Buying Makeup online : Tips, Tricks, and Questions

Nowadays, makeup has been a growing trend, especially that influencers and bloggers have been coming up with new ideas and promoting brands on their platforms. As many of us became obsessed with online shopping, buying makeup online is inevitable. 

I feel you ladies, it is very tempting (a Weltschmerz moment). Therefore, let me be your guide to some tips and tricks if you decide to order beauty products online.

Most famous Makeup brands

I know by now you would be checking your wallet for buying makeup online, but no worries, some of the brands we are going to mention do not need you to sell a kidney. 

1. MAC Cosmetics. Makeup Art Cosmetics was founded in Toronto and is headquartered in New York City. It has many stores managed by professionals around the world.

Furthermore, MAC is one of the most outstanding cosmetic brands that many would suggest. Their variety of lipstick colors are astonishing besides their amazing foundations and concealers. 

2. L’ORÉAL. Loreal is the biggest cosmetics company in the world. It was founded in France and headquartered in Clichy. 

Moreover, it offers a variety of skincare, makeup and fragrance products besides hair products as well. Surprisingly, its prices are often handy.

3. The Estée Lauder Companies (EL). Estee is an American multinational cosmetic company that manufactures perfumes, skin & hair care products, and makeup, headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, NYC. 

The following brand names are related to it: Clinique, Origins, MžAžC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Jo Malone London, Aveda, and Too Faced.

4. Chanel. This one is the crème de la crème. If you ask about the most expensive cosmetic brand, Chanel gets the crown. 

Despite the fact of being the most expensive, it also is of the highest quality products. It has signature lipstick and excels in the manufacturing of perfumes. It was founded in Paris, and headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. 

5. Dior. Besides manufacturing cosmetics, they are also famous for ready-to-wear fashion and accessories, in addition to leather goods and footwear, and other products. It was founded and headquartered in Paris, France.

Tips when Buying makeup online

Buying makeup online might seem easy. Yes, it is and so is being scammed. Except it might be too late when you find out. So, here is your list of tips.

• Dear reader, do your research. Look up the website and make sure it is owned by a renowned seller, check the feedback and reviews, and ask online if people would suggest it.
  Feel like you heard this before somewhere? It means you read my previous article “Buying Silver Online”, I’m so proud of you. 

• Do further research. You also need to do your research on the product you want to buy. Make sure it is for your skin type and the shade and the use you need it for.

• Try to identify your skin tone. Accordingly, look up vloggers with a similar complexion to yours and look at their reviews and the shades of the products on them so it would be better and easier for you to decide.

• Look up the ingredients. Some ingredients might be harmful to the skin or do not suit your skin or allergies. Therefore, it is best to keep an open eye for the ingredients of the product you would like to purchase.

• Don’t let the huge discounts tempt you. For not anything that shines is gold, the surprisingly low discounts and offers are suspicious and often fake products so it is better to compare between prices on different websites.

• Use your search bar often. Your second-best friend after me is your search bar. Use it for reassurance on everything. Compare, check reviews, or even check on Quora.

• Try a best-seller. This is the new “when in doubt wear black”. If you are confused or hesitant about any products, it is safer to try a best-seller depending on the previous purchases.

• Refund & exchange policy. Don’t forget to ask your seller about their policy in exchanging and refunding the merchandise because they might have a strict one since cosmetics are personal products and you might face difficulties due to hygiene matters.

Advantages of buying cosmetics online

What could be the benefits If you choose to order makeup online or buy a makeup kit online? Well, that is what I am here to answer.

The first benefit is unlimited options as usual. You have tens and hundreds of websites to look at and choose from, giving you a great variety of products to your liking. 

An additional advantage of buying makeup online is finding convenient offers and discounts that might not be available in-store if the seller has a physical store. 

Furthermore, you do not have to deal with the sales people if you feel like some of them might be trying to pressure you into purchasing an item.

Last but not least, the prices are better due to the usual absence of overhead costs of a physical location.

Disadvantages of buying makeup online

Now we are going to go through the cons of buying makeup online. 

The physical experience of touching and feeling the product is one of the biggest setbacks. In addition, people of rare complexions might need to see shades and colors, in reality, to decide better.

Dealing with a third party for delivery might not be the best option. If the seller/website, you choose to buy cosmetics from deals with another party to deliver the merchandise, receiving your order in one piece might not happen. 

Note: Kindly, if this happens, do not accept to receive your order.

This might be frustrating to some clients as the delivery might take some time and also exchange and refund are going to be extra time for waiting to receive the product. 

Of course, you saw this one coming. Getting scammed, yes, you guessed it right. 

Remember, good scammers know how to fake reviews and feedback to show to the customers and they do that by stealing reviews of other trusted websites or sellers. So, if you read the tips above carefully, you may be able to avoid fraud.

Trends: buying makeup online

In this section, we would like to take you through the trends of the cosmetics industry when buying makeup online so you would be up to date. 

1. Product personalization. How great is it to have a product customized exactly to your liking? So great, right!? That is what product personalization is.

Beauty products brands came to realize that consumers tend to buy cosmetics online and pay higher prices more often when the products are personalized to them.

Moreover, cosmetic brands are trying to configure more effective ways to personalize their products with various methods and technologies such as surveys, at-home devices, DNA testing tools, and Custom printing.

2. Merging beauty with technology. Now, thanks to the age we live in, everything can be done from home, which in fact makes me really grateful to be born in this era. 

Many beauty brands decided to make it more convenient for customers at home and even in-store to use virtual reality (VR), Augmented reality (AR), and Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enable them to try on makeup, detect their skin tone and detect dark spots on their skin. 

Adding features like these really enhances both customers’ experience and convenience of purchase and the probability of profit for the sellers.

3. Beauty of diversity, containment, and equity. For many customers, finding the perfect product and shade that suits their skin tone is a tough grind. 

Therefore, many brands like Fenty (bless its soul) decided to give its customers a wide variety of color ranges of products to suit each client’s skin tone and made a quiz to find the face shade easier and more efficiently. 

4. Sustainable and natural products all the way. Consumers seem to favor purchasing products that are more sustainable and made of natural and organic materials. 

It is always good to know how the product you use is made and what it is made of when you use it on your skin. Always keep an eagle-eye on the ingredients.

In addition, the testing of the products must be animal-cruelty-free. This is a good reason why consumers espouse the concept of sustainable products.

Best places to buy makeup online

What is the best place to buy makeup online? That is a good question. You go, reader! A not-so-good question would be “what is the cheapest place to buy makeup online?”. 

Come on! We talked about this already. But I will try to answer both just for you. 

ULTA beauty

Ulta cares about diversity and inclusion and that makes it so much better for consumers to choose what suits them best. They also have many stores nationwide. In addition, their prices and big sales, they have clean products as a bonus.

Sephora

A website with an amazing variety of makeup stores and beauty kits. They are affordable due to being assorted and they are of top quality. Customers just love this one! In addition, they have several stores in various locations worldwide, and their online website is not any less fascinating.

Glossier

This brand has these pinkish hues all over its shops that make you want to stay longer, in addition to its unique beauty sets and good feedback from customers on its products. You should definitely give this one a try! 

YesStyle

This one is a little different because it is known for its unique Asian products that are difficult to find somewhere else.

If you are a fan of K-beauty and Korean products, this one will be to your liking (You can also check our article on Online Shopping Korea for more Korean products websites). Furthermore, they have great prices, and I mean GREAT! 

That is all for today. I hope you benefit from the article and, till the next time!