Beware of Custom Charges + Sasa Haul

After reading a StyleSuzi's blog about her packages from HK, I really wanted to check out Sasa.com and see if there was anything that I liked. I was happy to see that they were doing a promotional offer on shipping - usually it's free of you spend over $100US, but they were having a promotion whereby you would only need to spend $50US. This means that I didn't have to spend as much money to be eligible for the free shipping - and I think shipping prices are pretty extortionate anyway, so you might as well spend that much rather than pay for shipping. Shipping fees are such a waste of money! I ended up purchasing a few things totaling up to $64US - which you will see later on in this blog.

Much to my shock and horror, I got one of those grey slips through my door stating that I had to pay CUSTOM CHARGES of £15.99!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! £16 extra?! When I got my package, I could see that there was a VAT charge of £7.99 which isn't too bad - but an extra £8 on Royal Mail Handling charges? Come on now! I have ordered from HK before, and never incurred any custom charges. I don't understand the whole custom charge thing, but one thing I do know, I am pissed! So, my warning to everyone is to be careful when ordering from overseas. I, for one, will not shop from Sasa again - even though it's not their fault, I just don't want to pay custom fees again. Instead, I will opt for the other site that I've gotten stuff from where I haven't been charged customs and shipping is only $3US. Although they don't have all the products Sasa has, they have enough Asian beauty products for me to dabble in and they're around the same price.

So, onto my Sasa haul =))

I got some false eyelashes in a pack of ten. These are the LLS Fake Eyelash (A7) (10 pairs). They cost $11 for 10 pairs which seems like a really good deal. Until you get the eyelashes and you can see the difference between this ten pack, and the single pair of Eylure ones. The LLS ones have a string fibre band. It's black, which is no problem for me because I always wear gel eyeliner and mascara. Due to the fact that it's a string band, it's very flimsy, therefore much harder to put on as it doesn't retain the eye shape. This is probably more my fault, but I didn't like the actual style of eyelash. There were a lot to choose from, but I was disappointed with the ones I picked. Suzi choose these ones, and she usually has gorgeous eyes, so I thought that these ones would be a good choice. When I tried them on, they made my eyelashes really spiky - I'm not fond of this look. However, if you double them up, you can get a nice dramatic look with these eyelashes. This means, it's more like 5 pairs of eyelashes rather than 10 - but it's still a good price. I think I might actually prefer the "hairs" used on these false eyelashes more than Eylure ones - they seem a bit more natural looking (and feeling?) to me. I doubt I will repurchase again (more to the fact of wanting to avoid extortionate custom fees more than anything). They're not amazing enough for me to be willing to pay extra charges even though they would probably work out to still be cheaper than the Eylure ones. They're great for $11, but probably not worth as much as that including extra fees.

As you can see with the picture of the false eyelashes below, it looks much less spikey and more like full voluminous long eyelashes. You can also see the string fibre band on each side of the eyelash which will require trimming, along with the false eyelash not retaining the usual eye shape.

Sorry for the grimy glue that you will probably make out on the eyelash band, this was after I was fiddling around with it trying to double up the eyelashes but offset one of them so that the spiky nature of the eyelashes can balance each other out. 

The next two things I bought were eyelash glue. The pack of eyelashes mentioned above does not come with eyelash glue, so unless you have leftover eyelash glue, you will need to purchase some. I know that the DUO eyelash glue is really popular, but they are just so darn expensive! 

 I currently use the Eylure ones that I got from a set that I bought, but I know that I will run out of it, so I invested in some more eyelash glue. I didn't want to spend too much money, so I whittled my selection to just the two: the Koji Spring Heart Eyelash Fix in Black ($1.80) and the Koji Eyelash Fix in Black ($2.70). I went for the black finish because even though most eyelashes dry clear, they do leave a tell-tale finish. I wanted to try eyelash glue that dries black to see if it camouflages better with my eyeliner. I've yet to try out these eyelash glues, but be sure to see a review on it when I do. I will also compare the two eyelash glues and give you my recommendation on which one to get.

I think I splurged quite a bit on eyelash related items - hehe. The last false eyelash related item was this eyelash case (pictured left) which will keep your false eyelashes from getting damaged when travelling. False eyelashes can be worn more than once, if treated properly. This little case will keep my false eyelashes from getting squashed and dirty. This was $4.80, which thinking about it now (and bearing in mind the custom charge), was actually pretty expensive for just a small case. Its a really cute case, I love that its black and baby pink with a bow on it and has a little divider for your eyelashes. You could probably pick up a similar sized case for cheaper - perhaps without the cute design on the top? I really do like it though so I'm a happy bunny =DD

The last thing that I got was the Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream in the shade 21 and 23 (pictured above). The BB cream comes in a tube, but with a pump - I actually really like the packaging. The product comes with 40ml and an SPF of 42. I got one for me, and one for my friend. She's fairer than I am, so I went for the darker shade and she opted for the lighter shade. I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm really excited to. I've heard some pretty good reviews on this product, so I can't wait to try it out for myself. This BB cream was $22.10 each.

Sasa gave me this free gift which was unexpected (featured left). From what I can tell, one of them is for "anti-fall shampoo" which I'm guessing is shampoo for preventing hair loss, and the other is "hair strengthening", which is pretty self explanatory. They gave me 4 x 8ml samples of each. I definitely won't be using the anti-hair fall one, but I might give the hair-strengthening one a shot. It was so weird to see Jackie Chan's face on the packaging - har har.

 I would say that my shopping experience with Sasa was pleasant - but the custom charges were not. I probably will avoid shopping there in case I'm slapped with another custom charge fee, so bear that in mind when shopping international sites. And until next time..

- Diem xo