Tamera ready

MANILA, Philippines - Now here’s an idea — what if you could order your beauty needs online, and have them delivered to your doorstep? Oh wait, but haven’t people been doing that in other countries for ages now? I was — am — a huge Internet shopper, but only when I lived in the States. Sephora.com and Beauty.com were sites I would shop from if I needed some new shampoo and couldn’t, for whatever reason, walk to the corner drugstore. Here in the Philippines, my cyberspending has been curbed because I don’t want to wait a month and pay crazy shipping fees, or more troublesome yet, have the package sent to someone who happens to be traveling to Manila, for something I can find a substitute for here (Roberto Bolano’s new book 2666 and Alexander McQueen for Target are exceptions). But techno infrastructure here is still in primitive stages — we still can’t do the online equivalent of swiping and going.

Former Miss Philippines and computer engineer Tamera Szijarto works around this problem by linking up with PayPal (although you still need a PayPal account — and that means dollars) for her brand-new cosmetics shop tameraonline.com, the first of its kind here. Tamera is the kind of girl who loves makeup and can get goosebumps just by looking at slickly-packaged products. After completing her beauty queen duties, she decided to combine her passion for makeup and beautification with her IT know-how and now, this complex and bold 25-year-old is CEO of her own company.

For now, the store only offers products from three brands, namely Neutrogena, Physician’s Formula, and Benefit, the latter of which has a cult following in the States as far as beauty products are concerned. She plans to expand her inventory as she tests out the market. Getting people to buy makeup online is a tricky proposition, because you kind of have to test out the color on your skin — so tameraonline is more suited to those who already know what they’re looking for. In any case, shipping to the entire Philippines is free and returns and exchanges are expected. Since the items are priced in dollars and a rough peso estimate is given, expect for there to be fluctuations in how much you actually end up paying. Online shopping — are you finally coming of age? Because I could use some new shampoo. —ANC