My Biggest Challenge as a Black Girl Living in Cambodia

I have been living in Cambodia for the past thirteen months and while I've faced many challenges, the biggest by far is the inability to find makeup for my skin tone. Seriously, it is near impossible to find foundation and powder for a chocolate colored girl here in Cambodia. And definitely impossible here in Sihanoukville. I say near impossible in Cambodia, because I once found a foundation in a shopping center in Phnom Penh. It was a random stall in the middle of the shopping center floor and the foundation was an unknown brand and sadly way too red for my complexion. Actually, she had two, one was beyond dark and so I bought the reddish one (desperate times) but sadly, it was horrible once I got home and tried to work with it.

In hindsight I should have stocked up on beauty supplies before coming here, but unfortunately, I assumed I could easily purchase whatever I needed online. Wrong! I have always enjoyed the ease and comfort of online shopping but sadly living here in Cambodia has made it a very stressful process. Firstly, most online stores like Amazon don't deliver to Cambodia and secondly the postal service here is horrendous. Nothing gets delivered to your apartment and so you need to visit the local post office to claim your item. Unfortunately, whatever system they use to sort items is not working. My experience with the postal service here in Sihanoukville has been nothing short of a nightmare. Last October, I was sent a package from Taiwan and went to the post office to claim it. I was informed that they could not find it, seriously! Ok, so I learnt from that mistake and decided to never use the postal service for the duration of my stay here. 

Unfortunately, the desire to shop online was too strong and I started to ask my colleagues who have been living here for a longer time, how they received mail. They all said they tried to avoid the postal service but recommended getting a post box if I absolutely needed to have items sent to me. I paid $20 for a postal box and was told that I needed to return to the post office in a few days for the key.  I informed them that I worked and would not be able to take time off work to collect the key, I had gone during my lunch break and did not want to repeat that mad dash. They said that I could have someone else collect the key for me. or I could return on a Saturday. "Have someone collect my key?" I said with a puzzled look on my face. "Yes, just give them the box number", he said. By now, I'm learning that things work a lot differently in Cambodia. So I'm like, sure no problem. Wrong! Big problem, because when I returned to get the key on Saturday, I was told that the key holder only worked Monday to Friday. I'm a little upset because I was told I could return on Saturday. But I've been living here for about eight months at this stage and know that if you ask ten people in an establishment the same question regarding said establishment, you'll get ten different responses. Therefore, I went away thinking, no problem I'll get a friend to collect the key during the week. Wrong again! Big problem, because when I sent my friend to collect the key he was told that I would need to collect it myself. Like seriously, who are these people? I know this is a third world country and all but come on guys. How do they even stay in business? 

I had to wait a month for the school holidays to go in myself and collect the key, I had not ordered anything until I was sure I could go in. I placed an order on Aliexpress, excited that school was now out and I could go collect my key with no problems. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Come on, can you see the pattern here...I entered the post office. went up to the counter, met the same guy who had signed me up for the post box, gave him the box number and told him that I needed to collect my key. He went to open my box and proceeded to inform me that I did not have a delivery. I'm like. "I know (since I wasn't expecting a delivery for another month), I just want my key". He then informed me that I would need to return for the keys...wait for it.....because the key holder was not there. Honestly, are you kidding me? Who is this mysterious key holder, who never seems to be at work? I walked out and have not returned since, that was two months ago. Subsequently, I have given up on ever receiving that key. However, based on tracking records, I know that my Aliexpress order was delivered. It will be interesting to know if it is actually there, the items didn't cost much so I can afford to lose that order. But, my daughter ordered some items and she's asking me to go see if they are there. Therefore, I will go there and see what stories they have for me. Are my items in the box? Will the mysterious key holder be at work? Watch this space.

So, how do I survive without makeup? I don't, I can just about give up anything but I refuse to give up my makeup. I have taken to buying makeup when I travel and that have been working well for me...until. So the last time I bought makeup was in April when I went to Bali, Indonesia. It wasn't an easy fate but I found some foundation and powder and bought it all (very limited in my shade). I figured they would last me until my next trip, which I was planning to take in July to Taiwan. Sadly, I was unable to find an ounce of makeup my skin tone in any of the three cities I visited in Taiwan. And now. my makeup is at an all time low, I'm guessing I have enough to last until the end of this month. Unfortunately, I do not plan on travelling until December. Arrggghhh!!! Black girl dilemma, whats a girl to do? I should have mentioned that about a year ago, when I could see pan in my last powder palette and literally using a eye shadow brush to scrape foundation out of my last foundation bottle, I had gone online desperately searching for a site that would deliver to Cambodia. And low and behold I found one. It was a third party site for Amazon, and hallelujah, they delivered to Cambodia. I guess they have links to Amazon, you buy the actual Amazon item and it is delivered to their US address. They then ship it to their office in Phnom Penh and eventually it makes its way to you. I was a lot skeptical about ordering from this site, after all, this is Cambodia and I've not had good experiences with businesses here. But, I was desperate and I determined not to spend more that I could afford to lose. And so, I ordered one Maybelline powder and one foundation. Thanks be to God it arrived at my doorstep (ok it was delivered to my school) 18 days later. The site promises delivery in 10-15 days, but this is Cambodia so 18 days is pretty good in my book. 

The problem with this site is, delivery time is abit long but not a deal breaker for me. The real problem is that it charges twice what you would normally pay on Amazon. So lets say a Maybelline foundation cost $6 or $7 on Amazon.com, this site is selling it for almost $13 and last time I had to pay another $2 when the guy delivered it. Not alot of money, but still it's the principle- I had already paid shipping. So, because of those reasons I had purposed not to buy from them again. But low and behold, today I had to pull up their website and spend $86.68 for what would have cost me $40.74...yikes...but desperate times my friends. I needed makeup and a couple of hair products. Praying that these item gets to me in a Cambodian timely manner. The site that I ordered from is called fado168.com. I am by no means recommending them. But, if you find yourself- a black girl, in Cambodia and desperately need your makeup or hair products, you might want to pull them up. Or better yet, don't be a black girl caught without her products in Cambodia. It won't be pretty my friends...it won't be pretty. Happy Travels!