Underskirt Ahoy!...and some bad news

Bad news first.  I was really hoping to start off this month with a review of my very first lucky pack that I ordered from the brand Pink Up on the My Lolita Dress website. You all remember that, right?

Well, it seems that shall not be so, as I woke up this morning to an email from Linda over at MLD that the lucky packs had all been sold out before my order has processed. So...no lucky pack for me. She asked if I would like to use the purchase toward something else in the shop and as an apology she would include a free gift.

Okay, I'm pretty bummed you guys. Like, really really REALLY bummed. But, I'm trying to look at the silver lining. I've been wanting an underskirt for a very long time and continually put it off in favor of more interesting things. So I figure this is a pretty good opportunity to get myself into gear and jump on that.

JeJ Chiffon Underskirt

This is the beauty I'll be ordering. Ideally I would someday like to end up with both a black and a white/off-white one, but for now I'll be going with the black one as it will suit a majority of my current wardrobe.

I'll still have a little left over for one other thing to go in my order, and I'm debating between either a mini shawl like one of these:

In wine red

In white

or this beautiful headpiece:

While either of the shawls would be quite practical in my wardrobe as I'm severely lacking in blouses and shawls are great for summer whether, but I also could use a pretty piece of headgear as I'm mostly limited to small, unimpressive head bows at the moment. What do you guys think?

When dresses fail...

Some of you may remember my excited post a couple of weeks ago  about my latest My Lolita Dress review. You know, for this dress:

Well, sadly, not all dreams are meant to come true.

 

When I first tried the dress on it felt lovely. The fabric was comfortable and very lightweight and it flowed around me just as I expected. It was shorter than I was hoping for but I wasn't surprised. It lands just a few inches higher up than I would prefer, though it's nothing that a pretty white chiffon underskirt can't fix. The sleeves are the biggest problem, although it's relatively minor. They are definitely long enough and just as loose as the rest of the dress, but they are a bit snug up top across my shoulders and back. Fortunately this is only when I'm really stretching and it fits fine when I'm otherwise standing or walking normally.

Sadly, when I turned around and looked in the mirror, it was a completely different story. I ain't gonna lie, it was not a pretty picture. The entire dress felt like a frilly, frumpy nightgown. I literally looked like the definition of an overgrown toddler and I felt utterly moronic.

I gotta admit, my heart was pretty crushed.

I took the dress off trying not to cry and put it away. To this day I'm still not entirely sure where I went wrong. I do wear pink in my other, non-Lolita clothes and the mature neckline and understated decorations seemed like the perfect compromise between sweet and classic. But something about this dress just doesn't jive.

A couple days later I did try it on a second time. This time, I tied the waist sash at a different spot, higher on my waist than before. That seemed to help a little. I put my hair up instead of down. I opened the window to let some natural light in. All these things (and heaping dose of under eye concealer ) all made the entire picture not quite so frightful.

Still, it isn't enough. I literally dread the thought of ever wearing this dress in public. I briefly entertained the thought of transforming it into a skirt, but given my lack of skill and the fact that this color and fabric just might not ever look good on me, I've since retired that idea. So, sadly, up for sale it must go. I've never tried to sell off a dress quite so quickly before as I usually try to give them a few chances to mesh with my wardrobe, but this time the decision was pretty easy.

Oh well. Some people just weren't meant to look cute.

My-Lolita-Dress Review II

Time for another review!

I readily admit I'm loving My Lolita Dress more and more for their wide range of options, a comfortable range of prices and absolutely excellent customer service. I really wanted to splurge a tiny bit on a dress for Valentine's is it would be my fiance and I's first year anniversary, and what better way to celebrate than by wearing pink? I know, pretty scary right?

But I've never denied it. I LOVE the color pink! I simply lack the confidence to wear it. I don't feel comfortable in overly cutesy things so I know I didn't want to choose something that would only be suitable for sweet Lolita. So while I was browsing I was caught in by this lovely dress.

I was really charmed by the more mature, classic looking collar and wrist cuffs, and the dress came with a matching sash that could be tied around the waist for a more fitted, less flowy look which definitely sealed the deal. Made of chiffon and sprinkled with tiny moons and stars, it was sweet, but (to me in any case) still held an air of elegance that could potentially be even more accentuated by the right accessories and shoes. 

