If you want to avoid the hassle when purchasing online, a pre-requisite is to do an extensive research about the website. And since we’re talking about beauty and skin care products, one has to research not just about the legitimacy of the website but also the products themselves. Some of you may not have the luxury of time to do all that, so I did all the research for you. Let’s get started, shall we?
What is Althea Korea?
Althea is a K-beauty online shop that is taking aim at the Southeast Asian markets. In 2015, the startup announced that it received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital.
[Finance 101: A venture capital is a type of financing that is provided by firms (a.k.a. investors) to small, emerging firms that are seen to have high growth potential.]
Since then, Althea has already expanded into 6 countries namely Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Philippines.
Products
Althea offers a wide range of K-beauty products. To be honest, I had a preconceived notion before that K-beauty is all about face masks and lip/eyebrow tints. (Yes! I am a newbie here!) With Althea, I figured that K-beauty refers to basically anything about health and beauty care. Althea offers a wide range of products from skincare, make-ups, to hair care and even nail care. To date, Althea has partnered with up 100+ Korean beauty brands (and if you ask me, I think they have no plans to stop expanding this list because just this week, they welcomed the latest addition to their brands, AMOK). Of course, the favorite Korean brands in the Philippines are present (Etude House, Tony Moly, Laneige, The Face Shop, Banila Co, IOPE, Innisfree, Holika Holika).
Price
This is the game changer! Althea offers HUGE discounts to its customers. Since they deliver products directly from Korean suppliers, they charge much lesser compared to other online shops. In fact, they offer cheaper products than the actual shops in the Philippines. For instance, the Laneige Pore Control BB Cushion is retailing at Php 1,900 in the Laneige store in SM Aura. Althea, on the other hand, offers the same at a much lower price of Php 1,320. Not only they offer cheaper products, Althea also offer free shipping for orders above Php 1,000.
Payment Options
I could only see 2 downsides with Althea. While usual online shops such as Zalora and Lazada and transportation apps Grab and Uber have offered the ultra-convenient payment method known as Cash-on-Delivery or COD, no such option exists yet for Althea. The only payment options are by Credit Card and through Paypal. So, being a non-card user, I have to resort to borrowing (thanks Lirs!).
But I’m not giving up on that hope just yet as Uber did finally bend to user demands. Maybe in the near future (fingers crossed).
Delivery
It took my package only 6 business days to arrive and I got it in GOOD condition. The products are placed in a huge bubble wrap and then placed inside a thick plastic sleeve that has the Althea logo sticker on it. Their local courier is LBC Express so once your order has arrived the Philippines, you can contact LBC directly to track your package. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the actual package.)
Did I also mention that Althea has an online tracker that lets you see a step by step status of your order?
So, Is Althea Korea Legitimate?
A personal tip: if you want to check the legitimacy of an online shop, test their customer care service. A legitimate online shop will hire good customer service representatives no matter what. In my case, the CS rep was able to answer my questions in a timely and appropriate way. I have also tried contacting them through their Facebook page and again, I was impressed by the prompt reply. With great products, best prices, and excellent delivery service, no doubt, Althea Korea is a legitimate online beauty shop!
More Tips:
- Make sure to have a shopping list. Althea offers a wide range of products, and if you are not sure what to buy, chances are you’d be overspending.
- Although most products have reviews on them, make sure to do your own research still. Watch YouTube videos or read blogs that do product reviews before purchasing the items
- Know your skin tone if you’re buying foundations or BB creams. Korean brands have much lighter shades compared to Western brands. Before I purchased the Laneige BB Pore Control at Althea, I went to the actual Laneige shop to have a closer look at the product as well as to test which shade fits my tone (HAHA sorry and thanks to Laneige SM Aura).
- Subscribe to their newsletter and watch out for promotional codes! Althea offers discount up to Php 350 to new customers. Receive this special discount by clicking this link. For existing customers, however, Althea sends promotional codes and discounts via email, so make sure to check your inbox once in a while. The 2nd downside that I noticed with Althea is that they disable promotional codes very soon after posting, without informing the customers. For instance, I placed the Lunar New Year promo code and was about to checkout but decided to change one item from my bag, when I tried to checkout again, the promo code has already expired.
All in all, I am satisfied with my Althea Ph experience, and yes, I will definitely repurchase!
So there you have it! Are you still hesitant to buy from Althea Philippines? What are your concerns? Comment down below or shoot me an email at koreandermitch@gmail.com.
The Koreander 