E-Bay Is an Endless Source of K-Beauty, J-Beauty, and Other Fabulous Beauty & Makeup Finds
I started Musings of a Muse ten plus years ago and you have no idea how old that makes me feel! One of my first Etude House posts dates back to 2008 and I have Japanese Beauty posts that date back even further. It’s pretty crazy how much K-Beauty has evolved and how heavily it has influenced and infiltrated the US market. Facial sheet masks, multi-step skincare routines, doll lashes, and so much more have become fairly standard in the US makeup, beauty, and skincare world and a lot of it was influenced by Korean beauty trends. But one of the most important aspects of Korean beauty is the fact it is now so readily available in the US. Many brands like Etude House, Tony Moly, Skin Food, and others have their own stores, are sold at popular retailers, and have their own websites that allow you to easily pick up any of your favorite K-Beauty picks easily.
About five or so years ago that was impossible and one of the best and most reliable sources for K and J-Beauty was ebay.com. E-bay has and will always be one of the easiest ways to shop for obscure Korean or Japanese beauty brands easily and safely thanks to their money back guarantee and buyer protection. I mean don’t get me wrong, it a heck of a lot easier tracking down your favorite K-Beauty nowadays than it was five or so years ago but there’s still some delay in getting newly launched just available products from both Korea and Japan. The market is a bit delayed in the US and we tend to get certain skincare collections or makeup launches five or six months after Korea has gotten them. Needless to say for those of us, like me, who love instant gratification this isn’t an ideal set up.
I have spent many, many fine years finding great, reliable sellers on E-bay that ship quickly and most times for free with retail prices on some of the latest and greatest launches from abroad!
Even though we are knee deep, wait, cross that out, we are neck deep in Holiday 2018 I am still very much all about Fall and Etude House has some killer Fall 2018 items that are well worth picking out that can easily be purchased on ebay.com! I’m pretty excited that Etude House is doing a new Play Eyes Eyesahdow Palette this season called Caffeine Holic which is a follow up to the In the Cafe Play Eyes Palette. This new palette features ten matte and sparkle eyeshadows inspired by coffee! Along with the launch they are re-promoting some really gorgeous brown based shades of My Blooming Lips Lipstick as well as a brown-based Cookie Blusher in Pink Brownie. Needless to say, this is on the top of my list of collections that I want for Fall! And thankfully all my favorite E-bay sellers have started carrying it!
Another item that I discussed with you late last month was the Etude House Nuts & Fruits Look at my Eyes Collection that includes ten eyeshadows as well as a refillable eyesahdow palette all housed in a collectible tin! Some people might not want the whole collection (I’m greedy I must have them all!) and that’s perfectly fine as individual shades as sold as little as $5 each with free shipping on E-bay!
With Fall still on my mine as well as Etude House you might want to try looking up the new Shine Chic Lip Lacquer also brown-based colors in oranges, browns, pink browns, and other Fall favorite shades that are popping up on E-bay for $10 or so. This formula has a creamy texture with a glossy, pigmented finish.
But Etude House is pretty mainstream if you really want to dig deep you might want to check our sellers that specialize in Japanense skincare I mean, right now, Korean Skincare is all the rage but there are plenty amazing brands out of Japan that are pretty darn incredible. Cult favorites like Fancl’s Cleansing Oil aren’t something that’s easily located in the US but can be shipped right from E-bay to your door. You might know I’m a massive fan of Sana’s Hadanomy Collagen Skincare (especially the hydrating facial mist) and it’s easily purchased from one of my favorite sellers AlphabeautyUK. You can also get some very interesting Biore products not available in the US that are available in the Japanese market such as Biore’s Cleansing Oil (I know right? You’re thhinking how do we not have this in the US!?!) and their bi-phase formulated makeup remover for eyes and lips.
As for Japanese makeup, there’s always everyone’s favorite, Jill Stuart which is also available from E-bay sellers that sell at close to retail prices. But most importantly it’s actually really fun looking at common brands like Maybelline and L’Oreal all of which have some items we haven’t gotten yet in the US like Baby Lips Candy Wow Color Lip Balm and Lip Flush Bitten Lip Graduation Lipstick Rouge.
Needless to say hunting down unique makeup from abroad is a rather fun experience. Lately, we’ve discussed a lot about the softening beauty market here in the US and how the downfall of mid-range beauty brands seems to be upon us but oddly enough Korea and Japan thrive on releasing new skincare and makeup constantly and their market is alive, thriving, and making billions of dollars a year. It’s also still a very exciting frontier that I haven’t grown bored with in all my years collecting and using it! Thankfully, tracking it down is a lot simplier thanks to E-bay because otherwise, I’d be taking a very expensive plane trip to Asia to stock up!
What are your favorite E-bay makeup, beauty, and skincare finds? Do you haul any favorites from abroad? Or try your hand at finding discontinued or limited edition items?
Do share!