Taobao 2018 - the accessories edition

This year I am participating in the Seagull Secret Santa on CGL, and decided that for part of my gift to my match I wanted to pick up some accessories from Sweet Dreamer. Then, of course, since I had an open order I just had to add in a few things for myself...and a few more...and maybe a few more...

In the end this was a wholly jewellery and accessories order, which is great because they're the pieces I need most at the moment. Most items are badly needed wardrobe staples, and some are entirely frivolous! I ordered from a handful of different stores, so I'll show you everything and link to each shop.

As usual, I ordered with TaobaoTrends, and they were fine. I had a bit of an issue paying for the order at first (I added money to my account, but then could use it!) but that resolved itself in a day. not quite sure what happened, but whatever. Ultimately, my order came in while I was at work on 20 November. They were sensible with packing, and put most items inside the hat I ordered to save space but they did bend the hat a bit to fit it in the box, so there's that.

Let's start with the items from Sweet Dreamer, since getting a couple of things for my Secret Santa from there was the original purpose of the order. For my match I bought a pair of wristcuffs (which I own myself and love) and a gorgeous velvet barrette bow. For myself I grabbed some sweet-themed necklaces, one strawberry and one biscuit. No pictures of the gifts, since I'm leaving them in their packaging, but oh my goodness the necklaces are adorable! Like seriously, how ridiculously cute are they? The pendants seems pretty sturdy as well, though the chains are quite thin.

Then I ordered a few items from Sweet Heart Square, another store I really like and buy from basically every time I do a Taobao order! I did get one thing for my match here, the floral barrette (they said they're into larme and it seemed appropriate...and hey, if not, there's more to the gift) which again is not pictured. Then I also picked up a pearl and cherry bracelet (plus earrings) for myself, and a pair of mint-and-brown bow clips. I have these same bow clips in I think four different colours now, I really love them! I think the mint is a bit too dark to match well with Teddy Chocolatier though, but oh well. The bracelet is also quite small, like previous ones I've bought from here, but it's still cute so I don't mind.

All the stores from here are ones I hadn't bought from before, so this was exciting! First I grabbed a mint green beret (because I will never have enough berets) and a black and red choker necklace from Kuma P Handmade. The beret is pretty standard, though a bit thicker and tighter than my other ones. But the choker is adorable! Like seriously, how cute is it? And yes, of course it's berry themed...

The next store was Azusa Handmade House, where mostly I bought a lot of rings (they were like a dollar each, don't judge me!) as well as a bracelet and a straw hat. The hat was mostly bought so I could do more country style looks with my new Meta dress and I really wanted to get one decorated with green flowers, but I made the sensible decision to go with the more versatile (and cheaper) option with just an off white ribbon. Which is still super adorable and certainly will be more versatile. Both the bracelet and the rings are cute but not massively noteworthy. But I'm so glad I got them! Look at me, expanding my wardrobe options ^__^

After that I bought yet more cute jewellery! This store (the name of which is translating to Don't come to a piece of meat? which is just confusing) really tempted me, and I wanted to grab so many more things, but in the end I forced myself to be realistic about it and only got two bracelet sets and one necklace. Though admittedly the cat paw bracelet set doesn't match anything I own but it's a cat paw! How could I not? The other bracelets were a good basic set and the necklace is a rainbow! A rainbow! Probably not going to use it for lolita too much, but in case you didn't know...I really like rainbows! The chain clasp bit at the back is broken though, so it's straight into my mending pile.

Then the accessories that I chose from Ribbon Cake were kind of silly. I mean, yes the ring and donut clips will match things of mine, and I suppose the lollipop necklace might as well, but they just feel a bit silly! But they were cheap and are cute so I'm not complaining ^__^ I'm actually kind of stupidly in love with the lollipop necklace, and the donuts are really spongy!

My Little Song tempted me into buying another couple of cute necklaces for the sweeter side of my wardrobe, and they are both very cute and feel quite sturdy. I realised when I was opening everything that I kind of doubled up with this strawberry necklace and the Sweet Dreamer one but I don't mind! They're still different enough, and I actually really especially love the beaded chain on these necklaces.

