Hello darlings,
Welcome back to my blog! I hope you’ve all been well. It feels like forever since I’ve actually sat down to write a post 🙁 . Please forgive me as I’ve been trying to juggle a lot of things. I hope you’ve been following my YouTube uploads though. So, in my last blog post, I mentioned that we, Glam O’ Sphere BoutiQue, were going to exhibit beauty products at the Church SME fair and Lagos Makeup fair.
The days came…we went, we sold and we bless God! However, I noticed a trend especially at the Lagos Makeup Fair and it got me thinking a lot. I was going to do this on YouTube but as you may already know, I find it better to express myself through writing, hence this blog post. Okay, the fair started and we had people stop by our stand to check out products, prices, buy and also ask for items they needed.
What actually got to me was people’s lack of knowledge about the authenticity of beauty products that they were looking to buy.They believed that products had to be ridiculously cheap because it was a fair (well, who wouldn’t want that?) not minding if they were getting the real products or counterfeit. .
So, I’ll give an instance, some buyers said they got Maybelline Fit Me foundation for N2500 and some got L.A Girl Concealers for N1000. Okay ladies, let’s focus! Before you buy products especially makeup/beauty products, I would advise visiting the manufacturer’s website first, to check out their retail prices. Most of these companies don’t have officially recognised wholesalers in Nigeria. So, check the prices, tax, shipping and handling, convert to Naira, add between N500-N1000 per item (assuming you’re buying a lot of products) as shipping cost to Nigeria. Take Sacha Buttercup for example, it costs $20 on the Sacha Cosmetics website and Amazon. Let’s say you get free shipping, no tax , that’s $20 x 365 =N7300. Now add N500-N1000, that’s between N7800-N8300 for a pack of Sacha Buttercup Setting Powder. If you see a retailer selling less than this price, it means he/she is selling at a loss (I seriously doubt that this is any business person’s goal) or the product is counterfeit (unfortunately, this is usually the case). Another example is L.A Girl Concealer which is sold for $5 per tube, that’s N1825 without tax, shipping within the US and to Nigeria. Then, I see people saying they buy it for N1000-N1500. How??? And there’s also Milani powder, that’s $8.99 on the Milani website and some stores sell it here for N3000…aargh! Let’s not forget that profit hasn’t been added to any of these costs yet.
Ladies, let’s equip ourselves with adequate knowledge about the products we buy to use on ourselves and clients. Always do this check especially when you’re not too sure about prices. It will save you a lot of headache in the long run. If you’re reading this line, you deserve a box of chocolates…lol. Thank you so much for reading and I really hope this post helps you make better decisions when shopping online or at physical stores in Nigeria. If you’re looking to buy authentic and affordable beauty products, we can always hook you up. Check out our online store and please feel free to send me a direct message via [email protected], should you require further assistance.
Have a fantastic weekend, loves!
Hugs and Kisses,
Missglam.
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