Recent Buys

Hi y'all!! <3 I wanted to share some of my recent purchases~ For clothes, I'm trying to buy warmer things or layer-able items, since I'll be in Norway for fall, winter, and spring. Unfortunately almost everything in Texas right now is more summery, but I was able to get some nice deals thanks to July sales. I've also included some other small items I've got, like stationary and makeup! Please note that I bought so much stuff at once because stuff in Texas is like 1/2-1/3 the price of Norway, so I wanted to stock up for the year!

Also- I tried taking my own pictures of everything, but they ended up really inconsistently lit and it just looked sloppy, so I hope this is okay! ):

Taobao Haul & Pruany Review

Hi there! Sorry for relatively slower posting lately, I had my last exam yesterday and I've just been super busy with stuff. Good news, though! My Taobao order finally came in!!! It took ages cause one of the sellers took like 6 weeks for it to ship to my agent, but now it's okay cause everything is WONDERFUL! I chose to use Pruany for my agent, as I had heard good things about them and they apparently were slightly cheaper. Skip to the bottom if you want a more thorough review. :)

My Taobao order consisted of 7 items- 2 dresses, 1 skirt, 2 sweaters, 2 cardigan. I hope a few of you find this atleast mildly useful!!

Liz Lisa knock-off dress in pink
Taobao Picture

My Pictures

Liner!
Buy here
I'm in love with this dress. It unfortunately took forever (6 weeks, bs) to come arrive to my agent, but I do think it was worth it. It's made a quite good material and fits me well without being too long or too short. I'm so excited to wear it out! 

Pretty white dress

My Pictures

Lining

Buy here

Very cute dress, it fits well and is quite flattering! Unfortunately it got very wrinkled on its way over. I need to steam it before I wear it out- so keep that in mind if you order from them. Also- it's not quite but dangerously close to see through, so I definitely have to wear a slip with it. Not awesome, but understandable.

Basic black miniskirt

I forgot to take my own pictures, but it looks exactly the same (:

Buy here
Surprisingly good quality for the price! Unfortunately I don't think I'll wear it in public due to it not quite working on me. I'm 5'3 but my butt is fairly prominent in comparison to the rest of my body, so while if I had a small butt this would be short but cute, with my body the way it is it's just a bit too revealing for me (i.e. i can't bend over or go up stairs without being immodest woohoo).

Sweaters

My pictures

Buy here
Super happy with these! They're not made with the best quality materials everrr, but for the price I'm okay with that. They're cute and perfect for a lot of different looks. I can wear them over dresses or with skirts or with jeans or anything really. 

Liz Lisa knock-off cardigan in white

My Pictures

Buy here
Honestly really good quality for the price- I have absolutely no complaints. It looks absolutely adorable with the Liz Lisa knock off dress above, surprisingly good quality, just purrfect.

Peter-pan collar cardigan w/ detachable collar in cream

My pictures:

Close up of collar! Decent quality lace!

Buy here
I have a couple of small complaints about this- 1) the material is almost a bit shiny? Like it has sparkles knit into it. I wasn't expecting that, but it still looks pretty nice. 2) One side of it is slightly baggier than the other, which can look a little weird if you're aware of it. Most wont be able to notice though. It is a very soft and fairly warm cardigan though, and good quality.

All in all I'm pretty delighted with my purchases. I'm really looking forward to wearing them out and about, especially with the weather warming up in Europe a bit. I'm planning on ordering some more stuff from Taobao soon, so expect another haul post in a couple of months! (:



Pruany Review

Okay- first thing is first. I went with Pruany because I read that they were cheaper than other agents. Their website isn't the best, but it works. I had some initial confusion with paying for my order, but they responded very quickly and in good English so yea. It took me a few days to realize how they respond to you- on your order there will be something that say 'message' and it just allows you to comment/ask questions/respond to stuff on each individual item. As an example, my first Liz Lisa knockoff dress took forever to come in. They let me know it would take awhile. Unfortunately they said it would take 2 weeks. Then 4 weeks. Then another few days. But it ended up taking 6 weeks. That was lame, but not their fault I guess. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with my experiences, but I'll try a different agent next time just to see what else is out there.

Fashion Inspiration Pictures

Just some pictures I like that I'm drawing inspiration from when shopping, nothing big. Good news though, had a successful exam today! Woohoo, just two more ugh.

See more after the jump~ 

Spring/Summer Wishlist 2013

Hi everyone ~ For a change of pace from my usual reviews, I thought I'd show y'all some things I'm lusting after! :D I've split it up into four different categories- 1) makeup 2) skincare 3) fashion 4) other. My birthday is in late August, so hopefully I'll get some of these things for that! ~ God bless if you actually read all of this.

SKINCARE

I'm feeling pretty happy with my skincare routine as it is- I'm happy with the results and will continue using all of my products until they're empty. But once they're empty... ;)

1) Mizon Snail Recovery Gel I've read nothing but great reviews about this! It's quite cheap ($6 on ebay hollaaaa) and has 75% snail filtrate or something. I'd like to use it during the summer months for a lighter moisturizer, since I'll be in Texas! 

