What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, smartphone, or tablet) by a website when you visit it. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently and to provide information to website operators.
Cookies serve several purposes:
- Remembering your preferences and settings between visits
- Keeping you logged in to your account during a browsing session
- Helping us understand how visitors use our site so we can improve it
- Enabling shopping cart functionality and checkout processes
- Ensuring site security and helping prevent fraud
Cookies are not viruses or malware. They cannot execute code, carry viruses, or install software. Most cookies are session cookies that expire when you close your browser, while others (persistent cookies) remain on your device for a set period.
Why We Use Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies to:
- Operate core website functionality (shopping cart, sessions, security)
- Remember your preferences, such as language settings or accepted consents
- Analyze how our website is used so we can make it better
- Detect and prevent fraud, bots, and abusive traffic
- Measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns (where applicable)
- Provide a consistent shopping experience across devices and sessions
We do not use cookies to identify you personally without your knowledge, and we do not sell cookie data to third parties for advertising purposes.
Types of Cookies We Use
Our cookies fall into the following categories:
-
Strictly Necessary / Essential cookies — These are required for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They enable core features like adding items to your cart, checking out, and maintaining session security. Required
-
Functional / Preference cookies — These remember choices you make (like cookie consent preferences or display settings) to provide enhanced functionality. Optional
-
Analytics / Performance cookies — These help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting aggregate, anonymized information (e.g., pages visited, time on site, bounce rates). Optional
-
Security cookies — Used to help identify and prevent fraud, abuse, or unauthorized access. Required
We do not currently use advertising or targeting cookies that track your browsing across other websites.
Specific Cookies on Our Site
The following are the key cookies set on crystalbeauty.com:
| Cookie Name |
Category |
Purpose |
Duration |
csrftoken |
Required |
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection — prevents unauthorized form submissions |
1 year |
sessionid |
Required |
Maintains your login session and shopping cart across pages |
2 weeks |
cart |
Required |
Stores your shopping cart contents so items persist between pages |
Session |
crystal_favourites |
Functional |
Saves your product favourites list in browser local storage for your convenience |
Persistent (local storage) |
cookie_consent |
Functional |
Remembers that you have accepted or declined our cookie banner, so we don't ask again |
1 year |
__stripe_mid |
Required |
Set by Stripe for fraud prevention and payment authentication |
1 year |
__stripe_sid |
Required |
Set by Stripe to track payment session state during checkout |
30 minutes |
Note: This list may not be exhaustive. Browser developer tools can be used to inspect all cookies currently set on your device for this site.
Third-Party Cookies
Some cookies on our site are set by third-party services that we integrate. These services have their own privacy and cookie policies:
-
Stripe (Payment Processing): Stripe sets cookies to facilitate secure payment processing and fraud detection. For details, see Stripe's Privacy Policy.
-
Google Fonts / CDN services: Loading fonts or JavaScript libraries from external CDNs may result in cookies or tracking pixels being set by those providers.
We have limited control over third-party cookies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these providers for more information.
Local Storage & Similar Technologies
In addition to cookies, we use browser local storage — a mechanism that allows websites to store data locally on your device without an expiration date. On our site, local storage is used for:
- Favourites list: Product wish lists saved under the key
crystal_favourites — stored entirely on your device and not transmitted to our servers
You can clear local storage at any time through your browser's developer tools or by clearing your browsing data. This will erase your saved favourites.
Managing Your Cookie Preferences
Via our cookie consent banner: When you first visit our site, you'll see a banner that allows you to accept or decline non-essential cookies. You can revisit this choice at any time by clearing your browser cookies for our domain.
Via your browser settings: Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. Here's how to access cookie settings in popular browsers:
- Google Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
- Mozilla Firefox: Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
- Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
- Microsoft Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Cookies and site data
Please note that disabling or deleting certain cookies — particularly essential ones like sessionid and csrftoken — may prevent you from using important features of our site, including the shopping cart and checkout.
For mobile devices, cookie management is typically found in your browser app's settings menu.
Do Not Track Signals
Some browsers include a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want to be tracked. Currently, there is no industry-wide consensus on how to respond to DNT signals, and our website does not change its behavior based on DNT settings.
We are committed to transparency about our data practices, and you can always opt out of non-essential cookies via the methods described above, regardless of your DNT setting.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, law, or our business practices. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last reviewed" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of our website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.