Taobao Haul July 2016

Today I am 'reviewing' the Taobao order that I really shouldn't have bothered placing. This order has caused me a great deal of frustration, as I kept adding things to it, only for the items to no longer be available. As a result, I only ended up with a very small order and I have already reviewed a lot of the items before. So this review is more about the different colours I ordered and some new stuff. I apologise for such a small review.

My first item is this Red Maria cuff. In my last order I wanted to order 2 of these, but after payment Red Maria said they only had one in stock. So imagine my annoyance when a few days later, the generation colour came back in stock! So I have finally managed to get the 2nd cuff to complete my pair. For a more detailed review of these cuffs, please refer to my Taobao post here. I am a bit of a Red Maria fan, but I have to admit that the constant stock availability changes can be frustrating. I am just relieved that I finally managed to complete my 'pair' of these cuffs, and I really love the colour. 

After getting this Emomo headdress in white in my last order, I decided to get the lavender and pink ones as well. You can see my full review of this headdress here. The quality of these headdresses is very consistent and my new ones are on the same level as the white one I got previously. So the only thing I can really remark on here is the colour. The purple one is maybe not the exact shade I was expecting, being a bit darker than it appears in the stock photo. As I have a lot of different lavenders in my wardrobe anyway, it is bound to match something I own already anyway. I have tried to make sure the photo gives an accurate idea of the purple colour. As for the pink, it is a bright and vibrant pink. I would say this pink would probably match a lot of the more recent pink Angelic Pretty pieces. It is a very sugary, pastel pink. Despite the light materials, the colour is bold.

All of the remaining items in this order are from this Taobao store here. As I own budgies, I couldn't resist getting this earrings! It is a bit unusual having 3 earrings in a set, and I guess if you just have the one pair of holes this may seem a bit weird. The colours of the earrings are bold and the design is a lot clearer than it appears in my photos.

The backs are just bog-standard cheap metal and plastic tubes. With jewellery this cheap, I was expecting this anyway and I am certainly  not complaining.

After taking loads of pictures, this was the clearest photo I could get of the earrings worn, unfortunately. I swear they look a lot nicer in person. After wearing, there wasn't really any green tinge. This was a bit surprising, given the cheap price. So overall, I am impressed with the earrings.

From the same shop, I got these constellation hair clips, which I absolutely love. They come in 3 designs, in either gold or silver, and also come as necklaces. 

This is what the clip looks like from the back. I did find that it was a little bit difficult to shut the clip. There is basically a small knob that you push the back over, and you have to get the back of the clip just right, or you may find you are unable to push the back in to place. It took me a few attempts to get it right at first. At least this means the clip is unlikely to spring open.

As you can see in this worn photo, a small bit of the back is still visible when the clip is done up. With a bit of hair styling, this should not be difficult to conceal. I found the clip stayed in place okay. It may possibly slide down after a few hours, if you are doing something quite active. For general wear though, I feel this is a decent clip. I wasn't expecting the clip's design to really stand out and just blend in to my hair, but I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of the jewellery from this Taobao store is generic fashion stuff, but some of it has the potential to work with lolita fashion. I would definitely check them out.

So I am happy with every single item I got, but given how small this order turned out to be, I would have been disappointed if it had gone horribly wrong. At least with the cuffs and headdresses I had a good idea of what to expect. The jewellery store has proved to be an interesting find. They seem to change stock fairly frequently, so I would recommend repeat visits to their store. I am mourning the items that could have been, but at least the items I did get were good. Here is hoping I have more luck next time.