Winter Shipping Guidelines Explained

During the winter we have to change up our shipping procedures to make sure that your products arrive you in one piece! After years of dealing with cold/burst/broken glass bottles, we finally have a great system that ensures 99.9% of our orders arrive to our customer undamaged.

Interruption - if you want to skip most of this & just want to know why we can't ship directly to your home even if you'll be there, please scroll down the Q&A!

But there's a tradeoff.

The solutions we have in place to ensure that products don't break in the winter cold are not as customer-friendly for shipping. :(  As much as we normally place customer satisfaction above all else, it this case our first goal is to ensure you get products that aren't damaged.

Since many customers don't fully understand why we often ship direct to post offices during the cold months (and some get upset with us for doing so), we thought we'd write out a blog post that details the reasons why we do what we do!

Product / Cold Info: 

~ many of our products are in glass bottles and these are prone to bursting when the temperature is below zero

~ some products are more prone to bursting than others.... water-based products in glass bottles burst a lot easier than oil-based products in glass bottles - that means Cleansers and Toners burst/break very easily (in anything below freezing) while Oil Cleansers, Moisturizers, and Serums are less likely to burst....however during very cold weather they will also burst

~ some products are not in plastic bottles but have ingredients that will change in cold weather (for example anything with shea butter will solidify and get hard lumps that won't disappear - it does not in any way change the effectiveness of the product but of course is not as pleasurable to use)

~ some products are not affected at all by cold - even if they are in freezing weather for hours or days they will be still be just as good (or better since it helps preserve them!)

House / Carrier Route Info:

- there are many different ways that customers get their mail and we have no way of knowing who has which type of mail service....some customers get their mail delivered to their homes, others have to go pick up all mail at their post office, some have outdoor community mailboxes (where parcels may be left in overnight), and others live in condos where all parcels are delivered and kept indoors. Since we have no way of knowing what type of situation each customer is in, we have to assume that the parcel may be left outdoors.

- often none of the above matters anyway! The issue is very rarely that the product gets left in the cold once it reaches the customer's address....the issue is normally far before that. Canada Post loads up its trucks for delivery the night before, or in the very early wee hours of the morning when it's still very cold....this is where the product gets too cold and breaks. 

Let's recap that last point and turn it into a Q & A since it's the question we get most often from customers: 

Question ~

Why can't I have my parcel delivered directly to my home? I know I'm going to be home all day so it won't be left in the cold. 

Answer ~

The reason we can't is because the parcel has to go on a delivery truck which is loaded up the night before or very early in the morning and often left for many hours until the driver gets there - then the driver has a full day of deliveries ahead and the trucks are not heated (other than in the front driving area). So your parcel can sit for hours in the cold before it arrives to you and most of the time, this is where the products get too cold - they burst - they break - they arrive to you damaged. We know it's very disappointing that we can't ship it directly to you and we promise as soon as the weather gets better we revert back to home deliveries on all parcels.

Question ~

Are ALL parcels delivered directly to post offices during the winter months? 

Answer ~

NO. We look at every single order and make a decision on how to best ship it based on: what products you ordered and what the temperature will be where you are live when it arrives to you. Parcels going to B.C. are often still delivered to homes (your lovely weather is enviable!), parcels going to the Prairies are almost always delivered to the post office (boy it's cold there!), while parcels to the rest of Canada are about half and half - of course depending on the time of year with more, but not all, being sent directly to post offices in Dec/Jan/Feb and less, but some, during Nov and Mar. 

That was a long explanation...but we wanted to fully explain why our shipping changes during winter and why we can't always accommodate customer requests to ship to their homes. Hope that all make sense. :) 

If you have any questions please ask us!