Glambot Experience and Haul – Part Two

UPDATE, NOVEMBER 21, 2014:

I discovered that one lipsticks I purchased and that is shared in this series, MAC Cosmo, had gone bad after detecting a foul crayon-like smell. I checked with Glambot to see if they check the batch numbers of products they put up for sale to ensure they aren’t selling extraordinarily old products…they don’t, the lipstick I received was over seven years old.


Disclaimer: The following post was sponsored by Glambot (www.glambot.com). I was not paid to write, but let it be known that I did receive discounted product for consideration. My content, thoughts, and words are my own. I would not have accepted a discount if I wouldn’t have written about my experience with them anyway. You can visit my Legal page for more detail.


Continuing from Part One last Saturday, I left off at having received my Glambot package only two days after ordering (though I did not receive a shipment confirmation, so I wasn’t sure when to expect it.) I tore open a the USPS Priority Bubble Mailer that arrived open to find a shiny, cutely-adorned Glambot bubble-mailer insider. It is slightly smaller, but fit snugly within the USPS envelope.

Glambot - Inner Bubble Mailer OpenLook! Bubble wrap! A thing! Looks like a little pigment vial, but let’s empty ‘er out:

Glambot - Bubble-Ception 1

Five little bubble pouches. Bubble-ception! The bubbles obscure the contents a little, but not entirely. Up top are two lipsticks, at the bottom, a blush and two shadows (in one bubble-pouch), to the right, the pigment vial.

Glambot - Bubble-Ception 2

Why yes, that is yet another protective bubble pouch. My joke about it being bubble-ception may be a little more realistic than I thought. But hey – at least my order was safe. Glambot really seems dedicated to keeping your purchases protected from damage during shipping – these items are packed better than NIB items often are!

Glambot Haul

You will notice that the lipsticks and pigment vial have a small Glambot, “GB,” sticker on each to keep them closed. This is done after sterilization and keeps the cap secured during its journey. The two shadows on the bottom left and right are secured within two plastic sleeves and then surrounded with this cute, circuit-board-printed vellum-esque Glambot paper, and also secured with the same type of, “GB,” sticker to hold everything in place. In the bottom center is a blush, and it has a small foam pad on top of the blush and a piece of vellum-esque Glambot-printed paper on top of that, under the lid.

Here’s everything after I have removed it from bubble-ception. This is the entirety of my order, from top left (pricing is before the discount I received, for full disclosure):

  • MAC Lipstick in Syrup – 30-50% full, in Good condition – $9.00
  • MAC Pigment in Rushmetal – 80-100% full, in Good condition – $10.80
  • MAC Lipstick in Cosmo – 80-100% full, in Good condition – $12.00
  • MAC Eyeshadow Refill in Motif – 50-80% full, in Good condition – $9.00
  • MAC Blush in Fleur Power – 80-100% full, in Good condition – $21.60
  • Urban Decay Eyeshadow Refill in Freelove – 50-80% full, in Good condition, $8.25

Realistically, the blush was not priced at less than retail. Glambot.com suggests that it is regularly $23.50 new, but MAC has it on their site for $21 (maybe it used to cost more? I have no idea, maybe one of MAC’s devotees can clear that up for me). I don’t really care how much the pigment normally is, as I am certain this is a discount and will probably have it until I die. Cosmo and Syrup are reasonable discounts. Motif came at a discount of $1 and I don’t think Urban Decay offers refill pans, though it was labeled as such. It did come at a hefty discount as compared to the full product.

To date, I have owned only two MAC products – MAC Brave (lipstick), and MAC Soar (lip liner). I’ve wanted to try more, but I have trouble swallowing $15 for lipstick, $21+ for blush. Since I had nearly no experience with the brand, I wasn’t exactly clamoring to try it. I found Glambot, however, and checked out their site, which claims to have the largest selection of verified legitimate MAC products out there. Realistically, I lack the time to scour their site to confirm that statement, but I can tell you they have 145 pages, twelve products per page, of MAC products.

