Iherb Review (Coupon MCR376 to enjoy $10 off first purchase!)

Happy 2013!!! 

I am currently into aromatherapy, just for fun. Borrowed some interesting books only after I gotten essential oils from iherb. Speaking of iherb  I'm satisfied with their service and products so far (even though I have only bought from them once after much consideration since there were nasty reviews of it online). The items were surprisingly well-packaged, much better than Amazon & Drugstore. Expiry dates matched with what were advertised, excellent! There are also samples to try and also trial packs just in case. This was what I bought previously:

 

[Badger lip balm (vanilla madagascar) $2.70, Badger cocoa butter lip balm (rocket lime) $4.50, Thayers witch hazel toner $7.96, Jason natural vit E skin oil $6.05, Nature's Answer vegetable glycerin alchohol-free $6.16, Flavorganics vanilla extract $5.16, Now Foods organic peppermint essential oil $12.99, Now Foods organic lemon essential oil $9.93, Aura Cacia geranium essential oil $12.22, Aura Cacia cypress essential oil $6.46]

Yesterday night, I just placed an order of approx USD$100 with 12 items and in 6 hours, all were picked and shipped via DHL express shipping (registered). This is one fast service! Will do a quick review on them once I have received them. IMO, iherb provides a wide selection of organic items as well as natural products at reasonable pricing and shipping. It's weird why Singapore retailers are charging so much for organic and healthcare products when other countries are making it much more affordable for the general public. Must be the overheads.

Anyway, in my excitement to get the items, I had forgotten to include in free samples as well as trial packs in my cart =( What a bummer. Do remember to use the coupon code MCR376 to enjoy $10 off your first purchase at iherb! =) There is extra 5% off if you spend more than $60 too!!

Note: Currency is stated in USD. Pls multiply by 1.2 or 1.3 to get estimate in SGD. 

Dudebabe Dress 9053

Recently, the competition among sellers on Gmarket is heating up as market saturation occurs. Or is it that Gmarket is getting monopolised by a few large giants who are manipulating the system? Whatever it is, I don't really care as long as I get my shopping fix. With the introduction of $7.90 deals, I've been purchasing a few here and there and this is one of it. Reviews on this dress seems okay, so I decided to see how it was like.

On the whole, the light pink dress looks presentable, and zipping is a smooth affair. However, if you look further, there are some disturbing defects e.g. messy sewing, discoloured buttons, frayed ends. If only these were not there, I would have loved to give it a 4.5/5.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $7.80 + $1.50 shipping
Item Rating: 3/5

Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 3 day (s)

World of Ice Stickers

Stickers are just not my thing, but why do I like to purchase them? No idea, you impulsive shopper. =x Or maybe the youth in me beckons to me. When I was young I had a couple of sticker books which I fiercely guarded, and I enjoyed bartering with my brother the precious gems of mine to increase my collection. When I was a teen I was hooked to handmade cards and pretty baked gifts, adorning them with stick-on smiley faces. Nowadays stickers are getting more sophisticated and their charms are simply hard to resist. Step into the world of 3D and frame stickers:

Okay I shall sound less like a frog in a well. Anyway, the 3D stickers were I would say of inferior quality as they seemed to be too thin and flimsy. The back area was faintly yellowed, and some where not cut properly. The frame stickers, on the other hand, was of thick quality material which was able to support polaroid films comfortably. Each triangle had a pocket to slot in the edge of one photo, and thereby framing the photo nicely. Excellent for book scraping!

Source: Gmarket

Price: $1.30 for 3D sticker / $1.80 for Frame Sticker + $0.30 shipping
Item Rating: 4/5

Processing time: 2 day (s)
Delivery time: 2 day (s)

Sesalo Nail Polish (Laquer Glitter Moon, Top Coat, Glitter Powder)

Gotten in a craze into nail polish, I bought some Korean ones from Gmarket without knowing their compositions. Ever heard about the "3 Free nail polish"? I'm not very sure if these are free from formaldehyde, toluene and DBP. I guess glittery stuff blinds me.

