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“Makeup is a powerful way to effectively reveal something unique about your inner self”

Hey, Beauties! As you can tell by the title of this post I’ll talk all about Beauty Swaps today. The truth is that I’ve been eyeing Beauty Swaps all over Internet for ages and I’ve always wanted to do one myself. The hardest part was to find someone to do it with since… well, I have trust issues. I don’t want to be seen as overly suspicious but sending bunch of stuff to a complete stranger is definitely not my thing. Plus I’ve seen too many swaps that went wrong. 

What is Beauty Swap?
When two people exchange beauty or any other products for the purpose of trying new items that are not available in their country. 

Few months ago, I was staying at home doing “can’t remember what” and I got the coolest idea in my mind. To do a beauty swap with my friend and fellow blogger Miah from Miah Ke-leigh. I met Miah last year throughout my blog and we’ve been friends ever since. By the way she recently wrote a guest post for my blog, which you can check here. Thank you, girl! 

I can’t describe how excited I was when Miah agreed upon my request and here we are today. We’ll be shipping our packages at the end of the next week. So stay tuned to see what we got for each other.
Yay! I am so excited! Ok, let’s focus on today’s topic, which is how to do a beauty swap stress free. I made for you a list of things which you should consider before and during the swap. So here it is:

1. Choose a Swap Buddy

This one is obvious, I know. And I pretty much cover it in my intro but it’s the most essential thing that’s why I am going to say it again. Choose your swap buddy wisely. In my opinion is better to be someone that you’ve known for a while. I am not saying that you can’t have the most amazing swap experience with a complete stranger but the chances are very low. As I mentioned above there are too many swaps that went wrong. Especially when a lot of money are involved it’s better to do it with someone you can trust.

2. Estimate a Budget

My advise is to estimate a budget. I’ve seen girls doing swaps based on number of items but for me personally this won’t do any justice. There are different living standards in the different countries and the prices of the beauty products are based on them.
Choose a budget that will be comfortable for both of you when at the same time will give you the space to buy several stuff. Swapping a lip liner for a nail polish is not exactly my idea of fun. But hey no jugging here, if that’s what you want go ahead.

When you set the budget don’t forget to check (twice) the differences in your currency (if there are any). You can do that with online currency convertor. Our budget was 40 EUR, as this is our first swap we decided to go low key. 🙂 

3. Shipping is Expensive

Before you even consider doing a swap you should know that shipping is freaking expensive, especially overseas. Also shipping is not included in the swap budget. For example, our swap budget is 40 EUR and I’ll pay around 25 EUR more for the postage. My suggestion is to first inform yourself how much it will cost you to send a package to the country of your choice. Otherwise you might be unpleasantly surprised. 

4. Ask Questions

The only way to understand what the other person wants is to ask questions. However, asking too many questions can be really annoying (I feel like I am guilty for that). That’s why, me and Miah created for you the Beauty Swap Card, which you can find below.

All you have to do is to download it, fill it out and give it to your swap buddy. That way they would know exactly what you want and what you don’t want. After that they have to do the same thing, it’s simple as that. We’ve tried to incorporate as many questions as possible and to be really specific but if we missed something, I am sorry. You can let me know in the comments below what else we can add. 

5. TAKE YOUR TIME

Give yourself enough time to prepare for the swap. Don’t rush into it, instead take your time to plan everything. You might be lucky to buy everything at once but it took me 4 shopping tours to get everything I wanted. 

6. Make it Personal

Put some work into the package or even better put your heart in it. Even if you don’t have the perfect wrapping skills, do it. Wrap everything individually – the other person will appreciate your effort. If wrapping is really not your thing then place a hand written card inside the box, throw some glitter and confetti. In case you are short of ideas go and check the Internet for inspiration. There so many amazing swaps out there.
Do your best in making it personal. I promise you, it will be worth it!

7. Have Fun

And last but not least don’t forget to have fun. That’s the point of the beauty swap, after all. While it’s easy to get stressed, following my tips and planning ahead will help you to remain calm and to enjoy the whole process. Also make sure to check Miah’s post with her tips for a smooth Beauty Swap here. 

Have you ever done a beauty swap (or any other swap)? How it was?
Let me know in the comments or even better – show me if you have it online. 

Credit: Graphics in this post are from FreePik.com 

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