In-Between-Houses Haul

After what feels like an ungodly amount of time, I have finished unpacking. This not only means no more boxes cluttering up my new space – it means access to my stuff. Well, not quite all of it, but enough so that life feels normal. And let me tell you, as soon as I knew that I’d be moving out, my system fried, overloaded with conflicting messages of “you must save” and “you must treat yourself while you can”. Long story short, here are the lolita things I bought recently.

Finally, you're mine!

Not sure if you can tell, but there's glitter in the strawberries.

Love those finishing touches. No wonder these pieces kept selling out.

Let’s start off with what feels like the biggest victory ever: the Fancy Crepe necklace in mint. I’m not sure whether I hate AP or myself more for loving a piece of plastic jewellery so much that I attempted to get it six bloody times, yet here we are. My sixth time proved lucky, as I decided to contact Chibi Tenshi instead of Muuh or Mint Kismet. Chibi Tenshi is based in a smaller city than the other two (which isn’t hard when your competition is Tokyo and Osaka respectively), so I figured if anyone could get it for me, it’d be her. And she did. It is in every aspect as obscenely adorable as I wished and, crucially, it matches Diner Doll perfectly. AP Paris still has the matching ring up on their website and I won’t lie, I’m tempted as hell. At least the current shitty exchange between the pound and the euro makes resisting easier…

Since I already had an open order, might as well, right?

Both the tulle and the lace are so soft. The perfect cool shade of dark brown (AP would probably call it bitter in their chocolate stuff).

Since Chibi Tenshi managed to get that necklace, I jumped in on the opportunity to get a pair of wrist cuffs off Fril or Mercari (I honestly can’t remember). These are from Innocent World and on the listing photo they looked like exactly the shade of brown I needed – and they were! They match the blouse I intended these for perfectly, which means they will also match some of the other brown items I have. Truth be told, they’re not the style of wrist cuffs that I normally would’ve gone for. I prefer mine fluffier and wider, lace rather than pleats, however as I couldn’t find what I like in the colour I needed, I went for these instead. Should I ever find something better, I’ll probably replace these, but for now they live with me. I was also able to sell my previous brown wrist cuffs basically straight away and to a very good home too, so all worked out great there!

This is probably the most accurate colour representation.

I'm still not entirely sure why rose lace on strawberry themed wrist cuffs, but who am I to question Innocent World?

I love that the strawberry theme is so subtle.

These weren’t the only wrist cuffs I got though, not even the only ones from Innocent World. As it was the season for summer sales, I browsed what all the various brands had going on and these caught my eye. Not for the first time either, as I first spotted them, along with the matching socks, back in March when I visited the Innocent World shop in Osaka. As much as I would’ve loved the socks too, I couldn’t justify these at the time, so only got the wrist cuffs. I had remembered them as a little bit more true red than they actually are, they lean ever so slightly wine, though not enough to make a massive difference. They will still compliment all the pieces I had in mind and the lace on these is so lovely and soft. These are much more my taste when it comes to wrist cuff shape and hopefully I’ll be able to wear these soon.

Again, this is the more accurate to colour. My camera really doesn't like wine red and wants to brighten it into true red.

Inobtrusive branding is best branding.

This was another total impulse purchase, this time through Instagram. Although I’ve been thinking about trying out brand turtlenecks for some time now, up until this one I haven’t found one I’d like. As it was also sold via Instagram only, and for an acceptable price too, the impulse buy mentality kicked in and I messaged the seller as soon as I saw the story post. To my relief, it fits and wasn’t too problematic to put on or take off, so I look forward to wearing this more when the weather cools down (well, cools down more). I have this really cosy coord idea in mind with Whipped Cream Kitty – and maybe even something festive with Lady Sloth’s Winter Spices print! Which kind of makes me want some festive socks…

It may not look like much on its own, though the renaissance vibes the sleeves have sucked me in.

A grey that photographs, well, grey, Even if there are some hints of lavender undertones.

The bodice is entirely shirring, so this should be comfy as hell to wear.

