I picked up a couple of things from the mall and received the package I ordered from Gmarket, yesterday!
B ordered a few things, too, which helped us both save on S+H. Huspaz!
My haul:
Black, suede, platform peep-toe heels from Zara (so cute on my feet!)
A/G deep conditioner: reconstructing treatment
Basic black, soft muffler from Gmarket
VOV Daily Fresh Face Masks in Q10 (5)
Clio Lipsticks (2): G23 (Glossy Peach) & Herb Garden H201 (Herb Orange)
Clio Art Blushers (3): #2 Pink, #4 Rose Pink, #5 Orange Peach
Clio Art Highlighter (1): #3 Light Gold
The main reason why I wanted to order from Gmarket was because I was itching to finally get my hands on the Korea-exclusive brand, Clio. Excellent quality cosmetics formulated in Italy. These blushers and highlighters are baked (yes, literally baked slowly and lovingly in an oven, giving it the dome shape), which, in comparison to being pressed, results in a micro-fine powder that feels ultra-smooth, soft and supple. They can also be applied dry for a sheer, buildable, and flawless look, or wet. Although I would think this next fact about baked products applies mainly to eyeshadows, when applied wet (with a sponge or a brush), they provide a rich, concentrated colour, are amazingly long lasting and will never crease nor bleed. This baked-technology isn’t new to the cosmetic industry. Italians have apparently been churning out baked cosmetics since 1863 and we’ve seen baked products floating around the malls such as in MAC’s Mineralize Skinfinishes and Urban Decay’s Baked Bronzer.
L: Art Highlighter #3 – Light Gold
R: Art Blusher #4 – Rose Pink
L: Art Blusher #5 – Orange Peach
R: Art Blusher #2 – Pink (the marbled look is mesmerizing)
I was tickled pink (somewhat literally) by the overall design and quality of these blushers! The brushes are quite an odd.. thin and curved shell-like disc, but the hair is soft and picks up pigment quite well. Honestly, I wasn’t too fond of the design on the lids initially, but now I think they’re unique and are a breath of fresh air compared to the monochromatic packaging for NARS and MAC, for instance. I think that’s sort of the appeal of Korean cosmetics packaging in general – they’re fun! Anyway, the blushers and highlighter were around $17CAD each, which I think is pretty reasonable.
L: Clio Lipstick (from their regular line) – G23 Glossy Peach
R: Clio Lipstick (from their Spring Garden line) – H201 Herb Orange
(I think this one is from their older line as it was quite rare on Gmarket and it’s made in France.
I dared myself to go bright for the lipsticks and I’m so glad I did. I remember once trying on my mom’s bright red lipstick when I was young and was horrified at how clown-like I looked! I never thought I could pull off a bright lip, let alone an orange one! I was actually inspired to try orange from a beauty blogger I’ve been following for a couple months now, Cat@lina (aka CL2425.blogspot.com), a Korean American residing in NYC (I am in love with her lip collection!). Only thing is that I think the packaging is too childish. Swirly butterflies remind me of the store Claires and pre-teens who like feather boas and rhinestone trimmed piggy banks that say You Go Girl on them. Anyway, Clio lipsticks are moisturizing and the colour, though not exactly sheer, is very buildable and creamy. They go for around $16-19CAD, if I remember correctly. Love them!
For those interested in buying from Gmarket:
Gmarket is basically Korea’s version of Ebay except more extensive. When I browse Gmarket, I feel like I’m in Korea because Gmarket has anything you can possibly want that’s available in Korean stores and (my favourite part) at the same price or cheaper than retail! The seizure-like flashing images might pose to be a bit of a headache in the beginning. From browsing in increasing dose durations, my tolerance slowly built and I was able to figure my way around without being turned off from browsing.
Gmarket is such a big company that they have a Global site for international customers all in English and a Korean site that can be in both English and Korean.. though the “English” portion of the Korean site pretty much only applies to the category headings such as “Women’s Apparel — Jackets and Coats”. The Korean site offers a vastly greater variety of products than the Global site. Using the search function isn’t much of a help unless you search in Korean because typing in English usually brings you to the products you can probably find locally (Western products) or it will lead you to sellers who sell the product for a lot more than it usually goes for. Knowing how to read Korean will just be good enough, especially to be able to read the colours because most of the time, the colours are written in English. For example, white is something like “hwaiteu” spelled out in Korean characters so if you say it out loud, you can most likely figure it out.
Once you search for a product in the available categories, you are able to quickly judge if the product would be suitable to your tastes through 1) the flashing pictures, 2) the price (most of the time, if the seller sells more than one type of scarf, for example, the price indicated on the results listing is the base price (5,000 won, for eg) – the price of the cheapest scarf available in that store. When you choose a different style, the price may increase by “+2,500 won” so the price of the scarf you want would be 7,500 won), 3) sometimes the seller indicates a discount or free gift (in my haul, I got a BB cream sample and a foam cleanser sample), and 4) the overall ratings by previous customers (the yellow bars – full bars means highly recommended).
Shipping depends on the weight of your product. You will soon discover that the more you buy, the cheaper the overall shipping cost will be per product. It is quite expensive if you buy only a few, small products. Because I ordered with B, it turned out to be around $5 in shipping per item which I deem pretty reasonable. Gmarket is pretty accurate at estimating the cost of shipping but if they end up being off, they will credit you the difference in Gmarket dollars to be used towards shipping for your next purchase.
Once you put the products you want into your shopping cart (I recommend signing up for an account before browsing so your products are saved into your shopping cart, though, I warn you, your products only stay saved in your cart for about a week) and order (Paypal is a very safe way), all the individual sellers ship their products to the main Gmarket warehouse (some sellers take longer than others to ship) where, once all received, your products are combined into one large package that will be sent to you in one piece. So, when you check the status of your order, you will see that it will be “domestically delivered” before the overseas shipment to your house. They give you a tracking code, too. From then, it will take around 2 weeks to arrive to your house!
So all in all, I recommend using the Korean Gmarket site (in English if need be). With patience and possibly an order buddy or two, you could easily get Korean goods shipped to your door for much cheaper than you would find locally or on Ebay! Good luck~
