Lolita on a Budget: Mr. Yan Grab Bag

Hello everyone! So recently I decided to try getting a lucky bag (grab bag) from Bodyline. All of the defective item grab bags were sold out, so I went with the 2015 Mr. Yan Grab Bag since I wanted a coat anyways. Here's my review of what I recieved!

*Note* I appologize that quite a few of the pictures turned out blurred. I don't think I'd eaten breakfast at that point and was rather excited about the Luck Bag's arrival. Plus I wanted to open it immediately, so I kinda didn't take a lot of multiples of the same angle...

Sizing
 This grab bag is offered in two sized: 2L and M. Since I generally find myself to be a 2L measurement-wise (thank you Asian sizing for making me feel fat), I went with the 2L grab bag which promised a coat and a surprise item. Unfortunately, my shoulders are broader than average, so the coat ended up fitting a little tight around the shoulders, so I'll likely go with a larger size if possible in the future.

Shipping
 My package was sent out the day after my purchase (or at least got a tracking number assigned) and I was very surprised to find that, for once, the tracking was accurate! For those of you unfamiliar with Bodyline, many times the tracking will show "Leaving outward office of exchange" or something similar for the durration of shipping, occationally updating to show it's arrival in your country, or, if you're lucky like I was this time, actually show when the item's been delivered. All of my mail goes to a post office box that I check compulsively when I'm expecting something, so I was surprised to see that the package arrival and the tracking corresponded for once. My package arrived 16 days after the tracking date showing it was picked up (two days after recieving the tracking), well within the 2-4 week period tro be expected when ordering from Bodyline.

Arrival and Unboxing/Opening
 Like my previous package from Bodyline, my lucky pack arrived in a large, grey polymailer with the paperwork inside a clear packing label holder. The exterior was undamaged and well taped shut

Front of the package (packing slip removed)

Back of the package

After opening the outside package, I found the largest Bodyline bag I'd ever seen! The top was folded over and taped, with a little sticker reading "Fuku008," the product number for the grab bag, in the middle. The bag was mostly opaque, but I was still able to just make out a little bit of lace through it.

Ginormous Bodyline bag!

Barely visible lace showing through!

At this point, I was super excited and quickly opened up the Bodyline bag to find a beautiful coat inside as well as the much dreaded Mr. Yan Bodypillow case! I was only mildly surprised as I knew that such a thing did in fact exist and had also gotten a little impatient and managed to find an unboxing video...

Nice plastic bags around both items!

The coat was gorgeous! It has rose shaped buttons, two front pockets (They're real!), fur collar and cuffs, and a very pretty scalloped edge that ends at about knee level for me. After pulling it out of it's package and unfolding it, I also discovered that there was a little matching capelet as well! The coat is the L460 in Beg available in M, L, and 2L on Bodyline's main page (it was out of stock in almost all colors when I got this coat).

Just out of the bag!

Lying flat

The separate capelet

On my dress form without the capelet

With the capelet front view

With the capelet side view

With the capelet back view

The Mr. Yan bodypillow, which I surprisingly was able to sell shortly after posting in sales groups, was made out of a very nice, plush fabric with a picture of Mr Yan in his wizard costume on one side and his beach wear on the other side. (Pictures are only half of each side due to length.)

Dream Time...

San Francisco

Esta nocheno, duermes conmigo?
Something about "come sleep with me"

Canain? I think it's a city name like the front.

Final words

 As most of Bodyline's coats are out of stock right now (or at least when I recieved this), this was the only way to really get one of their coats. Unfortunately, I found out about the Yen trick a day or two after purchasing this, so I wasn't able to save a bit more money that way. (If you want to know how that works, I reccomend you watch this video as I have no experience buying with this method yet.) I'm very happy with the quality of the coat, which also came with an extra button on the inside tag, and look forward to future purchases from Bodyline. And for those of you wondering, this review is in no way sponsored. I bought the lucky pack entirely with my own money and was not approached by Bodyline in any way or given any discounts besides those available to all shoppers on the site (the Valentine's sale).

Check out my Facebook page: facebook.com/CelesteChoCho

I'm on Twitter: @animlolicouture

Lolita on a Budget: Offbrand and Bodyline

I recently got my first ever order from Bodyline, so I figured now would be a good time to not only review those products, but also go over a few off brands that are less expensive than Brand.

*Please note* I am not being payed to review or suggest any of the products. All were bought at my own expense. Additionally, all views are my own and do not in any way reflect those of any other companies or organizations.

Bodyline Product Review
 So, I decided to order two different skirts and a pair of socks from Bodyline a little while ago and went with the EMS shipping option. The first thing I noticed when ordering from Bodyline was the sizes. All of their measurements are taken in cm and the sizes (m, L, 2L, etc.) vary from item to item. I have large measurements compared to a petite Japanese girl, so I was finding that my size was typically coming out to be L or 2L. This made it rather difficult to settle on an item, but I was eventually able to find a couple of cute skirts I could afford as well as a pair of socks to include in my order. I selected EMS shipping as opposed to Air because EMS was free and Air would have cost more than my whole order combined. I was surprised at how soon after placing the order my items were shipped out as the order page stated that items shipped via EMS would be shipped on Tuesdays and I had placed my order on a Thursday. Two days later I had my tracking information and the package quickly moved between stops in Japan. Then tracking stopped for a good long while (as stated on their home page) and arrived about two and a half weeks after ordering.

Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was that the corners of the closing flap were slightly open. Upon opening the package though, everything inside was undamaged and packaged in cute reuseable wrappers.

