the current hype - Wet N Wild cosmetics. The Wet N Wild Color Icon palette in Lust has been sold out frequently!

sephora.com: If you have extra cash to burn, come to Sephora. It’s mind boggling, the amount of stuffs you can find here. I like to buy Bare Escentuals Minerals and Shu Uemura eyelash curler here. It’s also very up-to-date with the latest limited edition releases, so check it out if you’re lemming for something new and LE.

Amazon.com: Not exactly known for cosmetics per se, but here you can find really odd things. If you can’t find whatever you want elsewhere, chances are you can find them here. However, Amazon ships only DVD, CDs, VCDs, and books to Malaysia.

Okay… I’ve listed pretty much all the places I like to haunt. As you can see, some sites ship internationally, some pose restrictions and some flat out refuse to do business with the rest of the world. What is a girl to do?!

Spree it in.

First, a caveat: Spree is not the cheapest method around. However I recommend this method because it’s the most reliable. Your item(s) will get here, guaranteed.

Currently in Stuff For the Ladies forum on Lowyat, there are a few reliable spreers, each with different attributes and each with their own set of spree rules and sites they are currently spreeing. Some people think that spreers bring in whatever they want, whenever they want. That’s not really how sprees work, although there is a special service for that.

A spreer (or Spree Organizer) will “open” a website (you’ll never know when they do this so you need to stay on top of things, or ask them directly) and when they do, this means you can now order from that particular site. They will usually open a few at a time. The best advice I can give you for each spreer is: READ THE FIRST PAGE. I frequently come across people who ask questions that are already answered on the first page, like when can you expect the items to arrive, where to bank in, etc.

Usually everything you need to know are answered already. In this post however, I will provide a general outline of how you can deal with these spreers, or how to go about doing it.

1) Find out what are the open sprees, or websites you can order from. Go to those websites, browse, pick whatever you want. Please note the spree cap and when the spree will close to avoid last minute orders.

2) This is an important etiquette: Because spreers are often busy, please be courteous and paste in direct links to items you want, as opposed to just listing names of items you wish to buy and providing no direct links to them. Provide details too, like shades and sizes. Oh, and no PM-ing them, lowyat’s PM system is notoriously small and imagine with the volume of orders that come in, there’s simply no space for everyone! Just go to the spreer’s thread and post there. It’s okay to have a mix of different sites. And it’s okay to order just a single item. :D

3) Be patient. Spreers will get back to you, usually in one to three days. Don’t keep badgering them, even though they’ll still be nice to you. :) They will not PM you directly, so check back the thread often. Here’s a tip. A lot of people don’t check everyday, so when you go back to check, click back a few pages and search for your name (CTRL+F) because the spreer will quote your name when they answer your post.

4) If you need something urgently, some spreers have a Personal Shopper service or Buy For Me service, which specifically caters for individuals who wish to purchase what they want NOW, instead of waiting for spreer to open it. Turnaround time is around 2 weeks, depending on the spreer. For this service you have to pay local U.S. shipping fees. This service is up to the discretion of the spreer to accept or reject. They only reject if the website looks questionable or suspicious, or if the item you’re ordering is not allowed to be brought into Singapore (like agricultural products, tobacco, etc) or not allowed to be shipped via Air (aerosol spray bottles, etc).

5) Confirm. You need to let them know what you want to get, and what you don’t want. Quote their reply to you (including your list of orders) and tell them you want them. This is also where you choose your postage options. If you reach a certain amount, you might qualify for free registered or Poslaju shipping, or if you don’t, you must foot the shipping cost yourself. Please note I’m referring to the shipping cost from the spreer to you, not U.S. shipping. The first page often has this information.

6) Once you confirmed, and you know the full total which is (Quoted Price + Local Shipping) - bank in. Information for banking should be available on first page as well.

7) If this is your first time dealing with this particular spreer, leave your address. Again, this information is also available on the first page.

