CD Japan review and some outfit shots

Hello everyone!

As promised, here is a review that was based off of an online shopping excursion that I had done back in July (with the exact date being July 16, 2014). What prompted me to make the order was my obsessive urge to get into owning a copy of the latest issue of the Gothic and Lolita Bible, which will have the images shown below for more detail. In addition, ever since I had started sewing, I had been heavily interested into learning how to sew Lolita clothes, and as a result had decided to buy the latest Otome no Sewing edition as well (which I believe at this rate is the fifth edition). So without further ado, listed below are the details on the order process as well as CDJapan as a whole.

Website Link: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/

Books Ordered and Prices

• Boutique sha / Otome no Sewing BOOK Tezukuri Lolita Fashion (Handmade Lolita Fashion Clothes) 5 (Lady Boutique Sha) - 1,111 yen or 10 USD 
• Jack Media / Gothic & Lolita Bible Vol.52 [Cover] Nakamura Asumiko (Jack Media MOOK) - 12 USD  
• Total amount = 3,817 yen or around $40 (including shipping)

NOTE: The names are exactly as shown on the website. 

Shipping
After some tumultuous decision making at hand, I eventually decided on using SAL shipping over EMS or Registered Mail, primarily because 1) I have a lot of confidence in my postal carrier, 2) It is the most cheapest shipping option available, and 3) I did not feel like spending a lot of my funds on shipping at this point in time. 

If I were to give an opinion on transit time, I definitely agree with what the staff at CDJapan listed on their website in terms of transit times. In this case, orders shipped by SAL takes about 7-14 business days, which I agree with.

In addition to shipping times, you will need to take into consideration availability times, which can sometimes vary depending on how fast the staff can get it shipped to what I presume is their warehouse of sorts from the suppliers. In this case, the Otome no Sewing book took longer to be "ready to ship" compared to the GLB, with the availability time being 5-7 days in comparison to GLB's 1-2 days. However, I felt that both books had gotten shipped out in a short period of time, and therefore did not really disturb the process much.

Delivery and Packaging  

As expected from any package sent by SAL, no signature was needed and as a result you may find the package lying on your doorstep. With that being said, the package was nicely taped on both sides of the flat box as well as taped on the inside to secure the contents. The box itself was just large enough to fit around the books, which was a pleasant surprise considering that most boxes tend to be on the bulky side.

The amount of detail (and the high quality pictures) are amazing, which made me think that the purchase was worthwhile. Ever since the items arrival, I have had the chance and opportunity to take a look at both of them further. While not a self-proclaimed Japanese language expert, I can safely say that for those who are planning on getting the books that they are wonderful to just even look at without having to understand the contents. I will say however that you may have a tough time with understanding the Otome no Sewing book at first, since the instructions are kind of hard (to me anyway) to understand without reading the Japanese aspect. Of course when looking at the pictures long enough, it makes the whole process easier. Patterns are incorporated into both books, with more in the Otome no Sewing book compared to the GLB as expected. 

Conclusion: Overall the order process went smoothly. Am I willing to order from CDJapan again? Probably will if not for more chances to get the GLBs! 

Just to close off the post, here are some outfit shots that I had taken on occasions. I am aware that it has been quite some time since I had posted any outfits, but I had been busy with job hunting lately! 

An Overdue Post - A Compilation of the Past Months Part 2

Hello everyone,

After another long while again I had came up with the second part to my previous post here.

To start off, back in probably the beginning of this current year in March-April I had attended my first Lolita meet at Chinook Mall, which was quite exciting for self-explanatory reasons. Suffice to say, I had a great time with my new loli buddies, walking around the mall as well as doing some good old fashion shopping! While I was at Forever21, I had managed to take some photos of my coordinate. I apologize for the photo looking a bit blurry. 

An Overdue Post - A Compilation of the Past Months Part 1

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since I had updated the blog. I will not lie, I find myself drained and completely lacking in motivation to post up content, despite the fact that I have numerous photos that I had taken in the last several months and had been very eager to share them. I am not entirely certain if I am completely out of this unmotivated stated that I had found myself in, so I am going to take it easy and post a compilation or summary of all of the activities that I have done. In the time that I had gone as well as ever since realizing my love for the Lolita fashion, I had already purchased some more acquisitions, particularly pertaining to Angelic Pretty, which I find is quickly becoming my favourite Lolita brand.

