Diving into The Bathing Garden

The Bathing Garden has always been on my list of vendors to try out, being one of the few places that offers international shipping. I only knew it through its Etsy page and it always seem to be closed. But then I see wax bloggers and vloggers hauling from there, how did they do it while it's closed, there must be a secret way!

I clicked on the Facebook group link. I previously thought it was just a normal Facebook page where the owners would give updates and behind-the-scenes tidbits and never thought to click on it. Turns out it wasn't a page but a group (big difference!) and Shannon Michele (the owner) uses it to announce restocks and instructions on how to buy her products, and for the community to share and discuss TBG.

So I submitted my request to join. And am I incredibly lucky or what, a restock was announced just as I joined the group! Shannon had very specific instructions on how to order to make things easier on her side and I was rather nervous at her very long (and detailed) list of instructions. Luckily, some of her long-time customers posted some tips in the group for newbies on how to order and not mess up. I took the advice of copying and pasting her instructions list into my email and responding to each item to make sure nothing was missed out.

I ordered 10 tarts in all:

Marshmallow Cookie Jar
Sleepy
Vanilla Layered Root Beer Float
Vintage Circus
Lemon Curd & Rose Milk
Faerie Bonfire
Cleopatra's Cream Bath
The Olive Lemon Grove
Gardenia Coconut Cream
Ever Night

In total, 20 scents for wax tarts were offered in this restock. While I am not sure if this is standard, limited or more than usual, it does seem to have a good variety of scents. I selected only 8 scents during my first study of the scents offered and decided to add in Gardenia Coconut Cream and Ever Night later to make it an even 10. These two scents are not what I normally would choose, and to me, that's the good thing about restocks limited to certain scents, they force you out of your scent comfort zone to try new ones!

I emailed Shannon my order on 21 January, received her acknowledgement and paypal request on 23 January and paying on the same day. TAT is approximately 3 weeks from date of paypal payment. I guess I will receive this late February/early March depending on the international shipping.

Update (1 Feb 2014): A bit of discussion came up in the TBG FB group about some internationals having to pay customs on their packages. I sympathise with them, of course, it's a cross we have to bear on top of astronomical shipping charges but so far I have yet to encounter customs charges because my packages are below Singapore's custom limit of $400. Anyway, Shannon wrote a note to explain her international shipping practices and that she would be happy to refund if anyone wanted to cancel. She also said she would be checking with all internationals if they still wanted their packages to ship. To save her the time, some internationals confirmed with her directly on the post and I chimed in. Later she added that some internationals use a shipping service and I included what I know about comgateway. Now, this is the super cool part. After my comment, Shannon said she would be happy to switch my shipping option to US instead of the international option I had originally paid for! It probably would be easier for her to ship US but it's the gesture that touches me, and that she's thinking of her customers first and to help them save costs. After checking in with her about TAT to make sure it will reach in time, I switched my shipping options. This will be a good test whether it will save me money as compared to individual packages.