And from the last store, Sharon's Rose, I got a more classic style floral necklace. I did want to get a rose necklace too but it went out of stock. I guess this really goes to prove something that I'm realising about myself as I'm wearing lolita more often - I'm really more into sweet than classic! (though I do love both).  But I'm not sure if I wasn't thinking clearly, or made a mistake, because I didn't think I ordered it in this colour...and I also thought it was a bracelet. I honestly don't know what I did, lol! Oh well, it's still pretty and it's very different from anything else I own so it's fine.

On top of everything else, I'm not sure where they came from but also included were a shell necklace and a little notepad. I love cute freebies!

All in all I'm very happy with my new wardrobe additions. I've practically doubled my selection of necklaces and rings with this order, which is something I did want to do this year. So I'm a happy Roli right about now ^__^

Review #50: My Lolita Dress (aka mostly just more fawn fur)

Two things made this order happen, and it wasn't that I was look for more fawn fur! For an Easter photoshoot I wanted to be a cute lolita bunny. Egg Art was the perfect dress, and I was spending time on the internet searching for the right bunny ears to buy. At the same time, I was browsing Taobao for a blog post about coordinate pricing (coming soon, I promise!) and found the most perfect ears on the Sweet Dreamer/Cutie Creator store!

I wanted to get the ears as soon as possible, given that it was already March at this time and Easter was fast approaching, so I decided to use a re-seller rather than a shopping service, and went with My Lolita Dress. I put my order in on the 4th of March and in the additional requests box asked for it to be processed ASAP. I have no idea if that made any difference whatsoever, and I also have no idea if buying from them was quicker than using a shopping service would have been. It was easier, at least. However, I won't use them again since my package shipped out from Singapore (so the items getting to them from the original seller was probably slower than if I'd used a Chinese SS) and there was nothing to set their service apart from any other shopping service I've used. To be clear, there was nothing bad about buying from them, just nothing good enough to bring me back unless it was necessary or advantageous for some reason.

Anyhow...while I was ordering I thought I'd just have a tiny little browse of what they else was available, since I was already going to be paying shipping...

And I found fawn fur. Specifically, I found a gorgeous reversible cape and some earmuffs from Sweet Dreamer's "Shepherd's Glen" series and I just had to buy them. Had to. No choice. The cape was kinda expensive (though not really for the size of it) so I felt a bit bad, but I also felt very happy!

Anyhow, my order arrived on 26 March, which was in time for Easter, though not as early as I would have liked. However, it still enabled me to do my Easter photoshoot on Good Friday so all's well that ends well! It actually came on the same day as my Madillustration brooches, which gave me a dilemma about which review to post first, but I ordered the brooches way earlier than these things so it was only a very temporary dilemma.

First of all, the ears. Oh my goodness, the ears. They are so cute! And they're a perfect match for Egg Art. You can see the photos of me wearing them for my Easter shoot here and here's a quick photo as well. They're just great. The only downside is that it connects to the hair with a single, large snap clip, which is not really enough to hold it securely. There was also some loose fur when they arrived, but that just brushed off so not a problem.

The earmuffs look a bit scrappy at the moment with the fur all mussed from postage, but they're nice. In retrospect, they were a bit too much of a silly purchase and I don't think I'm going to get much use out of them. So I'm a bit disappointed in myself for buying them, but they are cute so it's not so bad.

However, what I am actually kind of disappointed in is the cape. See, here's the stock photo.

Looks pretty nice, doesn't it? But what it doesn't show is how blocky the final product is. The cape is a big rectangle, with a rectangular hood...and it just didn't look like that was going to be it from the stock photos.

I was expecting something a bit drape-y, a bit softer in shape, a bit more lolita appropriate, but it's not. This is no real fault of either the maker or the reseller, just my expectations, but it's a bummer when your expectations are not met. Though, having said that, there was not a single stock photo was not on the mannequin with its arms up, so they are a little misleading.

