Taobao Haul #9: Con Season Haul

I'm back from Paradiso! I had a blast and I can't wait to share all my pictures and thoughts with all of you!

In order to get ready for this con season, I placed a giant Taobao order a couple of months ago, and while I got most of my pieces in time for Paradiso, we ended up with a few stragglers. Since I was waiting on the rest of my order to arrive (just in time for A-Kon, I might add), I decided to wait until I had everything in hand before writing my review post.

As per usual, I'd like to do a bit of self-promotion and mention that I'm an Affiliate with SpreeNow! Feel free to use my affiliate link!

Let's get right into it, shall we?

My Taobao haul!

Apologies for the ridiculous blob of white in the lower left corner: I had already taken the blouse out of the bag, and there was no way it was going back in the package, XP

All in all, I ordered lots of navy items and a few accent pieces. I was super excited for the shoes and blouse, mostly because I needed to replace my current navy pair of shoes.

Most of the items I ordered came from new (to me) shops, but there are a few old ones sprinkled in this review. I also decided to give one store in particular, a second chance.

Rainbow

Stock photo! I do not own!

I know that I constantly sing Sosic Shop's praises, but Rainbow has won my heart in one strike. Rainbow doesn't have the widest selection of shoes, but the shoes that they sell are beautiful, and they come packaged so beautifully.

The shoes arrived in this #fancyAF shoe box, wrapped in cloth bags to keep each shoe carefully protected. I've honestly never seen a shoe box so pretty in my life.

#fancyAF

Underneath the shoes was an adorable metallic tote bag, featuring the shop's logo. The bag is the perfect size for my shoes!

Shoe bag!

Since I ordered my "multiway" shoes (check out the review for these lovely shoes here!) in a size 38, and they were a bit tight on my feet, I made the wise choice to order a full size up and get a size 39. I'm a US size 7.5 with a wide foot, so I normally buy size 8 shoes. Either these shoes are getting more narrow or my feet have "grown", XP 

Still, I'm glad that Past Me was looking out for Future Me because the 39s are so comfortable and perfect! I don't have to worry about my toes getting squeezed or the ankle straps getting too tight when my feet swell during the day. Hooray!

Navy shoes.

The color and quality of these shoes are top-notch. There are even comfort soles built into the sole of the shoe! I give Rainbow a 10 out of 8 because I'm just that happy about these shoes!! The icing on this awesome cake is that these shoes were only $25!

For more affordable, cute shoes and shoe clips from Rainbow, visit their storefront with this link.

Red Maria

Stock photo, I do not own!

I've tried to purchase items from Red Maria before without any success. Since Red Maria is a fairly well-known Taobao shop, many of their items went out of stock before I could get my hands on them.

Another issue I have with them is a Lolita pet-peeve of mine -- instead of charging for a pair of items, they charge individually for each piece.

Take these cuffs, for example: instead of buying a set of wristcuffs at a higher price, you have to buy two cuffs at a time to "make" a set. I discovered this practice the very first time I ordered from Red Maria.... and I received one sad and lonely wristcuff for my trouble, -__-

I've found a few other Taobao shops that do this and frankly, it annoys me. I understand that they want to make money regardless, but that's like selling one sock by itself and making me pay extra for the other; it's ridiculous.

Anywho, stepping off my soapbox; I got these cute wristcuffs in navy and sax! They're really pretty and the navy matches all the other navy items I bought in this order, thank goodness.

Red Maria wristcuffs and tights.

I also bought a pair of beauuuuutiful navy and white tights from Red Maria. They're super stretchy and comfortable! I also like the way that the pattern was printed on the tights.Unlike other pairs I've had, I don't see these running after the first wash or staining my shoes.

Stock photo, I do not own!

The most exciting thing about the tights (besides the fit) is the number of colorways it comes in. In addition to a white x navy colorway, there's also an inverted pair that comes with a navy background and white accents. All the other color options also have an inverted colorway.

I'm really happy that I gave Red Maria a second chance. I never thought the shop had bad quality -- on the contrary, I've heard nothing but good things about their pieces, I was just a bit annoyed by the whole "you have to buy two separate wristcuffs" nonsense. Maybe they'll change that practice in the future, but if they don't, that's okay too. Thankfully, I noticed that they put that information on the listing for these cuffs, so hopefully, they've

put that notice on all of their other items.

I give Red Maria a 7 out of 8! I can't deny that their quality is good, even if they do some weird things, haha.

Take a look at Red Maria's diverse catalog of goodies here.

Yidhara

Yidhara stock photo, I do not own!

