How to pay Customs Taxes

Had one of my most annoyed moments a couple of weeks ago.

Well, when you're gonna be dealing with government or official branches somehow you already know you're going to be wasting alot of time and paper and somehow still get screwed -.-

All for this box:

Uuuurgh. So the story goes like this--I ordered the Acne.org products by myself for the first time (read to find out why I order Acne.org), and I wasn't familiar with shopping overseas so I can give you quite some tips now from all the blunders that I made. For example, if the website cannot process your card, it is most likely because:

1) You did not activate your card for overseas expenditure. Call your bank and they'll fix this.

2) You did not alter your spending limits. What to do, Malaysian ringgit so small mah, so overseas currency tend to be much higher than our average spending. Go to your ATM and adjust your limit.

SO I received a text from my sister telling me that my package got held at Customs *extremely glum face. Went online and found that there is this such thing where Customs hold your parcels, especially those they find heavy and undeclared so that they can charge you taxes. *glum glum glum

The dreaded letter

You can either:
1) Drive yourself and get your parcel all the way from KLIA
or
2) appoint an officer to do it for you (most likely a PosMalaysia officer)
-doing so you will be charged the taxes you have to pay for your parcel + RM50 for their "hard work"

Do bring:
1) The letter you received;
2) Your shopping invoice and
3) enough cash to pay for whatever taxes they charge you (most likely 10 percent of your total bill)
-last one's the most important because I saw a guy who did not have enough money and they told him to drive to KLIA/ LCCT to find an ATM and the parking was crayyyyyyzy

My invoice

So I bravely decided to get it myself. Loverboy drove me to KLIA (took an hour, went on Friday afternoon) and we parked at the Mail & Courier Center nearby Tune Hotel. Don't go to the wrong one cuz there's a post office nearby too. You won't miss this one because there's a HUGE sign saying "MAIL & COURIER" on the building.

The sequence was pretty much this:
Counter 2 - Counter 1 - Counter 6 - Counter 2 - Payment counter - Counter 6 - Pharmacy building - Counter 6 - Counter 2 - Counter 6 - Counter 1 - leave

Yup, in that order.

Counter 2's where you get processed, the paper counter where all the forms are filled and filed in. You'll end up there at least 3 times, if you're lucky.

Counter 1's where you get your parcel back and your visitor pass held. You can't leave the place without your visitor's pass, that's how they make sure you don't run off without paying your taxes. (trust me it's for safeguarding against people like me, they know how long their paperwork takes)

Counter 6's where you open your parcel in front of Custom officers and they check and hold your parcel until you pay your taxes.

Only people who bought cosmetics had to go to the pharmacy building (super tall building next door, 5th floor) to be cleared; though it is easy as pie, they just make sure you don't buy products for more than 3 month's usage. 

Luckily I only had to pay RM18 (for paper fees -.-) because my items were considered cosmetics and facial creams, which are non-taxable. Be sure to check whether you need to pay for your items or not; it can range from 10% to 30%.

 

Last but not least, CLEARED!

DO make sure that you have time to spend when you go, I went around 2.30pm and left just before 5 :/

Cheers!

trying out a new hairstyle; verdict: LOVE!

Acne.org shipping to Malaysia! (and Singapore too finally)

UPDATE in 2015: Just to let you all know, I've recently relocated to Singapore, so if there are any readers interested to order from Singapore you guys could email me too :)
Customers from Malaysia, I'm still shipping to local addresses too but it might take some time yea ;)

Hi all, since I received overwhelming response for acne.org products in my previous post, I'm planning to ship some sets over as some readers want to purchase it.

I would be buying every set containing 3 bottles-the cleanser, the treatment, and the moisturizer, each 472ml or so.
I used these same products to clear my skin.

