HauteLook, Hot Prices!

So believe it or not, I made my first online sample sale purchase today on HauteLook.  I bought an Isabel Lu t-shirt, which I'm very excited about, though a little worried since I can't return it, and I've never tried on anything by Isabel Lu before.  At least I got a good price!  The shirt's price was $16, though after tax and  shipping $7.95(!), it came out to over $25.  Which is still good, considering the shirt retails for $121.00.  


The one thing that kind of irked me is HauteLook's shipping policy; or rather, lack thereof.  I could not find out how much shipping cost until I was checking out.  I searched the site, and it doesn't say a word about how much shipping costs.  So I don't know if it's based on the price of the item, if it's a set flat rate, or if it varies by the designer on sale.  I really hope the rate isn't based on the item price, considering the shipping price for my shirt was about 50% of the its cost.  My guess is that shipping varies with the designer/manufacturer.

Some of the sale offerings.  I purchased the shirt on the left.

This purchase was a little out of character for me.  I'm usually hesitant to buy clothing online that isn't returnable or where you have to pay for return shipping.  Especially when I'm unfamiliar with the designer's sizing.  However, I was lured by the low prices of the items for sale, and the fact that the retail prices are normally so high did little to hinder the sale's pull.  Although I haven't taken the plunge until now, I have been impressed by HauteLook's pricing on previous sales.  To give you an idea, there are some Isabel Lu shirts currently on sale at Bluefly, (some of which appeared in the HauteLook sale), and they're all in the $65-$75 range, whereas all of the shirts in HauteLook's sale ranged from $16-$34.  So, if I have a positive experience after reecving my shirt, you can bet I'll have a hard time saying no to HauteLook's sales in the future!