First up today is this hat from Ayl. I am so pleased with the deep red colour of the hat. It is a proper burgandy shade. As you can see the fake flowers and ribbon are a different shade of red, but they compliment the main hat colour. It is a lot more flattering than my photos make it look!
The fake flowers themselves are of a reasonable quality. They could be better, but they are not the absolute cheapest fake flowers either. I was pleased to find no traces of glue anywhere. I really like the crimped edges of the ribbon. It has a slight sheen to it, but it isn't too shiny. I think the ribbon quality is okay.
I was initially a bit confused by the random trails of ribbon coming from inside the hat, but it turns out you can pull them to alter the lining of the hat so that it fits better. I have never seen this detail on a hat before! It does mean that I am going to have to pin this ribbon out of the way when I wear the hat though. I don't think it looks very attractive having this random black ribbon sticking out.
I thought I would include a worn photo (apologies for the blacked-out face. I was really tired). As you can see, the brim of the hat is quite wide. It took me a bit of time to position the hat in a way which I felt looked good. Apart from the slightly too wide brim, I really love this hat. It feels really comfortable. With this in mind, I would consider buying from Ayl again.
Next up are these Sailor Moon inspired charms that I got from here. I got these with the intention of taking the charms off and making some jewellery with them. I actually found that because of the jewellery clasps on the chains, you can sort of join the 2 charms together and make a bracelet anyway. I might still stick with my original plan and take the charms off though. Considering how cheap these charms are, I think they look quite cute.
Despite being such a low price, I feel I do still need to warn you all that the colour of the charm was a bit patchy on the moon. Hopefully you can make it out in the picture. You can see a bit of swirling in the yellow which suggests the colour was not mixed well enough. Overall though, I do think you get what you pay for, and I could find no faults on the cat and moon charm at all.
I got all 3 of these clips from the same Taobao store here. I have ordered from this store previously. It is where my wooden butterfly brooches came from. This store has a lot of interesting and quirky pieces, some of which could work with J-fashion, so they are worth keeping an eye on. The colours on the 2 wooden brooches are lovely and the design is really clear. The fleur de lys charm in the middle could have possibly done with some better definition, but you can still see what it is supposed to be.
The rose and fleur de lys clips have a badge back, whereas the fairy has a stud back. I found the back of the fairy one a bit fiddly at first, but it is still lovely when worn. The backs on the other 2 were easy to use. The pins are generally pretty neat, although if you look at the rose clip on the left, you might be able to make out some small strings of glue. I am not too worried about these, as they are in no way visible when the brooch is worn. It would have been nice if it had been done a bit neater though, like it is on the other 2.
Next we have these over-the-door hooks which I got from here. These hooks allow for a decent door width (they went over my doors with plenty of room to spare). The metal feels strong and sturdy. There is also a small hole in the metal so that you can place a small nail in the top to keep the hook steady. Be careful not to use too big a nail though, otherwise you wont be able to shut your door!
There was a small mark on one of the hooks but after giving it a quick wipe it is almost completely gone.
The ducks are not actually attached to the hooks. There is a magnet there. Despite being such a small magnet, it was surprisingly strong. This feature means that you can also alter where the duck goes, which I think is a nice touch.
And here is the duck over my door! The ducks are well painted and I think the design is really cute. They feel really sturdy and I think they will be able to hold a good amount of weight. So far, they are doing their job perfectly.
This is my new wig, which I got here. I got the ZH colour, which to be honest looks a lot darker in person than it does on the product listing. I don't think the listing really gives that accurate an idea of what colour you are going to get. Thankfully, I don't mind the colour too much, even if it is darker than the colour I was hoping for. The wig fitted my head okay. I don't have a worn photo just yet, because the fringe was a slightly annoying length and I couldn't get it to sit right for a photo! I need to give it a trim first. Sadly, I don't think the bangs are long enough for me to do proper side bangs, so I am going to have to do straight bangs instead. The wig only needed minimal brushing out of the packet and I like how well formed the curls at the bottom are.
The colour is very multi-tonal and natural looking. This makes it look a bit more realistic. The fibres are soft with only a tiny bit of shine to them. I was pleased with the thickness of the wig too. It doesn't feel too thin at all. Overall, I think it is going to be a nice casual wig once I have sorted the bangs.
It is pretty standard to get a free wig cap with wigs, but I was surprised to see I got a free brush as well. I thought this was a nice touch.
Finally, I got this top from here. Much to my dismay, this top features some sparkly pink sequin writing which I had not been expecting. If you scroll down the listing, you can see the sequin writing is indeed there, but it is so washed out in the majority of the photos that I somehow managed to miss it. I was not expecting the sequins, so I am now going to have a fun afternoon picking all these sequins off. The top is of a low enough quality, that I really wonder if it is worth it. I am so glad that I brought this top when it was heavily discounted, although that huge discount should have maybe set off some alarm bells.
Here is the sequins in all their glory. Do not be fooled by the listing- these sequins are indeed the bright pink colour that you see in my photo. In their defense, I suppose the sequin writing has been quite neatly done. I just think the overall look is really tacky though. It reminds me of those cheap tops you see flogged on market stalls, which are aimed at little girls.
At least the top came with care instructions and a spare button for the back!
This is the reason why I decided to buy this top. The back of the collar is shaped like angel wings. I was intending to layer this top underneath another top so that just the wing collar is visible (I am not sure how successful I will be, but I am going to give it a go...) so it doesn't bother me too much that the top itself is of a low quality. However, I do feel the need to stress the low quality, just in case somebody reading this thinks the top is cute enough to wear on its own. The material is thin and you can tell just by handling the top that the materials are cheap. The wings however, are a really cute shape. You might be able to see a slightly untidy edge along the top of the wing in my photo though. This little bit is thankfully not too noticeable until it is pointed out. My main grievance with the wings is that they don't hold their shape very well. The material creases really easily and I think the edges of the wings needed to be a done with a firmer material so they are a bit sturdier.
The shirring at the bottom of the top is very stretchy, although I don't think the rest of the top has enough room for a plus-sized wearer to wear it. I guess the shirring does at least make the bottom more comfortable when worn, which is good because unlike in the product listing, this top ends on my waist line instead of the bottom of my torso. It is more like a crop top. The stitching is a bit messy in places and I think better elastic could have been used.
Here is what I mean about the top being more like a crop top. You can quite clearly see a bare strip of midriff.
Here is a shot with the top layered under a t-shirt to show what the wings look like layered over a different coloured background. I think once I have removed the sequins I will hopefully be able to wear the top as I intended. But overall, I am really unimpressed with the quality and I would be wary about buying from this Taobao store again.
Aside from the top, this was a relatively positive Taobao ordering experience. The quality is the level I have come to expect from Taobao. I especially like the brooches and the hat. Apart from the colour being a bit different from the listing, I am impressed with the quality of the wig too. Hopefully I will be able to bring you all another Taobao haul in the near future.
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