So on January 27th, I placed my order. As usual, the process was very simple through Paypal. I awaited my email to be notified when it was shipped out, but much to my surprise it arrived quite early on February 4th! I didn't choose a special shipping method, so 9 days in total was quite speedy!

As usual I forgot to take a picture of the packaging, but it was all wrapped securely in a Fed Ex bag, and the dressed was placed again in a second bag. Pretty standard and aside from some minor wrinkling (seriously, why do I not own a steamer yet?) the dress wasn't damaged in any way.

As you can see, the dress is pretty true to it's stock photo. A lovely soft shade of baby pink and adorable "pearl" buttons. They don't seem entirely strong however so I will have to keep an eye on them to ensure they don't break, although the dress did come with two extra ones attached in a bag.

The adorable little moon and star details! You can even see the extras like planets and star clusters, it's all so cute but tiny enough as to not feel super overwhelming.

The lace is unfortunately not the best, and I included a close-up of where it doesn't quite match up and there are loose threads in some places. Still, it doesn't particularly bother me as it's very small, and only on the hem of the dress and a small amount on the neckline. It's not extremely scratchy and stiff, but definitely not the best either, but since it's used in such a limited amount I don't find it particularly bothersome.

Overall, I am once again impressed by My Lolilta Dress' level of customer service (I must have bothered poor Linda, the sales representative about half a dozen times and she always answered me back promptly and courteously), and the professionalism of the entire transaction. Their website is constantly updating with new, beautiful items so I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it for the future!

My first lucky pack!

I am so excited! I have finally purchased my very first lucky pack!

For as long as I have been a Lolita, I have always adored the exciting Lucky Pack posts that sprinkle egl, wondering what goodies awaited inside the many packs from the likes of Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Metamorphosis. I longed to have one too, but many factors always stopped me- I don't like shopping through a shopping service, lack of funds and a general fear of wasting my money on a bunch of items I wouldn't even like or fit into.

So I waited.

Then just yesterday I was browsing through My-Lolita-Dress.com,  and I came upon this:

Oh gosh, so many cute possibilities! And for such an affordable price!

I was super anxious. I had never heard of the brand Pink Up before and my goolge-fu was failing me. Still, with only 100 packs total (and only 1/3 of that in my size), I knew these babies were going to get snapped up fast.

Luckily some other Lolitas were able to help me out a bit and I learned that Pink Up is affiliated with the brand Long Ears and Sharp Ears Studio, which was only a hair more well known. Still, from what little I found, it seemed the brand had positive reviews and adorable options, and I was already chomping at the bit to finally experience what seemed a Lolita rite of passage.

I do admit I am very nervous about the sizing. Because of the lack of reviews, my only clear indication about their sizes is that they ran small. I ordered a size Large as their chart listed a bust of 96-98cm and a waist of 76-78cm, both of which should fit me quite comfortably with a little wiggle room to spare. However, my one review of the Long Ears and Sharp Eyes brand indicated that their L-XL size fit someone with a waist and bust at least 10 cm smaller than that! Oh dear...

Still, I'm keeping my hopes up! While about half their items look a little too sweet for my tastes, the other half is absolutely gorgeous and classic and mature! And as I'm especially focusing on expanding my wardrobe color palette and styles, I'm very much looking forward to what surprises are in store for me. Sadly my order won't be shipped out until the end of the month so there's a bit of a wait time, but I'll keep myself focused elsewhere until then.

I'll be sure to post a review once it arrives. Keeping my fingers crossed for a lucky Lucky Pack!

My-Lolita-Dress Review I

I've been seeing more and more positive reviews lately when it comes to My Lolita Dress floating around, so as I've been interested in quite a few of their items for a while now I decided to go ahead and take a chance on them. So here is my own review on working with the website, as well as a short review on the actual dress I purchased.

My Lolita Dress is a reseller of a lot of popular taobao brands including Rose Melody, Infanta and Surface Spell. Personally, as I've never been a huge fan of using shopping services, the easy set-up and convenience of this website really appealed to me, which also helped in persuading me as I could finally purchase some of my favorite Chinese brands without dealing with any hassle.

