Sanrio.com review: Little Twin Stars watch + backpack, Hello Kitty coin bank

hello everyone! i made an order with sanrio.com recently, and the items arrived today so i thought i would give you a little review. i made a short review of sanrio once before, but i think it's good to share repeated experiences with a company and show what's good about these specific products.

what i ordered was a little twin stars watch for my mom, a backpack for me, and with our total we could also add a hello kitty coin bank for free! sanrio often does free giveaways like this where they'll include freebies with an order over a certain amount. unlike other stores though, the amount usually isn't crazy high like over $100. for example, right now if you spend $75 or more you get a free hello kitty perfume and free shipping, and with a purchase of any amount you get a free shopping bag. cool, huh?

the only problem with this is that i think you can only apply one code at a time, so you might have to choose. i chose the coin bank freebie over free shipping.

so, onto the unboxing!

it came in a big regular brown box as usual, but as soon as i opened it i found a cute surprise!

it's cute hello kitty tissue paper!!

it was itemized on the receipt as a free bonus and i don't know why, but i love it. it was just folded nicely on top and wasn't wrapping anything so i'm saving it! it's really cute.

underneath the paper was the free coin bank! i wasn't expecting it to be so big and ceramic, but since it's usually like $30 i think, it was definitely worth the value.

 

 it's really cute! the paint job is really nice quality and it's not too fragile to use. as you can see it's pretty big in relation to my DVDs behind it. it fit nicely on this TV cabinet though so i'm displaying it there! it's so cute and i'll definitely be using it for saving up my loose change.

underneath the bank, nicely protected with bubble wrap and cardboard was the watch!

i love this watch! it really suits my mom and i'm so glad we got it for her. it came in a nice plastic case printed with a pink little twin stars logo:

 

and has a cute tag attached to it:

the band is printed very nicely with adorable little twin stars related bows and stars, and the face has kiki and lala with a free-floating star charm.

 

i don't know if the star charm is supposed to be free inside the watch face like that, but i don't see where it would normally attach so i think it's intended to be like that. the design of the entire watch is super cute! the quality is also really good and doesn't look cheap at all.

my only qualm is that there's a japanese warning or alert of some kind on the box that i don't know enough japanese to read. we haven't checked out the booklet yet though so there may be a translation in there.

underneath the watch was my backpack, covered with some brown paper:

it was protected in a clear plastic bag that had a hole for the tag to stick out. i love when products have such cute tags! i always save them.

now, i'd been eyeing this backpack since i saw it on tumblr ages ago but i only recently saw that it was for sale on the US site. it's become a popular item in fairy-kei and other kawaii culture fashions and i can see why! the design is absolutely perfect, and i think this is now the cutest bag i own.

the size of the design on the front is perfect, and all the colors are wonderful. the print quality is really nice as well. 

since it's supposed to be a backpack for a really little kid, i wondered if the sturdiness and size would be ok. well, the material is fantastic. it's very sturdy and seems like it could easily carry a lot of weight without warping or getting damaged. it was actually adjusted too big for me and i had to tighten the straps. 

all the colors of the backpack are totally perfect but i love how the straps have such a wonderful complementing lavender on them. the little stars are so cute and the straps are padded so it's comfortable to carry. you could also carry it by the top loop if you dont want to wear it as a backpack.

the front pocket with kiki and lala on it is flat and lined partially with yellow waterproof plastic. i think it would be good for keeping your wallet and gum or other flat stuff in, since it doesn't seem to expand a lot.

the bigger pocket has lining on both sides, as well as a pocket that closes with velcro. the whole big pocket expands and seems to be able to hold a good amount! because it's a mini backpack though, i'd only really recommend using it as a purse. i don't think it'd be very good for toting a lot of school stuff and hefty textbooks, but it seems great for holding a big purse worth's of items. i think it'll be great for me to use this summer because i can put my sketchbook and planner in it.

i put my little twin stars keychain on it and it didn't scratch any of the pink off of the zipper either! 

