First Order from Romwe.com ... not so good. :(

About 2 weeks ago, I bought a necklace from Romwe, a website claiming to sell the latest street fashions. I found out about it from Faltering Bird, one of my favorite fashion blogs. The blogger used to be really into lolita clothing...maybe she still is, I am not sure...but either way I love her style and her blog. I finally decided to get a necklace she was sporting in one of her outfits. It's a lace collar looking necklace made out of metal.



Well it took about 2 weeks from the time I placed my order to receive it, which I guess isn't bad because I think I had cheap or free shipping and a discount coupon too and it was coming from China, I think, or maybe it was HK? Anyway...

I took the necklace out of the package and tried to put it on. It seemed really flimsy so I was using extreme care and ...well...it broke. :(

The quality must be terrible or it somehow got banged up during shipping.

I e-mailed their customer service team and they said they'd send me a coupon code so I could get another one. Well that's a good thing for sure. They replied within 24 hours too, which was great! So hopefully my 2nd necklace will hold up much better. I've been avoiding buying clothes there because most everything comes in 1 size only and that is just not going to work for me, being an average sized American girl. :(

Here's a photo of said broken necklace.



Will update when I get my new necklace, probably in like 2 more weeks now. ;___;

Online Shop Review: ARTKA (TaoBao)

OK so this was a long time coming and I cannot apologize enough that I have promised some people that I would review Artka but it fell on the back burner. I've still been really busy even though I am out of college now, with my job! >__<;;



So yes. ARTKA. The glorious online shop that many have drooled over but few have actually ordered from. It's on the Chinese shopping website called TaoBao.com which is sort of like a gigantic online mall/eBay for China. In order to place orders on this website you need a Chinese bank account to do the money transfer, and also some way of communicating. Google Translate isn't really enough. You need someone who lives in China who can order for you.



Personally, my boyfriend has a connection over there, so that is how I ordered. I e-mailed her and asked her if she could get certain items for me. I paid her with Paypal and she shipped me the stuff. I know the prices seem cheap in USD but the shipping is killer! It's around $25 ~ $40 depending on the weight of your package for EMS. So my 2-3 dresses ended up costing over $100! Still not a bad deal considering the quality and uniqueness of everything.

Anyway. Click the Jump below to read more!



I can't remember the exact dates I ordered and paid for stuff and because I have a middle(wo)man, it's kind of hard to give an accurate representation of things since she was busy with other stuff and had to wait a little while to get my stuff mailed to me. Plus we were still working out payments, so I can't give timeframes. But expect at least a couple of weeks to get your stuff! Especially if you are using a shopping service like TaoBaospree.com but they have charts on there to guide you for reference in how long it will take to get your stuff so just refer to those or e-mail them about it.

Price wise, the dresses I bought were roughly $35 to $45 each.

Here are the stock photos of the ones I own:



My less-than-flattering photo (sorry, night time here!) It's actually navy blue, not black, hehe.




Here is a photo of me wearing this dress from a while ago:
Clicky.


My photo:




Chandelier Skirt. I love this thing. It has a huge pocket and the top black part zips off and can be worn as a separate belt!



This is so simple and yet lovely.

It looks better worn too, curse my terrible photography. X___x;

.................


Quality wise, Artka makes VERY nice quality stuff. Seriously. Nothing about their clothing is cheap to me! It's all made with loving care. They claim each garment is handmade but I think there is some degree of automation to it. ;)


Also you may have noticed they have an Artfire.com shop. DO NOT. I mean, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES try to place an order with their Artfire site. First of all, the prices are like 75% more expensive on there than on Taobao! It's so weird. And I tried to place an order once and they basically never sent my stuff. So after about a month or so of waiting, I filed a Paypal claim. Luckily I got all my money back, but man, was it weird. They sent me only one confirmation e-mail saying they would mail my items soon, but I never got anything or heard anything back from them again even when I emailed them repeatedly and eventually threatened to do a claim! Yikes. Very scary.

If you want to order on Taobao use a shopping service like Taobaospree.com. It's safe and you won't have to worry about dealing with foreign sellers and attempting to use google translate. ;)

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask away! :D

I would love to order from Artka in the future, but the shipping is heavy on the wallet, for sure.

http://baviphat.com.sg---Is it a scam?

Ugh. So. I placed an order on May 10th on this website: http://baviphat.com.sg/ because it sounded like an amazingly good deal. Well if things SOUND too good to be true, they probably are. And I think I am starting to discover that. I ordered about $38 worth of stuff. I got about 15 or so items because their prices are SO cheap. On eBay $38 would maaaybe get me two items shipped to the USA and that's it. Ugh. So naturally I was like "wow what a good deal!" But of course, too good to be true.

