Review: Btssb children's book

Hello dears, I recently bought the new children's book from Btssb and I want to make a little review about it.

When I saw the release announcement on the website of Btssb, I directly thought I neeeed that book, because it is full of drawings with Usakumya and Kumakumya, and you probably already know how much I love them! Plus the book comes with a little Usakumya plush, so I can get another one for my family *o*

However when I recived the book, I was a little disappointed. The problem is I didn't thought of it as an actual children's book, but more as an artbook with pages full of detailed master pieces of my favorite characters. However the drawings are just normal drawings, of course very cute, but still more dedicated for children.

However the drawings are not bad or anything, and also not worse than the cover. Actually they are exactly like the cover, so again, I don't know how I could develope such wrong expectations haha.

Sooo for the actual content, the book has 22 pages and the story looks very cute (something about visiting a princess castle and dressing up in Lolita clothes, what else would you expect haha). The paper and the print have high-quality.

However the Usakumya plush has not such high quality, which added to my disappointment. It is definitely not like the normal Usakumyas which you can buy at the Btssb store. The fur is different, the satin on the hands and feet feels very cheap, and the eyes are sewed on too far from each other which makes my Usakumya looks a little creepy haha.

 Of course I know that the quality of such mooks has to be overall cheaper than the real deal, because first the price is lower (2800yen for the mook, while a Usakumya alone costs ~4700yen in the store [not related but I just wanna mention here that Btssb rises the price with every release, it used to be ~3500yen haha]), second the price also includes the book and packaging of the mook next to the plush, and third the price also includes winning margin for both Btssb and the publishing company. So there had to be some cutbacks to make this mook still profitable.

I'm just mentioning it here, so in case you are thinking "let's get the mook so I can get a Usakumya for a cheaper price", don't buy the mook. However the mook is not a complete waste of money, if you are a collector like me, or you are a Lolita mom who can read hiragana, then go get it!

You can still buy the mook here at CDJapan: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2025028

I hope this review was a little helpful, and if you have more questions about the mook then just ask in the comments :)

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

REVIEW: Eternita Magazine + Under the Sea Event scans

In October, a new magazine called Eternita was released in Japan. The name seems to me like a mix of eternal and Lolita. It actually has a few english words on the cover which say: "Fashion magazine for grown-up Alices". And indeed this magazine is dedicated to grown up Lolita Fashion or Otome styles.

At the beginning it shows items from basically all the Otome brands like Milk, Pink House, Leur Getter, Michal Negrin and many more. Then it follows with items from all major Lolita brands, like Angelic Pretty, Btssb, Innocent World etc., but it only shows the grown-up pieces of those brands.

After that they present some tutorials for natural hair styles and make-up, as well as a bigger chapter about handmade items. They show 15 tutorials for small sewing projects and accessories, which is quite a lot compared to the Lolita Bible. I find them quite inspiring and I even found a few I would like to recreate.

The last pages are event snaps with a full page of the Under the Sea event! (You can view all outfit pictures and more pictures of the event at the Facebook page of Eternita *here* ^_^).

Overall I like the magazine, it has comparable quality to the Lolita Bible, but it is definitely more related to Otome than Lolita style. So I recommend it more for people who are interested in Otome or very natural Lolita styles.

Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

REVIEW: Bunny House - petticoat, blouse, boleros

Bunny House is a vietnamese brand which sells petticoats, blouses and cardigans for affordable prices. I bought a petticoat over 1,5 years ago and a blouse + cardigans several months ago. I can really recommend this brand, so I wanted to write a review for you!


Bell-shaped Petticoat
I bought size "super large", which is the poofiest one. And it is indeed really poofy, so poofy that it didn't fit under my dresses and I had to remove a layer. After a few months the petticoat lost its poof a little because all the ruffles were pressed together from sitting etc. and became flat, HOWEVER you can easily make it completely poofy again through ironing it! So I would say you need to iron the petticoat every few months but if you do it, it will stay with you for many years.

Size: The waist AND length is costum size, and it had exactly the measurements I wanted.

Quality: the Tulle is very durable but needs ironing from time to time to make it fluffy again.

Price: 40$ for size "super large" + 20$ shipping

(I ordered the color dark pink, my picture was taken at bad light so it appears more yellow than it really is).

Amethyst Miracle Blouse
I can't tell you how much I love this blouse, it is SO BEAUTIFUL and the quality is amazing! I still can't believe that I get such a great product for such a low price, considering that the blouse is comepletely costum-sized! I can strongly recommend it!