A Late Huge Taobao Haul

Hello everyone!

I am back again and with yet another huge haul, this time from my good old friend Taobao! Rest assured though, I will be having more coming in soon, since you can never get enough of them! :D I decided to hit up Taobao again after getting hit with the Lolita bug and wanting a dress that I had been keeping my eye on since my Hime days. This particular dress is...

La Robe De Cinderella by Chess Story! 

A Late Bodyline Order Post

Hello everyone!

Major apologies for neglecting my blog for so long! It has been pretty much forever since I had updated, and I truly felt bad about it. Since I am getting so close to finishing up my studies, I had been putting a greater focus on that rather than anywhere else. Sadly, this also (if you cannot tell already) had been negatively affecting my blog activities. I will try and make up for it for the upcoming couple of weeks, since winter break had just hit. Speaking of winter break, I cannot believe that Christmas is only a couple of days away! Yikes! Better get some shopping done!

Anyway, since I had not blogged in a long time, all of the news that I will be bringing to the table will be pretty much old news. This includes a Bodyline and Taobao lolita haul that I had made back in November, as well as my attendance at the anime convention in my city. Just for the sake of keeping posts short, I will be mainly blogging about the Bodyline order for the time being. In addition, I will not be doing a review, since I personally feel that most (if not all) Bodyline reviews had been done to death to the point where mostly everyone gets the general idea of how their order process goes, as well as their quality.

With that being said and done, let's get down to business! I had bought L329 JSK in pink sized M as well as two 251 "tea parties" lookalikes in colours white and pink. As the icing on the cake (and mainly as one of those "additional cheap things to throw in your cart to make the shipping worthwhile"), I had also purchased two pairs of wrist cuffs in 1078 pink and 1029 in off-white. Oddly enough, both wrist cuffs were "on sale" at the time, which was why I had bought them in the first place over the other wrist cuffs.

A Mostly Miscellaneous Haul (Plus Gifts!)

Hello everyone!

After the crazy shopping spree that I had gone through a month or so ago, I had been currently in a shopping "lull" to let my wallet have a slow but steady recovery. None-the-less, I did make a couple of purchases here and there, along with being given a couple of gifts from family! So without further ado, let's get rolling! This time there won't be a lot of clothes involved, surprisingly enough!

Hanging out with a friend and a followup with Yumetenbo

Hello everyone!

I had been contemplating on creating a lifestyle post or "life-post", a post that basically goes on about the daily happenings that takes place in my life. I haven't created one as of yet, and am a bit hesitant to do so, since I am still a bit private when it comes to personal affairs. However, it doesn't hurt to try out new things, and that is exactly what I am going to do here! Also, I am pretty sure that you all might be getting bored from my constant haul posts, which I will be doing in this post later on anyway! xD Really need to start getting on the craft train already!

Anyway, I hung out with my friend on Victoria Day, which was on last Monday. I will not mention her name for privacy reasons, but we had mainly gone to H&M for our shopping needs. :) Here are a couple of outfit shots that I had taken while I was in the change room. I was very excited about this outfit, since I had gotten the opportunity to incorporate a couple of my latest Yumetenbo pieces into it.

More Random Purchases!

Hello everyone!

I had been eager on wanting to make a crafts post for quite some time, but had never gotten around to doing it, which is a shame since I already have a ton of ideas in mind that are stored in the form of sticky notes stuck on an inspiration board. I had realized how messy my desk is and I had been slowly cleaning for goodness-knows how many days. ^^; On the bright side, I had been making a bunch of bows after realizing that I am dangerously low on them, especially on pink ones! (though lavender and sax bows doesn't hurt to make as well) Why would I be making some instead of just buying them you may ask? Well, I had already bought a ton of stuff off of some of the sites and I wanted to give my wallet a rest by keeping my hands busy. In the meantime, feel free to see some more purchases that I had made during my break and then some! 

