It's hard to stay cheap

Since I opened my shop, I've tried to keep costs for my customers as low as possible, I'm always putting sales together, try to make you win stuff etc.

But there is a downside to it, especially when it's a not widely known shop like mine with very few sales, and it is that I don't get to cover supplies costs etc. Not only have my shipping expenses gone up (when I order supplies), but also it's being more expensive to ship products to you. In fact, I charge customers so little that I charge LESS than what it's costing me to ship their orders. Well, I can't put up with it. I'm sorry but I can't, I'm losing money and if I don't charge what I should, I'll end up closing the shop in a couple of months. I can't sustain it if there aren't orders or if I lose money with every order.

I never thought this would be a quick buck (if I did, I'd be a repackager and wouldn't give a shit about getting out quality products), and I don't want you thinking I'm greedy or anything. I'm going to show you with pictures and facts what I'm talking about and why I've had to take the decision to increase shipping charges on my customers.

Right now, what I charge for shipping is (for the first item), I always ship via ordinary shipping:

-Samples, Mini Pressed refills, Rock my Look sample pack: $2
-Full sizes, 10 sample pack, Palette refills, Full size Rock my Look collection: $3,5
-Palettes: $4,5
-Get the look packs: $4

NOW, I'm going to show you Spanish Correos prices. Keep in mind that these prices are in Euros, I'm posting the conversion into dollars too. If you want to check them yourself, use a currency converter and see by yourself. The images have been taken from the correos website, with links on the titles so you check for yourself. If the page shows up in Spanish, you can hit the Welcome word on the upper right corner and it'll switch into English. Once there, scroll down until you reach International prices.


Standard shipping (no tracking)

Zone 1 is Europe and countries in Europe which aren't a part of the EU. Zone 2 is the rest of the world.

EUROPE: 
Packages up to 50grams: €1,30 = $1,88
Packages up to 100grams: €2 = $2,89
Packages over 100grams: €6 = $8,67

REST OF THE WORLD:
Packages up to 50grams: €1,70 = $2,46
Packages up to 100grams: €2,80 = $4,05
Packages over 100grams: €9,60 = $13,87


Registered shipping (with tracking number)

Zone 1 is Europe and countries in Europe which aren't a part of the EU. Zone 2 is the rest of the world.

EUROPE: 
Packages up to 50grams: €3,60 = $5,20
Packages up to 100grams: €4,30 = $6,21
Packages over 100grams: €8,30 = $11,99

REST OF THE WORLD:
Packages up to 50grams: €4 = $5,78
Packages up to 100grams: €5,10 = $7,37
Packages over 100grams: €11,90 = $17,19


I think that speaks for itself. It also needs to be said that I have to pay for envelopes and drive to the post office (the one I currently go to is 10 minutes driving from home). Diesel is +/- €1,30 per liter ($1,88), it'd been long since it reached such price.

During the weekend I'll update my shipping charges on both my Etsy and ArtFire shops. I'll post a quick note once it's done.

Here are the new shipping prices:


-Samples, Mini Pressed refills, Rock my Look sample pack: $2,75
-Full sizes, 10 sample pack, Palette refills: $4,25
-Palettes: $5,5
-Get the look packs, Full size Rock my Look collection: $5

I'm sorry about this and I'm afraid it's not going to do any good to my sales, but I just can't keep up with these prices.

I hope everybody understands the situation. I'd love to hear your insights on this.

<3

A quick note on pressed eyeshadows

From now on I won't be taking more orders of any of the Rock My Look collection shades in pressed form. They just don't work well (most of them apply plain black when pressed) and I have to go and reformulate the shade multiple times and I'm just not happy with the results. When I started to press shadows, I tried to press Queen out of RML because I thought it'd be the hardest one to work with and it went ok so I didn't try the others.


All that together makes:

1. I lose money and waste supplies
2. Waste a long time, both mine and my customer's.
3. Orders take longer to ship because I'm stuck with one pressed sample.
4. Me ANGRY as hell.

Thing is, when I press shadows I always press one for the customer and another one out of that same mix for myself to quality control. So when customer bought other shades from the collection I started to experience trouble which has lead me to the decision to not press them anymore.

I have to clarify that I haven't shipped any of the non working RML shades, just in case anyone thinks I've shipped them not working.



