YesStyle: First Haul

I’m so excited to share my first haul from YesStyle! I’ve checked out this site before but was wary of purchasing from it because there were so many items and I wasn’t even sure where to start. I finally decided to jump in during their spring sale and get a bunch of things at great deals. They offer free shipping if you spend $35 or more (and I hate paying for shipping, so free shipping is something I always look out for). Everyday, they also have Free Gifts you can claim. I totally forgot to claim a free gift during this haul, so I have to claim one next time.

On top of any sales going on at the moment, use the code “3PEARLS” to get an additional discount off your entire order! ^_^

Now, let’s take a look at my haul:

In my day-to-day life, I wear a lot of black… so of course, most of my new wardrobe additions are black too. I just find this color so easy to match! I got four tops in black during this haul.

  1. Short-Sleeve Mock-Neck Knit Top – ★★★☆☆ – This top isn’t the best quality (feels cheaply made, and there were lots of loose threads), but it was less than $10 so I can’t complain. It’s a stretchy fabric and the zipper is fully functional. The size chart was accurate.
  2. Heart Cutout Short-Sleeved T-Shirt – ★★★★☆ – I was worried about sizing for this item, but a size Medium fit me perfectly! The T-shirt’s cotton material was super soft, and the sheer heart cutout inset was surprisingly smooth. The inset wasn’t itchy like I thought it would be. I found this shirt to be higher quality than the first one.
  3. Bell-Sleeve Chiffon Blouse – ★★★★☆ – Love this item! The fabric is so pretty and it drapes well when worn. It’s better quality than I expected; the only thing I dislike about it is the button at the back of the neck. This button was difficult to do and undo (but I tend to have difficulty with buttons when they’re in the back). It’s sheer, so I recommend wearing a camisole with it.
  4. Ruffle Trim Blouse – ★★★☆☆ – This is a very stylish top, but the photos on the website are not accurate. The top I received had smaller ruffles than what is shown on the website stock photos. This isn’t a big deal though; it still looks fine when worn.

Besides my black tops, I also got some clothing pieces in other colors.

  1. Strappy Ruffled Floral Top – ★★★☆☆ – This top is super cute but feels cheaply made. I thought it would be embroidered, but the white floral patterns are printed on. The fabric is very thin, but not see-through. I had to cut off a lot of loose threads.
  2. Sheer Long-Sleeved Blouse + Camisole – ★★★★☆ – This set really impressed me! The quality is great, and both the camisole and the blouse fit me perfectly. The only complaint I have: there are three buttons on the back of the neck… I always have difficulty doing and undoing buttons at the back of the neck, so having 3 to deal with is frustrating for me (and I’m tempted to just… not button the back). If anyone has tips for doing these buttons efficiently, let me know! I have too many black shirts, but I’m tempted to get this in the black colorway as well…
  3. Plaid A-Line Pinafore Dress – ★★★★☆ – This is the priciest item in my haul, but it was still less than $20. I wasn’t sure if Size S or Size M would fit me better, so I chose Medium to be safe. I’m glad I did! It has a loose fit when you first put it on, but you can tighten it around the waist with the attached buckles. There were a few loose threads, and the acrylic blend feels a bit itchy which is why I didn’t rate it 5 stars.

I also couldn’t resist adding a few accessories to my haul…

  1. Faux Leather Heart Buckle Belt – ★★★☆☆ – This belt is super cute!! But the faux leather is… really faux. It feels almost like paper or cardboard. Definitely be gentle with this belt; I’m not sure how long it will last if you’re rough with it. The first photo in this post is a pic of me wearing the belt. It looks great when worn! I wish the quality was nicer, but for less than $5, I can’t complain.
  2. 925 Sterling Silver Non-matching Rhinestone Moon Dangle Earrings – ★★★☆☆ – These earrings are so cute! I wish they had metal backings though. The backings they came with are the clear plastic kind, that you sometimes find with hook earrings. They are difficult to put on and remove from stud earrings. The photos on the website are also inaccurate: the chain on the longer mismatched earring is longer in the photos than the one I received.
  3. 925 Sterling Silver Petal Hook Earrings – ★★★★☆ – These earrings are so pretty and elegant! I wish they came with backings, but it’s no big deal. I might use the backings on the other pair of earrings with this one, and then share my other stud backings with the mismatching earrings I got. Both sets of earrings are real sterling silver; I have sensitive ears and I didn’t have a reaction to either of these.

