Haul May/June 2017- Oh Look, There is Some Lolita in There Edition

Today I bring you my latest haul and guess what? This one actually has some lolita in it! Although I couldn't resist a couple of Larme inspired and general J-fashion pieces, so they are included too. I also just got my latest Taobao order this morning, so there is a Taobao haul review coming soon.

The first of my recent purchases is the mook that Angelic Pretty recently released. I am going to be completely honest here- I got this purely for the bag. But I am pleased to report that the mook actually has some content to it, unlike previous mooks which were just like small leaflets (My Cinema Doll umbrella 'mook' was just a few pages). There is a Paris photoshoot featuring Risa Nakamura. I was especially impressed that all of the locations were listed. There is a hotel with incredible decor pictured in the mook which I am now keen to stay in! I ordered through Amazon Japan, which is really simple to do if you already have an account. The mook came shrink wrapped. I was a bit sad that the bar code sticker was placed slap bang in the middle of the mook (actually on the mook and not the shrink wrap) but thankfully it peeled off really easily without leaving a mark. Some of the pages of the mook were a little bent because of the way the bag had been inserted inside.

Here is the bag. It is so cute! As is the case with a lot of these cheap gifts in mooks, you should not expect the items to be up to the brand's usual standards. As you can see in the photo, this bag is very small! As a rough estimate, it is only about 15cm tall. But apart from the small size, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. The materials are thick enough to rival my other AP bags. It feels pretty sturdy and I am also confident it will hold up in a typical rain shower. 

The depth of the bag is also very narrow. I found I was able to fit my phone inside with a smaller purse and some room for a few tissues as well. You might be able to cram some small make up bits like lip gloss in as well. So if you are the sort of person who carries a lot of stuff, then this bag is most definitely not for you. For small errands though, the bag could work out well. 

The clasp holding the bag shut is very good. I actually had trouble opening the bag at first! So I think it is quite secure. It has a long strap (not adjustable) which is long enough that most people will be able to comfortably wear this with the strap across their body. The stitching on the bag is pretty neat and I found no flaws anywhere. As you can see in the picture, the AP text is pretty crisp as well and has a nice font. So considering the price, I am really impressed with the bag. I wont be using it at any big lolita meets, but for casual everyday use it is ideal.

Next we go more Larme with this tulle skirt from H&M. It is a simple skirt with a tulle overlay and a ribbon-like waist. I really like the soft blush colour. It is the perfect shade. The skirt also has a good amount of length to it. I think the proportions of under-skirt and longer tulle skirt are spot on. 

Due to the type of material, it does raise a problem with what to do with the ends. Here H&M have decided to just leave the edge of the tulle as it is. I suppose there isn't a great deal they could have done to it without it affecting the soft, free-flowing feel of the skirt. At least the bottom has been cut relatively neatly. It does mean having to be a little bit careful when it comes to washing the skirt though. 

H&M has notoriously dodgy sizing, so I made sure to try the skirt on in store. I tried on my regular clothing size and found that the skirt did fit me correctly. However, if you are considering buying this skirt, or anything else from H&M, then still go and try it on! I found the zip was a little bit stiff, but it has gotten better after undoing the zip a couple of times. Maybe it has loosened up a bit now. It doesn't go all the way to the very top though. If I was being a bit nit-picky then that may have bothered me. I really love the ribbon style waistband. It fits in with the style of the rest of the skirt. Simple, yet effective. I will be keeping an eye on H&M for future Larme style purchases, but will be proceeding with caution.

Next is this bag that I got from DreamV. I had intended to order more stuff with this bag, but I have always been a bit sceptical of DreamV's quality. Some items turn out great, whereas others have the odd flaw or a general 'cheap' feeling. Not wanting to push my luck (I was going to get the bag in pink as well but decided to wait and see how the purple one turned out) I just stuck to the one bag. The purple colour turned out to be lovely. It is a nice, cool lavender shade. I'm not too worried about matching it to anything in my lolita wardrobe, as I loved the bag design anyway and just wanted it for everyday use.

There was a very small bit of damage where the colour had rubbed off a bit. I tried to point it out using my finger in the photograph, but it was very small. You may also have noticed that there is an obvious open end around the edge of the bag, where the white is. I was a bit annoyed that this hadn't been done a bit neater. I ended up painting the damage with some matching nail polish I had to hand.