 

♡ review breakdown ♡ 

sanrio.com services: 5/5 ♡

the shipping took longer than estimated but that worked out great for me because i was on spring break! i love the coin bank and think it is an awesome freebie, and love the extra tissue paper too. the prices of everything were fair and i was happy with everything about the transaction.

 watch: 5/5♡

  the quality and price were both good. it's a super cute watch!

backpack: 5/5♡

i couldn't be happier about the quality and design of the bag. it's so adorable and totally wonderful!

overall i was super happy with the whole order and will still be ordering from sanrio.com in the future as long as they stock little twin stars and other cute stuff i can't find anywhere else!

that's all for today! i have more for you all coming up soon about my spring break trip to st. louis, meeting they might be giants, and some cute things i got at the comic shop there. i also added a little bloglovin button to the sidebar so you can follow me on bloglovin now! please keep checking back for more posts and thank you for reading❣

Purikura - How to Cuteify Your Photos (Without an App!)

hey everyone~ you may have noticed i'm super into decorating my photos with cute pixel art, as you can see from my other posts and even my sidebar photo. 

well, i'd always been into the idea of purikura because of my love of stickers and decorating any empty space with cute things, but i was never satisfied with the apps available to do this online. i tried all the free online ones available, and i don't  have a smartphone, so i figured out my own technique for decorating my photos and making them a lot cuter to look at!

so, here is my method! anyone can do this at all, and it doesn't require much more artistic skill than knowing where to stick a sticker.

1. Get a Photo Editor

if you have photoshop, gimp, SAI, paint.net, or another image editor that works with layers you can do this. my laptop where i write my blog posts can't handle photoshop, so i use paint.net. both paint.net and gimp are free, small files!

2. Pick a photo

you can use purikura to add visual interest to a sparse photo, cover up things like your mailing label on a package or clutter in the background, fill empty space, or just make things cuter!

so, let's pick a boring photo we can make cute with some empty background space. 

3. Pick your deco

i pick my decorations from different pixel art blogs on tumblr. a few of my favorites are

• engrampixel -tons of cute pixels, all kinds of characters and letters, plus backgrounds, emoji sets, and blog buttons
• princess-pixel - cute themed posts full of specific pixel art
• mewpixie - great decorations and pretty pixel art scenes too!
• fuckyeahsubversivekawaii - not specifically deco but good if you want to put a good and cute looking feminist ideal on your photo
• transparent-flowers - not pixel art, but tons of beautiful high quality flowers, organized by color and number of petals, and already transparent for you

my favorite is engrampixel because of the search function and the fact that they have SO much, a lot of rare little twin stars stuff, and a good search function (but it only matches exact tags, so you might rather load up the whole blog and ctrl+f if you can't find what you want with the search bar).

4. Copy and paste the decoration you want

simply copy the deco you want to put on the photo and paste it on top in a new layer, like so:

 

if you hold shift while you resize, it keeps the proportion of your image the same so you don't end up stretching it out and making it look bad.

if you're using paint.net, make sure you have "pixelated" selected for quality if you want your pixel art to look like pixel art and not all smoothed out and blurry. if you're not using pixel art, you'll want it to be smooth.

 continue pasting and adding! if you lay transparent images over one another on the same layer in paint.net though and you overlap their spaces, it will cause the "background" of one image to obscure another. just make a new layer and paste the art in that layer if this happens.

5. finish and save your image!

 

i hope you breaking bad fans appreciate that i included a lily of the valley pixel omg

and there you have it! a super cute-ified photo that looks like it just came out of a japanese purikura machine. it's really easy and fun to do!

i hope this tutorial helped you guys out! you don't have to buy an app or use a sub-par website to decorate your pictures, you just need a little cut and paste know how and some cute art to use. 

Buying From Bodyline for Fairy Kei

hey everyone! i recently joined the cutest (and to my knowledge, only) Fairy-Kei Forum. i recommend checking it out if you're into fairy-kei! it got me thinking about writing a post about starting a fairy kei wardrobe, and i think a good place to get some items from is Bodyline.

if you're a lolita, you probably already know about bodyline. but if you don't know, it is a japanese company that sells really affordable, generally good quality lolita pieces. but they also sell punk and cosplay items like seifuku and full cosplays as well as random other sundry accessories and jewelry. i can't vouch for the quality of anything but their lolita section personally, but if you can't tell by looking if it is good quality, you could look up reviews or trust your shoppers' instincts. asking for a second opinion from someone with a good sense for that is always a good idea!

many people buy from bodyline for lolita, but i think it is an underutilized resource in terms of fairy-kei. there are some really good staple items there and not to mention, lolita and fairy-kei often have a big overlap in terms of what items can be used.

first of all, buying from bodyline is pretty easy. you just pick your items and add them to your cart like you would anywhere else, pay for it with paypal or credit or debit, and get it shipped to you. they do ship outside of japan, but i'm not sure of every place they ship. i think they have a fairly wide coverage of where they will ship to, so most likely, you do not need a shopping service. just always keep in mind that you have measurements and conversions correct!

so, let's take a look at what bodyline has to offer for fairy-kei!

let's start with the lolita section. there's a huge aesthetic similarity between fairy kei and sweet lolita-- pastels, fluffiness, and a huge interest in anything super cute.