Moving on:
Glambot - MAC Motif This is MAC Motif. You can see the circuitry art a bit better; I thought it was pretty cute. When you remove this paper sleeve, there is a plastic sleeve inside, and then another:

glambot10

This is Urban Decay Freelove, still safe inside of plastic sleeve-ception. (This is actually the second plastic sleeve. The right part folds over, then it was in a slightly larger pouch of the same material, then the paper was around that.) They each had their own sleeve.

glambot12

This is to show wear. UD Freelove on the left, MAC Motif on the right.glambot11

And again. You can see that pan has been hit on Motif, but just barely – there is still a lot of product in the pan. Freelove has a bit of a gouge out of its right side (I suspect it had been dropped), but is also still very full. It will take me some time to finish these.glambot07

My first pigment! Kind of coppery looking in the tube. (Pardon my needing-to-be-redone nails.) I was particularly thrilled for this one, as I hear it is virtually impossible to actually run out of these pigments (hence why I got a tiny vial and not a whole tub). glambot17

Still coppery looking with it open. I’m amazed it didn’t go everywhere when I opened it. I only barely tapped my pinky to the inside of the cap and got major color payoff. Score!

So far, I am extremely impressed with the speed of shipping, the care taken with regard to packaging, and the fact that these items were represented so well on their website. Take Freelove, for example. I do not know if Glambot photographs each item they put up for sale (I certainly wouldn’t hold it against them if they didn’t), but look at this:Glambot - Urban Decay Freelove Listing

Glambot.com Example Item Listing Page

Here we have the listing for Freelove. Look at the photo of the shadow – that is literally what I received. I know it is a little harder to compare with my photo, but you should still be able to see that line where it kind of dips down into that, “gouge,” area. I think it would be huge for them if they were able to photograph each item they had up for sale.

This image also shows what I mentioned in Part One about having items appear available in searches and in browsing, but clicking through and finding them out of stock (this screenshot was taken after I had received my order). I could see keeping listings for things that are NIB (new-in-box), like Mascaras (Glambot does not appear to sell used mascara – which is GOOD because they shouldn’t!) since you won’t need to show its wear, but for specific items that have specific wear, it would make shopping easier and more enjoyable if listings for specific pre-owned items were immediately removed from searches and categorical listings.

My items were well-packed and thoroughly protected, with eyeshadow having a total of SEVEN layers of protection (two plastic sleeves, paper sleeve, two bubble sleeves, inner bubble mailer, outer bubble mailer). Although there was a bit of packaging-ception going on, it was reassuring to know that that much care had been taken in keeping the items safe en route to me. All of the items arrived undamaged, despite suffering the rigors of USPS transit. Furthermore, even though there was a lot of protective packaging, it was not difficult to remove and was not time consuming. (Those plastic clamshell packages that come on stuff, usually electronics, takes WAY longer to open!)

If you’re interested in checking out what they have to offer, I have a promo link for you. Their site is kind of weird about promo codes, however, so instead of entering that at checkout, their site is setup in such a way that you follow links to get whatever promo they have going on. BeautySkepticLove10 will get you 10% off all items on glambot.com. (This is not an affiliate link – I do not get kick-back from your purchase – just wanted to give you a heads-up!).

Part Three

13 thoughts on “Glambot Experience and Haul – Part Two”

  1. I wouldn’t recommend selling to them, I sent them 24 items mostly new.
    New foundation that I don’t use because wrong color-YSL ink foundation, Givenchy ,Guerlain , becca . 4 new YSL lip stain, 4 newest Lancôme lipstick , new smash box bronzer n highlighter…etc I got an offer after over a month of waiting of $136, another blogger got an offer of $78 dollars for 10 used item.
    They aren’t professional with one sentence response and a courtesy email would be nice. I didn’t want to lose the package and they question if I sent to the wrong zip code . Let me save some people from the bad experience.

    • I am having a similar experience. I sent over 60 items, mostly new, unused. I got two different offers, which I rejected. That was two weeks ago. The sent me a bill for $25 to return the items.ni have tried to get a response when my makeup was going to be returned. If anyone has a phone number, I’d love to call them.