If you shop at YesStyle, let me know if you have any of these items!

If you’re going to shop now, check out their Limited Deals for great discounts. Use the code “3PEARLS” to get an additional discount off your entire order when you shop.

Happy Spring Shopping!~ ❀

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Lolita Fashion on Taobao (Part 3): 11/11 Edition!

Have you heard of 11/11? 11/11 is Singles’ Day and is a huge shopping festival with lots of sales, discounts, lucky bags, etc. You can shop the sales at Taobao, Tmall, AliExpress.com, and some other stores and websites participate as well.

Even though I could care less about Black Friday sales… I love browsing and shopping during 11/11! Sometimes, I spend hours just online window shopping. And when the budget allows for it, snagging some great deals during 11/11 is the best!

Some of the Taobao stores display their 11/11 sales more obviously than other. When you’re on certain pages, you may be able to see a promo for the 11/11 like the following for Bobon21:

Bobon21 is a shop with gyaru, larme, etc. styles and some pieces can be loliable!

On Empty Wardrobe, you can see where the promotion is outlined under the second little red box under the price, where you see 11/11-11/11:

The promotion above is for every 200 spent, you can get 20 discounted – and there’s no cap.

At Confession Ballon, you can even buy 1 blouse and get the second blouse free:

On some shops, like Rotate Ballet, you can see the 11/11 sale banner bright and clear:

I’ve had my eye on the brand Yolanda for a while, and it looks like they have a bunch of 11/11 discounted items too:

I’ve never purchased anything from the above shops before, so I can’t vouch for quality, but they have great ratings from Taobao shoppers from what I’ve seen in customer reviews and photos on the site. If you’ve purchased from any of these stores, definitely share your thoughts! And of course, share any other 11/11 deals that you find.

To make it easier to shop and browse, I also recommend the Google Chrome extension that automatically translates webpages. This only works on text though, so text within images are a no-go.

For search keywords, check out Part 1 of my guide.

For shops I’ve purchased from in the past, check out Part 2 of my guide.

Happy Shopping!

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Lolita Fashion on Taobao (Part 1)

Hey everyone! One of my friends recently got into lolita fashion and wanted a guide to affordable lolita items. I still have my MBOK guide up, I wrote up my first experience with Taobao, and I wrote a post for a Lolita Blog Carnival prompt about Favorite Taobao Shops & Pieces, but I never created a guide to great places to get lolita items on Taobao.

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So, what is Taobao?

Taobao is like a Chinese eBay or Amazon. There are tons of different stores and sellers!

Since the pricing is all in Chinese Renminbi (also known as Chinese Yuan), you’ll need to check conversion rates to see how much it’ll cost in your own currency. Definitely keep in mind shipping fees and shopping service fees, if you choose to use a shopping service. I heard there’s a way you can purchase from Taobao directly now and have them forward packages to you, but I’m still most comfortable with a shopping service since they can help answer my questions about products and give me peace of mind.

In my own experience, I’ve purchased clothes (lolita as well as non-lolita), shoes, wigs, false lashes, cosplays, and accessories from Taobao. I’ve also purchased a bag from Taobao too (my beloved Japanese-style school bag that was my go-to convention bag for over a year)!

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Wig from Taobao (fashion wig I used for my Sara Crispino [Yuri on Ice] cosplay)

Taobao is a lot of fun to browse, but can get overwhelming. I’ve definitely spent way too much time browsing Taobao… For example, being on Taobao and looking at all the things I want to add to my wishlist, and then I glance at the clock and wonder how the heck it is already past 2am?!

