July Haul - RoseRoseShop

12:50:00 AM mandy 0 Comments

Oh, the constant battle between the frugal self and impatient mind.

Any Korean beauty lover outside of Korea would know the struggle of choosing between price and convenience. Do I want to have something immediately, support a local business, and pay a little more for it? Or do I want to pay as close to Korean retail as possible but wait a little longer?

When I find sites like RoseRoseShop, it certainly helps the thrifty side win out. Their prices are great and being forced to pay for shipping makes me reconsider everything I lust over. As long as I don't feel like I am in dire, immediate need of any product in my cart I can handle the long overseas mail time. Just please don't get lost!



I ended up ordering various foot peeling masks, Pyunkang Yul Cleansing Foam, make p:rem UV Defense ME Blue Ray Sun Fluid, make p:rem UV Defense ME Blue Ray Sun Gel, Clio Kill Cover Pro Artist Liquid Color Concealer in Mint, A'PIEU Aqua Peeling Cotton Swab in Intensive, and an Etude House eyebrow scissor.

The recent launch and raves for the make p:rem sunscreens instigated this haulage. RoseRoseShop's prices and discounts made it hard to resist when considering how much it sells for on Glow Recipe (make p:rem's only official USA seller).

Pyunkang Yul's oriental beauty line has been highly talked about on YouTube as well. I do want to try everything eventually but chose to get only the cleanser for now.

I couldn't believe how much cheaper all the foot peeling masks were on RRS, so naturally, I added one of each that they had out of curiosity. If it all works well, I will probably just stock up on whatever is the cheapest in the future.

The cotton swab exfoliator, eyebrow scissors, and color corrector were thrown in there either because I liked it, needed it, or just plain o' intrigued by it. Since those products are all light in weight, it didn't affect the total shipping price much.

Price & Stock

K-Beauty products offered on RoseRoseShop seem to be the lowest prices available online and in stores outside of Korea (even with additional shipping costs). Items are all listed with their Korean retail prices but most goods seem to be always on some kind of sale.

RRS offers a majority of the brands and products that are popular in Korea at the moment. Even if they don't have it, there is the option to try and request it via their "Request Form."

Something that makes RRS different is their wholesale option. If there is a product you absolutely love and they carry it, they usually list an "x10" option that is slightly discounted when compared to adding 10 of the "x1" version of the listing.

As if RRS couldn't be any more unique, they also sell sample sachets and mini-bottles. If you want to test smaller amounts first, you can. If you want a super travel-friendly version of your faves, you can get that too. Yes, those things are usually gratis in Korea but it is nice to have the option.

Requesting

For the hardcore K-Beauty fans, RoseRoseShop allows their customers to request items and brands. Requests could either become one of three things: regular listing, special request listing, or be rejected. The main difference between a regular and special listing is the latter includes an additional 8% commission fee and RRS purchases it after the order is placed versus having it in already stock in a warehouse somewhere. (Think personal buying.)

Judging from their Request Form section, it seems that those who ask for something from a brand that RRS already carries has better luck with the request becoming a regular listing.

It can be difficult to find the button to the actual form for making a request, but fear not it is there. Look for the small "Write" button at the bottom of the page next to the "Search" button. Having the "Search" and "Write" functions closer to the top of the site would have been more user-friendly, but I digress.

In my own experience, I received a comment on my request within a day or two, which said whether they could fulfill my request or not. (I asked for a specific make p:rem product and also asked if they could carry other make p:rem goods as well—in hopes that my item wouldn't be considered a special request and thus avoiding the commission fee.) After checking every few days, I finally saw my requested item about 2 weeks later along with a few of other products from the brand.

Communication

Email/Contact Form // Surprisingly quick (within a day or two). Perhaps the quickness would differ depending on the urgency of your inquiry, albeit they were responding to my non-urgent, mistakenly- sent product request.

Live Chat // Has set times on Monday-Thursday (10AM-5PM) and Friday (10AM-1PM). It is relatively fast as long as someone is available. If you see that the chat is live, I think it is more than likely to be first greeted by a "Customer Service" user who might say everyone is busy at the moment and to leave a message with an email address. I left the chat window bar opened for a bit and waited just in case someone freed up to chat. Within 5-7 minutes later a "roseroseshop" user answered my questions very promptly.

Website Design

The website's design has a very typical Korean e-commerce look. (i.e. Global Lotte, Gmarket, etc.) It isn't the most beautiful to look at but it works.

Certain categories are very general (ex: "Makeup - Eye" instead of Eyeshadows, Eyeliners, Eyebrow, etc.). There is basic filtering according to Price, Name, and Rating. However, there isn't a way to further filter pages results by skin type, concern, ingredient, etc. If their offerings weren't so plentiful, I wouldn't as bothered. But because RoseRoseShop has so many products available it takes ages to click through every page.

At least there is a search bar, right? Yes and no. When it works, it does its job. But it is very picky—if the name of the brand or product is slightly off, there won't be any results.
Ex 1: "make p:rem" works but "make prem" without the colon will give no results.
Ex 2: "eyeshadow", "eye shadow", "shadow" will give varying results (2 pages v. 3 pages v. 10 pages)

On the topic of search bars and filtering products, there is no way to find all the "Free Shipping" products RRS has at once. It isn't listed separately under their "Hot Sale" tab. It also isn't a searchable term in the search bar.

