24/7 Banking With BPI : Express Deposit Machine

BPI has just made our lives so much easier with their 24/7 Banking. Locate over 372 Express deposit machines nationwide and deposit, pay bills, and reload your cellphone even after banking hours. Or if you are allergic to long queues at the bank (like us!) then use the machine without the help of a live-teller!

We have BPI as one of our payment options... well... really ONE reason we have other payment options is that BPI operates in regular banking hours and our customers are sometimes only available to make the payment after work. So because of that we accepted payments made through money remittance agents like Cebuana Lhuillier, Western Union and LBC.

Even during banking hours, our customers complain of the long queue in BPI branches and how it eats up a lot of their time, when the reason they opted to shop online was because of its convenience. The whole waiting to pay just defeated the purpose. Most of the time our customers will ask for other banks like BDO, that operates until 5 or 7PM and on Saturdays (beat that! lol) . 

SO here comes the solution! ... EXPRESS DEPOSIT MACHINE!


Find an Express Deposit Machine

Find an Express Deposit machine near you. They can be found in either BPI Family Savings Bank or BPI Bank of Philippine Islands. These machines are usually free-standing and are placed adjacent to a BPI ATM. How do you know the difference between a regular BPI ATM and an Express Deposit Machine? Express Deposit Machines are painted GOLD and they are labelled as "Cash Deposit and More". See photo. 

To find the nearest Express Deposit Machine, click here.



How To Make A Cardless Deposit
On the Express Deposit Machine follow these steps:

1. Select Cardless Deposit
2. Select desired language.
3. Select Bank and account type. (In our case, BPI and Savings)
4. Enter 10-digit Account Number. (The last 10 digits of the card number)
5. Enter the 2-digit Joint Account Indicator / JAI, located at the lower right portion of the card.
6. Insert Cash.
7. Wait for the screen to confirm the amount and then, if the amount is correct press 'Deposit'. If you need to add more, press 'Add Cash'. If you made a mistake and want to cancel, press 'Return'.

To make it even easier here are the screenshots.

When the transaction is done, as proof of the cash deposit, the machine will provide you with a transaction receipt. 

NOTE: The machine only accepts 100, 500 and 1000 Php denominations. If you are our customer, and your bill is, say, 650 Php, please deposit 700 and we will return your change in the parcel... YES! we actually do it. We even return the change down to the last cent!

This machine is like a vendo machine lol. No need to fill up forms or put your money in the envelope. AND as soon as the transaction is over, the receiver's account balance is automatically updated. Much wow! So amaze! (Ignore the Shibe Doge reaction)

We hope this helped. If you'd like to share your experience with BPI Cardless Deposit, we would truly appreciate it! 

Synthetic or Natural Hair Brushes?

"Which one should I go for? Natural Hair or Synthetic Hair brushes?"

People ask us this question all the time. What are they anyway?

Synthetic Hair Brushes

These are brushes with synthetic or man-made bristles. Usually made from nylon and polyester. Ecotools uses Taklon which is also a type of polyester that's designed specifically to mimic natural hair. Taklon is free of any protein elements or allergen that may cause certain reactions on your skin. Brushes with Taklon bristles are what makeup manufacturers today refer to as 'green' brushes and 'cruelty-free' brushes. Sigma on the other hand has their Sigmax HD Filament also a type of polyester with very fine ends. Sigmax was designed to make sure that makeup is applied evenly on the skin.

These are some of our synthetic hair brushes. From left to right: Sigma Kabuki F80,
Ecotools Bronzer Brush, SIgma Deluxe Kabuki F80, Ecotools Powder Brush,
Sigma Large Powder Brush, Moonkini Flat Top Brush

Natural Hair Brushes

These are brushes with bristles made with various hairs from animals. The bristles are usually from squirrels, goats, badgers, horses, minks or sable. (Sounds like old McDonald's petting zoo-gone-wrong!) 

Natural Hair brushes have been used since the cro-magnon man learned to shave. lol And there are reasons why natural hair brushes are still used to this day.

These are some our natural hair brushes. Sorry there are synthetic ones in the picture too. :)
From left to right: MAC 180 Goat Hair Kabuki, MAC 168 Goat Hair Contour Brush ,
MAC 190 (Synthetic -Foundation Brush),  MAC 194 (Synthetic -Concealer Brush),
MAC 275 Squirrel Angled Eye Brush, MAC 266 Squirrel Eye Brush. 

