Chic Decent Haul and Review

Back at it with another haul!

This was my Christmas gift to myself – a (over) sized makeup haul of makeup brands I’ve never purchased from before!

I ordered everything from Chic Decent. Honestly I was a little worried this was a scam website at first LOL but I did look up beforehand and saw some people had purchased previously from them on the AsianBeauty subreddit so I decided to take the plunge and just buy some things! The review I saw was from a year ago, so I figured I’d write a review about my experience with Chic Decent just in case anybody else was curious about ordering from them.

You might have noticed in the photograph, but everything in this haul are all Chinese make up brands.

To be honest, I was originally just going to order everything from Taobao/Tmall (whatever the stores are on) but I figured Chic Decent would be easier for anybody overseas to use. I mean really, who wants to learn how to use Taobao? Lowkey (highkey) it’s a nightmare website to use design-wise. Even for someone like me who can read Chinese without issue LOL.

Anyways – I’ve never been like super into following the trendy makeup scene or anything like that, but I do really love makeup and I do relatively keep an eye out on what’s popular, mostly in terms of makeup looks. And yeah, I tend to go overboard with my purchases on occasion. Ok, maybe a little more than on occasion. And I tend to not deviate from what I like either LOL but it is. Fine.

I’m getting off track.

Pretty much everything that I know about makeup and makeup trends is just sort of skimmed from a handful of beauty gurus I follow on YouTube (mostly Korean and pretty much one Western beauty YTer I still actively watch and enjoy) and the random Instagram reel that pops up thanks to the algorithm.

I feel like Chinese makeup brands have made a pretty big rise recently – or maybe that’s just Instagram feeding my confirmation bias? – and I’ve been really interested in trying some of the brands out!

I only occasionally see videos of douyin style makeup reposted to Instagram, so I’m not like super familiar with what influencers are popular in China or anything, I just have a general idea of a lot of the current popular douyin makeup trends. I’ve always sort of been into that very like girlish, pinky, sparkly, almost teary-eyed makeup with those “manga” lashes that’s really popular recently on douyin so that kind of makeup has really caught my eye. I also lowkey enjoy the “cold outside” trend that’s going around right now – I think it looks super cute to my surprise LOL. Although I’ve seen the photographs most of the people who recreate those looks use Korean or Western products, but I have begun following recently a few other Instagram influencers who use Chinese branded makeup to create those looks.

I only just recently joined 小红书 (xiaohongshu, China’s version of Instagram), and haven’t had the time to properly dive through website and find people to follow – I’ve mostly just been looking through the various categories (specifically cosmetics) to see what’s popular right now – although most of the videos are for students haha. I think it’s because a lot of domestic brands are cheaper, and they’re competing with other big name brands so the entire point of these videos is to emphasize that the product is good but it’s also affordable.

I don’t have much information on Chinese makeup brands to be honest – the ones that were most known to me are the ones I think most Westerners are familiar with: Flower Knows, Florasis, and probably Catkin since it’s easily available on Amazon.

Flower Knows and Florasis in particular are closer to higher-end brands as their price range is usually in the like 20-50 dollar range, but I think most people widely agree that their quality is definitely worth the price. Not to mention the to-die-for packaging – I have several products from Flower Knows and love them to death, but I’ll admit the packaging is what convinced me to purchase first. Yes, I know, totally dumb LOL but it’s fine.

I picked some items that I know are popular on xiaohongshu recently, and everything else I just kind of picked based on my gut and… the packaging. Yes, I know. It is fine.

I purchased from quite a number of brands, some of which I’ve heard of before only recently while others I noticed while browsing xiaohongshu. I was familiar with Flortte and Judydoll which is why I purchased a decent amount from those two brands, and everything else was basically what I saw on the website or what I’d noticed repeatedly came up in some of the trending xiaohongshu videos. PINK BEAR was kind of an impulse purchase lmao solely based on the brand name – pink is my favorite color and I also honestly have an obsession with bears on top of bunnies.

Anyways – moving on!

