Haul from Koreadepart.com and shop review

April 21, 2013

I wanted to show you my little haul from Korea Depart online store, so I decided to dedicate a post to it and share with you some information about this site.
I stumbled upon this site while I was looking for Korean nail polish swatches. I'm really into Korean brands lately, I love how colorful they are, the packaging is so pretty and I just love how cute and creative their products are. I have some Korean nail polish that I bought occasionally on eBay, but I couldn't always find what I was looking for, so when I came across this site and found out that they ship worldwide, I couldn't be any happier.
Before I went ahead and placed my order on the site, I wanted to make sure this site is safe to buy from, but I couldn't find many English reviews about this site. I think I found about 2-3 reviews, showing their order, so that made me feel a bit more safe, and then I decided to place my order on koreadepart.com. 

First I will show you what I got from the site, and then I will explain how to place your order, since it's a bit different from most online stores.
I ordered 3 innisfree polishes, I'm already familiar with this brand and I liked it (I also like the fact that these polishes don't have a strong smell, like many other Korean brands have). I found another polish I liked from the pictures, from a brand called VDL. The bottle was interesting and shaped as lips, couldn't find any swatches of this polish but it looked nice, so I added this one to my cart. I also added a hand cream with a peach scent, didn't hear about this brand either but I'm crazy for lotions so I couldn't resist it. I also received some samples of various brands as a gift, I'm not sure I'm going to use all of them (don't think I need to get any whiter with the whitening cream for the face lol), but I can tell you that samples are a great way to get to know new brands. So, yeah, samples are good! :)



These are the polishes I ordered, left to right: 
Innisfree 125, 124, 121 (the two on the right are from a new "Macaron" collection, and the one on the left is from the "Glitter" collection.
Innisfree 125 is a gorgeous glitter mix in clear base, and the other two are milky base with glitters. All are gorgeous, I hope to swatch them soon for you soon.
These Innisfree polishes contain 10 ml.


VDL polish from the collection Festival Nails Glitter (GuyLian), it's a cute bottle shaped as lips. 
This polish name / number is Sea Sand Mint 402.
Since I couldn't find any swatches of this one online, I was surprised when I saw it in person because for some reason I was expecting to see matte glitter in a mint base. Looking closely at this polish I see that it contains tiny teal glitters (sparkly, not matte) and the base is quite white to my eyes, I think it looks kind of minty in the bottle, but it actually appears that the density of the small glitters create this color, and if you look closely, you will see quite a pale or white base.
This bottle contains 7 ml.

Here are some macro shots of the bottles, so you can see how beautiful these polishes up close.

Innisfree 125

Innisfree 124

Innisfree 121

Sea Sand Mint 402
So now that you've seen what I ordered, let's tell you about the site and the process of placing your order, because as I said, it wasn't a typical purchase process.

First you will need to create an account at the site, pretty standard process. You can browse the site for products by brand or by category. The site holds many Korean beauty products, also food and clothing items. I was actually more interested in nail polish so I didn't pay much attention to other items, but you can find there many Korean makeup and cosmetics like Etude House, Skinfood, TonyMoly, Innisfree, Missha, The Face Shop and many many more (these are only a few that I was familiar with).
The prices are quite cheap (in most cases cheaper than on eBay), and the they offer worldwide shipping, which I will explain more below.
The range of products is also great, although I did see many products that are listed on the site but they were out of stock, which was pretty sad because I saw so many pretty things that I wanted but were out of stock.

When I placed my order a few weeks ago, they had a bit different system of paying for the items and shipping, I had to pay first for the items - I sent a PayPal invoice to a mail that was provided at the checkout page (which was a bit weird to me, but I went for it anyway, hoping it's not some scam, and I'm glad it wasn't). I received an email once my payment was cleared with their site, and then the next day I received an invoice for the shipping that was calculated according to my order's weight (it was $8.54 for the items I ordered for Israel).
The weird thing was that I actually had to go to my PayPal account, and send money through there and not on their site, which was weird, but I see that they have updated their system since then and it's more simple now.

Here is how the checkout works now on their site:
Payment:
Once you are at the checkout page, you will need to choose your country and the preferred shipping method (EMS which is pricier but could be economic for you if you order many items, or Registered mail which in most cases will be cheaper, depending on the weight of your order).
You can know the estimated shipping cost of you package if you calculate the item's weight by this chart, then sum the weight of your entire order and see how much it will cost to ship it according to the shipping fee chart.
At checkout you will be paying in advance for the higher shipping cost ($20) and then after your package will be weighted and they know how much exactly shipping will cost, they will refund you the difference amount between PRE PAID shipping cost and ACTUAL shipping cost you need to pay.
For example, if I ordered 4 polishes that cost $10, I will also be paying $20 for shipping - a total of $30. Once my shipping fee is calculated, I assume it will be around $6 according to the info on their site, they will refund my with $14. Hope that makes sense to you :)
You can see additional info about the payment and international shipping in this link.

