A beauty swap has been on my list of 'to do's' ever since I stumbled upon the beauty community over eighteen months ago. I dont know about you but I'm always allured by makeup that I can't easily get hold of here in the UK, and suffer with what only can be described as 'product envy' when I see pretty things on blogs that are only available overseas. When Jiawun from Beauty Nerd By Night asked if I wanted to do a swap I was definitely up for it, she lives in Malaysia and the idea of a box full of Asian beauty products (that are well reknowned for their gorgeous packaging) was rather exciting to say the least. After chatting on Whatsapp about our likes and dislikes we set a budget of £50 and got down to business with the shopping! Jiawun was interested in a Sleek palette, Rimmel's Stay Matte powder and a Rimmel Apocalips as well as the brands Bourjois, Collection and MUA. I didn't have any specific products in mind that I wanted to try so was looking forward to the surprise.
Products Overview
I've only given things a brief swatch and test so far (I want to take pictures for reviews before I start enthusiastically swatching and applying things to my face!) but can honestly say I love the look of everything that's here. Excited kid at Christmas doesn't even cover how I felt when I feasted my eyes upon these beauty goodies! Some of the products that have stood out the most so far are the Etude House Cookie blusher (the white powder puff with the bow is SO cute and the product is so lovely and finely milled) the Etude House Watercolour Blusher and of course the Etude House Crystal Shine Lips lipstick- the most beautifully packaged girly lipstick I've ever seen. One of the things I was actually most excited about was the 'I Can Fly' lip balm; I've been wanting to get my hands on EOS's domed goodness for the best part of two years now, so to be sent something that looks even cuter was a huge bonus. The Dolly Wink liner looks incredible it has the finest tip ever, as I use black liquid liner every time I do my makeup I can see it being a firm staple product. The lipstick on the far left of the photo is described as 'moisturising matte' which sounds like the coolest concept ever- it's also in a lovely vibrant orange/coral shade I can't wait to give it a whirl. I feel like I haven't done these products any justice by photographing them in bulk like this, but rather than go through everything (and write a blog post that's comparable in length to a dissertation) I'll do separate reviews over the next few weeks.
Sweets, Samples and Shipping
As a bonus she included a load of different samples for me to try out; there's an organic herb extract mask in here that I can't wait to test out as well as some BB/ CC creams. I've never tried a CC cream before, so I'm really interested to see what they'll be like. We also included some sweets our parcels, the 'Sugus' ones shown above were amazing and tasted a lot like Chewitts, which is funny because they're one of the packs of sweets I included in her box. There were also some sour fizzy strawberry laces, but they weren't around for long enough to make it to the picture- they were so nice! Shipping cost around £15 for me to send a Glossybox sized parcel weighing just over a kilo; it cost Jiawun closer to the £20 mark, as her Post Office would only allow her to send it with a tracking number. Unbelievably each of our boxes reached each other within a week of posting, which pretty good going seeing as we're almost opposite ends of the world. I'm used to eBay parcels from Asia taking up to a month to arrive, so was really surprised at how quick we both got them.
My Overall Thoughts
While you hear some horror stories when it comes to swaps (I saw one girl on Youtube that was sent a smooshed, hairy lipstick- can you imagine?!) but my experience was completely positive and I couldn't be happier. If you're thinking of doing a swap I'd recommend choosing another blogger rather than a random from a beauty forum or somewhere online, not that it's totally foolproof but at least that way you can see from their blog and social media if everything looks legit. Make sure you have a good chat about the products, brands and colours you're interested in trying as well as things you don't want to receive; be aware there are certain things (like nail polish) that you can't send overseas. I definitely want to do another swap some time in the new year, there are quite a few American beauty products I'd love to get my hands on so if you're from the U.S and are interested let me know!
I've only given things a brief swatch and test so far (I want to take pictures for reviews before I start enthusiastically swatching and applying things to my face!) but can honestly say I love the look of everything that's here. Excited kid at Christmas doesn't even cover how I felt when I feasted my eyes upon these beauty goodies! Some of the products that have stood out the most so far are the Etude House Cookie blusher (the white powder puff with the bow is SO cute and the product is so lovely and finely milled) the Etude House Watercolour Blusher and of course the Etude House Crystal Shine Lips lipstick- the most beautifully packaged girly lipstick I've ever seen. One of the things I was actually most excited about was the 'I Can Fly' lip balm; I've been wanting to get my hands on EOS's domed goodness for the best part of two years now, so to be sent something that looks even cuter was a huge bonus. The Dolly Wink liner looks incredible it has the finest tip ever, as I use black liquid liner every time I do my makeup I can see it being a firm staple product. The lipstick on the far left of the photo is described as 'moisturising matte' which sounds like the coolest concept ever- it's also in a lovely vibrant orange/coral shade I can't wait to give it a whirl. I feel like I haven't done these products any justice by photographing them in bulk like this, but rather than go through everything (and write a blog post that's comparable in length to a dissertation) I'll do separate reviews over the next few weeks.
Sweets, Samples and Shipping
As a bonus she included a load of different samples for me to try out; there's an organic herb extract mask in here that I can't wait to test out as well as some BB/ CC creams. I've never tried a CC cream before, so I'm really interested to see what they'll be like. We also included some sweets our parcels, the 'Sugus' ones shown above were amazing and tasted a lot like Chewitts, which is funny because they're one of the packs of sweets I included in her box. There were also some sour fizzy strawberry laces, but they weren't around for long enough to make it to the picture- they were so nice! Shipping cost around £15 for me to send a Glossybox sized parcel weighing just over a kilo; it cost Jiawun closer to the £20 mark, as her Post Office would only allow her to send it with a tracking number. Unbelievably each of our boxes reached each other within a week of posting, which pretty good going seeing as we're almost opposite ends of the world. I'm used to eBay parcels from Asia taking up to a month to arrive, so was really surprised at how quick we both got them.
My Overall Thoughts
While you hear some horror stories when it comes to swaps (I saw one girl on Youtube that was sent a smooshed, hairy lipstick- can you imagine?!) but my experience was completely positive and I couldn't be happier. If you're thinking of doing a swap I'd recommend choosing another blogger rather than a random from a beauty forum or somewhere online, not that it's totally foolproof but at least that way you can see from their blog and social media if everything looks legit. Make sure you have a good chat about the products, brands and colours you're interested in trying as well as things you don't want to receive; be aware there are certain things (like nail polish) that you can't send overseas. I definitely want to do another swap some time in the new year, there are quite a few American beauty products I'd love to get my hands on so if you're from the U.S and are interested let me know!
Have you ever done a beauty box swap? How was your experience?
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