I mean, it is nice enough and there is a lot of fur in there, but I didn't want this style of fawn fur cape, so I'm really bummed to have spent so much money on it, especially when I was trying to watch my spending this year! There are also a few flaws in the fur. I noticed what looks like a orange highlighter mark on the front, and there are sections where the fur is a bit matted. Only tiny bits, but still. Not what I wanted and also slightly damaged.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do. It is very warm and cuddly, so I may end up using it after all, and if I don't I may take matters into my own hands an turn it into a more typically lolita style capelet.

So overall I'm feeling kind of negative towards this order. The ears are adorable, but the earmuffs were probably a bit of a mistake and the cape is disappointing. Oh well. I guess having a bit of a negative purchasing experience will just help me stick to my "minimal spending" goals a little better for the rest of the year.

2017 Taobao Haul (aka that's a lot of fawn fur)

Who bought pretty things? I bought pretty things! I got some items from my wardrobe goal list, significantly enhanced my fawn fur collection, got some new accessories and also ventured into using Taobao to buy non-lolita things – in this case steampunk skirts.

A sneak peek at what I got...

A brief shopping services review before I go onto sharing my new wardrobe additions; TaobaoTrends was fine and easy to use once again. I was sent one item in the incorrect version, but I did have the chance to correct that and did not. Also, with google translate being what it is I may have just ordered the wrong one... Anyway, I paid for my order on 13 October, it all arrived and I was sent photos (still really love this part of the service!) on the 25th and once I paid shipping I received a tracking number on the 26th. I chose EMS and it arrived on the 30th, packed down nice and tight in a securely taped box.

I’ve been planning a Taobao order all year really. I’d been wanting to pick up a few more accessories mostly and had played around with a fantasy shopping cart on TaobaoTrends for ages. But a few things took this out of fantasy and into reality. The first was the fawn fur items from Sweet Dreamer – they spawned a mighty need in me. Secondly, I got some money for my birthday. And third, while I had some time off work around my birthday I basically bet myself and James that if I could finish the first draft of our novel then and there, rather than writing gradually for the rest of the year, I would get a nice reward. I succeeded. So with all those factors combined I actually finalised and placed this order!

I kept my order restricted to only a few stores, so let’s start with the things from Sweet Dreamer. As I mentioned fell in love with their new fawn fur items and got myself three different pieces: a scarf, a headdress, and a pair of ears. The ears on their own were a last minute addition. I had decided against them but at the last moment before confirming the order I had a hunch I would regret not getting them, so I added them to the order.

All the fawn fur things are beautiful, well made, and super soft and fluffy! I am incredibly happy to have added them to my collection ^__^ The headdress in particular was a pleasant surprise because it actually looks really good on me, which I was not entirely expecting, and it's pretty comfortable to boot (I wore it to work for the Halloween party so that's 8 hours with no major discomfort). Another thing that pleases me is that the floral bows on the ears and the headdress are detachable so I can ditch them, or really overload an outfit by using all the bows from whatever I'm not wearing elsewhere on my outfit. Or I can just use them independently. Such versatility!

Moving from bolstering a part of my wardrobe that really didn’t need it to things I did actually need, I also bought two pairs of wristcuffs – one ivory and one black. Getting these has been on my goal list for a while so I’m glad I finally got them. I am very pleased with these, though I'll probably remove the charm from the black ones. Not too much to say about these; they are accurate to the stock photos and though they’re a little larger than I like they are still very good quality and I’m chuffed I get to tick them off my goal list.

I also picked up some new headbows, most of them black! They are all well-made and exactly as anticipated. The only negative is that the one with the lace spray is made for a  head size smaller than my own so there is not quite enough lace to lay nicely across the head and instead it bunches up a little. It still looks mostly fine so I’m not too put out, and I may end up replacing it or something down the line.

