Ordered: September 25th
Dispatched: October 10th
Arrived: October 14th
About a month ago in support of the non-profit organisation SMART, theBalm had a flash sale taking 50% off your entire purchase. 50% of the proceeds from each sale went to SMART helping to provide financially disadvantaged students with access to educational opportunities. With profits going to a great cause and a great discount at hand, we are here today with another haul :)
NUDE 'tude (Naughty Version) // $36 $18 USD
This was one of the palettes that I had my eye on for about a year now. I've heard such great things about this palette and I'm head over heals for the packaging! It's so unique, witty and daring at the same time.
TimeBalm Primer // $30 $15 USD
I'm generally not a primer person, but after a quick skim over some reviews the night before the sale, I decided to give one of these a try. If it weren't for the sale, I don't think I'd ever pay $30 to try out something, given the sensitivity of thy skin.
Mary-Lou Manizer // $24 $12 USD
I think this is one of the most well-loved highlighters going around at the moment. I was contemplating on purchasing either this one or Nars Albatross but ended up going with this cos it was so cheap after the discount!
Geranium Face Toner // $14.50 $7.25 USD
Currently on the lookout for a new toner after finishing my current one. It doesn't contain alcohol or parabens and claims to gently exfoliate skin and tighten pores. Sounds good to me.
En Root Hair Shine Serum // $15 $7.50 USD
I was really keen to try out some hair care products by theBalm. This serum contains green tea, bamboo, rice proteins and vitamins A, C & E all of which sound really nourishing.
Shipping // $40 USD
On the website it said international orders over $100 USD ship for free. Hauling together with a friend, our order totalled to $159 (after 50% off). At this point we thought we qualified for free shipping but apparently not. Nothing about international shipping costs were mentioned by theBalm until someone made a complaint on their fb page on the morning of the sale (all U.S orders were shipping with a flat fee of $4.95). So we ended up paying the $40 but we still did save some $$ - especially when you compare it to the RRP here in Australia. It would've been good to know that the shipping would still be that hefty- at least to mentally prepare, right? Considering the shipping price was crazy, we were expected some EMS shipping treatment, but it took two weeks to leave the warehouse. Once dispatched, it came fairly fast and was still within the expected 3-4 week delivery.
For future reference if and when theBalm does have another one of these *flash* sales, be prepared to get up as early as 5am to join in on the rush (U.S/AU time conversions suck) and keep an eye out of their social media services as sale time extensions can happen. This time around, the sale was meant to be 12-1pm PDT, which translated to 5-6am AEST for Melbournians, but it ended up being extended to 3pm PDT (8am AEST) due to website crashes. I woke up at 5am, and spent one and a half hours refreshing theBalm website page, checking their social updates and by 7am I was already fuming, and pretty set on not ordering. Something came over me around 7.40 and then the order got placed at 7.50...And here we are today with this post!
For future reference if and when theBalm does have another one of these *flash* sales, be prepared to get up as early as 5am to join in on the rush (U.S/AU time conversions suck) and keep an eye out of their social media services as sale time extensions can happen. This time around, the sale was meant to be 12-1pm PDT, which translated to 5-6am AEST for Melbournians, but it ended up being extended to 3pm PDT (8am AEST) due to website crashes. I woke up at 5am, and spent one and a half hours refreshing theBalm website page, checking their social updates and by 7am I was already fuming, and pretty set on not ordering. Something came over me around 7.40 and then the order got placed at 7.50...And here we are today with this post!
Packaging
The packaging wasn't anything too special, with single layer bubble wrapping around most items, with the exception of the hair serum (no extra packaging) and the toners were put separately in a zip lock bag.
The toner that we purchased ended up leaking (#sadface). I understand that leaks can happen, but the fact that BOTH of them leaked makes me think that its a defect in the packaging itself. It can't be coincidence that the dried patterns look similar at the same place right? I'm honestly a little disappointed when you pay so much for shipping and leaks happen like that.
I emailed theBalm sending the images, asking them to confirm if it had leaked - lets be honest, the way it dried up does not look normal! Also the bottles didn't show any visible signs of leakage with the liquid levels still being quite full. Anyway they pretty much said that it did leak. They were very apologetic asking if our other products were ok (which they were) but that's pretty much it. In this case, I wasn't sure to ask for replacement products or not cos technically it wasn't their fault as it left the warehouse fine but leakage happened during the shipping process. The products are still usable in that sense as well. At the same time though, BOTH the bottles leaked so either something happened along the way that made them both leak or it's in the overall packaging itself (it doesn't have that "protective" foil either).
Overall
So overall, there are mixed thoughts. The positive point was definitely the 50% products (obviously), however the shipping and packaging really let them down. Although $40 for shipping alone is expensive, we wouldn't have minded so much if it came within two weeks and if there wasn't any leakage. Not sure if we have been spoilt with previous positive experiences with other flash sales from other companies, but probably wouldn't take part in their next 50% off sale.
Just letting you guys know as well, theBalm updated their international shipping price and has now dropped down to $25 for purchases under $100 (still free over $100). Expected delivery has now changed to 1-2 weeks as well.
Did you buy anything from this sale?
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