My American Haul with Comgateway! Part 1- Comgateway Review and Photos!

Guys, this has been a LONG time coming. And I mean a long time. Like I started planning this last year kind of long. I’ve been wanting to do a high end/drugstore haul from America for a while now, and when I decided on a custom Mac palette a few months back (see post here) I used Comgateway and found the process so simple! After saving up for a ridiculously long time I finally decided to make my orders when I got my new job recently as a sort of present to myself!

Again, I used Comgateway for my forwarding. I put in my US address for billing and shipping onto Paypal and relevant websites and it all arrives at my address and I can forward it on to Australia which is nice and simple! Sometimes there are issues with certain websites shipping to forwarding services (Sephora, I’m looking at you!) so this time I used CGW’s Buy For Me service to get the couple of items that I couldn’t buy anywhere other than Sephora! (If you’re interested in signing up, use this link!)

The Buy For Me service is accessed through the shopping tab on the website. You enter the products you’re after and relevant links online, any discount codes and special instructions and submit the payment. It charges you for the item costs (obviously) and a 10% fee for the service (7% if you’re a Prime customer). You give details such as whether to order if something is out of stock or wait; choosing shipping options from the retailer and how you pay – PayPal (which I chose) or Credit Card. If you can find any coupons for Comgateway dollars (I suggest googling, there are often discounts available) use those to offset the cost!
Comgateway made the order for me the next day and kept me updated as to when it was shipped and when it arrived. I placed the order May 7^th Aus time and it arrived to my address May 19^th. There were a few items that weren’t in stock elsewhere or were only available specifically at Sephora and for me it was definitely worth getting! With my Sephora order they even gave me a couple of samples which I didn’t specify, which was really sweet!

I made an order with Anastasia Beverly Hills; Beauty.com and Drugstore.com and Mac as well as my Sephora items. For some reason my Beauty.com and Drugstore.com orders came in four boxes when I made two orders (Beauty.com and Drugstore.com are awesome in the fact that you have the one cart between the two websites). I had 7 boxes between the orders and with volumetric weight it was going to weight 6.5kg and cost me around $80USD to forward it onto Australia. Because of my new job I’m not at home as much to wait around for the parcel so I emailed their Customer Service and got them to repack all of my parcels into one so that it could go to my boyfriend’s office because I couldn’t exactly ask him to get seven individual boxes! It cost me $12USD to get all of my items condensed into one box and shipping ended up costing me $44.55 including insurances and fuel tax for 2kg – so it was TOTALLY worth it!

My parcel shipped out of America Friday May 22^nd (Australian time) and arrived at my boyfriend’s office at approximately 11am Tuesday May 26^th, so I was definitely impressed with shipping! I found a free express upgrade code so it was a little faster than normal (last time it took 5 days on standard shipping which is still faster than shipping something Sydney – Hobart with Australia Post) and was in my hands just over an hour later.

I was really nervous about how my parcel went during transit because of the repack but I shouldn’t have been worried! Everything was tightly packed with bubble wrap surrounding the sides and on top of the box. The items were all in perfect condition. I was stressing out majorly about my eyeshadow palettes in particular, but everything arrived perfectly and I sat like a kid at Christmas unpacking everything and looking at it all for a good hour and a half before I had to leave for university!

I’ve added here for you a picture of all of the items that I picked up but I haven’t had time to play with it all yet so I won’t be giving any details other than names and prices – first impressions, availability in Australia and all the good stuff will be in a future post!

Sephora –

Tarte Cosmetics Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte Palette – $44 USD
Bite Beauty Luminous Crème Lipstick Duo in Fig/Date – $12USD
Sephora Exclusive Lash Stash – $25 USD
Bite Beauty Matte Crème Lip Crayon in Leche – $24 USD
Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder Travel Size – $22.50USD 

Anastasia Beverly Hills –

Contour Kit Refill in Banana – $14USD
Contour Kit Refill in Fawn – $14USD

MAC-

Lustre Lipstick in Lovelorn – $16USD
Matte Lipstick in Honeylove – $16USD
Cremesheen Lipstick in Crème In Your Coffee – $16USD
Lustre Lipstick in Patisserie – $16USD

Drugstore.com/Beauty.com Base/Cheek Products-

L’Oreal Infallible Pro Matte Foundation in 101 Classic Ivory- $12.99 USD
NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly- $29 USD
Beauty Blender – $19.95 USD
Maybelline Fit Me Matte and Poreless Translucent Powder- $7.99 USD
L’Oreal True Match in N1 Soft Ivory – $9.19 USD
Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Exposed- $28USD

Drugstore.com/Beauty.com Eyeshadows-

Lorac Pro Palette – $42 USD
Wet N Wild Comfort Zone Palette- $4.99 USD
Wet N Wild Walking on Eggshells Trio- $2.99 USD
Wet N Wild Single Shadow in Crème Brulee- $0.99 USD
Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow in Bella White- $3.99 USD
Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow in Bella Bronze- $3.99 USD
Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow in Bella Champagne- $3.99 USD

Drugstore.com/Beauty.com Eye Products –

Tarte Picture Perfect Eyelash Duo – $18USD
Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara – $23 USD
Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara – $8.99 USD
Urban Decay Subversion Lash Primer – $20 USD
Rimmel Scandaleyes Nude Kohl Liner- $4.49 USD

Drugstore.com/Beauty.com Eyebrow Products –

Maybelline Brow Drama in Blonde- $6.39 USD
Milani Brow Shaping Clear Gel – $4.49USD
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Transparent – $4.79

Drugstore.com/Beauty.com EOS and Lip Products-

EOS Hand Lotion in Cucumber – $1.69USD
EOS Visible Smooth Lip Balm Sphere in Coconut Milk- $3.99
Wet N Wild Lip Colour in Birthday Suit- $2.99 USD
Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Nude Crème- $5.49 USD

And samples!

 

 

And that is the epic-ness of my recent American haul! I’ll be testing out as many products as humanly possible in the next couple of weeks and hope to have a first impression post out in the next three weeks! Realistically, I won’t be able to test out all of the mascaras but the items that can only be purchased in America I’ll definitely be trying! If there’s anything you want a specific review on, please let me know! And have a fantastic weekend!

*This post was written in conjunction with Comgateway. All opinions are my own, as always and my bank account is a lot lighter from all the spending I’ve done!