To begin with, the Chic Decent website is super easy and user friendly to use. I really like the scrolling advertisements they have on the front page, and if you join their website, they have a rewards points program. The rewards points are pretty decent – 8 points per $1 spent. I have no clue though how much the rewards cost as I haven’t really looked into it. The only coupon available to me right now was the 1 point 5% off coupon, but I have no clue if that’ll change the longer I’m a member of the website.

Chic Decent has TONS of photographs included for each product – they include all the brand photographs and graphics which I really enjoy. The photographs are high quality so it gives you a good idea of what the product looks like. Furthermore, the website also lists the ingredients for all of the products on the purchase page of each item.

What I really like is when you click on an item, it’ll show the image of that item. It’s a simple thing that a lot of websites don’t do, which is an issue when there’s like 10 products to choose from and I don’t want to constantly compare back to the images to try to find which one I like the most. Occasionally, the ingredient lists get REALLY long so you have to scroll up and down when choosing to see which product matches which image which can be kind of annoying lol but otherwise I really like how they provide a ton of information for each product and find the website to definitely be easier to navigate compared to some comparable websites.

I purchased a decent amount of products – but not a lot of variety when you look at it all laid out, not gonna lie…

From Flortte, these are the items I purchased:

1. Flortte Liquid Eyeshadow #01 for $6.99
2. Flortte Liquid Eyeshadow #02 for $6.99
3. Flortte Wow So Light Eyeliner #02 for $6.99
4. Flortte Wow So Light Eyeliner #03 for $6.99
5. Flortte Wow So Light Eyeliner #04 for $6.99
6. Flortte Nice to Meet Chu Jelly Lipstick #04 for $7.99
7. Flortte De Fruits Liquid Eyeliner #02 for $6.99
8. Flortte De Fruits Liquid Eyeliner #03 for $6.99
9. Flortte De Fruits Liquid Eyeliner #08 for $6.99

From Judydoll, these are the items I purchased:

1. [Limited] Judydoll Blush Powder Never’s Family never 55 for $6.99
2. [Limited] Judydoll Blush Powder Never’s Family never 58 for $6.99
3. Judydoll Pop Mart Pucky Flying Babies Gradual Blush PPMT02 for $9.99
4. Judydoll Starlight Highlighter Powder #04 for $8.99
5. Judydoll Biscuit Eyeshadow Matte Shining Three Color Palette #08 for $8.99
6. Judydoll Biscuit Eyeshadow Matte Shining Three Color Palette #13 for $8.99
7. Judydoll 4 Shades Eyeshadow Palette for Beginners #31 for $10.99

From PINK BEAR, I purchased:

1. PINK BEAR Starry Starry Liquid Eyeshadow #04 for $12.99
2. PINK BEAR Fun Three Color Shading Palette #02 for $12.99
3. PINK BEAR Little World Eyeshadow 7 Colors #03 for $15.99

From Chioture, I purchased:

1. Chioture Sweet Paw Blusher #804/3.1g for $5.99
2. Chioture Sweet Paw Blusher #Z111/3.3g for $5.99
3. Chioture Diamond Liquid Eyeshadow #G04 for $5.99
4. Chioture Diamond Liquid Eyeshadow #G21 for $5.99
5. Chioture Ice Cream Lip Glaze #C15 for $8.99

From DIJIA I purchased:

1. DIJIA Glorious Eye Catching Silkworm Pen #G002 for $6.99
2. DIJIA Glorious Eye Catching Silkworm Pen #G003 for $6.99
3. DIJIA Glorious Eye Catching Silkworm Pen #N001 for $6.99
4. DIJIA Glorious Eye Catching Silkworm Pen #N004 for $6.99

From GOGO TALES, I purchased:

1. GOGO TALES Forest Princess Eyeshadow Palette #301 for $8.99

From HOLD LIVE, I purchased:

1. HOLD LIVE Sleepwalking Wonderland Eyeshadow Palette #402 for $8.99
2. HOLD LIVE Pick Up Light Impression Eyeshadow Palette #702 for $6.99
3. HOLD LIVE Pick Up Light Impression Eyeshadow Palette #703 for $6.99
4. HOLD LIVE Paris Garden Eyeshadow Palette #705 for $11.99
5. HOLD LIVE Paris Garden Eyeshadow Palette #704 for $11.99

