The folks at Lazada are preparing for their big bash upcoming from 24th - 26th April 2018 and you are invited too. As a prelude,  I received an early "Surprise Box" full of hair products from HASK. 

If you haven't heard, last weekend Lazada had a birthday prelude where mystery boxes were sold at $29 and I swear the crowd was strong with snaking queues to boot. All for the sake of grabbing the best deals and locking one of those Surprise Boxes — an assortment of goodies from the vendors and partners of Lazada, ranging from beauty, lifestyle, travel, home, fashion and lots more. 

Missed that? Fret not because the real thing is just about to get started. Get hyped up over up to 90% off on Lazada website with more than 600 flash deals happening at segregated timings throughout the day from 24 to 26 April. You know the drill if you have been Lazada's ardent fans over the years and this year is no different as you will get the chance to grab affordable Brand Surprise Boxes @ $29 (Worth $100). Do look out for 4 exclusive premium beauty boxes going at $50 worth $100 too. Psst, I am not revealing what they are. The best deals go towards the best treasure hunters. 

In my trove from HASK, here are just 3 items I am revealing out of the $100 worth of products bundled in. Of special mentions is the 5-in-1 Hair Rescue Leave-in Conditional which came in a spray to dispense bottle for that instant water-locking moisture I need for my dry hair ends. Perfect for lazy girls like me who find conditioning in the shower too troublesome. I also love the Revive & Refresh Daily Hair Mist in a very handy spray bottle which gives off a light lingering baby powder smell. Especially useful when returning back to the office after a sweaty walk out to lunch!

Start planning your moves more on Lazada Birthday Festival 2018's homepage now!
The schedules for the Surprise Boxes are out, so zoom in on your favourite brands and check-out the boxes at the dedicated timing. 

Here's a little incentive for you:

Voucher Code: LAZPARTYNC6

Voucher Duration: 24 - 26 April, 2018

Voucher Mechanics: 18% off, Capped at $6. Valid for first 100 new customers only.

Now's my turn to plan my shopping schedule on Lazada~

Catch up soon! 

For the first time, Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce platform, Lazada, will be holding an offline consumer engagement event.

Visitors can take part in activities with more than $15,000 worth of prizes to be won, including the Apple iPhone X!

 From 6 to 10 December, head on down to JCube to ‘catch’ branded surprise boxes and Lazada vouchers via a UFO catcher machine!

This is the first of its kind partnership between Lazada and CapitaLand to promote online-to-offline integration.

Visitors can simply snap and upload pictures on social media with the hashtag #ShopLazada1212 at the “anti-gravity” photo booth.

Mr. Alexis Lanternier, Chief Executive Officer of Lazada Singapore shared this great news with shoppers: “At the event, shoppers can win exciting prizes and vouchers to shop on Lazada this 12.12, where they can enjoy up to 90% off, over 120 flash deals and vouchers worth $120”

Lazada currently has five live “click and collect” lounges across CapitaLand malls – Plaza Singapura, Bugis+, JCube, Westgate, and IMM. Customers can collect parcels and return items while the lounges also serve as collection points for sellers! Isn't that genius?  This is certainly a delightful piece of news for us shopaholics.

 With such ease of convenience, picking up your purchases will be a breeze no doubt.

And the good news is that 13 lounges will gradually be rolled out across CapitaLand malls by March 2018. Do we need any more excuses to shop really? 

You will be surprised to know that many of the brands available in CapitaLand Malls are now on Lazada.SG too. Currently, the online marketplace hosts more than 300 official stores in total, including the likes of The Body Shop, Lego, Shiseido, Origins and MAC just to name a few.

You read that right.

On 12.12, brands will offer shoppers over 50 ‘surprise boxes’. These boxes, containing $100 worth of items but selling at $29, were so popular on 11 November (11.11) that some of them sold out in 4 seconds.

The branded surprise box is an example of the close synergy between Lazada and brand partners to engage shoppers. Since its introduction in March this year at Lazada’s Birthday Sale, the number of branded surprise boxes for customers to choose from has grown by more than four times.

