Sending Nail Polish by Air Freight

It has become increasingly difficult to send Nail Polish internationally & it is not about to get any easier. What are the costs? How does one send Nail Polish legally by Air Freight?

The fines are huge if you get it wrong. They run into the thousands. Worse, I have even heard stories of suspended jail sentences for those willingly and knowingly sending Nail Polish without declaring it. So let's not call it Nail Polish.
Let us refer to it by its real title,  "Dangerous Goods". The real cost of sending a single bottle of Dangerous Goods to the United States of America is not a simple as it may seem on the surface.

Here is an example list of the Australian charges per *shipment of 50kgs or more of Dangerous Goods.

• Customs Clearance AUD150.00 + GST
• Export Declaration Number AUD30.00 + GST
• Air Way Bill Fee AUD50.00
• Document Fee AUD50.00
• Warehouse security $5.00
• Terminal Security Minimum of AUD25.00 or AUD0.05/kg
• Local cartage AUD85.50 + GST

 Airfreight:

• AUD4.00/kg
• Fuel Surcharge: currently $0
• War Insurance per kg: currently $0
• War Insurance per AWB: Currently AUD10.00

 US Charges:

• Handling Fee USD45.00
• Airline Document Fee USD40.00
• Customs Entry USD145.00
• Customs Merchandising processing Fee USD25.00 minimum or 0.21% of invoice value to a maximum of USD485.00
• Customs Duty at cost
• Customs Bond USD65.00 minimum or USD6.00 per USD1000 of invoice value
• Internal terminal airline transport and cross dock fee USD100.00
• Handling/ segregation, UPS etc USD100 per shipment
• Note, all of the above US charges are per shipment

• Delivery throughout USA (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) Approx $USD25/parcel.

*The above figures are competitive in today's market. They are based on a minimum 50kg. For me, this works out to be approximately 100 parcels at roughly $45.00 per parcel. Most freight companies will not send anything until they have the volume.

So we CAN do it if we reach an agreement with a Freight forwarder, but the cost is prohibitive and it still does not guarantee your parcel will arrive because there is one last hurdle.

Ultimately, regardless of whether you have an agreement in place with a freight forwarder, if the pilot does not want to carry it, it stays off the plane - end of story.