Aside from that oversight on the front, the rest of the stitching had been done very neatly. I really like the gold heart shaped zip pull too. 

I love how the clear window has glitter in it! The Lovehearts style message is cute too. I am not really in to Ita Bags, but I suppose if you wanted a low-key Ita Bag then this bag could be an interesting option. I think what surprised me the most about this bag was that it didn't have that unpleasant strong plastic smell that you find with a lot of cheaply made bags.

The strap length was very easy to adjust. The length of the strap is reasonably generous too.

The bag has a decent amount of room inside. It certainly will hold the same amount as your typical lolita bag, maybe slightly more. Now that I have painted over the flaws, I am really pleased with my bag. It has put me off going and buying the same bag in pink though. I am just not sure it is really worth me getting it in another colour. Maybe I would consider it if I was placing a DreamV order anyway and the price of the bag dropped.

Finally, I have a new lolita skirt and it is one I am super excited about! I missed the reservation for this Le Miroir print last year by mere hours and have been hopelessly searching for it ever since. Well finally I managed to get the skirt in my top colour choice. I would have preferred the JSK, but I was so desperate for these cute birdies that I was happy to settle for the skirt. If anybody sees the dress for sale though, I may still be interested. 

The print is lovely and crisp. I really love the bold colours. These bright lovebirds are my favourite birds in the print! I am loving the dusky pink too, which I think is a good fit for the print instead of something more sugary pastel.

It has this gorgeous lace on the bottom hem. Considering this is a Taobao brand, I am very impressed with the lace quality. It even has the LM initials for the brand in it, so Le Miroir obviously went to some effort with their lace. The bow design may not be as original as some of AP's custom laces, but it is still pretty decent.

The stitching was generally very neat with the only exception being a lot of loose threads around the buttons. This did make undoing the buttons a bit harder, but I have cut some of the worst threads off now and it hasn't done the skirt any harm. The back of the skirt waistband is shirred. I was worried that the skirt would be too big for me, but the elastic is quite strong, so it hugged my waist okay. In fact, I would recommend being more than a few cm under the suggested measurement because although it will stretch to the given measurement, it might be uncomfortable. My waistline is 7cm under the given garment waist measurement and I found the skirt fitted me well. The one thing I find a little annoying about the skirt design is how the waist ties attach to the skirt. The waist ties do not have their own designated buttons, so the waist ties attach using the same buttons which you use to do up the skirt. So to take the skirt off, you need to take the waist ties off first. It is only a small criticism, I guess. I don't think I will be using the waist ties anyway, so it wont affect me. I was really pleased that my waist ties have the print on both sides. They even managed to fit a bird on to the ends of both ties. The buttons have a pretty pearl design as well.

I was very pleased to see that the skirt came with a lining. Although the printed fabric is opaque, I always feel that having a proper lining is a sign of more quality.

I also got the matching hair clip. The bird cage actually has a mini bird charm inside it! I thought that was pretty cool. The back has a simple alligator clip. An additional badge clip would have made it more versatile (if you wanted to use it as a brooch, for example) but for a hair accessory the simple clip is fine.

Here is a worn photo I took just quickly chucking the skirt on. It holds a fair bit of petticoat and only ends a tiny bit above my knees. It is no worse than some of my shorter AP pieces. The skirt materials felt nice and soft. Overall I found it very comfortable. I am very happy to be able to take another item off my shrinking lolita wishlist!

So this has been a very positive haul, although I have tried to be careful, which may have contributed to my happy vibe. In case you haven't guessed, the bird print skirt is my favourite item from this haul! I was devastated when I missed the reserve, so to get the skirt a year later has been a lovely start to my Summer. I am loving my new bags as well. The quirky designs are going to be fun to wear. And I will have a Taobao haul post on here very soon, so be prepared for more new purchases!

DreamV Rakuten Review- Positive

I did a small DreamV order last month. As I have previously reviewed DreamV (search DreamV on my blog if you wish to see what I thought of the ordering process last time) I wont go in to too much detail about the ordering process. But what I will do is once again provide the ordering guide I used, as it is useful for working out what size you are- http://ciramisu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/yumetenbo-shopping-guide.html

Communication and Shipping

The guide in the link above also tells you what emails you should expect from both Rakuten and DreamV. I found the emails arrived in a very timely manner. The initial DreamV email took a day or 2 longer than stated but that was because I ordered over a weekend, so this isn't too big an issue for me. Apart from that, all the emails came very quickly. The shipping took barely any time at all. The longest delay in the shipping was once again the UK customs, which isn't the fault of DreamV. 