2) Makeup Artist's Choice 40% Lactic Acid peels- a western product! It's a very reasonably priced peel (I think some people use their trial bottles for a few months easily) that is supposed to be super effective for fading hyperpigmentation. 

3) Vasanti BrightenUp! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator: I'm in need of a gentle and non-damaging physical scrub to get rid of some flaky skin I get from my daily/weekly AHA exfoliations. Someone on reddit recommended this for me, and it has a toooonnn of very promising reviews~ 

4) Mizon Multifunction Formula Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule: I actually bought a snail filtrate ampoule recently that I'll review sometime, but that was an impulse buy and I couldn't find any reviews on it. This one has solid reviews and I'm slowly becoming obsessed with using Mizon's snail products.

5) Missha Time Revolution The First Treatment Essence: I've heard mixed reviews on this... some absolutely adore it, and a couple haven't seen any results. I'm hopeful that I'll be one of the majority and experience some excellent skin tone-evening, anti-aging, general skin-bettering action with this toner.

6) MBD Sake Yeast Sheet Mask (10)- I said I wanted a box of them, and I'm going to have a box of them damnit.

MAKE-UP

This isn't even everything I want...

1) Cat Chu Wink Lip Sticks in colors .#1 Peach Vanilla, #5 Red Cat, and #7 Salmon Pink.

2) Lioele Auto-Eyebrow in Dark Brown- I'm not actually sure what color I'd need, but I want to experiment with filling in my brows. 

3) Etude House Sweet Recipe Baby Choux Base in Mint- I need a base. Everyone loves it. Cute packaging.

4) It's Skin Babyface Petit Blusher in #1 Lovely Pink- I'm in need of more blush than just my single Nars Orgasm, and this is adorable, cheap, and has good reviews!

5) Peripera Peri's Tint Jelly in Pink & Orange- I don't have either of those colors for lippies, and both seem useful. I really like my Peripera lip tint, so I'd imagine that these are of similar quality!

6) Dolly Wink Eyelash Fix in Clear- I plan on wearing my falsies out a lot more this summer and next school year, and I'll need a good glue for them. I really like the Dolly Wink eyelash glue that came with the pairs of eyelashes I have, so why not buy the full size?

7) Etude House Secret Long lashes- Decent price and decent quality. A nice way to experiment with different kinds of lashes without paying a bunch of money for them C:

8) Etude House Look at my Eye's Duets Orange Disco & Pink Soul

FASHION

Baaaasically a bunch of Taobao blouses and sweaters, haha. I'm definitely stocking up on sweaters, as you'll see once my first Taobao order (fucking eventually) comes in! I have an idea in my head of how I'll dress inspired by this illustration. Anyone have any opinions or suggestions about where to find clothes like that? C:

OTHER

1) Etude House Juicy Cocktail Gradation nail polishes in Princess Mary, Love Violet, and Screw Driver. Possibly other colors... possibly all of them. They look sooo lovely and I've only heard good reviews about them!

2) Jetoy Choo Choo notebooks! I want to be as cute as possible for my exchange year! Which starts in August. I don't know if any of you guys know this, but I'm going to the University of Oslo for my third year of university, as part of my degree. Jeg snakker litt norsk, in case I have any Norwegian readers besides my boyfriend. Hopefully in not too long I'll be fluent yay :D

3) Three 3DS games for my 3DS XL! I believe that my boyfriend is buying me the new Animal Crossing for our anniversary in June, which I am irrationally excited about. I might ask for one of the other 3DS games for my birthday from my brother, we'll see. I'll buy the last one with my $$$ from working over the summer like the responsible young adult I am.

4) Some cute and cheap 3DS XL styluses. I'm excited to see how well the pink stylus matches my pink (and INCREDIBLY ADORABLE) 3DS XL!

Maxstar Review!

Hi everyone! I thought I'd write up a small review about some new shoes I bought! Maxstar flatform sneakers!

I ordered it on Monday and it arrived on Friday- pretty decent for South Korea to Scotland (: I chose the expedited shipping because it was only a couple of dollars more than the regular.

There was nothing to cushion the shoes during the shipment, but I didn't see any damage done so I guess that's okay.

It came with a pair of extra shoelaces- black! I like black. 

Openin' it up.

Packaging!

Before lacing them up! I love them already, so cute. They do smell a bit chemical-y right out of the bag, but that quickly dissipates. 

Maxstar! Underside of shoe! YEA! They're good quality for the price (about $40 USD), comfortable, and surprisingly light.

Overall, I'm really pleased with them. They fit true to size (though if you'll be wearing thick socks with them, maybe go up half a size?), look incredibly cute, feel comfortable and light, and are a good price with fast shipping. I haven't worn them outside yet, but I'm taking them to Amsterdam with me on Monday so I'll get plenty of walking in them and maybe update this later.