[Review] BuyAndShip Beauty Haul from US

Who can resist the lure of cheap online shopping? Online shopping is made even better when I can buy even cheaper stuff from overseas with a reasonable forwarding service, thanks to BuyandShip. You may not have heard of it yet partly because BuyandShip had only just arrived in Malaysia last year but they have been tending to the US, UK, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea markets for a while now with warehouses in those countries to cater to your shopping frenzy.

Thanks to BuyandShip, I was invited to try out their service and could order from any of the websites listed on their site. I opted for ELF makeup as I was in dire need of brown eyeshadows. Of course, I may or may not have bought other stuff as well...Anyway, using BuyandShip is very easy and you can read about it in my previous blog post.

What caught my attention about BuyandShip, was their shipping rates : RM15 per pound (at time of review). Better yet, first time users get a 10 credits free which can help you save on shipping. However there is a weight limitation of 20 pounds for consolidated parcels and if the shipping exceeds 20 pounds, it will be packaged separately. Individual parcels are however still shipped at 55 pounds per tracking number.

Once you're a member, you're given access to their list of warehouse addresses which you can use for your shopping spree. BuyandShip will then consolidate your orders into one and have them shipped off to you.

After ordering my makeup on ELF and keying in the warehouse address, all I need to do was sit back and wait. Then a couple of days later I got an email saying that my stuff was on route from Ontario to Hong Kong. I could also check up on its status on my profile page and declare its contents. Upon arriving in Hong Kong, another email came in saying my stuff had arrived and was being consolidated. Upon check out, I opted to pay with BuyandShip credits.

About a week later, my stuff had been delivered in a nicely packed box, all tightly sealed and wrapped. Thumbs up for solid packaging that ensured everything came in mint condition. The total delivery days varies from country to country:
- US and UK: 6-9 days
- Japan and Korea: 4 -7 days
- China and Hong Kong: 4 - 7 days.
Of course, this is also subjected to how fast you respond to having your parcels consolidated. The Hong Kong warehouse will store your packages for 30 days for consolidation at your will.

So in a nutshell, BuyandShip is great if you're:
1) shopping in bulk and/or have friends who want to share the cost load.
2) Taking advantage of a mega sale on an oversea's site
3) Not rushing for the order to come in ASAP. As the products are coming from abroad and require time to reach the warehouses and pass customs, a delay might occur.

So to all frequent online shoppers out there, this is the service for you. Just get ready to say bye-bye to your hard-earn salary. To start shopping and shipping, head on over to BuyandShip.

This article is written in collaboration with Buyandship but all opinion and thoughts are entirely the writer's own based on her own experience using this service.

Update: at time of publication, BuyandShip has announced the increase of its shipping rates to RM18 per pound from 1 April onwards.