DECIEM | The Abnormal Beauty Company Reviews 2,043

I placed two orders one month ago and they never arrived. It's impossible to contact them. I want the refund and nodoby responds.
IT'S A SCAM.

I placed an order with these people in November of 2025. I never received my package. When I contacted customer service, they told me that I should contact the carrier. The carrier was USPS and they marked it as delivered. This company's unwillingness to help me really disappointed me. They should have sent me a replacement but they extended no such assistance. My order was for a small ticket item. I think it was $7 total but they treated me like I was trying to scam them. They should have been able to send me a replacement. I will not be purchasing from this company again.

I received a notification that my order was shipped but no tracking information has been provided and each email I’ve sent and call I’ve made has been met with the runaround. I asked to just cancel the order, but I’m told it’s not possible because it shipped. When I ask for tracking information, I’m told there is none. I’ve been told that they are consulting with an “internal team” but I still have yet to hear anything and my money is being held hostage in exchange for no product at all.

This is the first time I’ve ever had an issue ordering The Ordinary and it is the absolute last time I will order directly from Deciem. At least if I had ordered through Amazon, someone would have solved this problem for me.

Bonus points for the crap AI chatbot that cant seem to make up its mind about the status of my order either. So glad everyone is using these now!

Couldn't complete my order for Christmas gifts during their Slowvember promotion due to THEIR OWN website issues - which they admitted to me via email. When I was finally able to order 3 MONTHS LATER, I asked if they could honor the promotion since the delay was entirely their fault.
Molly from customer service flat-out refused, hiding behind their Terms and Conditions instead of actually helping a customer affected by their mistakes. No real effort to make things right, just corporate policy and template responses.
Worse yet, their "Slowvember discounts" are completely fake - they jacked up prices nearly 20% over the past year, so their "sale prices" just bring items back to what they used to cost normally. Pure deceptive marketing.
Zero customer care, zero accountability, zero integrity.

I appreciate the simplicity of The Ordinary products, but I have to say that some of them simply don't work (you might argue, but I'd say all of their retinol formulations are pretty weak), and others don't sink into the skin and have a very sticky texture (such as Buffet), and because of that, can be used only at night. I still appreciate their basic creams, such as Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA and a couple of other products. But for serums, I believe that popular Korean brands outperform The Ordinary.

Terrible and unethical business.

I am quite sad because when DECIEM/ the ordinary started it was quite revolutionary - good quality skin care for affordable prices. Its reputation was built on transparency, accessibility, and a rejection of traditional beauty industry practices.

But now the company has since been purchased by Estee Lauder aka Ronald Lauder and not only has the quality been diluted and the uping of prices... but he has also suggested that the U *S acquire Greenland as well as started to make private commercial interests there. As consumers, our purchasing choices matter and this is one of the few ways we can push back against harmful businesses. Plus we should support brands that remain accountable and give us good quality/ affordable products.

Did they deliver? No. Did they message? No. Did they reply to messages? Also no. Did they return the money? Sure, after 2 months.

The thing that absolutely killed me is their so-called customer support. Sure the issue itself was annoying.

Ordered in Nov, apparently UPS got the wrong address from Deciem, did not deliver, my emails were ignored, I then plain forgot. They got the box back beginning of December. They refunded mid January. Not a single email in two months of not delivering, and just keeping my money.

I messaged. Got bs vague replies. Then I was told off for being "disrespectful."

This is literally what I wrote.
" I messaged sometime in november. But i like the "automatically refunded" line. You had the order back on dec 5, apparently. Btw not a single email about delivery problems. It took you a month to refund me. "

Their reply? Bad customer, better behave, or else.

"At DECIEM, kindness and respect are at the core of how we interact with both our team members and customers, and if a customer cannot uphold these values, we may kindly ask them to pause their communication with us until respect can be restored. We’re very happy to continue assisting you, provided that conversations remain respectful and courteous toward our team. "

So yeah, guess who is switching her whole beauty routine now.