Timeline

6/22/14- I placed my order and paid right away, the website uses paypal so it's very simple to use. I chose EMS shipping since my plan was to wear the dress for a 4th of July party I was attending and I really wanted to ensure it would be here in time.

6/28/14-I contacted MLD as my status still had not changed and I was growing a little worried it wouldn't show up in time. Within the hour I received a response from Linda letting me know that my dress had already been sent out and I would be updated with a tracking number soon.

6/30/14-I received an email letting me know my dress had been shipped and that I could track it through DHL. I was still a bit wary since EMS said it would still take between 4-5 days for the package to arrive and I didn't know if it would come before the weekend.

7/1/14-The dress arrived!! I'm guessing it just took awhile for the company to update my order online, but since my dress definitely arrived before the 4th I'm not complaining!

So overall, with EMS shipping the entire transaction took only 10 days! Though please keep in mind that the dress I ordered was listed as in stock so I didn't have to wait for it to be made first.


Packaging
Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to take photos of the package until after I had actually opened it, so I have none to share. However, the dress was packed in a standard shipping bag, and wrapped in a second plastic bag inside. It was clean, dry and didn't have any rips or tears.

Customer Service
Linda is such a delight to work with!! She responds unbelievably fast and answered all of my questions. Her English isn't 100% perfect, but she is still easy to understand, knowledgable and super polite. I feel extremely confident in communicating with her about my future orders and the products being sold.

~*~

Now, onto the dress itself! I ordered the Chess Story M&M Deer Dear Embroidery JSK in cream color. Honestly, this was a HUGE leap for me since I rarely ever purchase anything in Lolita other than black, and especially never anything in cream! But in the end the design of this dress absolutely stole my heart the second I laid eyes on it, and as it wasn't terribly expensive I decided to take a chance-and I'm so glad I did!

Given the structure of the dress I really only had to worry about my bust measurement. Still, despite the fact that given the measurements on the chart I should have been able to easily fit in a size L, I decided to go for an XL instead. I'm not very familiar with Chess Story (and reviews seem far and few between), so I had no idea if they ran small. I figured that given the style of the dress that even if it wound up being too big it wouldn't be overly noticeable, plus I would rather have to deal with taking a dress in then being stuck with a dress that was too small to fit comfortably.

Turns out, this dress is EXTREMELY roomy, and I'm pretty sure it could easily accommodate a bust much bigger than the 100cm size it lists. Fortunately I was right in that because the dress is meant to be flowy and that it has waist ties, I can easily adjust it to my own size. I am sad however that it does seem to be a tiny bit shorter than I had hoped it would be. But aside from the length, the dress is made of a nice, sturdy fabric, I think some sort of cotton or polyester blend which I like since it's thick and doesn't feel flimsy. It did have some loose threads out of the package and it also came with an extra button (all but one of the buttons were sewed pretty sturdy).

My favorite part is this gorgeous embroidery!!  In the photos I certainly already liked the way it looked, but in person it absolutely captures my heart! There aren't any loose threads or bald patches, and the detail is just exquisite. It also matches really nicely with the cream color of the dress, and I think this is quickly going to become one of my favorite winter dresses.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that not only is the dress  completely lined, but it has a layer of tulle lining the very bottom which also helps give it shape. The tulle itself is very stiff and scratchy, but since it's sewn over the lining it never touches bare skin which I appreciate.

I just realized I completely forgot to take any photos of the fur collar! Although on the website it mentions that the fur might not be exactly like the photo, mine turned out to look just like the one pictured. The fur itself is fairly thin and more for decorative purposes than actually providing any warmth. It came with two ribbons to tie it with, but the ribbons are fairly flimsy and I think I'm going to cut them off and pin the collar together with a cute deer themed brooch.

Overall, I love this dress! Everything from the cut to the color is so completely different from anything else I own and I feel like it's really helped set me on a new path of experimentation in terms of my style. Although I will be wearing it this weekend as I had hoped, because of it's length I sadly probably won't be wearing it again until I purchase an underskirt to go with it. However, I'm taking that as a positive since I've been putting off purchasing an underskirt for a while now, and this seems like just the push I need to get myself in gear.

All in all, I'm very happy with how this entire transaction went, I highly recommend My Lolita Dress and I certainly have plans to order from them again (hopefully very soon)!