At least they've been in contact with me. They told me it would take 2 WEEKS to get my items from Korea to their office in Singapore. Which is ridiculous IMHO but maybe that's really how long it takes.

But my REAL beef with them lies in the fact that no where on their sketchy-looking website does it mention that it is going to take over 2 weeks to get my stuff. I could understand that the international mail taking a while because I DID just order some Holika Holika bb cream from eBay and it was from a Korean seller and it DID take about 10 days to reach me which is barely even 1 week let alone 2.

I smell trouble.

I told "Celine" their e-mail rep to cancel my order and refund me all of my money via Paypal. I really hope she does. Because I am too stressed out to deal with this crap now. And I guess if they don't, and I still haven't received my items after 45 days, I am going to freak out and do a Paypal claim.

I mean, it would *have* to be legit otherwise Paypal wouldn't be a payment method, would it? Unless they scam people by making up fake tracking numbers? But I doubt it would fly. Seeing as someone tried that on me before and it failed pretty hard. (I'm looking at you, Artka shop on Artfire.com. lol.)

Well, anyway, if she refuses to cancel my order I will assume it's a scam. But even if she refunds my money, I am going to still feel that there is something fishy about it. Maybe I should have only ordered 1 cheap item instead of like 15 things to test the water .... yeeeah not my style apparently, gaah!


Well anyway, fingers crossed! I am loving my new bb creams so hopefully reviews soon. I work 8 hours a day though so by the time I get home, I am so exhausted. BAH! I thought this would be better than school, hehe.

So in Love with Bernie Dexter!

Bernie Dexter is a pin-up model and fashion designer. I love her retro inspired designs!

I just bought this dress from Modcloth:

"Scene and Believed" dress.

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/scene-and-believed-dress


Click below to see more designs!



This is so so cute! :D


She makes pants too! :D


Florals <3


Another painting-like dress. My boyfriend loves the colors on this one but he's a fan of green so I could see why! :D


This one was really popular on Modcloth.

Here are some places where you can buy her stuff! There are stores all over the world that carry her lovely designs:
http://berniedexter.com/where-you-can-buy-bernie-dexter-clothing.html


The reason why I prefer Modcloth is due to their free shipping if you spend over $75 and excellent return policy especially for US customers! :)

"Artka" TaoBao Shop!

Yesterday night I was helping my boyfriend browse for a cheap suit and tie on Taobao.com. And during my browsing, I discovered a really, REALLY cool shop! It's called "Artka" and they have a pretty nice selection of dresses and sweaters. My favorites are mostly the dresses....they have skirts and tops too but really, the dresses are what caught my eye! Here are some of the ones I love the most below.

Tell me which is/are your favorite/s!! :)





I think I might order this lovely red dress. It's the dress that drew my attention to Artka's shop in the first place. :) It reminds me a little of classic lolita and sweet lolita but without too much over-the-top-ness. :D


This blue dress is to die for. Seriously. I love it so much! It definitely reminds me a little of traditional Chinese garb and yet somehow it's also kind of European...like "Gypsy" almost maybe? It comes in white too but blue is my favorite by far!



I am so tempted to buy this dress too. I LOVE sleeves...so unique! And the print with the flowers reminds me of a watercolor painting. :D Here is another shot of it.


Another one on my wishlist for sure...it reminds me a lot of Juliette et Justine or even Millenoirs...both classic/gothic lolita brands. :D I am debating whether to order it or not. My BF said he didn't like the black lace on it. But I adore it. *__*; Apparently this is from their "lolita" collection.


Another one I am positively in love with! It's so lovely...also kind of reminds me of Millenoirs brand. <3 More of a turquoise blue but I still love it! A lot of these remind me of paintings too and I think they were inspired by paintings because if you go to a dress product page it has all sorts of artwork on the top.


A blouse version of one of the blue dress above.


Reminds me a lot of mori girl style! I really want this one but I already own a lot of these colors!! >_<;;


Another one that looks sorta mori/dolly kei.


GORGEOUS black dress! Soooooo much love! <3


Red dress with black accents...reminds me of ethnic garb as well.


I love the belts on this one...I think it might be a little hard for me to pull off though for daily wear.... LOL!


A simple grey and white dress. Reminds me of Juliette et Justine.