Along with the headbows I picked up this cute bow and flower clip in two colours. The pink one in particular I really needed, as I’m starting to wear a bit more pink but don’t actually own anything that’s floral and actually just a regularly pink-pink. The other one I thought may be a good match for Anniversary Rose, which it kind of is, though I’m coming to realise nothing is ever going to perfectly match that JSK. Colour matching aside these are both really high-quality and I love them to pieces already.

Last of all from Sweet Dreamer I picked up a pair for floral lace stockings in brown. To be honest, I thought these were OTKS and am a bit bummed that they aren’t. They seem to have decent length and stretch to them but I haven’t tried them on because I’m definitely too big for them at the moment and don’t want to damage them. However, that aside I think they’re very pretty and I’m glad to have bought them!

Next I got some simple and cute accessories from the same store I got a bunch of things from in my last Taobao haul, Sweetheart Square. This time, in addition to some bows that I felt were good additions to my ever growing collection of bow clips, I got a necklace and a bracelet. Slowly but surely I will develop my jewellery collection to be a bit bigger and more versatile. Every is really nice and I particularly love the bracelet but something I didn’t realise is that the necklace had bells on it! Right under the bow in the middle the dangly things are little bells! I’m leaving them for now but will probably remove them before I actually wear it out because I think it would get very annoyed very fast. I should also mention that the jewellery clasps are quit stiff, but that doesn't bother me overmuch.

And then I found something else from my goal list – fawn fur boot toppers! It does bug me a little that my fawn fur items are different patterns, but I don’t think anyone but myself will notice too much when I’m actually wearing things. It also helps that these are really super pretty and cute and fluffy! These are the things where I got sent hr wrong version – there was this version with fluffy balls on velvet ribbons and a version with satin ribbons and I ordered the satin ones (I think). However, I only went with that version because I thought it was a bit more neutral/versatile so I don’t mind getting this one. I also grabbed a lavender beret from this store but didn’t take a photo of it.

Lastly I stepped away from lolita and purchased two skirts to use for steampunk photoshoots, and last of all, on a whim right as I was placing my order I decided to order some laces from Cock Robin’s Song. I don’t have any big sewing projects on the horizon but I just wanted to get the lace. No reviews or pictures on these, as they're already stashed away in the relevant places, but I'm happy.

So that’s my recent Taobao haul! The terrible (wonderful?) thing is that I’ve already started putting together a new fantasy shopping cart so who knows, maybe I’ll place a little order in the 11/11 sales…

Have you ordered from Taobao recently?

Taobao haul time again!

It's been a while since I last did this, but recently I made a little taobao haul made up of two pairs of shoes, two boleros and a bunch of different accessories. This is only my third taobao order ever, and I don't think I blogged about my second one at all. The main difference between this order and the last two is that I have switched shopping services from Yoybuy to TaobaoTrends.

Before I go onto reviewing the items I just want to say a little about that change. I really liked Yoybuy to start with, but they seemed a little dodgy with how they handled the money in your account. After hearing some horror stories a while ago, coupled with my not-quite-right feeling I decided not to use them again. I chose TaobaoTrends on a bit of a whim, I was in the store spreadsheet on the CGL taobao threads, clicked to their site, and they seemed fine so I ran with it. And I am exceptionally happy with that choice! Their site was simple to use, the fees, exchange rate, and shipping seemed very reasonable, and they check the items before sending them to you. One of my items was in the wrong colour and they checked to see if I was okay with it (which I was) and then, before I paid for international shipping they sent photos of everything. I feel like that's a really good service to provide, and I fully intend to use TaobaoTrends for my future taobao orders.

But enough about shopping services... onto the clothes and things!

First up, two pairs of shoes from Sosic Shop. Both pairs arrived in good condition and looked just like the stock photos. But I managed to order myself the wrong size, so I'm going to be putting both pairs up for sale quite soon. However, as I say, the quality is quite nice so I guess this just means I'll have to do another taobao order soon to get some in the correct size. Poor me, having to shop more...

