Privacy & Cookies
This document sets out the Privacy Policy of Cosmetic SA International Limited and explains how we collect and use your personal information in connection with your relationship with us as a customer or potential customer including;
through your use of Cosmetic SA and any country top level domain name (the "Site"), or any Cosmetic SA application that we make available from time to time ("Application")
by visiting a Cosmetic SA store
by interacting with our content and/or services or
by contacting our Customer Care Team.
This policy also applies to information held about suppliers and possible future suppliers, contacts and all other people we hold information about.
Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it.
Please also refer to our Terms and Conditions.
You must be over 16 to register for a personal account, subscribe to Cosmetic SA emails and/or place an order with Cosmetic SA. The Site is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
Cosmetic SA is a Secure Site. To ensure that this is a legitimate secure Site, please check the following:
That the original URL you are visiting comes from Cosmetic SA
The status of the server certificate is valid
Who are we?
Cosmetic SA is made up of different legal entities.
This Privacy Policy is issued on behalf of the Cosmetic SA Group so when we mention "Cosmetic SA", "we", "us" or "our" in this Privacy Policy, we are referring to the relevant company in the Cosmetic SA Group responsible for processing your data. We will let you know which entity will be the controller for your data when you purchase a product or service with us.
Cosmetic SA International Limited (trading as Cosmetic SA) is the controller and responsible for this Site.
Information we collect
By ‘information,’ we mean personal information about you that we collect, use, share, store and transfer in physical and electronic form. This information can be grouped together in the following categories:
Identity and Contact Information includes first name, last name, title, birthday, email address, telephone number, delivery address, billing address or any other information you provide within your personal preferences through your profile builder or to staff within our stores
Financial Information includes bank account and payment card details
Transaction Information includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us
Technical Information includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, language, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the Site or any Application
Profile Information includes first name, last name, title, birthday, email address, telephone number, delivery address, billing address, password, purchase and order history, your favourite products, wish list, brand preferences, contact with the Customer Care Team, and any other information you provide within your personal preferences through your profile builder
Usage Information includes information about how you use the Site or any Application and our products and services
Marketing and Communications Information includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences
Contact History means keeping a record of what you have said to us, for example, over the phone, by live chat, through a web form, by email, on social media or otherwise
Social Information means information collected if you choose to link your social media accounts with us.
How we collect information about you
You may give us your information by filling in forms on the Site or any Application or in-store or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, on social media or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you:
register for an account with us (whether online or in-store);
place an order;
receive a consultation or treatment;
sign up to our newsletters;
register for any loyalty scheme that we offer from time to time;
request marketing to be sent to you;
contact our Customer Care Team;
enter a competition, promotion or survey; or
give us some feedback.
As you interact with the Site or any Application we may automatically collect Technical Information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this information by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Information about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our Cookie Policy for further information.
We may also receive information about you from various third parties such as: analytics providers, advertising networks, search information providers and payment service providers.
How we use your information
We use your information in the following ways:
Identity & Contact Information
to deliver your purchases to you
to provide beauty treatments and/or beauty advice
to send you service messages by email, SMS or otherwise, such as order updates
to create and manage your Cosmetic SA account
to provide customer care and support, and handle returns
for security and to check your identity
to provide you with marketing (where we have the right to do so – see marketing section below)
to show you Cosmetic SA adverts as your browse the web
to direct you to the right part of the website
to communicate with you
to enroll you in your Corporate Partnership Scheme
Financial Information
to take payment, and give refunds
for fraud prevention and detection
Transaction Information
to provide products you order to you
to provide customer care and support, and handle returns
to find out what you, and other customers, like
Technical & Usage Information
to improve our Site and any Application and set default options for you (such as language and currency)
to keep our Site safe and secure
to find out what you, and other customers, like
Profile Information
to find out what you, and other customers, like
to make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you
to manage your participation in any loyalty scheme
to complete brand specific consultations
to provide beauty treatments and/or beauty advice
Marketing and Communications Information
to send you information by email, SMS, post, other otherwise, about our products and services
Contact History
to provide customer care and support
to train our staff
Social Information
to enable you to log-in to our Site simply and easily without having to create a separate account
to enable you to share products and services if you choose to
Legal basis for processing
Our processing of your personal information is necessary:
for the performance of contracts to which you will be a party to and in order to take steps at your request prior to you entering into those contracts;
for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by us; or
in order to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
In relation to any processing of special categories of personal information such as information about your health, we will generally rely on obtaining specific consent from you at the time unless there is otherwise a legal requirement for us to process such information.
Legitimate interests
Where our processing is based on the legitimate interest grounds described above, those legitimate interests are: (i) collecting personal information to provide you with a smooth and efficient customer experience; (ii) running our business; (iii) to provide the products and services you have requested; (iv) to prevent fraud; and (v) for our own marketing, research and product development.
Will we share your information with third parties?
Except as expressly set out in this policy we will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.