I don't think I'd buy this one myself but it's really lovely and worth mentioning. I could see it being used in a really awesome dolly kei coordinate! :D


AWESOME BOOTS. 'nuff said! I REALLY want these but the biggest size they come in is EU39 which is like a US8 ish. I am about a US9 or a EU40/41. =___=;; I think I am going to see if I can get someone who speaks Chinese to ask if they can make them custom for me one size larger. :D These really remind me of Amir's clothing from Bride's Story...I mentioned it a few posts back. It's a manga about a girl living on the Silk Road in the early 1900s! These remind me of her boots. :D Even this model is wearing very similar style boots! I want those too! xD


I really adore this sweater. It's so simple and mori looking and yet has a unique design to it! :)

They have skirts too. Some are long and floaty and some are just...denim!


I really like how they have some basic and casual items which look outdoorsie/mori-like, and then they have CRAZY extravagent looking items...some of which look like they were inspired by Rococo paintings!



The prices seem to range like $40 - $70 US. That's kind of expensive for TaoBao, IMHO, but still cheaper than dresses at, say, Grimoire, or Anthropologie! :) I definitely plan to make an order. I will make another post once I receive my goods with a review of their shop! :)

Oh and unrelated to Artka but my BF found a really cool belt on Taobao that comes in many different colors. He said it reminded him of the Artka stuff. xD How cool!



So tell me what you think, everyone!! Do you like these dresses? Any favorites? I will definitely post pics of whatever I end up getting. I can't get too many because they're not very cheap...so I imagine I will have a very difficult time deciding. >_<;;;

Welcome to the Magical World of Swimmer!

I know I promised my next post would be about Innocent World but I gotta take a quick break to show off my new Swimmer swag! :D

***INFO!!***

For those who are reading this who do not know about "Swimmer"....it is a store in Japan that sells SUPER CUTE items!! I have never been to the actual store myself as I did not even know about it until after I left Japan (grrr!) but it looks like HEAVEN on the inside! :D



http://www.swimmer.co.jp/

The online shop is divided into five sections: Fashion Goods, Bag & Pouch, Wear, Bath and Kitchen, and Interior.

As the name would suggest--fashion goods contains items such as hair ties, headphones, combs, keychains, makeup brushes, etc.!

Bag & Pouch section is cute tote bags, pass cases, pouches, purses and makeup bags. Sadly the super cute present box bags seem to be available in store only and not on their online shop, or perhaps they are older because I had to find mine on mbok! >_<;;

Wear section contains underwear, hoodies, shirts, socks, pants, etc.

Bath & Kitchen has stuff like bento boxes, cups, towels, chopsticks, trashcans, tissue box covers, soap pumps, and even toilet cleaning wands!!

Interior contains items like clothes hangers, picture frames, alarm clocks, fans, jewelry boxes, computer mouses, mini folding tables, etc.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, Swimmer does NOT ship overseas! BUT if you can get someone living in Japan, aka a shopping service (SS) to go to a shop for you, they can buy you the items!! Usually you will have to pay a fee. Just google Japan shopping service. I've used both Mai Ozawa and Chibi_Tenshi on LJ. Poke around and see who you can find! :)

Also if you do live in Japan, according to their site: "Once your order amount is 3,150 yen (tax included) or more, shipping is free." Sweet! :)


Here are some of the things I've purchased from swimmer:


(Please ignore random eyeshadow palette that snuck into my photo!) :P

Click the jump to see more!



Violin Keychain

Believe it or not--it serves a purpose! It has little slots to prevent your headphone wires from getting tangled! Sweet!


Headphones! SUPER CUTE Pastel headphones! :)


Suuuper Adorable and Handy Present Box Purse! It holds a LOT!


Alarm Clock


Note Books (kinda glossy pages??)


Makeup brushes! They remind me of magical girl anime stuff. :D


Bonus!
Not sure if it's swimmer or not but my shopping service included this cute item as a bonus present:

She is so sweet! All of her packages come with a free gift! :)

Quality-wise Swimmer is only so/so. I have had certain items like their handbags, pouches, pass-cases, etc. that have lasted a LONG time while their watches and alarm clocks tend to break after only a few months of use! All or most of their products are pretty cheaply made, in China. But the prices are not expensive. The headphones were around 1,400Y or so which is around $17 ish at the current (crappy) exchange rate. But the headphones aren't as bad as some people might say!


I would also like to say that there will be a new layout coming soon for spring! I decided to do a layout for each season so there will be four lovely layouts each year. :D That should be ample time for me. But it won't be limited to four if I have time! :D