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.
However, it is doesn’t address the issue at all. I pick up all my orders from my local pick up point, every week, including my previous Deciem orders from 2025.

And again, the parcel sent by Deciem was collected on time by my boyfriend A.S. on 29 November 2025, as shows the tracking page to which you provided a link.

What happened is that Deciem confused two orders, mine (#22324567 placed on 22 November 2025) one the order placed by another customer, S.G. from Berlin, Germany (#22323220). Knowing my address is in Espoo, Finland, not in Germany !!!
So the order I picked up wasn’t mine but that unknown person’s order. The tracking numbers provided didn’t correspond at all with our orders.

So I ended up with one 100ml bottle of the Glycolic acid toner, instead of my order which included :
- NIOD’s MMHC2 30 ml
- NIOD’s HV 50 ml
- TO’s MPCP 1% 30 ml
- TO’s SA 2% masque 100 ml
- TO’s GA 7% toner 100 ml
- TO’s MPSHD 60 ml
and the following bonuses :
- NIOD’s MMHC2 15 ml
- TO’s HA 2% + B5 with ceramides 15 ml
Total amount I paid = 142.87€

This is a very unprofessional mistake and I expect the case to be handled in a more professional and responsible way by Deciem in the next weeks.
I have been a faithful customer since June 2018 and this is the first time that I deal with such a problem and that it is addressed so poorly by your team.

I expect all the products I ordered to be sent to my address.

Best,

Marienka

My order was in the system as completed on 2/12025. After 19 days I'm still waiting for my package!! What is more disturbing is that I have made 2 inquires about the matter and they haven't replied yet! Now there's a notification on the site that the staff are having a holiday,so we can't get any help concerning shipping!! This is unacceptable!! We've paid good money for those things, so we demand some respect!! If you can't deliver, don't sell!!!!

Very unethical company. Made a purchase November 25th, waited till Dec 15th to cancel after getting sorry for delay, as soon as product in well send. Called card company and v got credit, but 2 hours later charge back on and email saying they shipped. I don't trust them, and service is worst I've ever experienced. Their justification? They were too busy.
Stay far away from this company. Their useless and not worth time.

EDIT 2.1.2026:

After this post, the Deciem team contacted me, corrected the mistake, and refunded the outstanding amount.

_____________________________

Deciem states on their website that any opened product can be returned within one year as long as it's at least 50% full, and that customers will receive a full refund. I followed this policy exactly.

I returned products from my The Ordinary and NIOD orders (#19410604 and #19409683). All items were more than 50% full, and they were delivered back to Deciem within 11 months of purchase. This was my first time ever returning anything, I've placed 10+ orders before without returns, even when some products didn't work for me, so this is not a case of abusing their policy.

In October 2025, I received confirmation from Deciem that they received my return. I was refunded 27,72 € for The Ordinary products, but the 51,59 € refund for order #19409683 (NIOD RE: Pigment, which was almost full) was never issued.

I sent a reminder in early November 2025, but never received a reply.

I'm disappointed. I used to trust and regularly purchase from Deciem, but after this experience, I won't be buying from them again.

I have always had good results from this company. The orders arrive quickly. The prices are good, quick delivery, great products, what else can I say? I give them 5 stars.

This is an edit of my original review, which stands, below. I received this reply from Deciem/The Ordinary/The Abnormal Beauty Company:

"Hi there,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We're sorry to hear about the condition of your items when they arrived to you.

We'd be happy to review the photos you have to assist you further. Could you please reach out to our team via our "Report an Issue" web form? [There was a link here, which I have deleted for posting purposes]

Alternatively, we have requested your contact information here to be in touch with you directly.

We look forward to helping!

- Customer Happiness"

I am unable to find the 'Report an Issue' web form, but will keep trying. The link in the reply does not work. I have responded to the request from Trustpilot to supply the company with the details they asked for. This is a rigmarole, and a third party, I would rather not have to go through - though thank you Trustpilot, it is wonderful that you are there. If the company had a viable customer services department, it would save them and us, especially us, a great deal of time. I look forward to hearing personally from someone who works for Deciem/The Ordinary/The Abnormal Beauty Company.