Now, let's weigh in on their pros and cons.

Synthetic Hair Brushes

Pros:

• Excellent for mineral makeup. The silicates in mineral makeup shines and pigments better when applied and buffed by synthetic brushes.
• Excellent makeup buffers. Most synthetic hair brushes have very fine strands that reach even the finest lines of the face, therefore creating a more seamless and more even look.
• Longer lifespan and does not deteriorate easily with prolonged use and regular washing.
• Easy to maintain and does not need special makeup brush shampoos for cleaning, baby shampoo will do. 
• Does not absorb pigments or chemical from makeup making it easier to clean.
• Less likely to harbor bacteria since the bristles do not have natural components suitable for bacterial proliferation.
• Does not cause allergies. Synthetic brushes are free of any natural ingredients and proteins that may cause a reaction to sensitive skin.
• Generally soft. Synthetic hair bristles have smoother hair strands than most natural-hair brushes.
• Generally more affordable.
• Animal cruelty-free.

Cons:

• Does not pickup makeup well. The smooth synthetic strands do not hold powder well. The makeup just slides off, resulting in more makeup fallout.
• Not ideal as eyeshadow brushes. Synthetic hair brushes are excellent for smudging and blending powder eyeshadows, though but are not perfect applicators since the makeup will just slide off.

Natural Hair Brushes

Pros:

• Excellent eyeshadow brush. Picks up makeup and holds it well resulting in minimal fallout. Natural bristles have microscopic pores that help makeup cling to it better. Some of the best eye shadow brushes are made from squirrel and badger hair.
• Makeups are more pigmented when applied using natural hair brushes.

Cons:

• Shorter lifespan. Deteriorates with repetitive use and regular washing.
• More costly to maintain since natural hair brushes are delicate, you'll need special shampoos for washing them.
• Absorbs chemical from makeup. Natural hair brushes have a more porous consistency making it more likely to absorb chemicals from the makeup.
• More likely to harbor bacteria. Natural hair brushes are of animal-origin and contains nutrients that favor bacterial growth.
• May cause allergies. Natural hair brushes may cause allergies for people sensitive to animal fur.
• Generally more rough than synthetic hair brushes. Natural hair strands have rougher surfaces than the smoother synthetic bristles.
• Generally more expensive.
• Not for everybody. If you're an adamant animal rights supporter, this isn't the brush for you since the condition that the animals are kept in is often less than ideal.

Finding the right brush for you is really a trial and error process but we hope we were able to help you out somehow. If you have anything to share about Synthetic or Natural Hair Brushes, feel free to drop a line or two on the comments section.

Checkout our brushes! Click here.

Courier Review: LBC, PhilFox and BayadPo Courier

In this day and age, anything is possible with the world wide web. As we mentioned on our Blogger Debut post, we became an online shop on a whim.

But the moment we launched the page it did not go as perfectly well as we imagined. There were just too many things, we didn't think through. And while we stumbled and fell along the way we learned a few tricks of the trade that we'd like to share with you.

Ok... so you have a good supplier... you have a good facebook page to advertise your products ... your orders are piling up ... BUT you have no idea how to make your products reach your customers. That was exactly our predicament in the beginning. We did mention a few things in our Blogger Debut article but we didn't go through each Courier in detail. So we are going to do just that on this post. 

LBC. We started out with LBC in August 2013. Everybody knows LBC -lol! They're the most trusted courier in the Philippines. And boy, do they deliver well and fast! BUT their prices are just too high. These are their quick stats and the pros and cons of their service:


LBC Quick Stats:

• Shipping Rate : Metro Manila - 145-150 Php ; Provincial 155-165 Php  (Minimum Parcel Rate)
• Duration : Metro Manila - 1 Day ; Provincial - 1 Day
• Online Tracking : Yes (Updated)
• Facebook Tracking : Yes 
• Hotline Tracking : Yes (Only one hotline but there is always a customer service agent available to answer)
• Text Confirmation : Yes (You receive a text that the package has been received)

Pros:

• Highly efficient.
• Products are received in mint condition 99% of the time.
• Parcels could be tracked on line with detailed description of your parcel's whereabouts.
• Good customer service in their branches. Will even go as far as helping you insulate your packages so they reach their intended in perfect condition.
• A Customer Hotline that actually works and with CSR's that are polite and knowledgeable.
• The only one with a 'pick-up option' at all LBC branches in the Philippines. If you are sending a parcel outside LBC's delivery range you can just ask the receiver to pick it up at a branch closest to him/her.

