Where it comes from, and what it costs to get here

If you have shopped for Japanese skincare online, you have met Stylevana and YesStyle. Both are large, both carry the brands we carry, and both often price below us. That is real, and we would rather say it here than hope you do not notice.

The thing worth knowing is where your order actually sits when you press the button. Both companies ship from Hong Kong, outside the European Union. Stylevana quotes 10 to 14 business days to Ireland from its Hong Kong warehouse. YesStyle quotes its standard service in weeks rather than days, with express delivery available at extra cost. The window for your address shows at checkout. Your parcel crosses a customs border on the way to you, and it crosses back again if you need to return anything.

None of that makes them a bad place to shop. It does change what the price on the screen means.

Until this summer, anything you bought from outside the EU worth less than 150 euro arrived free of customs duty. That exemption ended on 1 July 2026. In its place there is a flat customs duty of 3 euro, and it runs until the wider customs reform arrives in July 2028.

Two details matter more than the headline. The first: the duty is charged per type of item, by its customs code, not per parcel. Five of the same shampoo in one box is one charge of 3 euro. A cleanser, a sunscreen and a hair oil in the same box is three charges.

The second: the duty is declared and paid by the seller, or by whoever handles their EU import registration, not usually by you at your door. So you will not always see it named. You will see it in the price, or as a line at checkout, or in a shipping charge that has quietly gone up. VAT is separate again, and has been charged on these orders since 2021. In Ireland that is 23 per cent.

A further customs handling fee has been proposed for later in 2026. It is not settled yet, and we will update this page when it is.

We buy in bulk, import once, and hold the products in Ireland. When you order, the parcel is already in the country. It goes out with DPD and reaches most Irish addresses in one to three working days. Nothing you buy from us crosses a customs border after you have paid for it, so there is no duty to add, no parcel held somewhere, and no charge you did not expect.

The other half of it is the label. Everything we sell carries its full ingredient list in English, with how to use it and what to watch for. A pack sent straight from Asia is the one made for shoppers in Japan, printed in Japanese, so you are left holding a bottle you cannot read and guessing at what is in it. If something does not suit your skin, you have someone in Ireland to write to, and the return goes to an Irish address.

This is why some things here cost more. We are not going to pretend otherwise, or claim the difference away. What the difference pays for is a shorter wait, a label you can read, and the cost of doing the import properly.