      • Dang, I’m so sorry to hear that. I scoured my records to see if I had a support number for them, no dice.

        I was sorely disappointed to learn (the hard way!) they don’t properly verify batches, and so much moreso when they made no effort to make things right. :(

      • SOrry to hear that you had to deal with this company. I dont even think that they a number on the site. Maybe its just best to pay for shipping and get all your products back. I am sure if you give up and didnt want to deal with shipping, they will profit from all the makeup you sent. Trust me, its what they want. I notice I was having the hardest time trying to contact them through emails. After every 6th email, they would respond with some excuse and 1 or 2 sentences. And as soon as the offer was up, they kept trying to push a quick decision on me. They know majority of people will not want to deal with shipping and if you intended on getting money, that you will give up.
        I read so MANY bad comments on youtube reviews, I knew they were bad but didnt think they were playing so many others. Im glad that alot of people are seeing and speaking about how they really are. All the bloggers And gurus are getting better deals on purchasing and selling to them, because its putting their name out there. Hopefully things will work out for you, just end it with this horrible company and move on to better.

      • I did pay the shipping latvThursday, 6/27, but that’s that last communication I had with them.

      • This is really a shame. Shady business practices are not made up by cute, thorough packaging. Suzanne, keep us abreast of the outcome?

  2. Glambot
    Phone: (415) 484-3529
    Web: http://www.glambot.com
    Robert Zimtea
    Glambot
    625 S STREET, SACRAMENTO, CA 95811
    Hmm I’m wondering if this is the correct contact # and business address for Glambot instead of getting stuck in email hell. Well if it is I’m more than happy to be of assistance. If I owned this business it would definitely be operated differently.

    • Yeah it was definitely a case of being pretty nice at first but then to find out that they don’t confirm they aren’t selling you expired product AND the fact that they didn’t even give a legitimate apology or try to make it right.. ugh.

      • Glambot, Inc.
        support@glambot.com
        916-800-4456

        Dear beautyskeptic,

        I just checked my paypal receipt from them and that is the contact info that was available as of todays date…8/20/15. Hope this helps somebody and very sorry for your negative or less than professional experiences with this company. Holly

  3. You must be getting good shipping and products because your a blogger! The first item I purchased from them was a Channel foundation, which they sent me the wrong one so they gave me a store credit for 1 1/2 times the price. I’m glad I took it, because I was going to send it to my daughter she’s darker than me, when I notice there was barley any product in the bottom of the bottle, and it said 80% full when I ordered it! I just received my second purchase from them today for 3 concealers, one a Tarte stick supposedly 80% full. Well when I opened the package it was flush with the top, but them I screwed it all the way out and its lucky if its half an inch! So I went to screw it all the way down, but of course it stopped at the top, so I took an eye brush and gently pushed it down, YEAH it went almost all the way down with a huge gap between it and the top! So thats how I found your site! I googles reviews, because I knew I was not the only one they are trying to screw! I will not buy another thing from them! Plus most of their products are only a dolor or two under the new price! Why?? I’ll spend the extra $1 and get it new!

    • That is indeed possible. I’ve written some follow-up to my experiences with them, you can read that here. And you’re right about the pricing – its one thing to pay $7-8 for a lipstick that was 50% used especially if you just wanted to see if the color would work for you…but really, $14-15 for something that used when a new one is what, $16-17? This on top of the fact that they don’t even have the decency to verify that they aren’t accepting and reselling expired product? Pretty messed up all around.

  4. I received an offer that was a joke. I looked at their website to see what the going rate for certain products were based on their condition and what they offered me was about 10% of what it is worth, maybe less. Now they want $16 to send my stuff back. What a joke.

    • Yeah – you expect to get a bit less because that’s how any used industry works, right? Take Gamestop video game trade in for instance. They have to cover their time and labor, which is fine, and they have to profit (they are in business to make money, after all!), which is also fine… but a 10% offer is reprehensible. If they even offered 50% of what they would sell it for, it wouldn’t be insulting to you, and it wouldn’t seem quite so ugly of them.

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