I had decided to *gasp* place a couple of orders off of Gyaru Comm Sales. This is a pretty big step for me, since 1) I haven't placed an order from there before and 2) The site isn't really an actual store but rather a bunch of sellers and buyers gathered in one place. None-the-less, I was looking around to see if there were any good bargains available, particularly on Liz Lisa, since I did not own any from that brand. Now I am just picky with any particular type of clothing material, especially Liz Lisa, but I had managed to find something. How exciting! My first official brand clothing item, or so I thought.

I had bought this Liz Lisa dress that still has a tag on it. At first I had thought that it was authentic , until I had checked the tag that is...   

Really love the print on the dress!

An Extensive Rakuten Yumetenbo Review Part 2

This blog post is just a continuation from the previous review that I had done on Yumetenbo. The link to that blog post can be found here. 

Just like with the other part of the blog post, this part of the review is going to be just as extensive, though it will only "truly" be extensive in the sense of constant picture spamming of detailed product shots.

An Extensive Rakuten Yumetenbo Review Part 1

Hello everyone!

Before I start, I would just like to warn you that this review is going to be intensively and extensively long, since I will try my best to provide as much of an in-depth review on Yumetenbo as possible!

It seems that I had let time get the best of me yet again, but when you are in the middle of finals at the very moment anything goes! Anyway, lately I had been finding myself lacking the motivation or the drive to "frill-up" and dress myself up in Hime clothes. Not only that, but I realized that I have not changed up my wardrobe in over two years! In fact, some of my clothes were leftovers from my junior high to high school days! Yes I had added some pieces here and there, but generally overall it hasn't really changed.

To keep my wardrobe from getting even more stagnant, I had cleaned it out a while back and am now on an online shopping spree. One of the websites that I had been eying for quite some time now is Rakuten, specifically Yumetenbo. Apparently being well known for their affordable prices and cute clothes, Yumetenbo is pretty much the "Forever 21 or H&M" of the Gyaru world. Now I am absolutely sure that this is all common knowledge to most of the people by now, and I had actually been aware of this site for what seems to be ages. I just haven't gotten around to placing an order up until now, though why haven't I done so earlier is beyond me.

Before actually placing an order, I had done some thorough research on basically everything you can think of under the sun. What are the precise shoe sizes? How exactly do the clothes fit in terms of sizing? Did the order process drastically changed from the old reviews commonly found via Google? To make a long story short, it seems to me that I had found more of old reviews compared to new reviews. In addition, I noticed that a majority of the reviews did little to help me answer the questions posted above. Not saying that all of them did not help me out in some sort of way, since I did find a couple of exceptions. Just simply saying that most of them were not really helpful in answering questions in terms of sizing.

A sweet post Valentine's haul

Hello everyone!

I had just gone through two midterms in a roll this past week, and never in my whole entire life did I feel so free after finishing them (though it did felt like a long battle during those two days, what with not being able to eat, sleep, or even shower right). Anyway, before any of the school work or other commitments builds up again for this upcoming week, I should get to work on updating asap!

Unfortunately with a busy schedule, one cannot really afford to go anywhere or have eventful social lives, so I don't really have any tutorial or craft posts in the making despite my passion for the arts and crafts building each day, but I can still post up what I had gotten the past two to three weeks.

I had also noticed from the comments and past posts that I have the tendency to make extremely long posts from the backlog, and therefore will try to limit those to make them easier to read. Sorry about that! ^^;

Without further ado, let's get started!

A little bit after Valentine's Day was over, I had quickly gone over to Walmart to see if they were still selling their huge heart pillows on clearance, particularly the ones with the word "Princess" on them with a crown. Usually regular retail price are dictated at $14 for a pillow, but they go down to $7 after Valentine's Day is over. I had really wanted one for quite some time, since I tried before and couldn't get them last year. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get them this year, which it seems like I never do, but I did end up walking away with a couple of cute things to compensate for my time searching.

Strapya World order, Sirens crazy shopping excursions, and outfit shots!

Hello everyone!

We are now heading into the month of February and I am frankly quite amazed at how fast the whole entire time session is progressing at. One blink of an eye and we have gone from January to February in what feels like no amount of time at all!

