Package & packets
This is what your parcel looks like
Three formats and no others. This page shows all three, helps you work out from your own order which one is likely coming, and shows what is printed on the outside — including the customs declaration, which is the one line on the parcel we are not able to keep quiet.
The shapes
Three formats, and what goes in each
These are drawings rather than photographs. A page like this one usually opens with a stock photograph of a cardboard box belonging to somebody else; we would rather draw our own accurately than show you a picture of a parcel that was never ours. They are drawn for a second reason too — a drawing keeps the label in the last section readable at any size, on any screen, in either theme. When we have photographs of our own packaging, they will replace these and nothing else on the page will need to move.
Small packaging box
- 1–3 injections
- up to 90 softgel caps
- eye drops
The shallow one. A rigid box sized so that a small order does not travel loose inside a large one.
Envelope packet
- up to 180–220 tablets or capsules
The only one of the three that is not a box, and the only one with a rule about its contents: tablets and capsules, and nothing else, at any count.
Packaging box
- over 200 tablets
- injections
- creams
- lotions
- eye drops
The default for everything that is neither small nor flat. Bulk tablet orders end up here, and so does anything with a cream, a lotion or a vial in it. It comes in a ladder of four sizes, which is further down this page.
Start here
Find the number on your order
Every pack size on this site prints its own count on the option you chose — 90 Tablets, 180 Tablets, 360 Tablets. If your order is tablets or capsules and nothing else, that number is most of the answer. Here is what it means, and where it stops meaning anything.
Up to 180
Envelope packet
Tablets and capsules travel flat, so a count that sounds large very often goes in the packet rather than in a box.
180 to 220
Could be either
Our own two numbers overlap across this band: the packet is rated for up to 180–220, and the box takes more than 200. We are not going to draw a line through the middle of that and pretend. An order landing here goes into whichever format takes it properly, and that is settled when it is packed.
Over 220
Packaging box
The bigger pack sizes on this site sit past this point, so a bulk tablet order is a box.
Not counted in tablets?
Then the count is not the answer. Injections, eye drops and softgel capsules go by what they are, not by how many: one to three injections, up to ninety softgel capsules or eye drops travel in the small packaging box, and creams, lotions and larger quantities travel in the packaging box.
Three limits
What the number cannot tell you
A count is a good guide and a bad promise. These are the three places it stops being either.
It only works for tablets and capsules
Creams, gels, inhalers, pens, vials, sachets and drops are decided by their shape rather than their count. None of them go in the packet.
An order is more than its biggest line
If there is more than one thing in the order, the tablet count on its own does not decide the format — what else is in the box counts too.
The last call is made at the bench
The format is chosen with the actual items on the table, by the person packing them. Nothing on this page is a reservation. If it matters to you — a letterbox that will not take a box, an address where a signature is awkward — say so before the order is packed, because the window closes when it is.
The box ladder
Four sizes, and what the number on them means
The boxes are stocked as a ladder — 500 gm, 400 gm, 300 gm and 200 gm. A small order does not travel in a large box with air in it; the nearest size is the one that gets used.
- 200 gm
- 300 gm
- 400 gm
- 500 gm
That figure is the box's own rating, not your order's weight. The weight written on your customs form is whatever the parcel actually weighs on the day it goes out. You will not find dimensions here either: nobody has put a ruler to these boxes, and a measurement invented for a web page is worth less than no measurement at all.
The part that cannot be discreet
What is printed on the outside
Two things travel on the outside of every parcel. A shipping label, which is addressed to you. And a customs declaration, which is addressed to a customs officer — and its entire purpose is to say what is inside. Our shipping policy already says this, and it belongs here next to the drawing rather than four pages away.
“Orders are packed in plain, discreet outer packaging wherever practical. The outside of the parcel does not describe its contents. Customs documentation, however, is a legal requirement and must describe what is inside — that part is not something we can make discreet.”
So here it is at full size, rather than a sentence you would have to take our word for.
Tracking number printed here
To
Your name
Your street address
Your city and postcode
Your country
From
A return address is printed here.
May be opened officially
| Description of contents | Quantity | Weight (kg) | Value (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicines / Health Products | Item count | Weighed at dispatch | Order value |
Gift Commercial sample Other
Date · Sender's signature
The description row is the fixed part
Medicines / Health Products is what the declaration says, and it is the only thing on the whole label that is the same on every parcel. It does not name the medicine, the strength or the brand, and it is not a list of what you bought. It is also not something we can leave blank.
Everything else belongs to your parcel, not to a drawing
The address block, the tracking line, the quantity, the weight and the declared value are all filled in at dispatch. They are shown empty here rather than filled with numbers nobody has checked.
What we cannot do about it
We cannot leave the declaration off, and we cannot write something else on it. A description that does not match what is inside is not discretion, it is a false declaration, and it lands on the person waiting for the parcel rather than on us. So it says what it says, and we would rather you read it here than at your door.
The sender block
A return address is printed in the From block when the label is made up. This drawing leaves it blank rather than invent one.
Beyond the carrier's own routing and service marks, there is nothing else on the outside that describes what is inside.
After it lands
Getting it through the door
Only one of the three is flat. Seen from the side that is the whole difference between them, and it is the only difference a letterbox cares about.
The packet and a box, edge-on, on the same line. We have not measured your letterbox and we are not going to guess at one, so this is a comparison rather than a measurement.
If it fits, it goes through
Where a packet fits a letterbox, nobody has to be at home for it.
If it does not, somebody signs
Some deliveries require a signature, or are held at a local depot or post office for collection. The carrier's notice will say which; that decision belongs to the carrier in your country rather than to us. A parcel that cannot be delivered is usually held for a period and then returned to sender.
Photograph the box before you open it
If a parcel arrives damaged, photograph the outer packaging as well as the item, before you unpack any further. Those two photographs together are what let us settle a damage claim quickly. Once the box is in the bin, so is the evidence.
Straight answers
Questions this page answers
- Will the outside of the parcel say what is inside?
- The packaging itself does not describe its contents. The customs declaration attached to the outside does, in the words “Medicines / Health Products”. It does not name the product, the strength or the brand. Customs documentation is a legal requirement and must describe what is inside, so that part is not something we can make discreet.
- Is the customs form inside the parcel or on the outside?
- On the outside. That is where a CN 22 has to be, because the whole point of it is to be read without opening the parcel.
- Can I choose which format my order ships in?
- No. The format is chosen when the order is packed, from what is actually in it. You can tell us what would help and we will tell you what we can do, but we will not promise a format in advance.
- How do I know which one is coming before it arrives?
- You will not know for certain, because it is not decided in advance. You will get a dispatch email, and tracking where the carrier provides it. Neither of them names the format.
- Is the weight on the customs form my order's weight?
- Yes — the weight and the declared value belong to the parcel that is actually going out, which is why the illustration on this page leaves both blank. The gram figures on the box ladder are a different thing: they are the boxes' own ratings.
- Are these photographs of my parcel?
- No. They are drawings, made from the packaging we use. We drew them so the label stays readable at any size and in both light and dark, and because we would rather show you an accurate drawing of our own packaging than a stock photograph of somebody else's. When we have photographs of our own, they will replace them.
Ask before it is packed
If the format matters — a letterbox that will not take a box, a shared hallway, an address where a signature is awkward — the time to say so is before the order is packed rather than after it arrives. Tell us what is in your basket and we will tell you which of the three it is likely to go in, or say that we do not know yet, which is sometimes the true answer. And if what turns up does not match what is drawn here, that is worth an email too: it is easier to correct a drawing than to explain a surprise.