Mini guide on buying eyelashes on taobao

Hi there! Over the summer my friend Xiaokang went back to China for the holidays. If you read my post on how I bought stuff on Amazon Japan, you'd know that friends are very handy for buying things abroad. So basically I gave a list of links I wanted her to buy for me from Taobao. Then when she came back to Ireland she gave me the stuff and I paid her for them. Taobao is basically a Chinese eBay or Amazon but super cheap and has lots of variety. I mainly bought lashes, but also got these two:

DUP lash glue & TONY MOLY Cat Chu lipstick

Everything cost only 15euro!

Anyway, this blog post is a little guide on things to keep in mind if you want to buy eyelashes on taobao. 

Terms
假睫毛 : false eyelashes
睫毛 : eyelashes
上睫毛 : upper lashes
下睫毛 : lower lashes
套装 : set  ( for example, '上睫毛套装' is 'set of upper eyelashes')
套装 组合 : mixed set (a box of eyelashes will have different styles inside)
对: pair
盒: box
一: 1 , 五: 5, 十: 10. (note: almost all of the time they would use the number itself instead of the Chinese character)

Quantity
If the price for the lashes seem so cheap, it's probably because you're buying just one pair. They do this most often in shops that sell Diamond Lash and Decorative lashes. Look out for these possible phrases:

     一对/ 1对: 1 pair 

     5双/ 对 : 5 pairs

     10对 : 10 pairs 

     一盒/ 1盒 : 1 box 

     一盒10/ 10对盒 : 1 box for 10 pairs

Just keep in mind the characters for "pair", "box" and the numbers because any of these phrases can be put in different ways. 

  "一口价为(一盒价)" means "the price listed is for (the whole box)". Change what ever is in the bracket with the words listed above.

Japanese brands are only slightly cheaper 

They do sell gyaru eyelash brands like Diamond Lash, Dolly Wink and Eyemazing, but they are not as dirt cheap as one would expect. If anything, they're almost the same price as you would pay in Japan or in Amazon Japan. 

Beware of dupes

If you do decide to buy Japanese brand lashes, do bear in mind that some listings show photos of the original one but will send you a dupe of it. They would usually put a photo of what you're gonna get at the very very end of the page. Otherwise, dupes are pretty easy to spot. 

Some general points when shopping on taobao:

¥ is not yen, it's yuan.
Chinese yuan. Don't get them mixed up. It can also be written as 元. 100 yuan is around 12 euro. 100 yen is around 0.75 cents.

Not all items listed are in stock.
Unlike e-Bay or Amazon where items that are out of stock won't show up when you search for them, items in taobao will still be there regardless of whether it's in stock or not. If it's out of stock, "此宝贝已下架" is written.

 Only buy from reliable shops. 
Just like with eBay and Amazon, make sure that the shop you're buying from has a good reputation. Don't buy from sellers with ratings less than 99%. Below is an image of the seller's profile. You'll see this on the page of the item you want to buy. I've circled the part that shows the rating.

Google translate is your bestfriend

So that's it. I hope you'll find this helpful