My order was placed inside a large cardboard box, which was very well sealed. My only complaint here is that because I ordered 1 dress and a pair of shoes, there was a bit of space in the box and the contents were moving around a bit inside. Perhaps a bit of extra padding could have been put in the empty space on top of the dress.

My shoes were very well packaged. The shoes were wrapped in tissue paper. The insides of the shoes were stuffed in the toes with tissue paper and some of those plastic rod things so that the shoes held their shape.

And here are the shoes. The pink colour does not look quite as pastel pink as the stock photos, which is a bit disappointing. The shoes were in very good condition. There were a few small marks on the shoes when I first got them but I was able to simply wipe them off without much effort. 

I was very surprised to see that the last strap nearest to the toe area was not on a popper but simply elasticated. Still, the elastic is well concealed when the shoes are worn so that is not much of an issue. The other 2 straps do have poppers so you can simply snap them on and off. I feel the straps on the shoes could do with being a bit longer. I found that with my wide feet I had to adjust the straps a fair bit to get the straps to fit.

I don't feel the bows look as neat as they do in the stock photos. Quite a lot of the white underside of this bow shows up. I did try to reshape the bow a bit but I wasn't that successful. Apart from this issue, the stitching on the shoes is really neat and tidy and the heart shaped holes have been neatly punched out.

So far I have only worn the shoes for a few hours, just to break them in. I have found the shoes to be quite comfortable so far. The soles of the shoes have a bit of padding, which is a bonus. I have heard that DreamV shoe sizes run a bit small, so I went for the 25.5cm instead of my usual 25cm. My feet are actually a 24.5cm but I always order up with Japanese shoes because of my wide feet. I found that there is a bit of empty space in the toe area, so I probably could have gotten away with my usual size. However despite being a bit big, the shoes don't seem to be causing me any issues.

The other thing I got was this dress. I had a bit of a dilemma with the sizing as my waist measurement fitted a smaller dress size than my bust did. In the end, I went for the larger dress size and thankfully, it doesn't look like a sack on me. I do feel it is a shame that the bust measurements are not more generous, but I suppose the clothing is designed to fit Asian girls. There is a zip which is well concealed going up one side of the dress, underneath the armpit area. I find the zip did make putting on the dress easier, although I do wonder if the zip would have been more efficient if placed on the back instead. I was expecting the dress to be made of thin cutsew style material and it is made from something similar. However, the dress material is in fact thicker. I probably wont be able to wear this dress in the midst of a heatwave but otherwise, the thicker material was a pleasant surprise.

The embroidery has generally been done quite nicely. You can see one slightly thicker line near the middle of the moon and one of the 'O's in the text has an extra little line underneath. Otherwise, the embroidery is clean and you can read the text clearly. 

The chiffon ruffles feel quite soft. I have seen softer chiffon than this but it is still fairly nice. They are gathered and shaped well and sit nicely on the dress. The edges are kept neat. The stars on top of the chiffon are generally quite nice, although one or 2 have slight scratches on them.

After putting the dress on, I can confirm the dress material feels very soft and pleasant to wear. I was worried the sleeves were going to be too short, but they actually did reach my wrist area. They could perhaps do with just being a centimetre or 2 longer. I was also initially worried that the bottom hem would sit too high up on my thighs but actually, I think the length was perfect for me. I am about 5'4'' and on me it sits about mid to low thigh. So I wouldn't recommend it for taller wearers, although I think you could get away with being an inch or 2 taller than me to wear this dress.

So overall I am very pleased with my second DreamV order. You get good value for the low price you pay. In fact, I would say the dress is actually very cheap considering how pleased I am with it. It definitely exceeds my expectations. The shoes are also quite nice, although I was expecting a slightly more pastel colour and one of the bows is a bit misshapen. I would definitely get more dresses in the future and possibly more shoes as well, if the shoe design was a bit simpler. I would still recommend DreamV to friends and I will be ordering again.

DreamV Rakuten Review

Today I am reviewing my very first DreamV (a.k.a Yumetenbo) order, which I placed through their global Rakuten page.

