My No More Rack experience

Disclosure: This post contains referral links.

Seems legit.

I though I'd do a review of my experience purchasing from No More Rack, since, to be perfectly honest, it's a somewhat sketchy-looking website. I posted a while back about a deal where they had 5 OPI polishes for $20, but I was too slow and missed out on that one. (Hope it will come back!) I had a little credit (you get $10 for every referral, and so does the person you refer), so I decided to look for something else. I ended up getting a bottle of Clinique Turnaround Concentrate Extra Radiance Renewer for super-cheap.

The good: There is a TON of stuff available, and the deals are good. Shipping is only $2 per item, but every day they also have a 3-hour free shipping sale. You just have to watch your email, because it's not always at the same time. They have a whole range of things, from higher end brands like Estée Lauder, Clinique, Philosophy, Tarte, Stila, Bare Escentuals, Lancome, etc. to drugstore stuff like Revlon or multi-packs of Secret deodorant. They also have brands that can be hard to find in the US like Bourjois Paris and Biotherm, or specific products that are only sold overseas, even if the brand is available in the US.

In their FAQ, they say that you need to allow 10-14 days for your item to ship. Mine shipped within 2 days, and I had it in 5 days. I don't know how typical that is.

The confusing: I looked up reviews on Beautypedia for every skincare/makeup item I was considering buying. Several of them seem to be discontinued. That made me worry that they would be expired. When I got my Clinique stuff in the mail, though, I used this website to look up the batch code, printed on the bottom. Apparently my product had been made in late 2011, and would be good for at least another 9 months. Good enough! I plan to finish it before then.

The product I bought seems to have been developed for and sold mostly in Asia. It says on it that is, "Formulated for Asian skins." It didn't say that in the listing on the website, but that doesn't really matter to me. (It also says on the bottle that it "engages light with a new vitality." Ooooookay.) It seems like a lot of what they sell is overstock from overseas, if that's information that is important to you.

The annoying: The most annoying fucking thing about this website is the lack of functionality. Namely: you can't browse by sub-category. The only categories available at the top of the page (or anywhere) are: Women, Men, Electronics, Home, Lifestyle, Jewelry, Kids. If you only want to look at beauty products, you are shit out of luck. You'll have to scroll through the entire Women's section to see what they have. And it's fucking LONG. It's so irritating. Even in a physical outlet store, there's usually a beauty section. You don't have to go looking for nail polish in between a bunch of sweaters. Plus, all the beauty products are labeled "Beauty", giving the (false) impression that they should be sortable into that category. No. If you search "beauty" you only get about a quarter of the total items with that label. Even if you search for a specific item that you know is listed . . . you still might not find it. Soooooooo fucking annoying. Worth the slog to find a good deal, in my opinion, but just unnecessarily bad design.

Also, you get at least 3 emails per day from them once you sign up. One of them is the free shipping notification.

Overall, I think this is a site worth keeping an eye on. My sister's favorite Bare Minerals mascara was listed recently for less than half the usual price, but unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get it for her. If there's something expensive that you really love, it may be worth the hassle of scrolling through No More Rack to see if it's there. Especially perfume! There are a million perfumes there. I do really love the Clinique stuff I got, but I'm not going to review it in detail here. It's a nice PHA acid exfoliator.

If you want to give it a shot, you can get a $10 credit by using this link (same as above). And if you figure out how to filter it to just show beauty products, please let me know!