All of the items I received were good quality and arrived undamaged. Both of the skirts were slightly shorter than most Lolita skirts tend to be, but still very wearable! The lace and trim was all of a fairly good quality too, no scratchy lace here! I was super excited to find out that one of them had detachable waist ties and a detachable bow as well! The socks were a nice, soft material and are super comfy. I've worn them a bunch of times and will randomly wear them just 'cause. I unfortunately don't have any pictures to share at this moment, but I will be sure to post some eventually! I would highly recommend Bodyline to new Lolitas or Lolitas on a budget!

One note about Bodyline: A lot of their prints are replicas of popular prints from brands like Angelic Pretty and Baby the Stars Shine Bright. If you're uncomfortable with buying replicas, I would recommend researching a print before buying a piece with it to avoid mistakenly buying a replica. Unlike some replicas, Bodyline's replica prints are not exact copies of the originals and will often times not have the Brand name or logo in the print itself. There are also slight modifications to some of the prints.

Hot Topic
 Recently, Hot Topic has been carying more and more clothing that can work for certain styles of Lolita. I purchased one of their Hell Bunny sailor style dresses a while back and it works perfectly for Sailor Lolita with the addition of a blouse and petticoat. I've seen a few other skirts that could work for Lolita, one of which sadly looked like an ita sort of skirt (scratchy, cheap lace, bad fabric choice). Unfortunately, one problem Hot Topic skirts and dresses have is that they are usually shorter than a proper Lolita skirt. In the case of my sailor dress, I just layer a plain white fabric petticoat underneath so it looks like a ruffle at the bottom edge. An alternative would be to add a ruffle to the bottom of a skirt. Hot Topic products are fairly inexpensive compared to brand and typically cost around as much as Bodyline.

Thrift Store
 My last recommendation for inexpensive off brand Lolita clothing is checking your local thrift stores. It has become increasingly harder for me to find blouses that fit (even my home made ones are too tight at the shoulders now), so I've begun checking my local thrift stores to see if they have something that will work. Thrift stores are always give and take, so I recomend checking them as frequently as possible as well as keeping an eye out for modifyable pieces if you can sew. If your thrift store doesn't have a fitting room, I'd advise wearing tight fitting clothing so you can try items on in store and get a more acurate fitting than if you were to try something on over a JSK. And make sure to bring cash in case your thrift store doesn't accept card!

A Whole New World~

Hello everybody! So, lately while I've been getting back into Lolita I've discovered that there's a whole different side of Lolita than what I originally knew. Sure, I might have every major sub-type and several minor ones memorized as well as descriptions of each, but I've never bought Brand. Heck, I've only just recently made my first purchase from Bodyline despite years of drooling over their cute items. So I'm learning that all the knowledge in the world about the Lolita style itself comes down to diddly squat when trying to figure out how to buy that dress you've had your eyes on from Closet Child. So here's what I've learned so far about actually buying and obtaining Lolita clothing.

Paypal: A Girl's Best Friend
 The first thing I learned about when buying clothing online is how to pay for it. A lot of places such as Amazon and Vinted accept your credit or debit card, but when ordering Lolita clothing or buying second hand, Paypal is where it's at. Paypal allows you to transfer funds from your bank account to your Paypal account allowing you to buy items without any transaction fees. This takes 3-5 days (or more if there's a holiday) to acchieve though, so it's not the best option for buying something unexpected such as a desperate sale or an auction. Paypal also allows you to use your debit card like regular, but does charge a small fee for it. One of the nice things about Paypal is that should you not get your item you can always file a claim to get your money back. This only works if you use the 'business' option as oposed to the 'family' option when you're paying though, so be careful!

Budgeting
 Budgeting makes it a lot harder to spend all your money on that Twinkle Mermaid auction that just popped up when you really should be paying rent or bills. While it takes self control, I've found that budgeting helps me keep my finances stable so that when I do obtain pieces I enjoy I don't have to turn around and sell them in order to pay utilities. You can do whatever you want for your budget, but I chose to set a weekly spending limit of $40 for myself. This makes it so that I can still buy cute stuff, but I have to wait a while before buying which also makes it easier to avoid shopper's regret as I'll have several weeks to think about a more expensive item before actually buying it. What's that? You just bought a $200 JSK from Angelic Pretty? No problem. Your budget hasn't been completely blown as long as you lower your spending money for the next few weeks to make up for it. In this example, I'd lower my spending limit by $20 for 10 weeks (or 8 if I didn't buy anything else that week) so that I'd still have a weekly spending allowance, but not have to worry as much about the impact of that JSK on my finances.

Second Hand
 There's plenty of different places to look for second hand Lolita clothing. Lolita sales groups on Facebook and Lace Market. There's also eBay, Closet Child (in Japan and online), and EGL sales on LiveJournal. Prices vary depending on the item and its condition, but usually you can find Brand pieces for significantly less than originally priced. If you're good at removing stains and fixing small damages, you can get even cheaper items this way as many sellers will significantly decrease their prices if an item is damaged. I have yet to buy from any of these platforms, but I know most personal sellers take Paypay. I haven't figured out how to order from closet child yet, so I don't know if they would require a buying service or not.

EGL Forums, YouTube, Lolita Groups, Blogs, etc.
 There are numerous resources for finding out how to buy inexpensive Lolita online. Most of what I know has been gleaned from various sources. If you can, I would recomend finding a friend who's either into Lolita and used to buying online, or just one that frequently orders from overseas or online. Thanks to the help of one of my friends I was able to figure out how Pay Pal works so that I would be able to buy clothes and accessories online without having to worry as much about the integrity of my bank account.

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