All things considered, I shop online too much. If you’re a fellow (recovering) shopping addict, you know how my thought process goes. I can rationalize myself into buying anything, and I’m so good at it I can usually even convince my money-saving husband I need it, too.
At the grocery store, I rationalize myself into buying special foods, but that’s easy. After all, a food is a complete and actual necessity. Shopping at Loft is easy, too, because it’s where I buy my clothes for meetings, which help me make a living. But shopping online is where my true powers of rationalization come out to play. There are entire websites full of things I don’t need, but that I sure want badly enough to convince myself that I do.
One of the stores that’s mastered the art of advertising to this sucker is YesStyle.com, an Asia-based online store full of clothes, beauty products, and nick-knacks that scream “cute, original, and cheap”. I probably browsed the website a dozen times before I finally decided to take a chance on the unknown. I’m skeptical of online shops that aren’t familiar, especially when they’re based on the other side of the planet, because long distance shipping leaves a lot of room for postal error.
Also, foreign clothing and shoes sizing can be difficult for a mid-sized American with awkward proportion, but YesStyle carries a few non-clothing brands I’m familiar with and the prices are great, so I caved.
The first thing I added to my cart was a Sailor Moon black liquid eyeliner, because it has great reviews and I’ve been a fanatic of the franchise since I was practically in diapers. I would say it’s this product that prompted me to consider the site seriously, because I know it’s a quality, popular product, which lends the site a bit more legitimacy in my mind – the online stores who sell misrepresented product normally don’t carry reputable brands.
I’ve used the eyeliner at least a dozen times now, and I’d consider it to be a 9/10 for application and wear, and a 12/10 for packaging. It’s a novelty product, but definitely comparable to other eyeliners in the same price range. The application was easy, and the wear was long.
YesStyle carries Japanese and Koreanskincare and makeup, as well as hair care, but they also have a huge selection of kitchen goods and gadgets and many random home furnishings and nick-knacks. They have so many options that browsing the entire website would probably take at least a week. With a good mix of cheap and pointless products and quality, giftable items, I was able to discover this chopsticks set as a gift for my best friend (I couldn’t help but order one for myself as well, and it’s held up through several uses and washes in a dishwasher).
They’re very moderately priced at 9.90 USD, but I’ve never seen a kawaii set of chopsticks like this in the United States. They aren’t weighted properly like a great pair of chopsticks, but for the price they’re definitely durable, cute, and quality enough.
I added a last minute item to my shopping cart, because who doesn’t need a travel-sized spray bottle with a cute animal face on the lid? I make my own hydrosol, and I’m forever in the market for cheap or cute spray bottles. I love great packaging, so when I make my own products I love to put them in lovely bottles, and while I can tell the spray device might stop working and the paint will rub off in a matter of weeks or months, it was cheap and worth the purchase!
When I placed my order, YesStyle was offering a promotion during which shipping was free to the United States with a 25 USD purchase. This did help lessen the blow when it took nearly 20, that’s right, TWEN-TY, days to receive my order. Because nothing I ordered was a necessity, I wasn’t too upset. But, while I understand that shipment from the other side of the planet can take a hot minute, a twenty-day wait period is enough to deter me from making YesStyle my go-to place for K-Beauty, Japanese products, and other things that are hard to source from America.
Overall, I’m satisfied with YesStyle. The products are legitimate, and I felt that I got exactly what I paid for, and I can see myself getting some excellent use out of these very reasonably priced items. But waiting 20 days for my order sucked, especially since I’ve ordered from other overseas Asian retailers whose packages arrived in two weeks or less. For this reason alone, I feel compelled to give YesStyle 3.5/5 stars rather than a higher rating. If you have all the time in the world to wait, by all means, YesStyle could the the trusted retailer for you. But I’m impatient, and I probably won’t purchase from YesStyle again.