Althea Korea Review: Shipping to the Philippines

We know all the hype of the Korean Skincare, their 10-step routine and whatnot. And that's how I got hooked to it. Originally, I was looking for a facial sunscreen and that led me to Etude House's Sunprise Mild Watery Light SPF 50+ PA+++. It was not available upon visiting the nearest local Etude House store that I just thought I'll look for it online.

My online journey led me to Althea Philippines (ph.althea.kr), an online shopping site selling Korean products and shipping directly from Seoul, Korea! Thus, every product is 100% authentic. Moreover, you never have to worry about tariff charges (NO tax-handling fee). If your order is already paid, courier partners like LBC and RAF will deliver your package. If it's COD, NinjaVan will be the courier that will deliver your package and collect your payment.

Things to note about Althea Philippines

• There's free shipping for orders above ₱999.
• Cash on Delivery (COD) is available for orders below ₱2,000.
• There's one free giveaway for every order (limited to one per customer). If you want to order again, just wait until a new free giveaway is available.
• Every product is highly discounted (when compared to the retail value on local stores) since the product is directly sold to you.
• For new members, you can use the code WELCOME-PH for a minimum order worth ₱1,500 so you will have a discount price of ₱150 and a rebate amount of ₱150 that you can use on your next purchase on the website.
• You can get ₱200 off your first purchase through this link (minimum order worth ₱1,500):
http://share-ph.althea.kr/x/I7arLp

• There are tons of discount codes on the website depending on what Althea has to offer (especially during the holidays).

Let me talk about the FREE GIVEAWAY

To avail of the free giveaway, you have to visit the product page and add that product on your bag. Otherwise, you will never have that product. Now, there's a bit of a bug on the website. Sometimes, the price of the free giveaway is not automatically deducted from your order. There's only two things you can do:

(1) Keep on refreshing the page (which I don't recommend), or
(2) Revisit your bag some time later to see if the deduction reflects on your order.

Be always on the lookout to see that the free giveaway is part of the discount!

You should see something like this on the checkout page (assuming you use the WELCOME-PH code for discount):

WELCOME GIFT (₱150 PFF)	-₱150
Free Giveaway	-₱300
discount	-₱450

Also take note that most of the time, the free giveaway gets sold out. Now, this doesn't mean that you will never be able to avail of the free giveaway. Just visit the website again the next day. I notice they restock sometime between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM. If you visit Althea on a hot sale period (like the holidays), by 12:00 noon, the free giveaway gets sold out again.

If I don't like the current free giveaway, I will usually wait till they have a new product giveaway. Based on my observation, a product would last as a giveaway for a week (less if there are tons of orders that week).

The Items I ordered

I used the December 2017 B3FREE1 code (since it's more practical during this period) which means that if I order at least four products, the cheapest item would be free (excluding the free giveaway). As you can see, the cheapest product I ordered was valued at ₱420. Add that with the free giveaway of ₱200 and I get the total discount of ₱620.

I only used the code Welcome-PH for my second box. For the third box, I'll be using the code which I won from the Special Christmas Box.

As you can see also, in the end, I didn't order an Etude House product. (lol) There are just tons of products to choose from that my mind was just racing for what to buy for 2 weeks! Prior to ordering, I recently bought Celeteque's Sun Care Matte Moisturizer with SPF 30 and it was great so far. I no longer feel the need to buy another suncare product. Well, that Matte Fix Cushion by Chica Y Chico already has SPF 35 (SPF 50 usually for other cushions).

At this time also, I was following two YouTube channels using cushion and I just love the aesthetic of the cushion, not the effect of the product on the skin but the product container itself! Yes, I'm like a kid discovering a new toy. I just have to scratch that itch so I bought Chica Y Chico's Matt Cushion since it's black (my favorite color and I only wear black), it has tons of reviews, and it's very cheap compared to other cushions.

I'm a stickler for nice skin so the ones I ordered are focusing on that. I hope they'll do what I expect of them.

Delivery and Tracking

As mentioned, if you choose Cash on Delivery, NinjaVan will be the courier that will collect your payment. I love NinjaVan. They were so efficient. What's important with delivery is communication. On the day that your parcel is going to be delivered, they will text you. They'd ask you for landmarks so they won't get lost and in about two hours, they will be right at your doorstep to deliver your package.

Here's the tracking info: I ordered on the 11th of December, got my order shipped on the 14th, packaged arrived on 18th in the Philippines (and cleared by customs), package sorted in Manila on the 19th, packaged shipped to and sorted in Cebu on the 20th, and was delivered to my doorstep on the 21st. It was a 7-day process from the time the package has been shipped then delivered to Cebu, practically 5 days only for Manila.

Althea Box

Here's how the delivered parcel looks like:

Since I ordered on a Christmas season, I got a special Christmas Althea box:

Again, if you want automatic discount of ₱200, you can use my referral link:
http://share-ph.althea.kr/x/I7arLp