Then I took the opportunity to pick up some matching accessories for my Jam Paradise JSK from Rococo Soul. I got both the headbow and a pair of two-way clips so I have multiple options. The headbow is actually the first wired headbow I've owned, and it's so fun being able to adjust the shape!

To try and fill the gap in my wardrobe, I also ordered this long sleeved black bolero. It's a pretty obvious Innocent World rip-off but I didn't mind. However, it's not particularly great quality and the sleeves are three-quarter length on me, so I'll be selling it and am back on the prowl for another long-sleeved black bolero.

However, I also ordered a cute white lace bolero which is gorgeous! Just like the stock photo, rally cute and comfortable, I'm super happy with this. Though now I have it I'm realising I may not get all that much wear out of it because it's very white, but I can always tea dye to ivory if I decide that's a better idea.

I got some hair accessories from Cutie Creator/Sweet Dreamer/Ciciworks (I never remember which name is most recent) which I'm two-thirds happy with. The thing I'm not happy with is the lavender headbow because of that giant gold start in the middle which was not in the stock photos. Also, it doesn't match Jurassic Party, which I got it for, but that was a gamble anyway with colours matching. But ugh, that star.

The other two things, the strawberry headband and the two-way flower birdcage clip and very nice, well made and accurate to the stock photos. I got the birdcage clip hoping it would match well with my Meta Rose birdcage skirt and it coordinates, though it's not a proper colour match.

Last, but certainly not least I got a whole lot of other accessories from this shop, too many to fit into one picture! First up, a bundle of hair clips. Because I totally didn't have enough bows already. No such things as enough bows!

I also got some wrist accessories. I don't tend to wear wristcuffs much, but do occasionally, so thought getting a white pair was a good idea. And the bracelets were super cheap so I grabbed a few.. but they are tiny. I am a big girl, but my wrists are still pretty slim for my size and these are still about 3cm too small. Still wearable though, but I may end up taking of the beads and re-making them.

Overall, I'm very happy with all the accessories from that shop. They're quite cheap and very good quality or the price. The only thing I'm bummed about it that the set of strawberry clips with red lace instead of white was meant to have a red flower, but TaobaoTrends did alert me to this and ask if I wanted it sent back and I said no. Next time I'll say yes because the two sets are so similar I'm only going to keep one.

So that's my most recent taobao haul; all in all quite a positive experience!

Rococo Soul Jam Paradise JSK

I'm back! Work has been keeping me busy and going from lazy student to productive full-time worker, with a commute and everything, has been quite the lifestyle change and has left me with neither the time nor inclination to blog much. But I have a couple of posts scheduled after this so hopefully I won't vanish for six weeks again.  And one of the pluses of proper employment is increased disposable income, so there will be two new reviews soon as well as the other posts I have scheduled and even if they are short posts I'll try and share any purchases etc. so basically what I'm rambling about is that my hiatus is broken and I'm planning on keeping this blog going, even if I only post once every week or two.

Anyway, onwards to the actual post! Recently a girl in the Australian facebook lolita community posted the Rococo Soul JSK in brown for sale, amongst other things. And since I now have the aforementioned disposable income and liked that dress since I first saw it I decided to go for it. The transaction went smoothly and last Tuesday I came home to a package full of dress.

This isn't exactly a review, since I bought this secondhand and the previous owner has apparently worn it twice. But overall it's a really nice dress, and it fits and suits me well. The fabric is nice, the ribbon trim is nice and the construction seems both sturdy and neat. The waist-ties are thin and detachable and the straps are adjustable.  Style-wise, it's straddling the border between lolita and otome and I like that it can be toned down or dressed up. One thing that really doesn't come across in photos is that there are lots of colours in the print; red, blue and cream are the most obvious but there is also yellow and a couple of different green shades too. And for someone like me, who loves clothes with lots of colour coordinating options it's just perfect.