The listing information for each product is fairly bare-bones. On rare occasions, they will include a product's infographic made by the brands. One thing I wished they have is the ingredient information.

Account

An account is required in order to check out. I believe creating an account on RoseRoseShop will give new users ₩2,000 credit.

Sign-ins via Google, Yandex, and PayPal are also an option for those who don't want to create a separate account via RRS. I am not 100% sure if the ₩2,000 credit is available for 3rd party sign-ins.

They do not have a points/reward system.

Check Out Process

Quick and simple. No new windows or tabs to overwhelm your computer. All the basic info inputting occurs on the same page and is easily modifiable. A click of the "Continue" button takes you to their PayPal checkout page. Once the payment is complete the page will redirect right back to RoseRoseShop site and say "Your Order Has Been Processed!"

Payment

RoseRoseShop accepts payment via PayPal only—within PayPal you can choose to pay with your linked bank account or a credit card.

Even though the site has the option at the top right corner to view prices in Korean Won and USD, payments are done only in USD at their specified exchange rate. I contacted their customer service and they said it is because PayPal doesn't allow transactions in Korean Won. This seems a little weird since I have shopped on other international sites before where I have paid in a foreign currency via PayPal. So who knows?

As of now, I believe the only function of having the option to switch between the two currencies is so they can easily add new listings in their native Korean Won and then have their site's coding automatically convert the listing to USD for international customers to see.

RoseRoseShop's exchange rate isn't terrible. But it definitely isn't the most current rate at the time of purchase (ex: RRS's USD $1 to ₩1,120 versus actual ₩1,154).  In reality, it will usually only be a few dollars' difference. Those few dollars could potentially add up for larger hauls with shipping in consideration.

Shipping

The most important aspect of RoseRoseShop that needs to be spelled out is, there is no "Free shipping with minimum purchase." Shipping prices are calculated by weight—the more you buy, the more you pay for shipping.

With that said, they offer a bunch of options: K-packet (has a weight limit), EMS, Air Parcel, DHL, etc. There are price tables for every mail courier.

It is a difficult system to "cheat" in the sense that it requires patience and a lot of adding and subtracting items from the cart. I found that this really helps curb my impulse purchases.

Sometimes RoseRoseShop offers "Free Shipping" for certain products or all products of a specific brand. This means that the shipping for each product is $0. If an order consists of only products that are labeled "Free Shipping" they will require the purchase of a tracking number for a few dollars.

Delivery

The estimated shipping time for K-packet (regular Korean Mail) packages to the USA is 2-5 weeks. This seems pretty normal for an affordable international shipment option.

7/7 Placed order.
7/9 Order processing.  (Received no email, just saw the status on my account & order history)
7/12 Order shipped with tracking number. (Received email and on account)
7/17 Package arrived.

At first, I was a little worried that my package took a few days from being processed to being shipped. I had read on forums and blogs that some people have experienced items going out of stock after placing an order. RRS seems to only notify after the order has been shipping. While refunds for the OOS item is a no-brainer, shipping costs seem to be non-refundable.

Luckily for me, the reason for the delayed shipping wasn't due to stock. Perhaps they just had a lot of orders to deal with at the moment? I was surprised by how quickly my package arrived since I was expecting it to come in a month's time. It didn't even take a full week for the order to be transported from Korea to New York.

Packaging

Everything was very well protected. Products that came in boxes were all individually wrapped in a double layer of bubble wrap. Flatter items (masks, beauty accessories, samples, etc.) were bundled together in a plastic pouch. Even the box my order came in was thoroughly taped on all sides.

I don't know if customs made a cut to the box or an untaped edge couldn't withstand the thrashing of international travel, my box had a small tear on one of the corners. Luckily, it wasn't bige enough for any of my items to fall out of.

Returns

Within 7 days after the delivery date with some conditions and limitations. Costs are the customers' responsibility.

Other Comments

Despite their product prices being the lowest available, I feel the possible hidden costs are in the Payment (exchange rate) and Shipping departments. But since all their items are Korean retail price, I'll let it go.

I am not sure how often their USD to Korean Won rate is updated to reflect the real exchange rate but as of now, summer 2017, the difference isn't too large. It seems that the RRS rate is maybe around ₩30 less than the live rate. Since when I ordered, I have seen the site's rate go from ₩1,120 to ₩1,100 to ₩1,090.

Since shipping costs are calculated based on weight, the final cost per item may potentially end up not being the cheapest available when considering Amazon and eBay sellers into the mix. (Still within only a few dollars difference.) However, what customers get in exchange is potentially better communication with RoseRoseShop and ease of mind regarding the authenticity of products.

They don't give a ton of samples but it is better than not receiving any at all. It is free aferall.

Shopping tips to maximize on shipping
Mix heavy and light items // The price tables are tricky to navigate. To summarize, shipping prices are based on some kind of weight tier system. If an order only has heavy items then the shipping fees will only be spread out between that. A few lighter items (under 100g) can usually be added without causing the price of shipping to change—in effect spreading out the cost of shipping to other items or getting free shipping of sorts for the lightweights.

Final price compare // If there is another site that sells the same/most of the same things as RRS, add everything to the carts first and see if there is an estimate for shipping. Gauge what the total price would be to see which ultimately has a better deal.