A Health Designs Beauty Haul (and a Beauty Discount)

Since I started beauty blogging I've seen many people talking about the big discounts that can be found when you buy beauty products from American websites and ship them back to the UK (and elsewhere in Europe). The big "player" in this market seems to be iHerb, with people raving left right and centre about their hugely discounted stock of Real Techniques Brushes. I haven't personally shopped from iHerb before but I was intrigued at how good these discounts and before too long I stumbled across the website Health Designs. 

Health Designs is an online store that sells all manner of "health" related goods. My interest in the store lies with its considerable stock of beauty goodies, including a number of brands that aren't easily available in the UK (especially natural beauty brands such as HoneyBee Gardens, Annemarie Borlind and Ecco Bella) as well as the big discounts they offer on better known brands such as EcoTools and Real Techniques. 

I had a lot of fun searching the website and came across a whole range of products I'd like to try. Health Designs sell all sorts of things we can't get in the UK, and not just makeup but skincare and haircare products too. If you can spare half an hour for a browse I would be surprised if you didn't end up with a basket full to the brim with products, and all for a very reasonable price too. If you decide to browse the website I would highly recommend clicking on the "Bath and Beauty" tab, then on whichever section you're interested in (e.g. "Cosmetics") and then searching via the brand list (see image below). I found this the easiest way to navigate the website and find products and brands I was interested in purchasing.

I was shopping on a budget of $20 (roughly £12.65) (plus I was given a $5 first time shopper discount code "ONELITTLEVICE") and in the end I settled on four products:

Real Techniques' Shading Brush* - RRP £6.99
Cost on Health Designs - $5.10 (£3.22)
Saving £3.77

EcoTools Full Eyeshadow Brush* - RRP £5.49
Cost on Health Designs - $3.05  (£1.93)
Saving £3.56

EcoTools Mini Essential Kit* - RRP £5.99
Cost on Health Designs - $4.85  (£3.69)
Saving £2.30

HoneyBee Gardens' Lipstick in Superstitious* - (hard to find in UK - available on Amazon for £13)
Cost on Health Designs - $9.54  (£6.03)
Saving (roughly) £6.97

My overall saving added up to £16.60, with shipping and handling costing me $4.68 (£2.96) lowering that saving to £13.64 - which is still a greater saving than the total amount I spent.

I placed my order on October 27th, my order was shipped on October 30th and it arrived on November 7th - meaning it took a total of 11 days for my order to arrive. This is not bad at all as far as I'm concerned, although Health Designs do warn customers that due to customs delays it could take longer. I'd also like to add that my order was well packaged and everything arrived completely undamaged.

Overall my first experience with Health Designs has been very, very impressive. I'd definitely use the site again, and not only for make-up brushes (although I do intend to purchase some more from Real Techniques). I'm also interested in trying out some more products from HoneyBee Gardens cosmetics (for a natural and cruelty free brand they have some really interesting lipstick shades) as well as the other natural beauty brands I mentioned at the beginning of this post. 

If you're worried about trying a new website then do what I did and make a small order and see how you get along - as I've demonstrated, the postage costs won't wipe out your savings. If you do decide to place an order then you can also use the discount code "ONELITTLEVICE" and you'll get $5 off.

 You can find Health Designs' website here - I'd love you to tweet me and let me know if you buy anything, I'd love recommendations for what to go for next! 

*Health Designs gave me a $20 gift card to spend on their site, I haven't received any other payment.