There are only two downsides to this dress for me. The first is just a personal taste thing and that's that the fabric has the print so that no matter which way you face it some of the label will be upside down, and I honestly would have preferred the fabric to face the other way up. The second issue is that due to the full back shirring the dress wrinkles at the side. The shirring makes the bodice bunch up, if you know what I mean? I'm not maxing out the measurements but I am at the larger end that this dress caters for, so I'm not sure if that's the reason but whatever the cause, it is a bit annoying.

Those two points aside I will re-iterate that it's a very nice dress overall and now that I know what Rococo Soul is like I will definitely contemplate getting their future releases. They are a pricier Taobao brand, which is why I'd never bought from them before (I like my Taobao cheap, thank you!) but I think the quality is definitely well in line with the pricing.

As a last note, I played with some outfits while after taking the shots for this post, but those will be in another post...

Review #27.2: Taobao Haul

And here is the second part of my Taobao/Yoybuy review... the items themselves! You can read about my experience with Yoybuy here.

I got a blouse, skirt and velvet bolero from Magic Tea Party, a Classical Puppets a-line petticoat, a coat/jacket thing, four pairs of those ubiquitous t-strap with bow heels, assorted socks, three different clip-in bangs and some coloured make-up. And some red velvet for lining a coffin...

I'll start with the Magic Tea Party stuff and, long story short, they're great. Picture spam time!

This skirt is made of a canvas-y feeling fabric and is nicely thick and heavy with a slightly rough texture that I love. It is very sturdily constructed and I love it! The only thing I'm not much of a fan of are the buttons on the waistband, but they are easily removed. It's very accurate to the stock picture.

Why rotate this Blogger, why?

The bolero is also quite nice, though since I'm tall the sleeves are short. I'm going to cut off the ties across the chest because I don't like how they look. The lace trim is decent and the velvet feels nice. The crown lining is really cute as well!

The blouse is really nice, especially for the price. The fabric is smooth enough and the laces all feel like cotton and are nice and soft. For lack of a better way to say it, it feels like a cheap blouse but a nice cheap blouse. Quality wise I'd put it way above Bodyline, maybe on par with F+F's nicer stuff. For the price I think it's rally good. The construction is sturdy and the design is really nice. And the sleeves are long enough!

Overall, my comments on the blouse can be applied to all the MTP items - they don't feel expensive or super high quality, but they are really nice for the price and they are certainly all pieces I would recommend.

Next up, the gorgeous hoodie jacket!

This thing is absolutely gorgeous! So soft, so warm, so comfortable! It's really well made and the materials seem quite nice as well, the lining is a bit thin and shiny but it's just the lining so no biggie. However, unless I misread things horribly this is smaller than the indicate measurements, as I can't close it and I should be able too. However, it's adorable open so I'm okay with it. Also, I think the fur is really rabbit fur, which I know some people care about.

And the next thing, all the bangs from this store.

Stupid Blogger and your stupid rotation...

I'm not really a wig expert, but these bangs are fantastic. Thick, smooth, only shiny in a natural way, an appropriate length, well made, neat and they clip on easily and stay secure on my head. I've already worn the far right pair in a photoshoot that'll be up on our facebook page soon and they look perfectly natural. I did get the colour slightly wrong though, they are all darker than my own hair so I'm going to see if I can lighten them at all.

Then we come to the shoes. The ubiquitous t-strap bow shoes that everyone and their mother has ^__^

They are still a bit crumpled from postage here, but as you can see both colour and style are accurate to the stock photos. They are bit cheaply made, they aren't super comfortable, and there are a few flaws, such as the strap being a bit too big for the buckles, but for the price they are really quite good. But I screwed up the sizing [I'll learn one day, I swear] and got them too large, so I'll be listing them to lacemarket soon. However, I'll be swiftly replacing them with ones in the correct size, because I think they're great shoes.

This review is already very long, so I won't go into the Classical Puppets petticoat, the socks, the make-up or the velvet but overall I had a very enjoyable first taobao experience and plan on making another haul as soon as I can!