but, some lolita items don't really look right in fairy-kei. FK doesn't have strict rules, but i tend to find coords intended as fairy-kei that use a lolita JSK or skirt more like sweet lolita. which is very cute, and i think a healthy amount of rulebreaking is necessary sometimes!! but it looks more like lolita to me. sometimes skirts can be successful with fairy kei i suppose, but these choices from their skirt section i think are better geared for fairy-kei than lolita.

i think this skirt looks more fairy-kei than lolita, and would work well in a FK coord. why? well, the sheerness of the fabric suggests the dreamy aesthetic of fairy-kei to me. it looks like the model is not 

wearing a petti, and while that is a big no-no in lolita, it would look adorable just like this with a pastel t-shirt and cardigan with cute accessories, wouldn't it? i even think it'd be cute in fairy-kei with the shoes and socks combo used here. the skirt also comes in black, white, and cream, and i think those are more lolita, but i think it'd be way too short for lolita with a petti.

i think this skirt is just perfect for fairy-kei. there are some variations of it on the site, and i like this one the best. it doesnt really seem lolita with the faux-acid-wash and near-miniskirt length. but i think the precedent of denim and dip-dyed jeans in fairy kei would make this a perfect addition to a FK wardrobe. i've heard acid wash jeans are bad for the environment and for workers who make them, but this item is just printed. i can imagine it with some pastel tights, high tops with legwarmers, and a cute hoodie!

bodylines' "cardigan" section has not just cardigans, but also boleros and cutesy sweatshirts (commonly called "parkas" by lolita brands). a lot of these are perfect for fairy-kei!

these cardigans are all cute for fairy-kei. i especially love the second one. check out the section for yourself! i think that "parkas" (sweatshirts) tend to look most fairy-kei oriented, over boleros which to me seem very lolita. cardigans sweaters really can go with any style and are a good versatile buy.

 

LET ME TELL YOU BOUT BODYLINE'S PANNIER SECTION.

in my opinion, a staple and necessary part of the fairy-kei wardrobe is pretty, fluffy tutus!! and if you look up reviews of bodyline's panniers, they SUCK as petticoats. but when poof for holding up a skirt isn't your objective, they have the prettiest tutus in tons of colors. plus: they're adult sized! a hard thing is finding tutus in sizes for adults, so this is a perfect opportunity.

a lot of these are sold out, but it just shows you how cute and perfect these are. check back for restocks. there are some i really want that are sold out!!

their drawers section has bloomers, which are commonly used in fairy-kei and look very cute!

 

 i think these are perfect just as shorts in some warm weather fairy-kei. they would also look cute with a tutu over them.

 

the headdress section is mostly awkward looking alice bows. i have no idea how well these look on an actual head, but mostly they look stiff like they're placed on the headband wrong. this one is cute, but we'll get to more bows in the sundry section.

 

 the socks section has a lot of cute socks in pastel colors, as well as some printed socks and legwarmers. 

the bag section doesn't have much pastel, and for whatever reason has a lot of new year's looking cat bags? but there are a few bags matching prints bodyline has sold.

 as for shoes, there is pretty much a usual range for lolita shoes, made the same way as brand shoes, but a tenth of the price. there are pastel mary janes, tea party shoes, and the like. i don't think lolita shoes are at all necessary for fairy-kei, but they can definitely be used and look very cute.

just make sure that when you buy shoes from bodyline, you measure your foot in centimeters before buying. their shoe sizes are in centimeters, and i've found that using a size converter will get you way different results.

the punk section actually has replicas of those pastel doc martens everyone loves!

other than that, not much for fairy-kei, but that's obvious. the tights section has some cool printed tattoo tights, but i don't know about the quality.

i have heard good things about bodyline's wigs, which are in the cosplay section. while i dont think wigs are at all required for fairy-kei, if you feel like you need a pastel wig to match your outfit, their wigs are reportedly good quality and pretty cheap. i would look for reviews of any potential purchases. i think natural hair looks really good with FK, but sometimes you just want to have pink hair for a day.

as i mentioned before, i dont really know much about the sundries section's quality as i've never bought much from there. i did get one headband and i really think it is cute and nice quality, but i think the quality depends on the item. they have a lot of bows, clips, and other such useful and cute accessories in this section. i haven't extensively looked at the other things, but the categories are mostly self-explanatory and you can check them out for yourself if you're looking for that kind of item.

 

 well, i hope my post about using bodyline as a fairy-kei resource was helpful! while they are more expensive than they used to be a couple years ago due to the exchange rate, they still offer a lot of good stuff for fairy-kei. i mostly buy from them with the intention of building up my lolita wardrobe, but i have used some of their items in fairy-kei coords before and maybe now you will too!!