Laquer Glitter Moon ($4.40, 3/5)

This nail polish looks astonishing on the listing, but on my nails, it looks astonishingly sickly. To achieve stunning effects, more coats would have been used. One coat or two (middle finger and forefinger respectively) doesn't make the cut.

Topcoat ($4.90, 3/5)

Decent quality, doesn't dry very quickly and not very shiny. Smudges my nail polish too. A few layers will do the trick. 

Glitter ($9.80, 4/5)

Being hologram, these exceeded my expectations as I had thought that they would be just shimmery in one shade. Only complaint I have is that they could be cheaper since they are made in China. Larger sparkles would be good too! 

Source: Gmarket

Price: As above + $4.00 shipping
Item Rating: As above

Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 7 day (s)

Dudebabe Apparel (9062, 9020)

9062 ($7.90, 3/5)

Dudebabe recently revised their prices of their apparel to make them cheaper, of course the quality did not take a hit - remained pretty much you-get-what-you-pay for. This violet chiffon dress costing less than $10 has been on my wishlist for some time but I hesitating making the purchase as it costed at least $3 more. At this price, it seems that the dress seems rather worth it on first view. 

On further scrutiny, I found some small details which can be improved on, such as the weird fish threads at the bottom frills and sloppy neckline:

Nevertheless, I found this dress (albeit old as portrayed from its yellowed label) a decent buy.

9020 ($7.90, 2/5)

After I have acquired a garment steamer, I found myself purchasing more chiffon material apparel, such as this top:

Compared to the violet dress on top, this peach-coloured blouse paled in comparison in terms of quality. It is very sheer, requiring an innerwear, and had pretty poor sewing. The shoulder tags were not sewn in line with each other, the back parts had frays and were not evenly-sewn, and one of the golden buttons came off so I had to conduct emergency repair.

Source: Gmarket

Price: As above + $1.50 shipping
Item Rating: As above

Processing time: 6 day (s)
Delivery time: 3 day (s)

Doraemon Cookie Cutter

A few days back a listing on Gmarket caught my attention - a Doraemon/Dorami cookie cuter selling at $7.50. It sort of reminded me that I have been neglecting my old past time for too long a time. (Un)fortunately, the item has been out of stock for some time so I turned to Ebay, finding the exact same thing at half the price.

Delivery was expected to be longer since it was an overseas one (surprisingly, there are local ones which are longer). The items had a burnt smell, but after a quick rinse with soapy water, they were good to go.

I made orange cranberry cookies with them, and I simply love the appearance and taste. Owing to this great buy at reasonable pricing, my passion for baking has been reignited!  

More cartoon cookie cutters' on the way!

Source: Ebay

Price: USD$2.65 + Free shipping
Item Rating: 4.5/5

Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 12 day (s)

Chips&Tech Samsung microSDHC 32GB Class 10

With a 20% discount and double-discount coupons, I find it hard to resist spending on something. This time around, I got a 32gb Class 10 microSD card and an adapter. The card only has 29.2Gb for use, instead of the 32Gb as expected. 

Just out of curiosity to see if my purchase was justified, I did a comparison on the read-write speed, against my Sandisk 4gb Class 4 microSD card with Crystal Mark, SD Tools (running on Samsung GS2) and SD Card Tester (running on Samsung GS2). Here's the results:

Maybe a summary might be easier to read:

It is quite odd for the SD Card Tester to report that the read/write speed is worse off for the Samsung card than the Sandisk card. I'm clueless about such technology. It just appears to me that save for the capacity, the read/write speed of this Class 10 card doesn't really make much sense for me to purchase without coupons.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $26.94 (+ $1.50 for Adapter) + Free shipping
(after $17.96 discount)

Item Rating: 4/5
Processing time: 2 day (s)
Delivery time: 5 day (s)