NYX Cosmetics deal: Get $30 worth of goods for $15 (US Only)

I'm sorry everyone for the lack of posts! Since returning from NYC I've been a little burnt out and now planning for going back to school next week. I need to make the most of my vacation while it lasts, as I'm trying to finish 2 years of school in 1 1/2 years so I need to kick it into overdrive.

But anyways, I thought I'd give a heads up to ladies who are addicted to NYX makeup or want to try it, while doing some good at the same time! I'm a pretty big NYX addict since their makeup is affordable and great quality.

You can buy $30 worth of makeup on their official website for only $15, through their SocialGoodies offer. $3 of each $15 spent will be donated to charities picked by SocialGoodies. Please note that it ends in a little less than 3 days, so buy your vouchers as soon as you can ;)

2 Agejo Rakuten Stores, 2 different experiences

I will talk about Moery (Momoeri's store) and L-Mary. Both of these stores sell practically the same type of items (agejo dresses, makeup, Prisila wigs, etc) and claim they ship internationally. Only one of them went through and shipped the order, the winner is Moery.

What happened with L-Mary? Why did I originally order from them?
I was looking for eyelash cases on Rakuten for my next giveaway (well that gives out one of the surprises lol) and stumbled upon L-Mary. I then found this listing of cheap Diamond Lashes (I'm an obvious sucker for those) and it showed they shipped internationally through Rakuten's Borderless program. I was sold! I made my order on 1/13/11, and waited... and waited...
L-Mary never went through with an order or even a confirmation! I had to get Rakuten customer service involved to try to get them to send me a confirmation. Despite Rakuten's effort to contact them twice (I contacted them as well, in Japanese nonetheless!) they never went through with any order and I just gave up on them. Luckily I was never charged for anything, but it almost left me without faith in trusting Rakuten shops to fulfill orders.

To test another Rakuten store, I picked Moery this time to see if they would fulfill my order. 
Moery is Momoeri's Rakuten store that sells anything from agejo dresses to even weird things like Momoeri brand car goods and tequila shot balls. I respect her for being a working mom and entrepreneur, and having wonderful customer service! I ordered my items a day ago and it was shipped today for a very reasonable shipping fee of 2220yen for eyeliner, a hat and a wig!

Because I'm so happy with Moery's service, here's some links to item categories in her store.
- Momoeri goods: From here you can get find whatever products you want that Momoeri produced. It features everything from makeup, car goods and fashion items!
- Agejo dresses (by brand): If you click on the magazine images/titles on the menu on the left, it'll take you to the dresses that were featured in those issues of ageha and Betty!
- Casual clothes: A lot of the items are produced by Momoeri along with popular gals brands like DURAS. There is a mix of affordable clothes along with imported clothes from LA.
- Wigs: All types, including Prisila's newest styles and kids wigs! Many of them are also on sale as well.
- Shoes: She sells many American brands (meaning American sizes, for those of you in Japan looking for bigger shoes!), but she also has some of her own produced ones along with some Japanese brands.

I'll also show off some of her products, under the cut!

Started school again x_x

Sorry for not posting a lot recently! I just started back school yesterday so we will see through out the semester how much time I'll have for posting here~

I originally planned to get out at 1pm every day but one of my professors switched the class time so I start the day at 7:30am and end at 3pm x_x It was really tiring yesterday but I was determined not to take a nap so I don't mess up my sleep schedule!

Since this is kind of a short update, I'll show you guys a cool Rakuten shop I found and a few photos!

Online stores that sell Diamond Lashes overseas

I get asked all the time about Diamond Lashes and have noticed recently a ton of stores are now stocking them! I found most of these while slacking on finals... but I got them done (minus my last one on Friday) so now I can share these with you guys :D

• Ichibankao: Stocks the first, second and volume series for 1700yen (including shipping)
  
• GalのLover: Stocks the first and newest series (Volume and Pure) for $20 each
• A Pop of Kawaii: Stocks the first, second and pure series for $17.70 each
• Pinky Paradise: Stocks the first, second and model eye from pure series for $19.99 each
• Facial Shop: Stocks the first series for $17.99 each (must type "Diamond Lash" in search box)
• Bic Yamamoto: Stocks the first series for 1050yen each

I'm also selling boxes of Koakuma eye, Gorgeous eye, Lovely eye and Nudy eye from the first series for $16 including shipping!

Also if any of you know other stores that carry them that aren't on the list, please feel free to let me know :D

My Best Kept Secret: Japan to Door

I used to use another service that was exclusively for people who speak Japanese, but they kind of screwed me over. But my post isn't about that company, it's about Japan to Door! I'm not paid by them for anything, just a happy customer who has my needs fulfilled :)

I specifically use them for their Other Forwarding service, meaning that I handle all of the transactions myself and they act as my warehouse for receiving items. A big bonus is that they also allow transactions dealing with COD, meaning that there's pretty much no limitations to what sites you can buy from! I haven't used any of their other services so I cannot comment on those.

It was really important for me to be able to handle my own orders, so if there were sales on major sites I wouldn't have to worry about my items selling out. But in order to do this you need to have a basic understanding of Japanese! It is really important in the case that the stores you are buying from have delays or need you to confirm things, an example was that one of my egg shop orders was majorly delayed due to manufacturing issues in China. If you can't read or understand these types of things it'll be difficult for you to use this service.

So if you fit into the role of wanting to control your own orders, keep reading!

How the service works:

• Once you sign up with JTD they provide you an address to use for your items to be shipped to. It is really important to follow the steps in regards to the address, or else it might be cut off in orders and not shipped correctly to their warehouse.
• You add funds to your account through Paypal, which is any amount you want to load into your account (for things like COD, service fees and shipping). I believe there is a small Paypal fee charged when adding funds to your account.
• In order to make it more cost efficient, get everything you need at once! When you make orders you need to fill out one Other Forwarding service form where you can add multiple store orders as long as they're made within a 48 hour period. Also make sure you select the option for consolidation and repacking if you're receiving multiple orders at a time (it's an additional $16 for these services).
• It is cheaper if you charge your items to a credit card, but COD is available with a 15% service fee. If you are using COD you must pay upfront or else they could possibly reject your order and send it back to the origin!
• Once everything has arrived they will give you an invoice of charges and you have within 10 days to pay for everything to be shipped. The fees consist of shipping, handling, consolidation + repacking fee, invoice fee and taxes. It can get expensive overall, which is why I suggest doing multiple orders at once.

And here's an example of a fee breakdown (taken from one of my orders):

• Ordered 12 used CDs from Amazon Japan Marketplace for approximately $5 each ($60) - all paid on my debit card.
• Shipping fee: 3600yen converted to $42.25
• Handling fee: $11.74
• Consolidation + Repacking fee: $16
• Japanese tax: $3.75
• Total fees: $78.74, meaning each CD becomes about $11.50 which isn't bad considering they're very hard to find and originally retail for about 3015yen each.

So yes it can get more expensive than you originally expect, but overall it's not too bad! I recommend them 100%.

Stores I recommend on ordering from:

• egg store
• Popteen Store
• Ageha Shop
• Shibuya 109 Net Shopping
• Love Express
• Diamond Beauty
• Kirei Plaza