Please let me know if anyone of you are interested, details:

1) total is around RM500+, depending on how many others are buying at the same time, saving shipping costs
2) it takes 3-4 weeks for the products to land
3) shipping it to your addresses will be done once I receive the products
4) it is best if we meet up to transfer the product so you guys don't have to waste more money on local delivery charges (the bottles are heavy)
Places available: Serdang area, UM
5) anyone just interested in one bottle (cleanser/moisturizer/treatment/jojoba oil) please contact me otherwise.

UPDATE: first shipment of acne.org just arrived! Currently in the midst of organizing the second one, email me anytime if interested ;)

UPDATE: Second shipment here, currently third one in progress. Good to say that everything went well this time, things are looking good, am optimistic!

UPDATE (6/4/2014): Have done 3 more shippings, am happy to announce that I'll keep doing the shipping into Malaysia, email me anytime to ask about the sets/products you would like to order yea <3

UPDATE (31/5/2014): Am still doing shipments of acne.org, don't worry I will continue to do so ;)

UPDATE (9/7/2014): Did 2 shipments last month, those who are interested, just email me ok?

UPDATE (17/10/2014): Did 5 more shipments these last couple months. Still going strong! Have a 50ml trial-sized moisturizer by acne.org going for RM50. :)

UPDATE (10/11/2014): Still going strong, do contact me if you want to order acne.org products yea!

UPDATE (07/10/2016): Interested, just email me :)

UPDATE (10/01/2017): Two pre-orders per month, with plans to increase if there are more orders coming in! Note that delivery eta takes about 3 weeks. Do plan accordingly :)

Email: www.missailing@gmail.com

Cheers!

Michael & Guys review

On the 25th of July, I got some ecstatic news: I was the winner of a RM500 hair voucher from Michael & Guys! Won it from 8tv's 8team :D :D

So I immediately went and made an appointment for the 1st of August, the day after my internship ends, anticipating a joyful time at a new hairdo and hair color. I downloaded and screenshot hundreds of photos under "I want" and "kind of like this" to "definitely not".
I WANNA BE A REDHEAD!!

yea baby! come gimme your hairrr

or the sweetie japanese/korean hair?

this is under "definitely not", too red, too..meh.

My experience at Michael & Guys was.....meh.
Read on to find out why :/

Firstly, I was under Michael & Guys head hairdresser, Ms Callie Goh who was in charge of giving me my "makeover". I went in and they had one other customer, which was normal for a weekday at such an early hour (11.30am) but had to wait for another 15 minutes because Callie wasn't there yet. Well, that comes with being the boss, I guess!

Then Callie came and invited me to sit and enquired as to what I wanted to do to my hair.

"erm..a trim and coloring?"

"Alright!"

Callie was one of the few hairdressers I've seen who could converse confidently in English, and made an effort to emphasize it to me as well, hehe. Surprisingly, she was a Christian as well, and so we took to talking about her cell group and her being a new Christian.

I was extremely pleased with the haircut that she gave me, before that my hair was thick and lanky and dull, I guess, but she added layers and chopped off hair the volume of my hair (T.T) and it ended up looking fabulous.

The hair coloring job, though...was kind of a disappointment :/ I told Callie that I want reddish-brown hair, "with more red", but the color turned out splotchy and uneven. She told me that i should use color saving hair products and that "after a few washes" the brighter colors would wash off.

after the hairdo, otw home-took a pic and
realized my hair looked BLACK!

taken the day after my hair "makeover", see the uneven hair color?

After 6 washes now, my hair color is still uneven *sad
Plucking up courage, I called the salon to ask if they would fix the unevenness of it. First, the girl who answered said she couldn't do anything about it and I better call the boss herself to talk to her (and nope, of course I have to call her myself--communication breakdown, anyone?) since I was a sponsor case and not a paying customer.

my hair at this moment, doesn't look as if it just got a dye job, eh? :/

 So I texted Callie and she promptly called me back to tell me that it was most likely because (1) I didn't use hair color protecting products she recommended (I assured her I did) or that (2) my hair color was already uneven when I came in to color it. Which made me very unsatisfied -.- Why would I go for a hairdye if my hair was evenly colored and perfect in the first place =.=

SIGH. What to do. At this time I was already sure that she was clutching at straws and that she wouldn't fix the hair that her salon colored unevenly in the first place. I guess I was lucky, Callie even offered to do my hair again in another month, so long that I was a paying customer (her kind offer included a trim+color+treatment at RM198 at student rates: so I'm guessing my asking for just a trim + color using my RM500 voucher saved some for their salon?)