Who am I kidding? At this point, Yidhara can do no wrong in my eyes. I love their tights so much! I grabbed two pairs of these gorgeous tights in black and navy, because I have no self-control, X_X

Yidhara sent each pair of tights in these handy plastic bags, which I thought was pretty nice of them. It seems like the glitter on these tights may not stay put, so that's possibly why they decided to use some unique packaging.

Tights and travel bags.

At first glance, the black and navy tights look like they're the exact same color. After taking them both out of their respective bags, though, I quickly learned that wasn't the case. See for yourself.

Black x navy tights, side-by-side.

I absolutely cannot wait to wear these, but that won't be anytime soon. It was 102°F today, X_X

I love Yidhara, so I won't be rating their shop because I've done it so many times before. You can visit the store with this link.

Cerinth/Den Lille Idas Blomster (????)

Stock photo, I do not own!

I decided to use both the shop name that SpreeNow provided and the name in the image because I'm not actually sure which name the shop goes by. Either way, this shop has some really pretty accessories, especially HATS!

Navy hat!

I love my hat so much. It fits really well and the color is so beautiful! It didn't come with any weird or random hot glue strings on it either, which is always a plus. I also have to give them props on both their photography and craftsmanship: the hat looks exactly like the picture!

I regret not ordering more items from this shop, but that's okay because I'm adding Den Lille Idas to my list of shops! 8 out of 8, I'll definitely be buying more items from them.

Get your own lovely hat from Cerinth here.

Fox Cherry

Stock photo, I do not own!

A while back, Fox Cherry was known as the Taobao shop that took forrrreeevvverrr to make each order. At one point, the wait time was something between three weeks and three months. It was crazy, to be honest.

Nowadays though, it seems only a few shops still have crazy wait times like that. Fox Cherry surprised me because they made this French hood (and the other 2 in our GO) in about a month. The French hood is freaking gorgeous and so is the starry veil I bought with it. I can't wait to wear this out either! 

French hood in navy.

My one complaint is the length of the head chain. I'm not sure who these were made for, but the bottom part of the head chain hits my eyebrows, which makes no sense. If I move the French hood any closer to the front of my head, the dangling parts of the chain actually stop directly in front of my eyes and blocks my vision. Not cool.

Thankfully, I paid a little extra money to make the head chain removable, and thank goodness I did! For some reason, my intuition really worked to my benefit in this GO. Unfortunately, that means that until I figure out a way to shorten the links on the head chain, there's no way I can wear it, T_T

As I said earlier, since I've rated Fox Cherry before (read my previous reveiw here!), I won't give them a new rating. The glaring head chain issue definitely keeps them right where they are on my peresonal scale, regardless of how pretty the headpiece is. 

Tea Sauce Studio

Stock Photo, I do not own!

Out of all the items in my order, I was the most disappointed by this blouse. Even though the blouse was exactly what I needed, it doesn't hold up to the expectations that I had for it. In pictures, this 2-way blouse looks fantastic! In real life though, the fabric feels a bit cheap, it still looks great... until I put on the hime sleeves, X_X

The blouse and string ties.

The way the hime sleeves are cut takes this blouse from "ok" to "awful" in 3.5 seconds or less. They're three-quarter hime sleeves that fall in a weird place on my arm, and I immediately disliked it.

They also look a little bizarre when attached to the blouse. The sleeves attach to the rest of the blouse with two buttons on the inner sleeves, using two elastic loops that you basically just hook on to the buttons. Layered together, it's completely obvious that the sleeves are attachments. I wasn't a fan.

Blouse without the hime sleeves attached.

So, I've decided that I'll wear this blouse without the hime sleeves. I have no idea what I'm going to do with an extra pair of sleeves just laying around, but I ain't wearing them, that's for sure. Other than that, I like the versatility of this blouse: it can be worn normally with the straps crisscrossed across the front, off-the-shoulder with the four strings tied to create a cold-shoulder effect, or all four straps can be tucked in to just have a normal, short-sleeved blouse.

The material is sub-par, but it's still better than that blouse awful crop blouse from my last Taobao haul (Confused? I was too; Read about my last Taobao Haul here!) and it was cheaper than the other one so while I had high expectations, I was sort just left feeling pretty "meh" after I tried it on.

I definitely wouldn't order from this shop again, because the quality is risky, but they have a fairly high, 5-Crown rating so maybe I just ordered a not-so-great item. I give them a 3 out of 8, because I wasn't impressed, but I don't hate the blouse either.

If you'd like to take a chance on Tea Sauce Studio, you can visit their Taobao shop with this link.

I have so many more things to write about and so little time. I'll do my best to get my Paradiso review up by the end of next week, but if I can't, I'll come back as soon as I can! <3 In the meantime, never forget that you, my lovely readers, are wonderful and amazing, and I appreciate each and every one of you so, so much.

Until next time, y'all~!

Stay beautiful, stay true,
~J