an Elsom Research project
Questions and answers about online shopping for Elsom Research cosmeceuticals:
- What types of payment can I use?
- Can you send me an invoice?
- Is my credit card information secure?
- Will taxes be added?
- What does shipping cost?
- What about international shipping?
- How quickly will my order be shipped?
- Must I sign up for an account here?
- If I sign up for an account here, will you start sending me junk mail?
- How can I search all Elsom Research sites?
This Help page is specific to New Equilibrium Skincare, the online cosmeceuticals store for Elsom Research. Related Help pages discuss our custom micro-batch formulation service (The Formulator) and Elsom Research skincare formulations in general.
What types of payment can I use?
For stock retail items, we accept payment by credit card, check, or money order. The procedure for selecting which products to purchase is the same, no matter how you plan to pay for them.
When you are ready to check out, choose the method you prefer:
If you click the
button and follow that checkout procedure, and if you have a U.S. billing address and a U.S. telephone number, you can use any form of payment accepted by Amazon. That includes credit cards issued by MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, and JCB.
We often ship orders paid via Amazon the same day they are placed.If you click the
button and follow that checkout procedure, you can use any form of payment accepted by Google Checkout. That includes credit cards issued by MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover.
We often ship orders paid via Google Checkout the same day they are placed.If you click the
button, you can pay online by credit card using Amazon, or you can pay by mail with a check or money order. In either case, and we will ship your order as quickly as we can after we receive your payment.
If you choose to pay by mailing us a check or money order, we will be notified of your order and we will begin preparing it after you complete the checkout process. However, we will not ship your order until after your payment reaches us, we deposit it, and the funds are made available in our bank account. Shipping will be delayed based on the processing schedules of the postal service and the banking system. Your order will be cancelled if we have not received payment within 30 days.
For non-stock orders, custom formulations, and large batches, we can email you an invoice and, if appropriate, instructions for payment by wire transfer.
Yes, but you'll have to contact us in advance to work out the details.
If you want to purchase a few of our retail cosmeceuticals for your personal use, we recommend that you simply use our shopping site and pay for your purchase there. If you are doing something else, such as purchasing a custom batch formulation, and you still wish to pay by credit card, we can email you an invoice which you can pay online through one of our credit card processing services (Google Checkout). Alternatively, you can mail us a company check, cashier's check, or or money order. For very large purchases, we may provide you with instructions for payment via bank wire transfer.
Is my credit card information secure?
Yes. You will only be asked to supply your credit card information only after you have opened a secure web page controlled by one of our credit card processing services (Checkout by Amazon or Google Checkout).
You can confirm that these pages are secure just as you would any other pages: look for a URL beginning with "https://", and look for the
lock symbol.
The exact location and appearance of the lock symbol varies with different browsers.
This example shows "https://" and the lock symbol for Google Checkout in the Firefox browser.
This example shows "https://" and the lock symbol for Checkout by Amazon in the Internet Explorer browser.
If you live in Texas, USA, where our facilities are located, we must charge you 8.125% sales tax. Tax is calculated based on the cost of the items you purchase, excluding the cost of shipping those items. (Texas law imposes sales tax on shipping charges, but we think that's goofy since we don't pay sales tax at the Post Office, so we will pay that part of the tax for you). If you provide us with a billing address in Texas, tax will be calculated automatically and listed as a separate item when your total cost is displayed before you confirm payment.
For retail orders, our current policy is to charge a flat rate depending on your location. Assuming that your order will fit into a standard flat-rate USPS small box or envelope, the rate for your location will be as follows:
- within the United States, $9 per package via USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation;
- to most other countries, $15 per package via USPS Priority Mail or First Class Mail, depending on availability and cost in your area;
- to several countries for which detailed tracking is essential, $25 per package via USPS Express Mail.
Other options, such as overnight delivery by alternative carriers, are not yet automated as selections within the shopping site; contact us if you would like to arrange non-standard shipping. For custom batch orders, or If your retail order is too large for flat-rate packaging, we may contact you to coordinate payment of additional shipping costs.
Shipping prices are set by carriers, not by us. As their prices change. we may have to change our shipping charges. We may also sometimes have to charge a higher rate for international shipping, especially to locations in which standard postal delivery is problematic; if we think this is necessary, we will contact you for approval and additional payment before shipping your package.
What about international shipping?
We are happy to have satisfied customers around the world; if you are concerned about whether our products can be shipped to you, please contact us before placing your order.
