Hello everyone! We get this question in one form or the other on IMBB all the time- where to buy original international beauty brands in India. Which website. Which store. etcetera. I thought I would compile this post for you guys. To be honest, Rati and I do not buy any international beauty brand from any online Indian website. We have burnt too many times shopping online from Indian websites. Sometimes the products are fake, other times they are from grey market. So to be hundred percent sure that the products we are buying are genuine, we buy them when we are traveling abroad (not Thailand 😛 ) or we buy them from International beauty websites that deliver to India. Here are some of the places you can buy original international beauty brands in India. Brand by brand. These are the places that we buy our beauty products from.
Why Shouldn’t You Purchase International Beauty Brands in India Except for their Stand-alone stores
A big beauty retailer in Delhi sells fake Beauty Blenders. We saw the same retailer as one of of the suppliers on a big beauty website. This is just one of the problems- that be it any of the online websites, beauty or otherwise, they are sourcing their products from suppliers many of whom are questionable. A big electronics shop in GK1 sold us an iphone. Fortunately, we walked a few blocks to an apple store to get that iphone configured, only to find out that that iphone was made in Thailand. We returned the iphone, got the money back and bought an original one from apple store. Moral of the story is, buy international brands only from their stand-alone stores. And if they don’t have stores in India, buy from reputed International websites, and pay customs. Better than getting a fake product. Sometimes Indian online retailers themselves might purchase from grey market to fill in a supply gap.
The second problem is also very rampant in India- that India has become a dumping ground for expired or nearly-expired products, though original. Let’s see a scenario- an international brand has got 50000 pieces of a product manufactured. Through all its channels, online or offline, it manages to sell only 35000 pieces in 2-3 years. If it dumps the remaining 15000 pieces its profit margin goes down. So the third-world country retailers come in; they buy the brand’s products at knockdown prices and sell it in their own countries. So far so good. The only thing is that by the time the product hits the third-world country market it is expired or about to expire very soon. Use Cosmetics calculator regularly after your purchases to see if the product is expired or not.
Best Places to Buy Original International Beauty Brands in India
Before we start the list, know that whatever you buy from international websites would attract a customs and handling charges of roughly around 50%. Even if you are buying from stores in India, those charges are inclusive in the price. It is always better to buy even MAC when you are traveling abroad.
1. Kylie Cosmetics
The only place to buy Kylie products are from her website kyliecosmetics.com. If you see Kylie products anywhere else, rest assured that they are fake. Buy from Kylie’s website and pay the customs.
2. Huda Beauty
If you are in India buy only from Huda Beauty website and pay the customs. If you are traveling abroad you can purchase from any Sephora, or Huda Beauty counters in various malls.
3. Pat McGrath
We purchased Pat McGrath first by ordering from Sephora US to a friend’s house in UK and paying customs. Next time we ordered from Pat McGrath’s site directly and paid customs in India.
4. Jeffree Star
Hope you are participating in the Jeffree star giveaway on the Rati Beauty app. So these products we purchased from the Cult Beauty website which is UK’s big beauty website. We also purchased some products from Jeffree’s star’s website but our card issuer later declined the transaction because of security reasons.
5. Morphe
If you participated in our Morphe/Jaclyn Hill palettes giveaway on Rati Beauty app, know that they came from Cult Beauty website. You can order from there.
6. Anastasia Beverly Hills
You can find it on Cult Beauty website or Beautylish website, both of which deliver to India. We have also bought it from Sephora on Champs Elysees, Paris.
7. Viseart
You can purchase it from the Beautylish website. Delivers to India. 🙂
8. MAC, Bobbi Brown etc other brands
Most of these brands have their stand-alone stores in India now. Buy them from there. If you are traveling abroad you’d get them cheaper from stores there than you’d get them from here in India.
Best Places Abroad For Authentic Makeup Shopping
Here are some of the places that we have found to be great for finding stand-alone stores of many International beauty brands besides USA, where you can find them all.:
1. Singapore
2. Dubai
3. Paris
4. London
We have yet not visited Germany, South Korea or HongKong but we think you’d find a makeup heaven there too. In London, Selfridges mall and Space NK stores are our preferred places to shop from. In Paris, Sephora Champs Elysees is bigger than any other Sephora in Europe. Also Galeris Lafayette mall is for makeup lovers. For Indians who want to buy original international beauty brands in India, Singapore and Dubai are great destinations. Both have Sephora. Women will of course not miss shopping at Dubai Mall in Dubai.
Best International Beauty Websites for Buying Original Makeup
1. Cult Beauty
2. Beautylish
3. Nordstrom
4. Beautybay
I have excluded some of the websites that do deliver to India but we do not trust them. The above websites are trustworthy and you can buy original international beauty brands in India from them. I hope this list helps you save yourself from falling prey to fake or expired products and getting your hands on original beauty products. 🙂
