If you shop around for Asian beauty products, there’s a chance that you’ll have come across this site called OceanBuy or their various ads across social media. I did too, and at first, I thought they were similar to Yesstyle in a sense, but there are a few things that set them apart so let’s break it down.
OceanBuy is a company that sells Asian beauty products (also lifestyle products, food and some other oddities as well) and has a physical office located in Markham, Ontario. They have a rotating inventory of products (both with long and short expiry dates) from both small and well-known brands, I focus more on Korean and Japanese beauty products and I see quite a few well-known and small brands from each. As well as a good selection of brands that are difficult to get in Canada like Kracie Ichikami and 3CE.
I wouldn’t expect them to have a super wide range of products from certain brands but I feel like they have a decent selection of both well-known and underrated products. So treat it like a bit of a treasure hunt if you will.
I first saw an ad for OceanBuy on Facebook when I was just scrolling, and took a screenshot but promptly forgot about it. It wasn’t until I was hunting for Kracie Ichikami shampoo+conditioners that I came across OceanBuy again, and finally started looking into the legitimacy of the company. I think it took about a week before I finally took the plunge to purchase because at the time there weren’t a lot of reviews for OceanBuy online.
Despite preferring to purchase beauty products online for the variety, I believe that a careful process of vetting the sites/companies is really important as a consumer. There are a lot of sites out there but not all of them are trustworthy, and in the age where fraud and stolen financial and personal information are a risk when you have a presence online or shop online frequently, it’s best to stay on the safe side. One thing that gave me a bit of peace was the fact that OceanBuy has a pickup location available, I assume it’s their office in Markham.
With that being said, I never actually ended up taking advantage of the pickup location with any of my orders. It’s a bit far with transit for me, but anyone with reliable access to a car and who lives close by shouldn’t have a problem with pickups. They offer free shipping on orders over $69 CAD/$59 USD and I believe their shipping rate starts around $6.99.
They charge in CAD but if I’m not mistaken, you could also probably do your local currency as well. Any questions about shipping or currency charged will have to be directed to the company, I’m afraid.
The shipping and processing rate seemed to be pretty fast the last few times I ordered, all of my orders were delivered with Flashbox and arrived within 1-3 days of ordering. This is great because I sometimes have a habit of ordering at random times, which can hinder the processing time but I don’t think it changes it that much. For example, my first order was on a Sunday at 5 a.m., and it arrived by Wednesday that week. My last order was made on a Thursday at 3 pm and I got it the next day. I think times may vary a bit more if their business picks up though.
All of the orders were packaged pretty well and all three of my boxes were reused Wiskas treat boxes, I genuinely don’t mind that but my poor mom was pretty confused when she saw the box. We were talking about adopting a cat at the time and I feel like she thought I was preparing for the done deal there.
One thing I noticed is that you can also use Shop Pay/Shop accounts with OceanBuy, so it’s pretty convenient for the quick shopper and I feel that it allows a bit more trust. So overall, I’ve had a few good experiences purchasing from OceanBuy and I hope this review helps out anyone who is thinking about purchasing from OceanBuy.
The only issue I have with OceanBuy is how their site lags sometimes, it’s a little frustrating that it will sometimes freeze while you’re just browsing. But there are also moments where the site is fine, so shopping on their site is always a varied experience.