We are located in the USA, so packages shipped within the USA reach their destinations more quickly than those sent to other countries. We frequently ship international orders, and most of those also arrive quickly, but there can be delays; delays in shipping and Customs clearance are beyond our control and we have no power to assist in resolving them. If you place an order to be delivered outside the USA, you become the "importer of record", which means you may be responsible for additional paperwork, compliance with health department regulations for importing cosmetics, and Customs clearance fees in your own country; you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with those procedures and handling them appropriately. If you need information from us to help you in complying with your local import procedures, please contact us.
If USPS Priority Mail can be delivered in your location, and if our experience with other shipments to that location leads us to believe it is a reliable method, we will probably ship your product via USPS Priority Mail without charging you for the additional cost to us of international shipping. There are several countries in which customers have repeatedly complained of unacceptable delivery delays, usually due to a lengthy waiting period in a local Customs office; for shipments to these countries, our standard shipping method is USPS Express Mail, which provides detailed tracking information for a higher cost. If we believe these standard methods are likely to be unsatisfactory, we may suggest using other, more costly, methods of shipping your package, we will contact you to discuss options and, if you agree, to increase your shipping charge. Of course, if you choose not to accept the high cost of international shipping you can ask us to cancel your order and we will do so.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. If you live in a country where we choose not to do business, or if we choose not to process your order for any other reason, we will cancel your order and your credit card will not be charged.
Just as we at Elsom Research may decide not to conduct business with certain individuals or in certain countries, so may the suppliers we use to process payments and deliver packages decide where and with whom they are willing to work. It's possible, for example, that we may not be able to accept your credit card payment because the credit card processor you selected does not do business in your country, even if we are willing to do so. Please contact us.if this is ever the case, since we may be able to suggest an alternative method of payment or shipment. You may also wish to check for your country on the following links to our suppliers' sites:
- the United States Postal Service "Index of Countries and Localities" explains whether certain items cannot be shipped into a country as well as whether any special documentation is required; it also identifies areas within a country to which Priority Mail cannot be shipped.
Choose the link for your country, and confirm that cosmetics can be imported and that Priority Mail is delivered in your region.
- Google Checkout's "Buyer Signup" can be used to list the countries from which buyers can make credit card payments using Google's
Before bothering to fill in your other contact information, pull down the "Location" list to confirm that your country is included.
- Checkout by Amazon is available only to shoppers with U.S. billing addresses and U.S. telephone numbers.
How quickly will my order be shipped?
If you pay for your in-stock retail item by a credit cardt using Google Checkout or Checkout by Amazon, it's very likely that we will ship your order the day we receive it; we'll use the email ID you provide with your order to notify you as soon as your package is on its way. If you pay by mail, there will obviously be some delays while your payment is delivered and processed.
For speciality items such as custom micro-batch orders from The-Formulator, as well as for full-size custom batches, there will be some delay for formulation and manufacturing; we'll coordinate that with you as appropriate.
Must I sign up for an account here?
No. Without logging in, you can see our full catalog and prices, you can follow links to our informational pages, and you can place items in your shopping cart . If you use Google Checkout or Checkout by Amazon to pay for your items, then your account with that payment processor is the only account you'll need for your entire transaction.
If you do not pay through Google Checkout or Checkout by Amazon, you will have to create an account with us to use our checkout process; at checkout time, we will ask you to do that if it is necessary.
If you do not create an account, we won't be able to provide some services such as remembering the contents of your shopping cart across multiple visits and maintaining a history of your orders; if you do not want those services, and you do plan to pay with Google Checkout or Checkout by Amazon, then there is no need for you to create an account.
If I sign up for an account here, will you start sending me junk mail?
No. When you create an account, you'll get a note confirming that the signup process was successful. When you place an order, you'll get two notes: one immediately, confirming that we received your order, and one later, informing you that the order has been shipped. Ordinarily, that's all you'll hear from us. If there is some unusual problem or some question that we must clarify with you before shipping you order, you'll hear from us about that, too. Otherwise, we won't speak until spoken to.
You can keep up with our latest announcements by watching our blog, participate in discussions about your favorite products and technologies and ingredients in the Topical Formulations forum and read fuller explanations in the Journal of Topical Formulations (both of which we sponsor), and contact us directly with your questions or concerns. With all the information we already publish, plus conference presentations and ongoing business correspondence and documentation of our research activities, we have plenty of writing projects to keep up with; adding to that workload by creating marketing mail is NOT in our plans!
I read something interesting on an Elsom Research page, but I don't remember which site it was on and now I'm having trouble finding it again. Is there an easy way to search ALL the Elsom Research sites?
Yes! Try our Google Search Gadget, customized to search all our sites:
Read the general FAQ about Elsom Research cosmeceuticals