Earlier on during the month of January, I had placed an order at Strapya World, for what I felt, had been my most expensive purchase at the website as of now. While looking through my Facebook news feed, I had come across this very adorable bunny bag charm that had just recently been released. Interestingly enough, the little bunny goes by the name of Petit Trianon, which is a small cheateau located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. Usually I don't buy new releases for anything, let alone phone or bag charms, but this particular seems too cute to pass up (despite the hefty price tag of $21). So I ended up buying it along with a couple of items that my sister had wanted to get from the site, which consisted of a Sentimental Circus Mouton plush phone cleaner and a Manpuku-kun plush to go with the Juju-chan plush that was previously ordered.

Of course, a 10% discount helps a little bit in the purchasing process.

Past Month Shenanigans

Hello everyone!

It seems to me that I cannot update asap to save my life, major apologies! Though to be a bit honest, I actually have not one, but two upcoming quizzes in a couple of days, but I figured that I might as well take this time to update on past happenings. It really isn't much, but it felt like I have done a ton of things in such a short amount of time. While I was browsing through the camera and my phone, I had noticed that I have a ton of photos that I had taken over the past month or so. So I figured, why not? This calls for picture spamming time! :D

First off, during the holiday break, my mom had gotten me two pairs of leggings along with the Nina Ricci Fantasy perfume! I had always been a fan of the fragrance ever since the debut, so I was so happy once I had gotten it! I had also loved how intertwined the fantasy concept is with the packaging, right down to the little "storybook" and the bottle design. 

Bodyline Haul and Review

Hello everyone!

Halloween is fast approaching around the corner, and if you are as excited as I am, you would probably be scrambling around and trying to look (or make, for the crafty type that are out there) for a costume to get into the action! Frankly I love Halloween. Other than the copious amount of candy and the scare fest, Halloween is that time of the year where you get to be something else for the day. Whether it be your traditional vampire or something out of a fairy tale, there are definitely a ton of costumes and stuff out there that, on a regular day, will leave your head spinning.

After what seems to be some serious contemplation on what I wanted to dress up as, since there will be an upcoming Halloween event coming up that I will be attending. For quite some time now, I had been thinking of wearing Lolita, which I eventually decided on, since I admire the aesthetics.

Ok, so I wanted to wear Lolita for a day. Now what? Well, now it is time to do some serious research on the "components" and generally what makes up a Lolita. After getting the hands of the basics (such as maintaining a bell-shaped skirt or dress, quality of the pieces, and the importance of outfit coordination), it is time to hit up a Lolita store.

This is where Bodyline comes in. I've heard of this particular online store enough times to get the words "Body" and "Line" permanently stuck in my head. Basically from what I have seen from around the web, Bodyline is the ideal store for first time or starting Lolita, with prices more than reasonable while at the same time maintaining decent quality. I'm not going to lie, but I had seen the store back when they still had DHL and SEA as shipping options, and I was a bit iffy potentially ordering from them. I'm still a bit iffy ordering from them, due to the horror stories about ripped packages and what-not. But I figured, well, if the good reviews are still flowing in by the dozen and nothing majorly bad has happened, it must be okay! So chanced it I did.

A Sight for Sore Eyes along with the Old and the New

Hello everyone!

How have you all been doing? It has been a long while since my last post, but I haven't really gotten the chance to blog ever since I had started taking spring courses. They actually go quite fast what with only lasting about 6 weeks or so, so let's just say that a ton of studying has to be done and leading me to having no life what-so-ever. Major apologies for that. Fortunately for me, I had managed to find a little bit of time in between all the studying and actually got some stuff over the month of May! Both old and new! Yes I am aware that I am "suppose" to be currently on a budget, but I figured that I deserve to get something after going on a month or so without actually buying anything. :/ Yes, a month no joke, though I suppose that having a distraction that goes by the name of school can help out a lot. 

Anyway, I had first bought a cute ring from Forever 21 for around $6. It was after watching I believe The Hunger Games I think? (Which was a good movie) As you can tell from the picture, I really love the bling circling around the face of the ring along with the flower gem in the center. Really lovely and it was one of those "must haves" for me, especially if it is pink. Plus you can tell that you really love it if even your friend picked out the exact same ring for you. 

