Where to find beautiful hair sticks in the UK?

[pinksquiff]

Has anybody been on Swank Boutique?

It is an accessory webiste that I have just found in the UK and they sell Mei Fa (sp?) hairsticks, although the ones I want are out of stock! lol.

Anyway it is a good site for hair stuff in the UK, has a nice range and the hairsticks are really beautiful, jewels on top etc.

[Stevy]

I've never had any problems with Swank Boutique myself, but I know a couple of people have ordered from them and had problems with poor service, so order at your own risk.

Whenever I've ordered, they've sent the items promptly, though without a lot of protection - fortunately my Mei Fas got through OK, even though they were just in a padded envelope with no extra bubblewrap or box.

Stevy

[Stevy]

I agree with Shrimp that the exchange rate is your friend - it certainly is frustrating when Customs and Excise take your parcel hostage, though. I've just had a card through my door for some jewellery I bought on Etsy, and I can't imagine how on earth it came to enough that they think it's worth charging me customs fees unless they misread the number of dollars the seller put on the label as pounds!

[shrimp]

did I get a little carried away in my inital post

I always forget about customs charges as my budget is too limited for them to have affected me (fingers crossed).

I think Claires has had some very nice sticks in over the past few years, but for me they are often just too long and I prefer wood or metal sticks to plastic in general as I dread breaking a stick I really love. There are some really nice things out there if you are tempted by the more sparkly end of the market - I found I bought a lot of these types of things before discovering ebay and etsy and they tend to live in their boxes as they are just not me. I should probably put them on the swap board at some point.

I was going to suggest perhaps seeing if a local wood turner would be open to a commission. I considered this before discovering the exchange rate and paypal, sadly the only local wood workers were too expensive with their other products for me to even bother asking. Maybe when I'm not a poor grad student... It would be great to be able to support local businesses.

[pariate]

I've tried in vain to find out about customs charges etc. for the UK. I've never been able to find out what the limits are on incoming packages. Could someone point me in the right direction please? If I'm going to be whacked with a little fine I can handle it as long as I know in advance what it's going to be so I can factor it in to the cost of the item I'm buying! LOL.

Thanks.

[anna1850]

I've tried in vain to find out about customs charges etc. for the UK. I've never been able to find out what the limits are on incoming packages. Could someone point me in the right direction please? If I'm going to be whacked with a little fine I can handle it as long as I know in advance what it's going to be so I can factor it in to the cost of the item I'm buying! LOL.

Thanks.

I think they're on the customs and excise site.

But basically it's anything over £18 could be charged (including price AND SHIPPING!). The customs charge is normally under 10% although the exact percentage depends on the type of item and you have to pay VAT too, but the real problem is the admin fee which I think is £13 currently. So if you buy something for $40 it could end up costing about $70.

A lot of the time even though your parcel could be charged it will get through unnoticed although this is quite random.

And I believe anything you buy from outside the EU that was originally made in the EU you can get the customs charge back but not the admin fee and sometimes not the VAT either (if they think the seller did not pay VAT originally or something). I don't know, the whole thing is stupid and set way too low. It would be so much easier if it was £100 or something rather that £18.

[pariate]

Thank you so much Anna. I'd looked at their site several times but couldn't find any info. I was being dumb methinks!

[willowcandra]

hi there. vk designs sticks are inexpensive so not over the £18 customs thing for quite a few and the postage is reasonable.

All my sticks are from America-some from ebay and some from old group orders (I miss the mei fa orders) and others from websites that are a joy to work with.

[pariate]

Ooooo, thanks for the tip Willowcandra Would you mind telling me which companies you've had such good experiences with please? Feel free to PM me if posting the names of companies here would break the forum rules. I should really *know* what the rules are by now...

[flame]

I'm sure it's these pages although I don't really truly understand it :S
Internet shopping

Rates and stuff

HTHs!