Shipping:
The package will be shipped to you from Korea worldwide.
As for shipping time, I'm used for packages to arrive within a month or so from Korea (most eBay purchases), but I was very surprised when I received my order from Korea Depart within two weeks of placing the order. For me it was very fast shipping, and I was satisfied.
You can also track your order status on site, they offer this service and more info there.
On site it states that estimated shipping time for registered mail is 14~40 days, and for EMS 7~14 day. This of course depends on where you live, but from what I've read they will deliver everywhere as long as there are no customs restrictions in your country.

Package:
The items arrived in perfect shape, everything was packed carefully in a bubble wrap, and placed  inside a cardboard box (along with free samples), as I showed in the attached photos in this post.
Overall I am very satisfied with my purchase from this site, I'm happy that I have a new place to shop for great Korean brands for makeup and nail polish. In fact, I already placed my second order on this site today, so you can see I'm pretty pleased.
I think you can trust this site when you place your order, and feel safe while doing so.
Hope this review was helpful to you, you can browse their site to see the products the offer for sale and to read more information about the payment and shipping in the links I provided above.
If you have any questions, I will be happy to try and answer them.
Thanks for reading! :)

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Natalie

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22 Comments

  1. UnknownApril 22, 2013 at 6:05 PM

    They have innisfree nail polishes ! That's so great !

    ReplyDelete
  2. RaquelApril 22, 2013 at 6:19 PM

    I think I need that Innisfree #124! So pretty! *-*

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 22, 2013 at 7:29 PM

    wow, I've heard about this site and G market, but still don't dare to place an order. After reading this... I think I'll try the korea depart ^.^
    Btw, hand lotion is from Nature Republic, I love that brand so much, I've used their skin care line and they have nail polish collection too

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NatalieJune 2, 2013 at 1:53 PM

      I've heard of G market but never used it too.. This site worked better for me I think.
      The cream / lotion was nice but was cute but I didn't really like the smell after all.

      Delete
    2. UnknownSeptember 26, 2013 at 1:23 PM

      At Gmarket products are mostly more expensive than on ebay.

      Delete
  4. LauraApril 22, 2013 at 9:54 PM

    I placed an order with them this morning after reading this :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownApril 29, 2013 at 1:58 PM

    Thank you for this post ! I always wondered how worked their shipping charge, now I understand ^^. I have those Innisfree and they are so stunning !

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 2, 2013 at 8:11 AM

    Hi! <3

    I was wondering about the shipping costs for koreadepart. Like, that extra money you have to add to your order. What's up with that? And the lowest I can select is $100, and I totally do not want to spend all that extra money. Help?

    P.S. I only have like, 5 items so it shouldn't weigh a ton

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NatalieJune 2, 2013 at 1:51 PM

      I don't know why it shows you a 100$ minimum, I just tried this and it was 25$, like the last time I ordered.
      Maybe try checking that you picked the right category, and maybe it's because of your location. In any case, you can always contact them for help.
      Good luck with that.

      Delete
  7. AnonymousAugust 16, 2013 at 12:10 PM

    Hi! do you think their skincare products are safe to purchase?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NatalieMarch 9, 2014 at 3:47 PM

      I believe so, these are well known Korean brands.
      I advise you read some reviews from bloggers (there are many blogs posts written in English about Korean products) about products that you are interested in before you purchase them.

      Delete
  8. UnknownSeptember 16, 2013 at 1:14 AM

    I think their skin care is authentic, I already ordered twice from them

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NatalieMarch 9, 2014 at 3:46 PM

      So far I've tried Koran nail polish and I really like it!

      Delete
  9. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2013 at 6:05 AM

    Thanks for this! I discovered them last week and feel in love but was scared to buy. Your review helped me so much. I'm more confident buying from them now!

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownMarch 9, 2014 at 2:37 PM

    Hello, did the custom charge you any import tax? I am waiting for a parcel from koreadepart. So worried.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NatalieMarch 9, 2014 at 3:44 PM

      Hi
      I wasn't charged for customs, it only happens with large packages in most cases, but it depends on your country rules of customs as well.

      Delete
  11. UnknownNovember 30, 2014 at 2:31 PM

    Is it legit seller

    ReplyDelete