However, we share your information with the following categories of companies as an essential part of being able to provide our products and services to you, as set out in this Privacy Policy:
Companies in the Cosmetic SA Group such as Cosmetic SA Delivery Company Limited who may provide delivery services to you
Companies that help us fulfil your orders such as payment service providers, warehouses, order packers, and delivery companies
Professional service providers, such as marketing agencies, advertising partners and website hosts who help us run our business
Credit reference agencies, law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies, so that we can help tackle fraud
Companies approved by you, such as social media Sites (if you choose to link your accounts to us)
Concession Brands (meaning a third party seller who sells products to you via the Site) for orders fulfilled by our Concession Brands. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information relating to orders fulfilled by our Concession Brands
Your product and treatment preferences with specific brands
Competition winners on social media
We may also share your personal information with:
law enforcement agencies, other governmental agencies or third parties if we are required by law to do so; and
other business entities should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity, or if we undergo a re-organisation with that entity.
We may provide third parties with aggregated but anonymised information and analytics about our customers and, before we do so, we will make sure that it does not identify you.
Your Rights
At any time, you have the right:
to request access to or a copy of any information which we hold about you;
to rectification of your information, if you consider that it is inaccurate;
to ask us to delete your information, if you consider that we do not have the right to hold it;
to withdraw consent to our processing of your information (to the extent such processing is based on previously obtained consent);
to ask us to stop or start sending you marketing messages as described below in the marketing section;
to restrict processing of your information;
to data portability (moving some of your information elsewhere) in certain circumstances;
to object to your information being processed in certain circumstances; and
to not to be subject to a decision based on automated processing and to have safeguards put in place if you are being profiled based on your information.
Any request for access to or a copy of your information must be in writing and we will endeavour to respond within a reasonable period and in any event within one month in compliance with data protection legislation. We will comply with our legal obligations as regards your rights as a data subject.
We aim to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate at all times. To assist us in ensuring that your information is up to date, do let us know if any of your personal details change. You can access, update or correct your personal account details via the "Cosmetic SA" section of the Site.
Data Subject Access Requests
We would gladly assist in any data subject access requests free of charge.
Data subject access requests must be made in writing and we advise emailing Cosmetic SA to ensure action is promptly taken.
Please include the following:
Full Name
Email Address
Billing Address
Details of the specific information you require and any relevant dates
We may ask for further information to identify you and ensure the personal data relates to the individual making the request.
We will respond within one month of receiving the information we require to carry out your request. Responses can be provided in either English, French or German.
To view all the ways to contact us please click here.
Data Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted. We use 256-bit SSL Software to encrypt your payment card information when you place an order on our secure server. For your added security all payment transactions are processed automatically by Adyen, and we are not party to your personal credit card or bank details. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Marketing
We may use your information to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.
You will receive marketing messages from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
We may also market to you if we have received your express consent to do so including where we have collected your details in connection with a competition or other promotion and you have agreed to receive marketing from us.
You can stop receiving marketing messages from us at any time.
You can do this:
By updating your preferences within the "Cosmetic SA" section of the Site
By clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link within an email to unsubscribe from that specific email type
By contacting our Customer Care Team
Once you do this, we will update your profile to ensure that you don’t receive further marketing messages.
Stopping marketing messages will not stop service communications (such as order updates).
Third-party marketing
We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside the Cosmetic SA Group for marketing purposes.
Online adverts
We also engage in online advertising, also to keep you aware of what we’re up to and to help you see and find our products.
Like many companies, we target Cosmetic SA banners and ads to you when you are on other websites and apps. We do this using a variety of digital marketing networks and ad exchanges, and we use a range of advertising technologies like web beacons, pixels, ad tags, cookies, and mobile identifiers, as well as specific services offered by some Sites and social networks, such as Facebook’s Custom Audience service.
The banners and ads you see will be based on information we hold about you, or your previous use of the Site or any Application (for example, your Site search history, and the content you read on the Site) or on Site banners or ads you have previously clicked on.
How long will we keep your information?
We will keep your information for as long as you have your account, or as long as is needed to be able to provide the services to you, or (in the case of any contact you may have with our Customer Care Team) for as long as is necessary to provide support-related reporting and trend analysis only.
If reasonably necessary or required to meet legal or regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our Terms and Conditions, we may also keep hold of some of your information as required, even after you have closed your account or it is no longer needed to provide the services to you.
Where we are permitted to send you direct marketing communications we may retain your contact information necessary for this purpose, (provided that you have consented to receiving them) for as long as you do not unsubscribe from receiving the same from us.
Links to other websites
This Privacy Policy only applies to Cosmetic SA. Where there are links to other websites these have their own Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies that can be viewed on their respective websites.
How to contact us
Questions, comments and requests regarding this policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Cosmetic SA. For all other inquiries please click here to view all the ways to contact our Customer Care Team on sales@cosmeticsa.co.za
If you have any concerns about our use of your information, you also have the right to make a complaint to the data protection regulator in your country.
Changes to this Policy
Any changes we make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you on the Site, within any Application or by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our policy.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on 15/08/2020.