Being the bigger person, I decided to let it go.
By writing this blog post *evil smile.

CHEERS!

enhanced it a little to pretend I have red hair :x

PhD in Skin Science

This is a story of my experience with dermatologists. Or more specifically, A dermatologist.

Happened about two years ago. Now don't get me wrong, dermatologists ARE effective, as far as my experience went, but you have to be consistent and cooperative to maintain your complexion.

Alright, my skin doctor was in Ipoh, one of my best friend's brother was seeing him so when I was at her house visiting she and her mum recommended me to see the doctor. I was like, ooo-kay-lah, since I was kind of desperate then already :/ (still don't know whether to laugh at myself cynically or move on already)

The dermatologist I went to, Dr Lim at Ipoh Garden South

The place is quite near to the Jusco at Kinta, where everybody used to hang out every weekend and bump into each other a few times per day because the place was so small. I think the same is still happening right now? Thank God we moved to KL :D :D :D

So the first time I went I was looked keenly over by Dr Lim with a hand tool that looks like a fly trap with the hypnotizing lights, but don't worry you don't have to look into the lights she just uses the tool to inspect your skin in detail ;) After that I was sent out again to wait for her prescription. There are always plenty of patients waiting patiently during the weekends, so after that when I went back to see her it was on weekdays, or else you'd be waiting for at least half an hour up to an hour. Seems like plenty of people were like me!

Her prescription: (prices are vague, I'm spouting from 2-year-memory)

a cleanser (RM100)

benzoyl peroxide 5%, although not in Benzac form, they provide it in
little round medicine containers (RM15-30?)

Acne treatment gel for night use, I still have this brand-new
tube as I didn't finish her course (Rm30+?)

The instructions were: use cleanser + benzoyl peroxide in the daytime and cleanser + acne treatment gel at night. my first thoughts were "what? NO toner??!!" but now I'm pretty used to it and have never turned back to using toners ever since, even after stopping her prescription course.

doxycycline (used to be green)

doxycycline (mine was in green)

 As for the doxy, I had to take it 3 times a day after meals. Doxycycline is considered an antibiotic, so it isn't advisable to take it for more than 6 months. I was on it for 8 months.

Diane 35

Diane35 is a contraceptive and can be used for my skin problem, targeting the hormones to balance it out. I was extremely hesitant to use it, so I decided to buy one box and Google it at home. After a horrifying research of its side effects i decided not to take it (you can always Google it yourself).

My first bill came up to RM300, including a first-time consultant fee. I would say that it is relatively reasonable? Consequent visits were always around RM80 as the cleanser can be used for a long, long time.

So what happened? My skin peeled, got so fragile that walking against the wind was extremely harsh and sensitive to the face, and it magically cleared up within a couple of months. The cleanser is extremely drying on the skin, so, BE WARNED.

It was Chinese New Year. My store of products was drying up (at that time I was unaware that doxy is sold at pharmacies, and that the benzoyl peroxide IS Benzac) but the Chinese New Year holidays meant that the skin clinic was closed. What happened was devastating, the acne came back with a force and after the week I hurried back to Ipoh to buy my Doxy and Benzoyl peroxide but it was too late already.

I was put back on the prescription but somehow my skin never cleared up and remained the same, so after another half a year, I stopped the Doxy and went back to my desperate quest of having clear skin, which only worked when I started acne.org, which was a year later :/ (read up here to find out how)

SO right now I'm happily enjoying my clear skin, I hope to update you guys about trying new products (I'm currently using a facial brush similar to Clarisonic's Mia and Hada Labo).

Cheers!

At an openrice event the other day :)