Cons:

• Good service comes at a high price.
• You need a corporate account to enjoy free pickup service plus your own parcels and waybill supply. Getting a corporate account means you'll have to spend 10,000 Php  per month of courier expenses... I know... ridiculous right? For a small online shop like ours, this seems unreal. lol
• Your customers are more likely to be turned off by your shipping fees!

PhilFox . In November 2013 we learned about PhilFox and it quickly clicked! Take note 'click-ed' (past tense -lol). We'll tell you why after the quick stats:

PhilFox Quick Stats:

• Shipping Rate : Metro Manila - 38-40 Php ; Provincial 88-98 Php  (Metro Manila Rate includes Cainta and Las Pinas)
• Duration : Metro Manila - 1 Day ; Provincial - 1-2 Days
• Online Tracking : Yes (Updated)
• Facebook Tracking : Yes 
• Hotline Tracking : Yes (They have multiple hotlines for all mobile carriers, Smart, Sun and Globe, plus 2 landline numbers.)
• Text Confirmation : None

Pros:

• Mostly efficient.
• Products are received in mint condition 99% of the time.
• Parcels could be tracked on line but the tracking information is not updated.
• You can book online, through text, through their Customer Hotline.
• You can book pickups even after 2PM for as long as the courier driver is still within your area.
• You can track your packages online, through text, or through their Customer Hotline or through their facebook page.
• Gives a generous supply of courier parcels and waybills.
• Cheapest Metro Manila shipping rate.

Cons:

• PhilFox's Customer Service Agents are always polite but are not entirely honest. They only have their company's interest in mind when accepting bookings. They will not tell you that no one will pickup your parcels when their driver is on sick leave or terminated. They will make you wait until the end of office hours to tell you that their driver had an accident or whatever sort of excuse... ugh so upsetting!
• They are a small company so they only have one driver assigned per area/city. In our area in Marikina, we got to know our courier driver well. We called him Kuya Jun. And we would just text him and he would go to our place at our specifed time, without the need to book online or through their customer hotline. BUT when he goes on sick-leave we are left hanging! LOL.. But at least he tells us if he is absent or on sick. 
• Tracking System is not updated. You need to wait 24 hours after pickup, for the information to reflect on their website.

Just last week we stopped shipping through PhilFox, because for two days after Typhoon Glenda, they were not able to pickup our parcels. The day after Typhoon Glenda, we learned that Kuya Jun resigned and so we had to contact their office to send someone else. They said they will send a driver but no one came. The next day, we called them again. They said that they will send someone but, again, no one came. Good thing we had a backup --BayadPo Courier.

BayadPo Courier. One of our suppliers sent the products through BayadPo courier and it took almost a month for the items to reach us and when they did, half of them were broken. Although a lot of it was the supplier's fault because the items were not insulated with bubble wrap and the address was incorrect. lol! Despite the really bad first impression, they came in as a trusty backup for PhilFox. Here are their quick stats:

BayadPo Quick Stats:

• Shipping Rate : Metro Manila - 45 Php ; Provincial 75 Php  (Metro Manila Rate includes Cainta and Las Pinas)
• Duration : Metro Manila - 1-2 Days ; Provincial - 2-3 Days
• Online Tracking : Yes (Updated)
• Facebook Tracking : No (Facebook Page is non-interactive) 
• Hotline Tracking : Yes (Hotline is always busy; Only has 2 hotlines: landline & Globe only)
• Text Confirmation : None

Pros:

• Products are received in mint condition 99% of the time.
• Updated online tracking system.
• Printable online Waybill which you could send to your customers as proof of shipping.
• You can book online, through text or through their Customer Hotline.
• You can track your packages online, through text or through their Customer Hotline.
• Cheapest Provincial shipping rate.

Cons:

• BayadPo Courier is not very efficient especially with provincial deliveries.
• Customer Hotlines are always busy.
• No Facebook tracking.
• Customer Sevice Agents aren't always polite and may, at times, be rude. lol!
• No Waybill and Courier Parcel Supply, we have so far been using our supplies from Philfox.
• Cannot book after 11AM, the courier comes in at 12PM everyday.

There are other couriers  out there like Xend, LRC Express and MCE but we haven't really tried them. We know Xend only accepts online bookings... we did try but we get an error on registration all the time and for no apparent reason. So we stopped trying. And besides their shipping rates are 60 Php and 95 Php for Metro Manila and Provincial, respectively. A lot more expensive than BayadPo or Philfox. LRC Express on the other hand is quite new. The rates are almost the same as PhilFox but we have yet to try them out. 