Review #27.1: Yoybuy Taobao Shopping Service

Recently I placed my first Taobao order. I did lost of research into the different shopping services and found conflicting opinions of all of them. In the end what prompted my choice of Yoybuy was the comparative ease of their shopping cart and checkout. So I went ahead, added all the things and went for it. This is a review of Yoybuy, a review of my actual items will come soon!

My initial order, minus the Magic Tea Party bolero.

The first thing I noticed was that the ordering system/checkout was different to how they describe it in the "how to order" section of the site. Basically, you add items to your cart and when you go to checkout it estimates the weight of your parcel for international shipping and adds the service fee. You also have to pay a percentage cost depending on your payment method. I used PayPal for the security and that adds an extra 4%. So basically, you pay all costs, including shipping from Yoybuy to you, upfront, unlike how their tutorial says you pay for the items first and then organise it into a parcel to be shipped and pay for that later. I'm sure if there is a discrepancy in what the actual postage cost is and what you are billed it is taken care of when the time comes to ship your package.

As far as ease of use goes, I thought Yoybuy was great. The site is very simple to use and though I didn't take advantage of this feature, there is live chat available to well, chat about items you're interested in. However, sometimes the add to cart function is a bit glitchy, and will add more of an item than you actually want and when you try and delete extras from you cart it's confusing so you may have to attempt adding something a few times before it add correctly. This was frustrating, but I still prefer it to filling out a spreadsheet!

Once I had placed my order, everything showed up in a neat list showing if it was processing, arrived or packed. There was a chat function for each item, which Amy [my...person, not sure if there's a proper word for shopping service employee] used to update me on any changes, which there were a few of which I'll go into now.

I placed my order on the 5th of June, then logged in on the 7th to check the status to find three new messages. Two were in regards to the shoes, telling me I needed to pay an extra 16CNY in shipping and that they would take five days to be made. I said that was all fine and was told I would pay the excess when the time came for my order to be shipped. The third message was regarding a skirt I had ordered, telling me that the seller was offline and that Amy would "contact continuously". I sent back: "That's okay. If you can't contact them by the time the shoes are ready can I cancel this skirt from the order?" The skirt was promptly removed from the order and I was refunded. I was a bit annoyed, but I could have been clearer in my message and also wasn't super in-love with the skirt so I didn't really mind. The refund [made up of the skirt price, it's domestic shipping and it's portion of international shipping and service fee] went to my Yoybuy account, from which you can withdraw money to PayPal, a credit card or other payment methods so it's not lost money. However, this was a miscommunication and so if you are using Yoybuy be very specific in messages.

On the 10th I checked my order and there was a message that Amy had received only four pairs of the harlequin socks instead of five and that she would refund the amount. I said that was fine and asked which pair it was, and she let me know. However, I didn't get the refund immediately, I actually got it when all the items were with Yoybuy and ready to ship. I had to pay a little more for the shoes's shipping and the refund was processed as I paid the extra.

As for shipping, there were several options [I don't remember all of them off the top of my head] but I chose EMS. It was marked as sent on the 13th [through my tracking didn't start updating until the 20th] and I received the gigantic box on Tuesday 24th. So it wasn't even three full weeks from placing my order to getting my items, which I think is a fantastic turnaround. I confirmed receipt of my package on the Yoybuy site and received some "Yoybuy points" which can be redeemed for credit to your account, which I thought was a nice touch.

All in all I was really happy with Yoybuy, the website was simple to use and all communication was prompt. However, it would pay to keep an eye on the totals you're paying, as I got confused with all the changes with my refunds [also, the weight of the parcel went down, then back up and I'm not sure if I was charged anything for the changes] and there is a chance I may have lost a few dollars by not keeping a close eye on things but I honestly don't know. So it may be a good idea to take screencaps of your order totals if you want to keep an eye on things as once there is a change you can't see the previous totals.

So, in actual conclusion I like Yoybuy. It's a straightforward, if imperfect, site to use and they are easily contactable in regards to your order. Their fees seemed comparable to other taobao shopping services and unless something goes wrong I'll be using them from here on out.