Size: The size is completely costum-made! In fear of getting a too small bouse, I added 2-3cm everywhere but I really didn't had to do it, because they create the blouse very accurate to your measurements. The princess-sleeves are very huge and long, the edge of the sleeve is actually longer than my dresses xD. But this is what I love about the blouse the most!!
Also I want to add that I asked them to remove the elastic + ribbon at the sleeve (because I thought it would look unflattering on me) and they easily could do it :)

Quality: The blouse is made from chiffon. It has a great soft feeling, seems to be very durable and it is not see-through. The buttons are very pretty and the organza ribbons have a great quality too.

Price: 67$ + 5$ plus-size + 15$ shipping

(I ordered the color ivory).

Summer Bouquet Bolero
Again the quality is amazing and the bolero is beautiful! I love it and it fits perfectly to my Angelic Pretty items.

Size: The size is very accurate, exactly how I wanted it. Only the elastic at the arms is a little tight, so I recommend you to add your arm circumfence to your measurements.

Quality: Again the chiffon has a very high quality and is not see-through. I ordered the pink colorway and it is exactly the same color like in the pictures.

Price: 45$ + 5$ plus-size + 15$ shipping

(I ordered the color pink).

Katié Frills Blooming Night Bolero
This is the only item I direclty sold. The size and quality were really great. However I also ordered this one with a little bigger measurements than my actual size, and it ended up too big for me. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem, however the frills around the neck are quite large and were very unflattering for me, because I have a small head and they made my shoulders look really big and my head even smaller. So especially if you are plus-size I don't recommend it if you already have large shoulders and/or a small head.

Price: 58$ + 5$ plus-size + 20$ shipping (however you can combine shipping if you order several items, so I didn't had to pay shipping for each single item).

(I ordered the color pink but the stock picture is white).

I hope this review was helpful and if you have any more questions, you can ask me :)

Angelic Pretty 3way Bag Book REVIEW

I recently purchased the newest e-mook by Angelic Pretty! I already own 2 e-mook bags by Angelic Pretty and I love their quality and use them nearly every day! And since I'm in need of a bigger Lolita bag, I decided to buy this e-mook too.

I bought it *here* at CDJapan for 20€ + shipping (I always choose the cheapest shipping SAL, which is around 10€ and without tracking and insurance, but I never lost a package from CDJapan, and it needs 2 weeks to arrive). An Angelic Pretty bag for ~30€ sounds like a very good deal, doesn't it???

What is the difference between a mook and an e-mook? A mook is a crossover between a book + magazine, while an e-mook is a mook which also contains a freebie. There are two different kinds of e-mooks: some e-mooks contain an actual mook with interesting information, while other e-mooks doesn't contain a mook at all but instead contain a small flyer with 5 pages, and the main purpose of those e-mooks is to actually sell the freebie.

The bag was wrapped in a nice package.

Even if the package was already quite big, the bag was still a bit squeezed inside.

This is how the bag looks directly after taking it out of the package. The bow and the small handle are a little squeezed, but just try to flatten the handle with your fingers, the dents will go away. The bow is harder to get in shape, I think I will use hot glue to make it stay perfectly. But it doesn't look that bad so you don't have to use glue if you don't want to.

The Angelic Pretty logo is embroidered! It looks very elegant.

The quality of the fake leather is VERY GOOD. Actually, the quality is even better than the quality of their normal expensive bags, because for their normal bags, they always use a very thin and soft fake leather, which rubs and peels off very quickly. The bag is also very sturdy and can hold a lot of things. I can put inside a bottle, cell phone, iPod, tissues, make up, folding umbrella and sunglasses and still have space left! However if you thinking about using it for school, I would say it is a little too small to carry more than 1 book.

Do I recommend the bag? YES!

Here a coordinate with my Castle Mirage dress. The color matches perfectly!

I hope this review was helpful!
Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

Taobao + TaobaoSpree Review ("AP" Shell bag, "Prisila" hair pieces, F+F cape)

Recently I ordered some items from Taobao. Originally I just wanted shoes, but I thought for just ordering the shoes, it would be to expensive with all the shipping fees, so I ordered other stuff too. But then the shopping service told me that the shoes were sold-out, so I ended up just ordering the other stuff xD

I ordered 1 shell bag, 3 hair pieces, 1 chiffon cape and 1 hair accessory.

Shell bag: Link
I know the bag is a replica of AP. But I think the quality of AP bags is really bad, and it was sold out anyway, so I bought this bag. The quality of this bag is good! #Sorrynotsorry AP!