Ordering Process

Luckily for me, DreamV ship to the UK so I didn't have to fiddle about with shopping services and could order directly from them. Rakuten is pretty straight forward to order from and I found it easy to use. One thing I should mention though is that DreamV uses pictures for their size chart and so Google Translate wont work on them. 

I actually followed the guide on this link- http://ciramisu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/yumetenbo-shopping-guide.html This blog's shopping guide was incredibly helpful and also accurate. I was able to use this blog post to translate the sizing chart and worked out what sizes I needed. The blog link is also helpful for keeping track of what emails you should expect to receive from Rakuten and DreamV. The timings written on the blog post are very accurate.

One of the things I would also mention is that sometimes DreamV wont let you order certain items outside of a particular sales time. I had to delay my order a few days because the blouse I got as part of this order was outside its sale period. During the sales period the price went down, which is a bonus. It kind of amused me that they refused to take my money when I was going to pay the full price!

Shipping

The order arrived very quickly. The estimated arrival date in an email I got was just one day out and I got it the day after (although this arrival date would have been spot on if I didn't get hit by customs).

My 3 tops were shipped in a very large box which was sealed very carefully with strong tape. The edges were secure and covered well. I do think the box was ridiculously big for just 3 tops and there was a lot of room inside for the contents to move about. Luckily my items were not fragile but I do think it is a bit of a waste to use such a big box. All my items were individually wrapped in plastic. It was all done very neatly.

And now on to my new items! I wanted some basic pink tops and also this pink blouse which I fell in love with.

This is the first top I got which is a basic pink cutsew with a chiffon ribon detail on the back. The material is a bit on the thin side, but looking at the item listing, it does actually point this out. It does mean that you can only wear pale or nude underwear with it though and sometimes you can see the outline of your bra when you are wearing it. The colour is a soft baby pink which is very nice. I have already worn and washed this top and the colour has not faded at all. The design is very basic, but this top was very cheap.

The back has a chiffon bow detail. It is a bit messy looking and you can tell it has been done quickly. The chiffon is soft and you can't feel it when you wear the top. The bow does look a bit better when worn, but it is still a tiny bit wonky. Again, I do feel I got what I paid for.

The ruffle at the bottom is quite basic too but has been done quite neatly.

The second top is a 2-way top that you can wear on or off your shoulders and has a detachable charm detail on the back. I had to order a size bigger for this top because my size was out of stock, but it still fits me quite well and thankfully it is not too baggy. The only real difference I found was with the length and I found I could almost wear this as a dress! My main criticism of this top is the colour. I ordered this top in baby pink as well and I did receive the correct colour. However, this time the colour is more of a peachy orange colour. It is very different when you put it next to my other cutsew above. The fabric seems a tiny bit thicker on this top, which is a bonus. Again, the design is kept basic and this is reflected in the low price.

The back has this detachable charm which you attach to 2 loops on the top. I think this is quite a cute detail, although I kind of wonder how many people would notice this on the back of my neck! I have not had the chance to wear this top out yet so I don't know how secure the charm is, but the necklace style clips do like quite secure.

The top has elastic in it so you can wear it both on the shoulder and off the shoulder. The elastic is quite generous, but when I tried to wear this top off the shoulders I found the sleeves were very slowly creeping back up again. If I was wearing this top for a long period of time I think I wouldn't want to wear it off the shoulders because I would get fed up having to keep pulling the sleeves back down again.

Finally, I got myself yet another chiffon blouse! My chiffon obsession is getting a little unhealthy now... Out of the 3 tops this one is my absolute favourite. The material is so soft and floaty and the lining feels nice against my skin. You can barely feel the weight of the top when you wear it. The soft pink colour is also perfect.

The neck has neck ties which you can't detach but I do like them. The lace and buttons are good for the cheap price. There are no loose threads or anything else that I would normally expect with such a cheap top. Out of all the tops I think this one was also the best value for money. The blouse is very similar to other chiffon blouses I own and was cheaper.

The edges are kept simple with slight ruffles. It is a basic design but has been executed well.

Overall, I am very impressed with DreamV's service. They were quick and although everything was in Japanese, Google Translate and the blog post I linked above made it very simple to order. The items are basic and not always the very best quality, but at such low prices you do get good value for money. DreamV are good for boosting the basics in your wardrobe. If you get hit by your country's customs then it may not work out as cheap, but I still think DreamV is a good option. I would definitely order from DreamV again.