I haven’t actually looked up any of these brands on Taobao, so I don’t know how much they cost in RMB. But I’d say even if this is marked up, the prices really aren’t bad in my opinion. Because even if you order from Taobao/Tmall, you still have to factor in shipping costs of getting the products to the Taobao/Tmall international warehouse (usually begins in the 89 RMB / 12.00+ USD area), then you have to factor in how much it’ll cost for international shipping to get to you – and then how long it’ll take to get to you since there’s no guarantee they’ll use FedEx or DHL or anything like that (I’m not even sure if you can choose but the last time I ordered from Taobao which was, admittedly a while ago, I couldn’t choose). I think my previous Taobao packages took at a minimum of 2 weeks+ or so to get to me and they came not very securely packaged. Makeup is so much more delicate – I’d be scared those eyeshadow palettes would break if they didn’t pack them carefully enough or with enough padding or anything.

Ultimately I feel like it was the smarter idea to just purchase through Chic Decent. I mean, these prices aren’t bad at all anyways. They even have Flower Knows on this website and I think it’s the same price as the regular Flower Knows website? Not sure – I haven’t actually compared. But it seemed comparable in price for the most part.

In the last couple of years I’ve moved away from Western makeup styles and have begun to prefer East Asian makeup styles and makeup in general. I know that a lot of Korean makeup brands don’t have as pigmented of shadows, however for someone like me who tends to have an overly heavy hand when using makeup, this actually works quite well for me. I like how easy it is to build up the colors and really get the look that I’ve envisioned in my mind. Everything about East Asian makeup styles and makeup has really appealed to me now that I’m older, so I tend to prefer buying these brands over Western ones nowadays. I honestly don’t think I’ve purchased any Western beauty makeup in a while – unless it’s in the sale section at Marshalls/TJMaxx/Homegoods, not gonna lie LOL.

I assumed for the most part that the eyeshadows would be similar to a lot of Korean brands – featuring more washed out, lighter pigmented colors that could be easily built up.

I’ve had a pretty big shift in the color tones I enjoy in terms of eyeshadow makeup in the last few years. I used to pretty much exclusively wear warm toned make up – I used to live for those browns and orange-y hued eyeshadow colors. To put it into perspective, the Urban Decay Naked Heat palette was like an instant winner for me despite the fact that the palette is basically all the exact same shades and you can get like maybe 3 looks out of it LOL.

However, recently I’ve begun to shift towards cool toned products more. I prefer a more cool toned contour because I feel like it looks more natural on me, and I prefer the cool toned pinks more than warm toned pinks recently. Warm toned pinks just tend to look orange or reddish on my eyes rather than pink per se, whereas cool toned pinks really show up nicely on my skin as pink pink and not orange-y pink.

So recently, a lot of products I’ve been favoring or using have ended up being more cool toned in nature. As a result though I tend to gravitate towards the exact same colors in terms of products.

I mean, if you look at the products I purchased, I bought some glitter liquid eyeshadows that are honestly very similar in shade or at least very similar in style. The eyeshadow palettes are also all in similar color schemes.

Yeah I know. *burns money harder* It’s fine.

Anyways, purchasing through Chic Decent was straightforward and easy. It’s the shipping part that can get confusing. I kept getting email updates for random products that were “being shipped” (even after I’d already gotten a shipping notification) to my email. It wasn’t every product, nor was it for the specific order, just a random product here and there. For example, HOLD LIVE palette is getting ready for shipment, or something.

Because of this I got confused sometimes trying to figure out my tracking numbers. My orders went out in three packages – two were large packages, and one was just one eyeshadow palette that shipped later and by itself for some reason. Not sure if it was because of a stock issue or something, but it shipped a day or two later than the rest of my products (and ironically enough, arrived first…). You can’t check the tracking numbers in the order history page either, so you have to rely on the emails you get for those tracking codes, so I’d keep in mind the tracking codes (or at least how many tracking codes you have) when you want to check. Luckily the link just goes directly to the tracking page on their website (unlike some websites which just take you to the mail carrier website and require you to put in the tracking number manually lmao).

