Salon brands without salon prices (beautybay.com)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	beautybay.com
Date:	09/07/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: prices are lower than what you would pay in a salon

Disadvantages: on the whole, products are still expensive, search issues

If you have ever read my reviews, it will probably come as no surprise to you that I love my beauty products! I decided to treat myself to a few new ones recently, despite having enough to stock an entire branch of Boots already! I did a few internet searches on the products I was intending to buy and the site that came up as being the cheapest for the majority of these products was www.beautybay.com

This wasn't a site I had used before, however I had read a few reviews of the it on Dooyoo which gave positive feedback, so I decided to make a purchase.

The site as I'm sure you can guess by the name, sells beauty products. These are mainly from higher end and salon brands, such as TIGI, Jurlique and Gatineau. As such, the products are usually in a higher price range, but as mentioned I managed to find a lot of items cheaper than they would be in store or in a salon, as well as on other internet sites.

As I already had an idea of the items I wanted to purchase, I found it very easy to find them and add them to my basket, as there is a drop down box allowing you to search by brand as well as a search bar. I have found, however, that should you wish to search a product type, even though the site is split into separate sections, such as 'hair care', 'make-up' etc... it's not so easy to search. For example, if I wanted a shampoo, I would have to type 'shampoo' into the search bar, and I would be given a list with pictures, but the results are difficult to find your way through, as they're not very clearly set out.

Other than this slight problem, I found using the site fairly straight forward. You can see the amount of items in your basket and how much your basket totals in the top right hand corner, which is useful so that you don't get too carried away!

If your order totals less than £60 then first class delivery will cost £2.50 and second class £1.95. There are also options for recorded delivery which are much pricier. If your order is over £60 you can have it sent free by second class, although you can still choose the other options if you wish. I chose second class as I wasn't in a hurry for my items and didn't see the point of paying extra for postage costs.

My order was placed on a Sunday, I received an email to say that my items had been dispatched on the Monday and I received my order on Wednesday, which I was very happy with.

The items were packaged well, and the site has a free returns policy, so if you're unhappy you can send the item back - providing it is unopened and unused within 14 days for a refund or replacement.

My overall experience with this website has been good, and I will certainly use it again in the future. The postage costs are relatively low, the items were delivered reasonably quickly and packaged well and I have had no problems to speak of. If you like using salon brands but don't want to pay salon prices, this site is worth checking out.

Summary: A good website I will use again