I then got some essence nail polish and Maybelline Masterprecise pen eyeliner for a total of $14 from Shoppers Drug Mart. I had a $10 off card last time I had made a purchase there and I wanted to use it before it expired.  The nail polish were really cheap, less than $2 for each.

A couple of days later, I got this nice 1920s style nude dress from H&M for $19.95. I really love the style and had been looking for one for a while now. However it was not really "love at first sight" when I had first seen it in the store and had been trying to decide which dress I should pick out of three dresses. Eventually I had decided on getting this one not just because of the style, but I don't have a nude dress yet. I guess now is a good time as any to get one.   

Detail of the front and the torso

Detail of the back

There is where I had finished my old haul and took a long break from the shopping world. Of course by the time the end of May came along, I started having a feel to get back to shopping and my new haul started up. I stopped by Urban Planet after work and I found out that they were actually selling what looks to be bandeau tops for $5! I had been obsessing over bandeau tops ever since I had purchased one off of Yesstyle and had been wearing it constantly. So to actually see them in the stores and in a lace pattern no less got me straight to buying one in black and white (so they could go with everything). 

Lastly, the latest purchase that I had gotten was these cute clay rose earrings for $10! After seeing how cute they were just sitting on the rack and in the colours pink, purple, and blue, I knew that I just had to get them. I had been on the hunt for some cute cheap earrings for a while now to fill up my earring hanger, and in particular I had been looking for earrings that come in a cute design along with some pastel colours to go with my hime wardrobe. I had been specifically looking for ones in pink, purple, and blue because those are the main colours that I had been using, more-so pink than the other colours naturally. Now these earrings were not on sale originally, but who cares! The design more than makes up for it and when I usually see something in the store that I love and did not buy, I usually never see them again! Might as well buy them while they are still "in bloom".

    

I was dressed up the day I got the earrings, so I decided to take some outfit shots. I also decided that when it comes to outfit shots, I will be taking more "detailed" shots. When it comes to outfit shots in general, I value small details like the accessories used, the hair piece, etc. I had been wondering on how to approach the concept of detail shots however. Do you think I should alter the photos to make them fit into one large photo via collage style, or do you think I should post each photo individually to keep them large enough to see the details?

Top: Zellers

Skirt: Yesstyle

Cardigan: Urban Planet

Shoes: The Bay

Tights: Ardene

Accessories: Ardene (Headband), Urban Planet (Necklace), Forever 21 (Ring), Gift (Bracelet/Bangle), eBay (Earrings)

Bag: Coach

I really love this photo, especially with the fringe!

Take care everyone! 

A Failed Bedskirt Hunt and Some Treasures that Followed It...

Hello everyone!

Over the last weekend, I went over to my cousins' house. At the time, I was searching left and right desperately for a bed skirt, since my Hello Kitty flat sheet doesn't exactly cover the bottom part of the mattress where the bed springs are. Of course I'm not just looking for any bed skirt. I'm looking for one that is light pink and ruffled while at the same time being a queen size. Not exactly an easy requirement to fill if you live anywhere outside of Japan. Anyway, I didn't want white because the edges of the flat sheet are white, which will probably blend in with the bed skirt. Now you are probably thinking: "Why don't you buy one from eBay?" The thing is, I would've done exactly just that if I weren't concerned about getting a bed skirt for my bed asap. In addition, I'm a bit worried about the sizing, especially for the type of bed skirts that are just basically gigantic skirts for mattresses bed springs that just only have an elastic waistband with ruffles.

Anyway, my mom suggested that I head over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see if I can find a bed skirt over there. I couldn't see why I wouldn't give it a try. I mean, what could be the harm? I had already tried Sears (has ruffles but wrong colour), Wal-mart (no bed skirts at ALL), Home Outfitters (wrong shade of pink and is tailored instead of ruffled), and even Homesense (no pink or ruffled bed skirts). As you can clearly tell, I'm extremely picky with my choices. ^^; Unsurprisingly, I couldn't find a bed skirt that actually manage to meet all of my requirements, but as a semi-consolation prize, my mom got me an small ironing board for $10. I didn't have an ironing board before so it was a nice thing to have. It certainly beats having to get a towel out every time I want to iron something anyway. -.-

Well even though the bed skirt hunt wasn't a success, I still was able to find some lovely goodies out of the trip.