So, if anyone requests them I'll refund them that shade or give them the option to chose another shade.

I'm sorry because the Rock My Look line is very popular and a lot of people wants them as pressed liners, but that won't be an option for some time.

International shipping Chrsitmas delays

This has been my first Christmas as an Etsy seller so this has caught me quite by surprise.

During the whole December month and all of this current month, I've been (still am) quite upset because of the EXTREME delay in orders shipped from Dec 11 to 27. I hope they start showing up eventually because I don't want anyone to think I never shipped their packages. The problem has been only with US customers, nothing went wrong when shipping to any other country.

I knew two packages I shipped on Dec 11 were held on by Spanish customs until Dec 30, because it was shipped as Urgent (wait, I'll laught) International mail and it was registered. I know nothing about the rest of the packages shipped during these dates.

A couple of days ago I found this useful information on Etsy about these delays and realized I'm not the only seller in this delicate situation. Apparently it's happened only with people shipping stuff to the US, not shipping from there.

So please, if you're expecting a package from me that was shipped during December, PLEASE be patient. I'm really sorry that postal services are taking so long and that you've been so unlucky that you have to wait.

Shipping usually takes around a week to arrive to the US and this has been a special and unfortunate one time thing. I will take action if any package is lost and never ends up showing, don't worry about that, but please allow your packages some more time to arrive, I'll just ask that of you.

I've learned though, and next year, Christmas gifts will be shipped on November only and if I ship anything during December it will go by registered mail so it can be tracked at least. I don't like it because that will mean increasing shipping costs for buyers, but it's the only way to be able to stay calm and know what's going on.

Thank you all for your patience!!

Have you had shipping problems during Christmas? I'd love to hear your experiences!

I promise I'm back! Some thinking and love for all of you :)

Hi everyone!

First of all, I'd like to apologize for not updating my blog for so long. I've been neglecting it in order of getting other things done and due to life in general.

Christmas has been very busy, Lost in Makeupland is a baby that's trying to stand up on it's own and starting to walk step by little step. I really, REALLY, want to thank you all for keeping up with me, trusting my company and products and giving them a try.

I also want to apologize to all the people who ordered from me by the end of December because I had a long gap where it took me far too long to proccess or ship their orders. I fell sick at the start of January with a horrible cold, which resulted in me not going out of home to ship anything and absolutely and for OBVIOUS hygiene reasons not  going anywhere near products until I got well. No way for me getting near micas and bases while I was constantly coughing, sneezing and wiping my nose every momment. I hope everybody understands it and that it's not a big hassle for you.

A very important thing I want to do is thank all the people who's asked me questions, to those who've bought from me, especially for those of you who have come back after your first purchases. To all the people who's reviewed me (both on blogs and people who convo me telling me what they like about my products and how was their experience with them). Also thanks for those of you who follow my blog, Twitter and Facebook page.

I especially want to thank all the people who's ordered from me during Christmas and are still waiting for their orders to arrive. Thanks for your patience. Apparently, this Christmas have been very problematic for sellers outside the US. I'm going to write a full post about it, because doing some research, I've found out that I'm not the only one who's sent packages that are not arriving. I think it's a very serious matter and believe it deserves a post of it's own. If you ordered between Dec 11 and 27, don't panic just yet!

I'm so happy with the way things are going for my company, that I can't complain. Lost in Makeupland has been open for two months and a half and I've made more than 50 sales already, which I think it's great.

It's quite a bit overwhelming in the way that I'm changing my work schedule to adapt myself to the growing of the shop. I'm still deep into that, so I'm working slower at the momment and hope things go faster starting this new week. My current turnaround time is 2-5 days.

I'll be catching up with you guys in blog stuff during this next week, but I'll leave a little list of some of the topics I'm going to cover soon here:

-I've made a couple of giveaways.
-Upcoming products (a deep look into my Face powders, Alice's Chains collection which is being reformulated)
-I'm using transparent jars for eyeshadows instead of shiny black lids.
-Looks by you.
-Part 2 of the How I test my products post.
-The wonders of Pixie Epoxy (thanks Sakura for sending me some!)
-I've bought stuff from some lovely indie companies and will tell you what I think of everything.
-Looks by me.