Shipping took about as long as one might expect from China – I averaged almost exactly 2 weeks for my products to come in. I actually ordered two separate orders, but they both came in at the same time luckily, just in different boxes. I ordered over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday, so I was surprised to see both orders shipped within 2 or 3 days of ordering. They arrived shortly after that, much to my joy!

However, one of the cons from Chic Decent is the fact that there isn’t any sort of packing slip with the packages. So I couldn’t cross reference what I had purchased from what I ordered, which was a bit of a hassle considering I ordered SO MUCH LOL. I ordered 34 products in total, and ended up cross referencing them on my bed with my orders opened on my computer. Luckily everything came without issue, and nothing broke in transit! Everything was packed super tightly in a bag and then wrapped with bubble wrap. The box was really tight too, so I think that insured no movements and stuff during transit.

I also received free gifts!!

I was super confused at first when I noticed I had 40 products instead of 34. I was like am I confused? Am I missing something? But nope, I got six free products. Like, full sized products, not samples.

And two holiday cards that are also gifts. But not important. The important thing here is that I got SIX free products!?

I’m really confused as to why I got these I’m not going to lie LOL. I know they have a “giftie” page, but I actually am not sure what that page is about. The instructions on the page are confusing too. Currently under the giftie page it’s lip products, but nothing I received is listed on that page. That being said, it’s possible that page updated since I purchased my products. Here are the products I received in no particular order:

1. Perfect Diary Floating Light Lip Gloss in 102
2. Jill Leen Mini Eyeshadow Palette in AM06
3. Jill Leen Multi-Use Eyeshadow Palette in #01
4. Jill Leen Sweet Party Cheek Blush in #05
5. Jill Leen Big Brighter Eyes in #04
6. Jill Leen Multi-Use Highlighter Contour in #001

I’m guessing I received 3 free products with each purchase I made (since I made two separate purchases).

I was honestly crazy confused at first because I did want to buy Jill Leen products but completely forgot to when I was ordering, and then there were products included in my packages so I assumed that I had actually purchased them in some sort of shopping fueled haze but nope! These weren’t in my order list so I’m assuming they were freebies that were thrown in. I do want to mention that I did use a coupon code as stated, so I’m not sure if that also had an influence or not.

Not gonna lie, I actually hate the Jill Leen Mini Eyeshadow Palette in AM06 LOL. I know, I know, I should be grateful I got anything at all. It’s just a palette that I’ll literally never use. I don’t use blue shades at all. I know that blue shades are pretty popular on xiaohongshu right now; I see videos all the time with girls using blue eyeshadow and glitter shadow so I’m guessing this palette is relatively popular, but it’s just not my taste at all. Of course I get the one eyeshadow palette freebie of the group that has not even a single color I’d use… except for maybe the white glitter LOL. I actually looked that product up and there’s a bunch of palette shades in that series, and of course there’s like three palettes out of the like 21 available palettes that I don’t like, and of course I would get one of the three I don’t like as a free gift… LOL just my luck.

Luckily I really like the other free products, especially the Big Brighter Eyes palette… so cute!

After a quick perusal through the palettes and products and I have to say I’m SUPER pleased. The product packaging is really nice, exactly like other products on the market, and the packaging is seriously to die for with some of these products. For example, the hold live palettes?

I mean… look at that gorgeous cover. It’s a really sturdy and beautiful palette, and it was like really reasonably priced on top of that? I haven’t had the opportunity to swatch anything yet but I know these palettes in particular are quite popular on xiaohongshu.

I love the engraved writing in the bottom pan, and the rose engraving on the top pan. I mean… seriously. SO gorgeous.

I mean geez, this product packaging is so pretty and cute! I seriously just can’t help but sit there and admire it.

Anyways, in total, I was really pleased with my purchasing experience and all of the products I got. They offer a pretty large array of brands on Chic Decent, and I’m excited to explore more Chinese makeup brands. Overall, I would say if you’re interested in trying out Chinese makeup brands, definitely don’t be afraid to use Chic Decent. I already have another purchase haul planned with some new products that just released, I just haven’t bit the bullet yet.

I do plan on doing another post at some point swatching the products I purchased but who knows how long that’ll take me… but please keep an eye out for it!

Thank you again for reading, and I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year weekend!