Carole Hochman 2 Piece Pajama Set

Location: Last Chance
Price: Around $9 (40% off of $14.99 CDN)
Thoughts: My mom and my aunt took me to Last Chance before I went off to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which is apparently a thrift store of some sort. Now not being one for thrift stores or rarely ever go to one, I found it to be an interesting experience, especially since my mom had been babbling on about how wonderful this place is regarding their cheap designer pants selection. I actually got a pair of these special cheap designer pants for $3 but didn't have the time to take a picture. Plus, I'm pretty sure that no one would want to read up on boring black pants. xD

Anyway, I also got this cute 2 piece pajama set. I personally find it a good deal, since 2 piece pajama sets like this usually cost around $18 at Walmart. One thing that I had wish I had done was look over the pajama set before I bought it, since there was a little stain on the shirt. :/ None-the-less, it's still a good buy so it doesn't really turn me off from the whole set.

Las Vegas Rhinestone Shirt

My cousin gave me this shirt that she got from Las Vegas once I got back to my cousins' house. At first I thought it was a bit too small until I noticed the "L" on the tag. Epic fail on the size guessing there...

Will continue another time. I'm not even halfway done with all the hauls that I had recently received over the past week.    

Taobao Review Part 2

A few nights ago I went to this performance that was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Fukienese Association of Calgary and apparently 25 years since the opening of their school, Red Dance Shoes School, which I had gleamed from one of the introductory speeches (which felt veeery long >.< there were around 4-5 speeches in total!). Most of the performers came from the Red Dance Shoes School, but there were also a few from the Tai Chi Association and even from Ukraine. What I had really liked about the performance was the incorporation of a few traditional Chinese instruments such as the pipa and the guzheng or zither, since I rarely see any of these instruments around and it brings a fresh perspective on the whole performance. Those Ukrainian performers sure know how to dance, since their performance was the longest and they did not one but two performances. Kudos to them ^^.

Free Eyewear (somewhat) and Big Taobao Review

Hello! ^^

Quite a lovely day today. The sun is shining and there was even a little bit of rain earlier (there is always a little bit of rain/snow where I live, no matter how much sun there is -.-). Anyway, I am quite anxious and excited to do this review, since almost all (if not all) of the items that I got are hime-related! :D Before I get to the review however, I want to mention this awesome eyeglasses giveaway that I had found on Facebook a few nights ago (only applies to those that live in Canada though :/). Just to sum it up, the company that is doing the giveaway, Clearlycontacts, is (was, depending on what time you read this post) giving away 10,000 eyeglasses free of charge, though not including shipping and handling (which is a given). I found this hard to believe at first, but it turns out to be legitimate, since there were previous giveaways that were just like this one and the code provided actually works. I had already placed my order on these glasses and it should arrive on May 12, 2011. Unlike other free ones however, I paid extra to get my lens upgraded, since the standard lens that are free did not correspond with my subscription :(. Oh well, $41 something dollars is still a good deal for a pair of glasses no? At least compared to the $100+ ones that I usually find in malls.

Anyway, onward to the review! I had actually ordered on Taobao a while ago before I had started my blog. It took about a month to get all the items together (it was a large order) and about a week to get it all to Canada. I used Taobaospree for my order and they were very nice and handled my questions mostly well (they didn't answer all of my questions, but that is possibly due to not understanding English well). A con to using the service is that I usually have to ask for updates every time. Anyway, the total cost came to about around $219.79 USD and the shipping cost is $97.30 USD, though I only need to pay $80 since 2 of my items got cancelled. Everything came in this huge box that reaches up to my knees (and I'm a tall person so it is huge) and everything inside was wrapped in plastic bags. Here are the items that I had ordered:

WARNING: Long Taobao review ahead as well as lots of pictures.