I can definitely attest to the Lazada Suprise Boxes having reviewed these gems. It was such a surprise  to receive random surprises within each  definitely value-for-money. No surprises it was sold out in seconds. 

(Sneak: For this 12.12, watch out as I reveal another Surprise Box in my upcoming posts and all the great discounts you can enjoy on that day! )

And of course, you can always trust Lazada in providing customer-friendly policies such as free delivery storewide and 14 days free return.

About Lazada Online Revolution

Online Revolution is the biggest shopping event in Southeast Asia. It was started on

12 December 2012 (12.12) to introduce consumers to the convenience and value of shopping online, sparking a ‘shopping frenzy’ that has grown it into a highly-anticipated annual event. Every year, more and more consumers from capital cities to remote villages shop from a wide range of deals from international and local brands previously not available to them. Last year, shoppers ordered two million items on just the first day of the event.

This year, the highlights of Online Revolution will be on 11.11 (11 November) and 12.12 (12 December). Themed ‘Shop the Universe’, shoppers in six countries can look forward to millions of products from around the world – from branded cosmetics, apparel and fashion accessories, to TVs and other nifty electronics, household essentials and even pet food – at ‘out-of-this-world’ prices.

My birthday present came a month earlier in the form of a fresh preppy bouquet from A Better Florist to brighten up my day! With elegant, stylish bouquet arrangements, A Better Florist uses only the freshest flowers sourced directly from the Cameron Highlands, at the most affordable pricing. The varied languages of flowers will definitely convey the messages intended for your loved ones. Crafted with love in every bouquet bloom, there is no lack of a modern touch to the styling of the floral arrangement. 

Bespoke bouquets arrangement available.

Life is Too Short to Wear Boring Jewellery

Local designer and entrepreneur Carrie wanted to create something that's out of the ordinary from the mass-produced jewellery in the market. This designer came into the trade while looking for unique jewellery pieces for her bridesmaids; when she couldn't find any, one thing leads to the other and the rest is history. Armed with prior jewellery creation experiences, Carrie went on to create the Patheon Silver label, offering creative and beautiful jewellery pieces for women.

 Pantheon is designed for the modern woman who embraces multi-roles in life and wishes to exude confidence and happiness through the right, fitted piece of jewellery.

Wear the right jewellery and conquer the world!

***

Yes, my purchases from Taobao via 65daigou have finally arrived. 

*Updated June 2017:  65daigou has now been rebranded as Ezbuy. This article was written before the rebranding. But essentially 65daigou refers to ezbuy and their shopping system remains the same and hence the article content is still relevant.*

For reviewing purpose, I tried out 2 different routes — via shipment to Guangzhou and the other via shipment to Shanghai warehouse —  for internal shipment consolidation in China before shipping over to Singapore.

Results?

Guangzhou shipment was way faster: placed order on 5th Aug, all stocks arrived to Singapore service centre on 8th Aug ( 3 days) 

Shanghai: same order placement day but all stocks arrived Singapore only on 11th August ( 6 days)

*I had shipped via Economy Air 

Tips: You should definitely try to consolidate all your deliveries to one warehouse as that will save your internal shipping fees further even if it's by a few grams of weight difference.
 Why are there 2 warehouses?
 The main reason: If the seller is located in Northern China, you can opt for Shanghai warehouse, whereas if your seller is located in the Southern provinces, you can opt for Guangzhou warehouse. This will greatly reduce waiting time for your parcel's arrival!

I have just need to pay up the international shipping fee upon its arrival in Singapore and like I mentioned in my July post, there was a Free Agent Fee back then and so I did not need to pay for that.

Of course you might want to factor in things like wrong stocks arrival etc. and that's when the Inspection portion of the service provided by 65daigou is so crucial. Many Taobao sellers are individuals and some of them are amateurs. Occasionally, the sellers may make mistakes such as sending wrong quantity, size or design.

Wrong Delivery?

 Next, Checkered top $7 with grey culottes $17.61. I admit the culottes was bought at too high a price but thankfully the quality was good and comfy. As for the top it was in t-shirt cotton material.