There are just too many couriers out there, especially that online shops have been a steady trend in the Philippines for the past couple of years. I guess in the end you stick to the one that does your job and does it well. :D

If you have any feedback on other couriers, we would appreciate it if you let us know. Leave a comment below for questions and feedback. Let us know your experience with other couriers and those that we have just reviewed. 

Update: Click here to see the review on LRC Express Courier.

Beauty Box Blogger Debut

We opened our Facebook page in August 2013 and have since been operating as an online shop. 

Designing Beauty Box's Identity
We came out on a whim. Really... we just thought one night that we wanted to sell makeup. We thought of a few names like, Beauty Central, Beauty Bar, Face Central and Beauty Box.

About 2 hours in conceptualization, we decided to name the store Beauty Box... Only because we thought we would be shipping the items in boxes... which became different when we actually started shipping out and boxes became an issue on the courier's side.

So ... Beauty Box ... and then we started designing the logo and the Facebook Profile. Originally we wanted a more couture-ish, more editorial-ish kind of image, but we realized how intimidating it looked to a regular online shopper... ok...ok we didn't want to look like we were trying too hard to be expensive when we were selling a mix of dupes and originals (lol) so we went for livelier Barbie colors of teal, fuschia, salmon and vermillion. 

Here's how our first profile looked.

Obviously it looked a bit gloomy, so we changed it to this... and yes the Barbie colors... Oh and yes we love Daphne Groenveld!

Just this month, we started selling Korean products and so we changed our image into something more KPOP.

As you can see our logo was geometric at the start and it looked too stiff. So we decided to soften the lines and the type face.

The Suppliers
We started out selling dupe MAC Cosmetics from Makeup Art a cosmetics manufacturer in Canada and then we incorporated other brands, like Bobbi Brown and Urban Decay until the manufacturer closed in January 2014.

Immediately after losing the manufacturer, we were lucky to find a supplier that gets Benefit Cosmetics as shelf-pulls from a warehouse in HongKong. 

What are 'shelf-pulls'? They could be any of the following: 

• 'Overstock' or excess supply of cosmetics that were delivered to the store. The warehouse stocks them up and sells them in auctions. ; 
• They could also be stocks with missing product pamphlet or box. ; 
• 'Recalled" stocks that have been at the store for more than six months. (which isn't expired but some stores, like, Sephora have a mutual agreement with their suppliers that if the products have been sitting in the shelf for 6 months, they will be recalled) When these products are recalled they are holed out in a warehouse and also sold in auctions.

From our HongKong Supplier, we were able to get Benefit Cosmetics, Dollywink Japan, Korean Cosmetics, like Etude House, Holika Holika, etc.

In February 2014, we found another supplier from a warehouse in L.A. This helped us incorporate Sigma brushes into the picture. The moment we started posting the Sigma Kabuki brushes on our Facebook page, they became an instant hit, the orders just started flooding in.

From that same supplier we also got Ecotools brushes, Burt's Bees, Maybelline Cosmetics, EOS etc.

The Couriers

In August 2014, we shipped our products via LBC. We only had a few customers. Sometimes we'd have 4-5 in a week. It was because the shipping charge was just unreal. At 150 Php (Metro Manila) and 165 Php (Provincial) people were just intimidated by it. LBC is the most trusted courier in the Philippines and as beginners, and that time it was the only courier we knew and trusted. 

Later on we found Xend but registering in their website was just too much of a hassle. We tried more than a hundred times to register but to no avail. We were getting an error: Registration failed. Please try again Later.

And then in November 2013, we found Philfox. That time, it was a total lifesaver! They shipped our Metro Manila Parcels for only 40 Php and 98 for our provincial deliveries. They were pretty efficient too sometimes our Metro Manila customers will get their packages delivered in less than 24 hours and our provincial customers got theirs in less than 30 hours.

And then we also learned about BayadPo courier, which we now use as a backup.

And so that sums up our little business history. We don't really have a big plan, so to speak, but we do want to continue doing well. So far there has been a huge improvement in sales and customer feedback, so we must be doing it right. :D

If you have any questions, leave a feedback and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

View our Facebook profile and hit 'LIKE'! click here

Our official e-mail is at lovebeautyboxmanila@gmail.com