Althea Korea Review
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 |
| Photo credits: blog.althea.kr |
"Beauty products from Korea delivered right to your doorstep"
Yup. We call it Althea Korea
No doubt the Korean trend has already affected us (well, in most Asian countries) so much when it comes to music, style and even with the beauty products. In my case, I'm obsessed not only with their music but also with their beauty products.
You might be one of those people who's always having a hard time buying Korean products due to the reason that the place where you're at only have limited Korean products to offer (just like here in my place). It's always been a struggle for me where to find some of the Korean products I use because they don't offer it in here. I had to buy some of them online which is also kind of troublesome and more expensive considering that I need to also pay for the shipping of my orders, but considering my love for my skin, I still do so.
Good thing I found this wonderful site named, Althea Korea. It is an online shop wherein you can buy tons of Korean products. Their main office is located in South Korea so you can really guarantee that you'll be receiving legit products from Korea.
I've always been a fan of online shopping and I found this site when I was busy scrolling down on my Facebook's timeline. It was a sponsored advertisement that time and when I saw the word, "Korean beauty products" on the ad I felt like my eyes turned to hearts and didn't hesitate clicking it to see what they've got to offer.
The first thing that I liked about them was the site, I liked how they managed to make it girly and attractive to the eyes. It would really make you scroll down for more. To my surprise, I found most of the Korean products I use on the site and not only that, all of them were being sold at a very cheap price. Yup, you heard it right. It was sooooo cheap that I had to doubt if they are really legit sellers and if they sell legit products. So to clear my mind, I did some research about them and read some reviews to make sure I'll be buying from a trusted site. I got nothing but positive comments from their customers and even found some famous bloggers buying from them (one of my favorite Filipino bloggers — Style Vanity, buys from them, too) and that's when they finally convinced me.
I only bought 5 products on my first order even though I wanted to buy 15 (haha!). I had to make sure first, that's why.
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| Products I bought from them |
None of the products above are being sold here in my country and all of them were sold for a very cheap price that I just had to pay for PHP 1,682 (33.86 USD) in total. I didn't pay for the shipping fee since I was able to reach the specific amount for their free shipping.
In order to purchase products from them, you need to first make an account. Another thing which I liked from them was, they had this PHP 300 off for their new customers (PHP 150 on your first purchase and another PHP 150 rebate which you can use on your next purchase). Originally, I had to pay worth PHP 1,832 but because I was a new customer, I was able to get the PHP 150 off by just entering the code, WELCOME-PH on their coupon code box and had the other PHP 150 as a rebate (it's really amazing!). They also offer free shipping (yup! FREE SHIPPING!), if you've ordered worth PHP 1,500 or more. Recently, they just changed their minimum amount to avail the free shipping order into worth PHP 999. So if you do want to pay cheaper, I highly recommend reaching their minimum amount for free shipping. I'm not exactly sure how much one will be paying if you haven't reached their free shipping promo since I always go for the free shipping one.
Althea Korea offers different ways of payment method. They offer payments using credit cards (AMEX, Mastercard, VISA), OTC (Over the counter) non-bank via Dragonpay, ATM/OTC via Dragonpay, Online banking via Dragonpay, and PayPal (if you don't know PayPal, just click the word and it'll prompt you to their site). They used to have CoD (Cash on Delivery) before where you only have to add PHP 50 if you want that payment method (though it will be waived once you've reached their specific amount for free shipping). It was removed temporarily but when I asked their customer support before, they said that they have totally removed that payment method. I haven't tried CoD though, because when I discovered them, it was already unavailable.
I paid through ATM/OTC, which I really prefer most of the time despite being quite troublesome. Right after I placed an order, and paid what I purchased. I received an email from them stating that my order is already processing together with the list of my orders and some common FAQs on them.
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| When my order was still processing |
Althea Korea will be sending you a message on the email address that you decided to associate with your AK account. It is very important that you put an email address which you usually use so that you'd get updated with your order.
I read their FAQ before I purchased on them which is really important and shouldn't be ignored by those people who loves buying online or is gonna try buying online. Stated on their FAQ is that it usually takes 15 business days for an order to arrive and it's normal since it came directly from Korea.
Three days after I placed my order, I received another email from them telling that my order has already been shipped. I was really wow-ed by how fast they shipped my order since I've already assured my mind that I'll be receiving it a week or two from the day I ordered it. Another amazing thing about Althea Korea, right?
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| When it was already shipped |
Just like what it says in the email, you'll get to track your order through their site so you don't have to worry or feel anxious as to whether you'll receive your order or not. Also, they will be providing a tracking number so that you can check the status of your order anytime you want. They have eCargo as their local courier, but it also changes from time-to-time. I remember when I ordered for the third time, they had Rincos as their courier.
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| This is what you'll see when you track your order on eCargo |
I placed my first order last September 15th and had my parcel shipped three days after that. You'll see above that it took three days for my order to arrive on my doorstep but nope, the next day after I received their email about my parcel being shipped (September 19), I received my ordered beauty haul already. So in total, it just took me 5 days to receive my order directly from Korea. For some reason, eCargo isn't as updated as it is.
I thought it'll just be another order covered in plastic and whatnot, but nope because again, AK surprised me with their cute pink beauty haul box. It was so cute and lovely that I had to squeal while opening it in excitement. All the products inside were covered with bubble pop plastic (if that's how you call it) to make sure you'll be receiving your orders in good condition. And as much as I wanted to show you guys how my first order looked like, I couldn't because I forgot to take pictures of it (I told you, I was excited).
Overall, I was really very satisfied and happy with how my order went on Althea Korea. And yep, I'm now an avid buyer of them.
Now if you're thinking that's all they got to offer, then you're wrong. From time-to-time, they run multiple promotions such as, buy 1 get 1 (BOGO), Clearance sale (up to 90% off), and giveaways. I had an Etude eyebrow pencil and a makeup primer before for free. It's usually for a limited time and subject upon availability, so I also recommend you to follow their social media accounts so that you'd get updated on their awesome promotions, especially on their giveaways because it really runs out so fast. You can also subscribe to their newsletter if you check your email most of the time like what I do. They sometimes send you a coupon code to get discounts and ask you to send a review of your purchased product from them that once you share it on any of your social media accounts, you'd get a discount, too. They also run some contests on their SNS accounts, where you can get up to PHP 1,000 rebate. I have already won on one of their contests before where I got PHP 300 rebate (YAY!).
As of right now, Althea Korea only caters in some Asian countries, which are, Philippines (my country), Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. I'm pretty sure they're on their way of expanding and who knows, it might reach not only Asian countries but also Western and European countries.
Well, you really couldn't ask for more on Althea Korea and I highly recommend you to try them out. Here's the link to the site. Just sign up, get as much as PHP 350 discount and have their wonderful products right in front of your doorstep.
PS: Note that some of the rules, promotions, and such, sometimes differ from country to country. Some of what I said here, (i.e. coupon code for new users) only applies to Philippine residents.
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UPDATE (03/10/17)
Good news! Althea Korea also caters now in the USA and the rest of the world! This is a very good news to all US residents and people from other countries. I wasn't expecting AK to expand this fast but wow, I guess they're really just getting in demand lately. Go ahead and visit this link to know more about their US version site. Also, if you try to change the location to "Rest of the World" in the site, it'll still prompt you to their US version site.
Go ahead and grab all their very cheap yet wonderful and good quality products!
Questions? Write it down or contact me.
xx
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