I’ve found this one in quite an unusual way. When reading Saxon Blues’ post about unconventional places to buy lolita from, I clicked on a link for one of the blouses. While that particular one seemed to be unavailable or only available in the USA, I ignored it, but this blouse caught my eye in the ‘people also bought’ tab. Through some fiddling, I managed to find a listing that was shipping from China and I decided to take the risk. At £10 if it hadn’t worked out, I wouldn’t have lost much, when I could potentially gain a grey blouse to match my black pieces (and some other ones) with a neckline that works best on me. And it worked out! The blouse is very short, though it doesn’t matter as it’ll be under JSKs. It’s not the best thing out there, you definitely get what you pay for with quality, but at that price I really am not complaining. The listing also had some other colours, so if it’s still available after I test it out a bit more, I may give in.

Not quite bubblegum pink, not quite peachy pink. It's a good thing that I'm not super obsessed with colour matching (despite what the brown wrist cuffs' story might tell you).

The material and all the laces are so soft. For a 100% polyester chiffon, this feels the least polyester-like.

I am in love with those sleeve details!

Freebies. Luckily I got different colours/designs of things this time compared to last.

Technically I bought this blouse a while ago, since I got it on preorder, but I can’t be bothered making a separate post about it. I was going to, but too much effort. Anyhow, this is my first blouse from Dear Celine and, just like the dress before it, it arrived with some freebies. More importantly, however, it fits like a glove! Obviously, I wouldn’t buy it if I didn’t think that it’d fit, yet anyone with a bust over 80cm quickly learns to not expect anything when it comes to lolita blouses. There was absolutely zero gaping at the chest and despite it being chiffon, the material isn’t particularly see-through, which means that I could even wear this with skirts. True, the sleeve cuffs could’ve been elasticated for extra comfort, but they fit, so I’ll stop being picky. So tempted to get this in more colours now…

The font in which 'Crown Label' is written reminds me so much of the Disney font.

IT'S A KITTEH! Look at this adorable face, I wanna pet it!

If all cosmetic ads looked like this, I would never stop buying. Kittens like this could sell me anything!

Bad timing in that Irregular Choice announced rubber duck shoes - and now I want those stupidly cute shoes to go with my stupidly cute rubber ducks on Bubble Bath.

Oh, and speaking of skirts – I am now a proud and happy owner of Bubble Bath! Since maybe the beginning of this year, I’ve been stalking all the Closet Child branches via Twitter. Many of the things they stock never make it to the website, as they sell out that quickly, and they do get some real gems. And so one day I spotted this skirt posted to Closet Child Ikebukuro’s feed. Muuh wasn’t available for in-store purchase at that time, so I desperately looked for another shopping service. I actually found so many, but majority of them only did online shopping – until I found RinRin Tokyo Shopping Service. When I found the page, the name seemed familiar and I think I saw someone else on Instagram mention them in their stories, so I messaged and long story short, the skirt is now mine. RinRin Tokyo SS is a one-woman operation and she was wonderful from start to finish, keeping me informed, answering promptly and being very honest (she refunded me something like ¥200 because the postage turned out less than estimated). So if you’re ever in a pinch and need a shopping service with great communication, reasonable fees and who’s based in Tokyo, consider them.

This little review aside, I am absolutely in love with Bubble Bath! I knew I would be, but as always with lolita pieces, they look so much better in person. The first thing I noticed was the texture in the print, which I never even knew about. The material is very light cotton, which would’ve been ideal for the heatwave we had last weekend, except that all the rest of my frills were still packed away then. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll find (or make) an occasion soon. And all those adorable kitties! I doubt anyone at Meta ever actually tried to give a kitty a bath, because most times it doesn’t go this adorably, which is also a reason why I love this print so much. It’s KITTIES! And they’re HAVING A BATH! With LOTS OF BUBBLES! Not gonna lie, if I ever come across the pinafore JSK of this print, I might cave in and buy that too for extra kitties and cuteness – for now I shall live my bubble bath dreams with the skirt.

And that’s all from the things that have arrived so far. My Haenuli order has shipped, though the tracking has been stuck at “departed with flight XYZ from Incheon Airport” for maybe a week now – whatever happened, it’s not here yet. Though when it does arrive, I’ll do a proper unboxing and post about it. Hopefully by then I will have figured out the best filming and photo spots in my flat. Don’t worry, I plan on testing that out soon – this weekend is the last one before I start my new job, after having all of August off, and I am in VERY SERIOUS need of wearing my frills!