Shop picture

My picture

Hair pieces:  Link 1 Link 2
These are replicas from Prisila. I own(ed) Prisila items and I didn't liked the quality of them either. And for 6000 Yen per hair piece I should expect something better. The quality the replicas are okay. The hair is a bit shiny, real Prisila looks more realistic. Also the color is slightly different than from the original ones, so it looks a little more fake too and doesn't fit my natural hair color as good as the Prisila ones. But I still like them and with a few hair accesories, I can cover the color difference well :)

Chiffon cape: Link
This cape is from Fan + Friend (no replica, they also have a Taobao store!). The fabric is nice and soft, however it has a little chemical smell. But I think after washing it in the washing mashine, it will go away. It also looks nice with my Lolita dresses, althought it could be a tiny bit longer, since I have a large bust. But I think you can request a costum size if you order directly from F+F, so keep this in mind if you also have a larger bust :). The cape also have a clever pearl necklace, it prevents the cape from moving or slipping down!

Shop picture

Japanese hair accessory: Link
Recently I watched many documentaries about japanese culture and I wanted something traditional for my Lolita items, so I bought this accessoire which is usually worn with a Kimono. It is handmade and looks very nice! I love it.

My picture

Shopping Service: Link
I paid 116€ for the items + 60€ shipping to Germany. Yes you read right, 60€ for shipping.... I was a little shocked by the price because I expected something like 20€ for such a small package. However after the package arrived, I knew why it was so expensive. The package arrrived in ONE DAY!!! From China to my appartment, only 1 day! And 1 day means, they shipped it with DHL Express! I don't know if they have normal DHL available but if I order again, I will definitly check it before.

The service itself was very nice, they do speak english quite well and answer quickly. I can recommend them.

I hope this review was helpful.
Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3

2 new Angelic Pretty Mooks - REVIEW

Hello!
Here are two reviews about the new Angelic Pretty mooks which were released this year!

~*~ Folding Umbrella Mook ~*~

At the beginning of the year some AP models posted pictures of a photoshoot on Twitter, and they said that the photoshoot is for the new AP mook. So when AP announced this mook in February, I thought it would be the real mook. But it is NOT! This mook is actually just the umbrella, but as a bonus you get a small flyer with 8 pages of pictures from the newest fashion show.

Positive:
The design itself is really pretty. The fabric has nice colors and of course the Cinema Doll print is wonderful! It makes me want to buy the dress >_<

Negative:
The quality of the umbrella is okay, nothing more. It has the same quality like my umbrellas I buy for 2€ at the drug store!!! So you can use it in light rain or sun, but no heavy rain or wind.

Do I recommend it?
~ If you just look for a pretty umbrella which is worth the money, NO.
~ If you love Angelic Pretty and don't care about overpriced brand prices and want a pretty umbrella, then YES.

~*~ Day Dream Carnival Mook ~*~

This is the actual mook! It's different from the mook which was released last year. The old one had more information like history of AP, print gallery and interviews. This one has more pictures. I think the pictures are better this year, but it's just personal taste.

Positive:
I love the chapters about the AP mascots and the baking ideas. The mascot chapter is informative, for example they show you all the different ponys or bunnys they ever had! And the baking chapter is very inspiring, all the stuff look just like the real prints! You will love it even if you are not a fan of baking or even of Angelic Pretty, because it looks so amazing.
(Btw you can get a translation of the recipes here but you don't really need them, the recipes are very basic, you can just use your favourite recipe with a lot of food coloring and then decorate like hell xD).

The bag is also nice and sturdy, I think you can transport heavy things with it like you can with the bag from the old mook (I often transport 3-4 ltr of water with it, it works!). In comparision to the old bag, the print looks better, but the shoulder straps look uglier. Of course it doesn't have the same quality like a normal AP bag and I wouldn't buy the mook just because of the bag, but otherwise it is a useful totebag.

Negative:
What I don't like about the mook is that the main focus is not on knowledge, but on recent prints and events. Most pages are just advertisement for new items. Of course you have pretty pictures but they are not very different from the GLB or Kera ads.
Also they could have put more effort into the photoshoots. Most also have only the quality of GLB or Kera, that means they were made in front of a neutral (boring) background. 

Do I recommend it? 
~ If you are an Angelic Pretty fan, YES.
~ If you want a mook with pretty pictures and just want to collect it, even if you are not an Angelic Pretty fan, YES.
~ If you are looking for great inspirational photoshoots or knowledge about Angelic Pretty, NO.

The mook has 64 pages. Now I will go through the content with some pictures:

1. Chapter: Photoshoot with Tina Tamashiro

2. Chapter: Newest items

3. Chapter: Matching outfits for every month

 4. Chapter: Pictures and Information about the Glorious Night Carnival event

5. Chapter: Information about all(?) mascots/characters

6. Chapter: Baking recipes

7. Chapter: Greeting Cards which you can cut out

I hope this review is helpful.
Thank you for reading,
Miuko~ <3