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Wig from Taobao (photo by theamazingknight)

Another thing that took a lot of time to figure out is… navigating! I speak Teochew/Chao Zhou, but not Mandarin (and I never learned how to read or write Chinese; I only know how to read numbers and a few characters). It was really difficult at first and I literally put things through Google Translate. Of course, Google Translate only works so far (like how it translates “product” as “baby” since the character for “precious item” is also “baby,” and products are listed as such). And Google Translate does not work on text within images. Most of the time, sizing is displayed in an image, so here are some sizing-related translations to help (Chinese (simplified) is on the left, and English is on the right):

  • 尺码 — sizing
  • 高 — height
  • 胸 — bust/chest
  • 腰 — waist
  • 臀 — hips
  • 长 — length
  • 宽 — width
  • 围 — circumference

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Skirt from SurfaceSpell

Something else that confused me when I first browsed Taobao was the number of “deposit” or “reservation” items there were. I didn’t realize this meant they weren’t currently in stock. 定金 (deposit) and 预约 and 预定 (reservation) mean you have to pay a deposit to be able to eventually get the item. From my understanding, you need to purchase the item from the reservation page before you’ll be able to purchase the item on the 尾款 (post-reservation, I guess? the actual item) page. I’ve never purchased something from Taobao that was a reservation since I was always paranoid about not paying the shopping service in time for the post-reservation item page. If anyone has experience with reservation items on Taobao, let me know! I’m curious to hear what the actual process is like. I remember once I tried to buy an item from the 尾款 page and my shopping service said I can’t since I didn’t participate in the reservation.

Here are some useful terms you can use while searching for clothing and accessory items relevant to lolita fashion on Taobao:

  • Dress (OP): 连衣裙
  • JSK: 無袖洋裝
  • Salopette: 背心裙 or 背带裙
  • Skirt:  裙 or 裙子 or 半身裙
  • Blouse: 衬衫 or 女衬衫
  • Petticoat: 襯裙
  • Bloomers:安全裤 or 南瓜裤 or 燈籠褲 or 灯笼裤
  • Cardigan: 小外套
  • Bolero: 短外套
  • Capelet/short cloak: 短斗篷
  • Lolita shoes:  洋装鞋
  • Round headdress: 丸 型发饰
  • Bonnet: 系带帽子
  • Gothic headdress (usually with veils!): 哥特头饰
  • Flower crown: 花环 头饰
  • Beret: 贝雷帽
  • Straw hat:  草帽
  • Lace socks: 复古蕾丝短袜
  • Lace gloves: 蕾丝手套
  • Wrist cuffs: 蕾丝手镯
  • Parasol: 洋傘

When I search, I also add in “lolita” sometimes to see what shows up.

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Cutsew from Dear Celine

Here are some style terms that were fun to use for Taobao searches too:

  • Gothic: 哥特
  • Victorian: 維多利亞
  • Rococo: 洛可可
  • Country: 田园
  • Punk: 朋克
  • Steampunk: 蒸汽朋克
  • Retro/Vintage: 复古
  • Sailor:  水手服
  • Floral: 碎花
  • Oil painting style (those classical painting prints!): 油画风
  • Lace: 蕾丝
  • Tartan/Plaid: 苏格兰格子
  • Cross/Crucifix: 十字架 粉

If anyone wants stuff added to this list, just let me know! I’m happy to update this. Over the years, everything I learned about Taobao were from a trial and error through Google Translate and Chinese dictionaries, lurking on LiveJournal, reading blogs, and browsing Taobao-related things on Tumblr. I did pop over to CGL on 4Chan for a bit to see if I could learn about Taobao but 4Chan really scares me and the posting format confuses me so I spent barely any time on there.

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One of my fave purchases from Taobao: a JSK from Chess Story!

I will definitely write another guide after this one, so stay tuned! My next one will be simple: a list of my favorite Taobao shops that are relevant to lolita. I’ll note if I’ve purchased from them before, or not yet. Stay tuned!

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