8) Wait. Turnaround time for most sprees bar complications is around 4 weeks. Before you balk at the long wait, this is actually very reasonable. USPS First Class Mail from the U.S. will also take as long (if not longer) and sometimes you don’t even receive them (yes Pos Malaysia, I’m looking at you!) and in sprees, you have the security of knowing your items will get here.

9) Thank the spreer after you received your items! It’s good to let them know that you’ve gotten your stuffs safe and sound, and this lets others know the spreer is trustworthy as well.

That’s it. Sometimes you might come across unfortunate events like OOS items (Out Of Stock) - spreer will usually update everything on first page and you can see your own order and what happened to it there. In the event of OOS, credit will kept in store. You can ask for refund if you wish.

There are few spreers on lowyat.net forum who are reputable, honest and efficient. I wish I can list them all here but I’d only tried two so I can only recommend them.

sgdrugstore.com aka Ryan

Ryan is a sweetheart. :) He’s currently studying in university and juggling a successful spree business at the same time, ferrying between Singapore and Johor throughout the week. I notice that he usually answers/quotes every 2-3 days, and never on Sundays (I think!) he does answer on Sundays sometimes! And he tends to answer everyone in one bulk message. Very easy to find!

He’s professional and efficient, and his First Page is always up-to-date and informative. I love the way he ships his packages - everything is wrapped so securely with bubble wrap, even eyeshadows are safe! His Buy For Me (BFM) service will usually take 2 weeks. And I found another review of him online:

http://www.skindeco.net/2009/01/seller-review-sgdrugstore-from.html

Also, his drugstore.com spree NEVER, EVER CLOSES. *lol* Then again, so is the next spreer’s…

MalaysianBeautyStore aka Gonzalesgirl aka Rowena (Phew!)
Note 17th July 2010: Gonzalesgirls’ MalaysianBeautyStore disappeared from LowYat a few weeks ago, and Rowena had been trying to reinstate her thread by working with the mods. No news on that front, but she’s now officially opening her own forum:
forum.malaysianbeautystore.com

Rowena is both a spreer and a beauty consultant. It’s an interesting experience for me because I didn’t know what I can ask or can’t in the beginning. :D But you can ask her anything beauty related! From some free-time browsing, I discovered that some of her clients ask for opinions regarding which colors will suit them, how’s the quality of a product, what item is a dupe of something else… (dupe means almost exact or exact copy, usually for cheap!). For myself, I asked her how to shrink pores. :D She recommended me to use Queen Helene’s Mint Julep Mask twice a week, and I followed her advice. True enough, my pores have shrunk! :) Very happy about that.

She is also very professional and efficient. Her turnaround time is the same as Ryan’s. There’s also nothing to complain from the way she wraps her packages - they are all so secure! You need a very sharp pair of scissors when opening both Ryan and Rowena’s packages. :D

I notice that she answers/quotes every few days as well (less predictable for me because I don’t check as often) and here’s the thing: she answers in batches. Don’t be worried when you see her answer and you’re not among them. She quotes in a first come/first serve basis and will eventually come around to yours.

————-

So if these two are so great, how do you choose between them? There is nothing really to choose between them, as they’re both equally great to work with and both are dependable and nice people. For myself, I choose based on my needs. Their sprees are mostly different from each other’s, so if I’d always wanted to buy from a particular website and one of them opens it, I jump at the chance, and at the same time, maybe get a thing or two from another spree they’re opening as well just to save on shipping. By default though, I tend to gravitate towards Ryan. He’s the first one I tried and he’s been so good to me, and I find myself buying from him more often.

One last thing: both of them usually have formulas to calculate prices. Use them as an estimate, as ultimately, the quoted price they give you will be final. It’s just off by a cent or two! :D These formulas are found on the spree post. For example, if you’re buying from drugstore.com, scroll down the first page to find its dedicated post. You’ll find it there.

I suggest try them both out and see which one you prefer. Sometimes it’s just your thing, you know? ;)

IF you find that the website you want is not open in either of these two, do a search on the Stuff For The Ladies forum and you’ll probably get a hit or two. Just be careful and exercise common sense, as always. :)

That’s it… any questions just shoot a comment below. :) Happy Spreeing!

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