Original Review:
Let me be clear, I like the products. But - I ordered four products a few days ago; they arrived today, which was fine. The outer packaging was damaged, however, and it was clear one of the bottles had leaked badly. When I opened the box they arrived in, the contents were soaked. The bottle of hyaluronic acid I ordered was completely empty. The neck of the bottle and the stopper were broken. I diligently took photos, went to the Customer Services section on the website, wrote down the problem, uploaded the photos, only to be told at the end of that, having spent a considerable amount of time on it, that Customer Services is 'unavailable at the moment', whatever that means. Customer Services should never be unavailable, surely.
I am exceedingly put out. Not only was the whole thing a mess to handle, the disappointment of not having the product I ordered arrive intact and there being no one to complain to is huge. The firm is based in Canada, but the parcel was dispatched from Nottingham. Other than the useless Customer Services approach, I can find no way of contacting anybody to let them know. However terrific the other products are, I am not at all happy with this experience.

Bought a copper peptide from this company, 3 days later no shipping details, I tried contacting them but they are saying that I didn’t create an account, if I could leave a 0 star review I would.

The products are great and reasonably priced with decent results compared to more expensive cosmetic brands, but the customer support and order processing is horrendous. In an age when folks expect deliveries within a few days, if in a major metro area, Deciem (and their subsidiaries, like the Ordinary) take over 10 days for order delivery, regardless of the time of year or availability of the products. Order the products from Amazon instead - much faster delivery, free returns and the same (if not better) prices than through their direct sites. Having tried both Amazon and the direct websites, Amazon has been more reliable with every delivery, and their customer support is more helpful.

As other reviewers have stated, it is impossible to get in touch with customer service at the company. Extremely disappointed after order expensive products from NIOD. As another reviewer said, the contact form on their website says 'this service is currently unavailable, please try again later' when you send a query through. I have received my product with a weird looking liquid inside, this is not what the product usually looks like. Not sure what to do now. Waste of money.

Trying to contact this company as my delivery was returned to them by the courier company as damaged before I received it. The contact form won’t accept the details I am entering and all the emails received are no reply only. I’m not impressed so far. Have contacted them in instagram message but I don’t use that platform at all really.

I have been using Deciem products for years. Unfortunately this time I placed an order and never received it. Their courier service claims it was delivered, however it was not. I have been going back and forth via email with Deciem for two weeks now while they investigate the situation. Leaving me without the products I ordered and out $57. I just spoke with someone on the phone who was incredibly rude and unhelpful. They believe that if they correct the situation immediately they would go out of business and that they need to take this up with the courier. While I understand it can be problematic to refund or resend everyone products that have an issue I believe it should be a case by case basis. I have been a loyal customer for years. I’ve never had an issue with a delivery before. I am not some scammer. While it is DHL’s fault, why is the customer being treated poorly. Sadly I will no longer order their products since there is no insurance of delivery and if there is an issue it is ultimately a loss to the customer. Other companies take photos of items after they’ve been delivered or offer a small fee for delivery insurance which I would’ve happily paid to avoid these problems. So buyer beware, if your order does not get delivered you will receive little to no support from Deciem.

So dispointed on how they make system on online delivery. I kind of regret ordering the ordinary. They wasn’t priority customer but only profit. its not worth having online shopping with them (decim). So not gonna shop online again. The law in australia say customers can cencel the order even though already in australia post. But the ‘customer hapiness’ keep argue about policy which mean nothing above the law. She even could not help change the address which lead to me not getting the product instead. They seems very greedy and expect me to order again (maybe). Which mean I would never buy again. And that such create trauma for small problem that they cannot solve to make customers happy.

The stars given are only for the products.
Zero service.
Staff ignored me as was busy talking about the night out they had.
Real bad experience.
No help, no advice wasn't interested I'm afraid to say.
I do think a secret visit is required just so you can see the scale of absolute rudeness.