Hello everybody, back with another haul (these will be slowing down soon as I am now unemployed! But more on that in the catch up post haha). This is such an exciting haul for me, because I have been wanting to purchasing Anastasia Beverley Hills products for quite a while, but in the U.K we have a very limited amount of the collection to choose from sadly. We can easily access all the brow range and a few select products, but the rest is limited to Sephora online. That is fine now and again, but the large customs fee really does add up.
With my birthday money I wanted to treat myself to a couple of the newer releases and I wanted to try a forwarding service. My initial thought was shipito, but unfortunately the ABH website does not allow pay-pal accounts that are linked to a UK address sneaky. So I had to find a different route and opted for a company called My Mall Box which I had heard a few YouTubers talk about before. It looks a lot more professional than ship it to and luckily they have an option where they can buy items for you for a small fee (around $5).
The process
Where it all went wrong..
Unfortunately this is where my thumbs up turn to a thumbs down. First of all the shipping prices were ridiculous for how much I had ordered. I paid over £25 to get it shipped to me, which was such a joke because that was without customs charges too. Already I had a bitter taste in my mouth for such a steep price, with no warning of this beforehand. Obviously be the time its in the warehouse its hard to go back, so I gritted my teeth and paid it. The only good thing was the shipping was very fast and within three days it was in the country and near to me. I then got a text message from the delivery company saying I needed to pay £28 in customs charges to have it delivered. Of course by this point I was like SURE WHATEVER HAVE MY MONEY, NOT LIKE I'M ON A STUDENT BUDGET OR ANYTHING 💸💸💸💸💸 even though I was sobbing on the inside. So by this point I had paid over £50 to get this damn parcel to the U.K and of course opening it should have been the highlight of my whole month right??? Wrong.
**Let me quickly rewind for a minute, I was so excited to purchase the ABH Glow kit in 'that glow' which was widely available here for quite some time. I was however on my makeup ban at the time so I refrained, and of course when I get off the ban...its no longer in stock anywhere. 😒 Gleam was being sold at both cultbeauty and beautybay but when I had tweeted both of them, I got the 'sorry we will not be restocking this one'. So I was totally kicking myself for being so good and sticking to the ban, because now the kit was nowhere to be seen and thats pretty much the only thing I had asked for my birthday from my friends. It was at this point that I decided to order directly from her site as there were a couple of things I also wanted from the brand...so I was VERY excited to finally have that glow...
Only to find they have sent me the GLEAM kit 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊. Yeah. They had ordered the wrong kit and sent it over to me all the way from the U.S and words cannot describe how ANGRY I was by this point! Of course I promptly emailed them with a firm email explaining what had happened. I also stated that I expect the correct one to be sent to me as soon as possible and free of charge - especially as I ended up paying so much for the shipping. It took 5 days of emailing back and forth to get the issue sent to the right department/person and get it reordered. But FINALLY it did and a couple of days late I had the correct glow kit sent to me, so the good news? I got a glow kit for free...it just took a lot of hassle and stress to get it ._. I won't be talking about the glowkits in this post by the way, theres a whole detailed one coming up!
Moving onto the eyeshadows *takes a moment or five to just admire this palette* aren't they beautiful?! After purchasing a few in my Sephora birthday haul I fell in love with the quality of these shadows, they're not cheap at all but they are worth every penny. I'm just patiently waiting for the day when us U.K ABH fans can get a hold of them easier, soon please Anastasia :(
The awesome thing about ordering shadows from the official website is that you do get a discount when it comes to the eyeshadows. Usually they are $12 each, but on site you can order 4 shades for $40 and get a free palette with it too. The other option (which I'd do next time if I want to risk this kinda of splurge again) is to order 8 shadows for $70 and get a free 8 pan palette. I love the 4 pan palette so much, it is sturdy, made of plastic with a clear screen so you can easily see the shades and it looks really sleek. I love how the lid is magnetic and each pan has a strong magnet inside which can hold pretty much any eyeshadow. I often switch out the shades for MUG ones when I am travelling and I am semi obsessed with making quads - its a great way to really think about which shades mesh well together and also a challenge to use shades I may not use often. So the 4 shadows and palette cost me £30, which isn't bad at all for the quality (although its definitely a splurge!).
Amber: As the name would suggest its a slightly orange based gold and it is beautiful. I love this shade for everyday as its really not too intense, however you can totally amplify the pigmentation with a damp brush too and it makes the perfect all over the lid shade!
Chiffon: The most stunning satin khaki shade I have ever come across, its a beautiful deep olive green which swatches like a total dream. Quite a unique shade and not one I'll wear too often, but I think it'll become a regular lower lashline shade. I'm so obsessed with how buttery chiffon is and the colour is perfection.
Blazing: A colour I don't hear much about on Youtube, however its definitely a shade I gravitate towards often and I LOVE this kinda thing in the crease! I would describe blazing as a warm terracotta red, with the perfect pinch of brown mixed in. The fact that this isn't too red or deep makes it so easy to apply a little in the crease and it adds so much depth the any eyeshadow look - an absolute favourite.
Red Earth: A youtubemademebuyit shade, I have seen Red Earth used so many times and I just had to add it to my collection! Its a 'dull shade of deep purple' which is a unique colour to my stash. I haven't used it as much as I had hoped yet, but time shall tell if I really should have picked this up. When I do get around to writing a full review for these shadows (or my whole ABH collection thusfar), I will definitely update you all with it.
On the topic of eyeshadows I also picked up the ABH Modern Renaissance palette (£41), not from her site though, I purchased that from cult beauty. I've actually already blogged about it in my recent favourites post (here) and yes I love it SO much. To me though there is a bit of a difference between the single shadows and this palette. There is virtually NO fall out from the single shades and theres a tonne of fall out from the palette, also I find there to be a little more consistency across the single pans in terms of quality - however thats not to say this palette isn't worth the price. IT 100% IS worth the forty quid to me, as the range of colours and uniqueness that this palette brings. Also I'm not too happy with the '6 months' shelf life, it had better last a good deal longer than that!!
And finally, last but not least we have the liquid lipsticks I purchased and I am SMITTEN! I got 'crush', 'stripped' and 'ashton' which are all from the newer SS16 collection. For the first time ever I picked up shades from a brand that I completely adore, usually theres at least one shade that I tend not to like so much, but each of these have got the thumbs up from me.
I won't be going into detail with the shades because again I'll be doing an in-depth post focusing on these. However just to give you an over-view, stripped is the ideal nude shade for me, finally a colour that doesn't totally wash me out ^_^ crush is my perfect summer pink in a liquid lipstick and Ashton is the most gorgeous deep orange shade which is so flattering on every single skintone! The formula is great, long lasting and comfortable. I'm sure they must have tweeked the original one slightly because I have heard so many people say they dislike the ABH LLs, but after trying these I'm not sure how anyone could, they're amongst some of the best. Also they cost $20 each, which is pretty reasonable for what they are.
All in all I won't be in a rush to use My Mall box any time soon, I appreciate that they allow you to purchase items through them, which normal forwarding companies don't tend to do. However considering I PAID for this service, I didn't expect the hassle of them getting it wrong. There was also a LOT of emails exchanged to get to the bottom of things and although they did finally send me the correct one (free of charge), with the shipping price being extortionate I don't think its the best value for money. Also it is extremely annoying that ABH shadows and liquid lipsticks aren't stocked on any U.K websites and I hate that the 'that glow' kit is now a U.S exclusive for some reason. Basically ABH need to open up here as soon as possible, if smaller yet successful brands like Huda Beauty can expand here, so should they!
What is your must have ABH product?
Thank-you for reading ♥
