As an Australian beauty blogger who's favourite brands all happen to be American, I am no stranger to the perils of the international online shopping. There honestly is nothing worse than adding a bunch of lusted after products to your cart, only to checkout to discover that the company doesn't ship internationally, or just not to Australia. Rude. Or how about those companies that do ship internationally, but charge a ridiculous price (often more than doubling the value of your purchase) to send your goodies to you. Story of my life.
So when I was contacted* by myMailBox, a mail forwarding company that allows you to buy online from American stores and get your goods shipped to just about anywhere in the world, and given an account credit to try out their services, I simultaneously died and jumped at the chance to add some long lusted after items to my collection. If you're at all interested in signing up with myMallBox after reading this post, definitely do so via my referral link which will give you a $5 credit to go towards your first order's shipping cost!
Now, I pride myself on being someone who thoroughly researches just about everything before I jump in, so I spent a good couple of hours researching various mail forwarding companies before even agreeing to try myMallBox, and I actually found them to be the cheapest forwarding company that I came across. Not only are they located in Delaware, a sales tax free state, but creating an account is also free of charge. In fact, aside from the shipping costs (obviously) and the Buy For Me feature that I will discuss in a moment, the whole process does not cost you a dime. There are literally zero hidden, activation, monthly, membership, holding (before 90 days), repacking, you name it fees. KA-CHING!
Once you register, you are assigned your very own U.S. postal address, a suite number in their warehouse, then you get to shopping. Once you're ready to check out, just enter your myMallBox postal address and when your products arrive, you will be emailed to let you know. From this point, you can choose to either ship the products to yourself immediately, or if you've ordered from multiple sites, wait for everything to arrive and consolidate everything in to one package to save on postage.
The Buy For Me feature that I mentioned above is a service in which the myMallBox team will (you guessed it) place an order for you. This is particularly handy when it comes to sites that do not accept international payment. myMallBox will order your items for you and hold it at your suite address until you arrange for it to be shipped on to you. This does incur a service fee of 3% of the total value of your order + $4.50, which again, was the cheapest fee I had come across.
A note that I would like to make about Buy For Me, and this is by no means the end of the world, is that if you are using the buy for me service, you will miss out on any points redeemed as the orders aren’t on your own account. I suppose it's quite a redundant statement to make, because if you can't place an order due to the store not accepting international payments, you can't accumulate points anyways, but it's worth a mention (sort of). As for the free samples that we all love to receive, the myMailBox team will also include these in your order, as well as use any discount codes that you may have, but you must specify when completing the Buy For Me comments section.
You are also given multiple shipping options (DPS, ULP, USPS, tracked, untracked, express, etc.) and costs are based on the size and weight of your package/s (check out their shipping calculator). Just be mindful of tax, duty and customs charges when you shop online from overseas. I'm lucky enough to live in a state where I have never had to pay customs charges, but this differs from country to country so be sure you're prepared, just in case.
myMallBox will store your package/s at your suite for free up to 90 days, after which your account will begin accruing a $1 per day, per package fee. After 120 days they will liquidate the contents.
My experience and what I got:
Setting it all up was a simple process and my experience with myMallBox as a whole was a positive one. Aside from a few companies cancelling my order due to their own policies (read below), the whole process was as smooth as can be. The most enjoyable aspect for me, was the free consolidation service. I touched on it briefly above, but basically, to save a ton on shipping, you can opt to have everything consolidated, or re-packed in to one, cost effective package. By disregarding the often full-of-air-and-packing-peanuts box your order arrives to their warehouse in, unpacking your items and re-wrapping them safely in bubble wrap, you save sosososo much in shipping fees by reducing the size and weight of your order.
If I have one tip to share in regards to using a mail forwarding service, it would be to purchase enough products to qualify for free American shipping to avoid paying postage twice. It's common sense, really.
I placed orders at Too Faced, Sephora, Benefit, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Tarte and Ulta. This is where I encountered a problem or two. You see, upon checking out at both Ulta and Too Faced, I discovered that they do not accept international credit cards or PayPal accounts. This is of course, no fault of myMallBox, but it was disappointing nonetheless. MyMallBox does have a solution to this problem in the form of the 'Buy For Me' option that I mentioned earlier. I could have gotten them to do that for me if I really wanted them to, but I ultimately decided against it in this particular instance. Tarte and Sephora also cancelled my orders as they do not deliver goods to mail forwarding companies.
Lesson learnt: check the seller's terms and conditions before placing an order.
After all of that, I ended up with my Benefit and Anastasia Beverly Hills orders coming through. I waited for them both to be delivered to my suite and consolidated it all in to one small package which happened in under two days. I was not notified that my consolidation was complete, however. I'm unsure whether this was just a slip-through-the cracks type instance, but I was pleasantly surprised to log in and discover that my goodies we're ready for me to ship. My consolidated package was roughly 600 grams, and I (stingy life) opted for the cheapest tracked option. There was a cheaper untracked USPS airmail option which would have cost me $6.58 buuuut I decided against a non-tracking service for peace of mind. My parcel ended up costing $12.73 to ship via a tracked USPS ePacket service from America to Australia, which was much cheaper than I expected. For reference, Anastasia Beverly Hills wanted to charge me $17.95 to ship two products to me, whereas with myMallBox, I got a whole four items (and two samples) sent to me for a few bucks less.
It took about three and a half weeks for my consolidated package to arrive from my myMallBox suite (keep in mind that I did not opt for express delivery) and everything arrived accounted for and in perfect condition:
Benefit Dream Screen
I mentioned this is a beauty favourites post (read for my full review) at the start of the year. I've been using this amazingly mattifying (read: non-oily!!!) sunscreen for a while now, but it's unavailable in Australia so I'd been paying a lot to get this daily use bottle to me. I'm so glad I found a cheaper way to get it to my door.
Benefit Ka-BROW
After being so impressed by the Benefit brow products I got in my recent Adore Beauty haul, I decided to pick up Ka-BROW too. This is available in Australia, but it's much cheaper in the States. I also wanted to qualify for free American shipping by adding it in with my Dream Screen order. I absolutely cannot wait to give this a try!
Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade
A cult classic that I've been dying to try! I have far too many brow products these days, but after years of lusting over this pomade, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipstick 'Alison'
I've heard a lot about Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipsticks, so I couldn't resist giving this a try. The pinky-plum brown colour looks a little different on me than I imagined, but the formula is amazing! So long lasting and non-drying. More to come for sure!
Benefit Dew The Hoola Bronzer sample
I've heard so many different opinions about the Dew the Hoola liquid bronzer. I'm a huge fan of the original Hoola bronzer so I can't wait to try this for myself.
Benefit Dandelion Dew sample
A pretty pink cream blush that would be perfect for a barely-there Spring look.
Despite my haul being less than half the size that it was originally supposed to be, I'm more than happy with what I got and I will definitely continue to use myMallBox for all of my U.S. shopping needs - a Nordstrom haul, perhaps? Again, if you are an international shopper yourself, and are thinking of ordering from the Unites States, please feel free to sign up to myMallBox via my referral link which will give you a $5 credit to go towards your first order's shipping cost. For full disclosure, I also receive a $5 credit for every person who signs up using the above link.
Will you be giving myMallBox a try?
*I was asked to publish an honest review of my experience on behalf of myMallBox in exchange for a small fee and a shipping credit on my account, however, all comments and opinions expressed are completely my own. I would never promote anything to my readers that I do not 100% believe in.
