Christmas Shopping from the Costa del Sol

Christmas shopping on the costa del sol is maybe not quite the same as back in England, the shops here don’t stock quite what you are after, our they may not offer the same deals and incentives like the stores back home. With the currency between the pound and the euro lingering in the doldrums and not really showing any signs of improving, things don’t seem as good as they once were. Flying back to England for a weekend shopping spree is an option but has it’s own costs involved even before you actually start buying.

Visit Benalmadena have come across a few websites that allow you to shop “virtually” in england and have the goods shipped over to spain! After a brief look around them, there are quite a few bargains, deals and incentives that you can benefit from and potentially save a great deal of time and money along the way.

We decided to put one to the test and actually order some goods from www.beauty-wise.co.uk and see what happened! The Skincare and Haircare products that we wanted to purchase came from Dermalogica and Schwarzkopf respectively and were shipped to us by a retailer called Lookfantastic through the Beauty Wise website. We had seen the same products in a very well known department store down here on the costa the day before and quite frankly were very suprised at the difference in cost!

We purchased Dermalogica’s Ultra calming cleanser for face and eyes 250ml bottle for just £18.40, over here the exact same product was retailing for 37.50 euros. We also purchased Schwarzkopf’s Bonacure Moisture Kick Spray in Conditioner 200ml for just £7.80, over here on the shelf for 17.50 euros, we had to pay £3.50 for European shipping of our products. We placed the order and received an email from lookfantastic thanking us for the order and that our products would be with us in 5-10 days. 8 days later the products had arrived, Correos had left a card in our box saying the package was available for collection at our local office!

So all rather painless really, we were a little worried about the reliability of the postal systems both here and in the UK but no worries at all, and best of all was the money we actually saved in the process, ok we know it is not the same as walking out of the shop with your shiny new products, but if you are willing to wait out the shipping time the savings are good. What would have cost 55 euros over here we paid just £29.70 including the shipping.

We have since revisited Beauty Wise bearing in mind the current postal chaos in the UK and are happy to report that all retailers are now using courier’s to by pass the royal mail all together, so it’s business as usual. Another retailer who showcases their wares on Beauty Wise called feelunique are offering free worldwide shippping to any destination so even more savings to be had in the run up to Christmas.

Obviously these web stores are around all year and not just at Christmas time, so there are many ways to benefit and save money from UK based retailers offering deals and bargains that you would not neccessarily see down here on the coast.

Here are a few other sites that may take your fancy:

www.fashionxpress.co.uk – The latest fashion trends from retailers such as New Look, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins, again will all ship into Europe.

www.golfclubs2u.com – Golf equipment and accessories from Online Golf, 118 Golf and American Golf all shipping into europe