Reasons I'm bidding farewell to the site I once adored:
- You have to pre-pay the estimated weight for your orders - sellers aren't as bad as a few years ago where they'd list the estimated weight of an eyeliner to be 1kg - and as they always overestimate, any leftover amount is "stuck" in your Gaccount until your next order. So in other words, your Gaccount balance is never zero, in effect making you return to use up the balance (and leave more funds in your account). Right now I have around $35 left in my Gmarket account and I think for me to withdraw this, it would cost around $30 in fees, so there's not much point.
- Only optimized for Internet Explorer, my least favourite browser. Navigation is still buggy with Chrome and FireFox.
- The only available shipping option is EMS which is extortionate for small orders. Also, in the UK, EMS packages are also more likely to be stopped by customs, followed by a delightful £13.50 handling fee slapped by Parcelforce regardless of the amount you get taxed, which just takes the cake when the tax itself is like £4.
- Slow to navigate (even on a 70MB fiber connection) and I always have to wait for the sellers' images to fully load.
- Site is unnecessarily complicated; even with several Gmarket orders under my belt I still can't find my way around easily. I can see plenty of ways they can simplify their site & the ordering process while maintaining functionality. One would think that with the amount of international customers they get, it would make sense to make the shopping interface more user friendly.
- Customer service takes around 2 days (pretty sure they used to be quicker) to respond to queries and I have to keep checking my account to see whether there's a reply.
Koreadepart offers registered airmail shipping, which you pay in advance, but after your order is shipped they'll automatically refund any overpayment. If your order is over 1.2kgs, they will only ship via EMS. You can just place several orders to avoid EMS though.
For someone like me who only really buys beauty products (Rilakkuma too!) and is particular about ingredients, I see little point in continuing to shop at Gmarket when I can get the same items from Koreadepart for pretty much the same price give or take a few cents.
My estimated shipping was $25, but after my package was shipped with an actual shipping cost of $13, I was automatically refunded $12 via PayPal.
My first order consisted of:
6 x Innisfree Eco Nail Colour
Innisfree Eco Safety No Sebum Sun Milk SPF 50+ PA+++ (I do love sun protection!)
Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay mask
Innisfree Color Tint Balm
Other than the Volcanic Pore Clay Mask, I've had the chance to try out these items. Read on for reviews!
Innisfree Eco Nail Colour
The six I picked were 116, 117, 120, 128, 129 and 130. For approximately $3 each, and free from DBP, formaldehyde and toluene, I figured that I couldn't really go wrong with these.
The pastel coloured 116, 117 and 120 are part of Innisfree's Macaron Nail Collection. 128, 129 and 130 are part of the Glitter Nail Collection.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all colours from the Macaron collection as some had sold out.
116 Strawberry Macaron - A delicate baby pink, this is my favourite of the six.
117 Blueberry Macaron - Pastel purple toned blue.
120 Peach Maracon - Pastel peach.
These shades are completely opaque and look exactly as they do in the bottle. To get an even colour it's best to apply two coats. They last 2 days without chipping (haven't tried for longer than this as I prefer not to wear the same nail colour for too long)
Since I don't know the official names of the glitter polishes, I'll refer to them by their product numbers.
128 - The silver glitter itself is very pretty, but I'm really not a fan of the giant square chunks. Without them, I'd actually wear this.
129 - Glitter overload! Difficult to apply evenly, because the glitter gets dragged around by the brush, so I had to wait for the first to dry before applying a second, which ended with more unevenness, as can be seen from the photo.
130 - The glitter bits in this are huge, and I mean huge, and look like broken glass on the nails. Maybe that's the point, but I'm not a fan. And because the bottle contains so much glitter in odd shapes, they have a tendency to overlap, making the nail look bumpy and uneven. I don't like the shade of red either; it makes my nails look like they've stained. It's a complete mystery as to why I picked this...
Innisfree Eco Safety No Sebum Sun Milk SPF 50+ PA+++
Mineral based and 5 free, this is a lightweight sun milk that spreads easily, leaves no white cast or sticky residue - the consistency of Asian sun protection is simply unrivalled!
It's slightly runnier than, and doesn't feel as moisturising as Naturaglace UV Base Milk, but while you get 35ml of Naturaglace for ¥2940 (≈$28), Innisfree Sun Milk is ≈$15 (factored in shipping) for 45ml.
I'll continue using Naturaglace since I find it sits better under makup without the need for additional primer, but as far as reasonably priced everyday sun protection goes, I've reached for this several days in a row now, so I'd say that I've found a new staple.
No Sebum Sun Milk ingredients:
Innisfree Color Change Tint Balm
Slanted tip, easy to apply:
Like most "colour change" balms, this starts out very sheer, then deepens in colour, though nowhere near as pigmented as the colour shown in the tube. It has a sweet, fruity, non overpowering scent I really like.
Swatch:
This isn't as moisturising as dedicated lip balms, so wouldn't do much good for chapped lips. It is, however, a pretty reddish pink 2 in 1 coloured balm which leaves the lips soft and pink. At approximately $9, it's excellent value.
As Innisfree products are paraben/mineral oil free and so well priced, I'll be adding more to my shopping list! Wouldn't mind a few more (non glittery!) nail colours for $3 each...
