So, first things first. Sammy Dress uses a milanoo like template. I had a bad feeling about this even though I didn’t see negative reviews (there are many now), so I decided to write down everything the night I ordered (December 13th, 2015).

I ordered

Vintage Round Collar Sleeveless Butterflies Print Ball Gown Dress For Women

7.99 (limited time offer), normally $26.17 (69% off)

http://www.sammydress.com/product2323434.html

When I used a discount code I found online, this changed to $9-something, but it made my overall total less because the other dress discounted, so c’est la vie.

Style: Vintage
Material: Polyester
Silhouette : Ball Gown
Dresses Length: Mini
Neckline: Round Collar
Sleeve Length: Sleeveless
Pattern Type: Animal
With Belt: No
Season: Summer
Weight: 0.47KG
Package Contents: 1 x Dress

Size XL:  bust/waist/length/ shoulder

Vintage Plunging Neck 3/4 Sleeve Polka Dot Prom Dress For Women

http://www.sammydress.com/product1858339.html

$7.54 (retail $21.43)

This dress is made of a super thin material. It’s very strange for a dress. Feels more like a lining material or a costume material. The dress is cut awkwardly, so it gaps a ton at the arm holes above the bust. It looks and feels like a cheap bag costume. The butterfly print is blurry, and the back of the skirt has no butterflies. They just stop, getting cut off awkwardly at the side seam.

Verdict: Unclear. Either very photo-shopped or a stolen stock photo of a higher end item. 

At the end of the day, I would NOT recommend sammydress.

Miss A is an online discount shop for jewelry that apparently was started in 2007, but I only just heard about them on FB when someone asked if they could use accessories from that shop with lolita. Their selling point is that everything they sell is just $1, and shipping is a flat $3.95.

So I picked up a few things. First things first, more than half of what I wanted was sold out. Either entirely, or in the colors I wanted. Some of the things I bought came in many more colors that I liked, but were all sold out. Some things came in a dozen colors and were sold out in every. single. one.

Here is what I did buy:

3 Piece Pearl With Bow Bracelet Set (Green x 2)

3 Piece Pearl With Bow Bracelet Set (Red x 2)

Pearl Bracelet Set With Mesh Bow (Blue x 2)

Rose & Bead Bracelet Set (3 Piece) (Lavender x 2)

Duplicates of everything because, well, it’s a dollar a set and there is nothing more frustrating in my opinion than going to put on a lolita coord and only having one or two bracelets that match when you want a good solid half-dozen.

Shipping was $3.95 + 8 items at $1/ea, and we have a grad total of $11.95, for which I’m getting 28 individual bracelets.

I have a lot of stretch bead bracelets like this in more normal colors already. I can tell you that I spent $4-$12 a set at places like Khol’s, Claire’s are Paris Kids. So at $1 a set, my expectations were low, but it was worth a risk.

I do have to say, looking through the site, there were a lot of items where it was clear that you would get what you paid for. Pretty much all of the metal jewelry looked very low quality. Chains were thin, charms were stamped out of thin metal. I didn’t even bother checking the metal categories in all of the sub sections and went straight to the pearl and bead options after glancing over the necklaces. Rings and earrings I totally ignored as well (green fingers and ears are not cute).

In the hair accessories, I saw flowers that are sold at Claire’s for $1.50 that I know are meh, and bows that are very poor quality ribbon or are tiny and are hot glued and come apart (I bulk ordered some a few years ago). I skipped those too.

The package arrived on May 19th (The order was placed on May 14th), so it got to me quite quickly.

It was sent in a plastic mailing envelope, which probably helps them cut down on mailing costs.

Inside the plastic envelope was a bubble wrapped packet and a shipping slip (Mia, my kitten decided to help by walking on the paper). Inside the bubble wrap was a tissue paper wrapped packet with a MissA sticker.

Inside the bubble wrap was some foam, and then finally I got down the the bracelet sets which were each wrapped in clear plastic.

Once the plastic was removed, each set was clearly tagged for peg display at a retail shop. Manufacturers varied (so MissA isn’t making these things, they are sourcing them from a manufacturer like most retail stores do).

The actual hang tags were a bit beat up, but that could come from storage in bins, which would be more typical for an online shop warehouse. most of the bracelet sets were tied with cheap sheer ribbon. You can wear the bracelets with the ribbons, and some people do, but I personally like the look of them more when they are lose. Some of the ribbon was fraying already as the ends hadn’t been finished off.

All in all, the bracelets were fairly color accurate, and they had a good weight to them. The lavender ones are plastic, and the roses were all well formed. The tiny blue green ones seem to be plastic as well. The rest were glass.

There were a few minor issues. On this red bracelet, some of the painting wasn’t done perfectly; the end bead had a ring of raised paint and a void, and some bits of red paint were flaking off the ends of some beads.

This darker red one from one of the same red sets appears to have rubbed against something and the paint is coming off very easily.

In these other ones, there were some beads which weren’t quite round; higher quality bead makers would consider some of these b-grade and not sell them. Lower quality (cheaper) bead makers aren’t as picky.

For comparison, here are some sets of similar things I picked up at my local dollar store.

The lavender pair was like the pink and blue sets and had earrings with it.

The dollar store bracelets have better quality beads (more uniformly round) and better paint jobs aside from one pink bead that was really messed up. However, each set came with less.

So, in conclusion, the Miss A ones aren’t horrible, but they aren’t the best ever. I’d say they are reasonably on par with normal dollar-store items. I’d certainly buy similar items from the shop again, and the price seems pretty fair for what you get.

Castle Mirage was the final piece of the Angelic Pretty S/S 2015 Fashion Show. It was modeled by the band Truckstuck, and made a bit of a splash since there was male Angelic Pretty pieces in the series.

Unfortunately, if you were in love with the pieces from the fashion show you will be in for a bit of a let down. First of all the dark-on-sax with navy trim colorway pictured in the fashion show is no where to be found. Missing as well is the whole male ensemble. There is a slightly different version of the complex OP worn in the show, called Castle Mirage Dress. The fashion show dress has different lace, and an extra tier of lace at the hem. It also features pearl accents that aren’t on the final piece. The bows seem to be made a little differently as well (perhaps a different material?

The tights too have changed;  the feet appear to be solid instead of a check pattern (an improvement in my opinion). It appears to come in four colorways, Navy, Sax, Ivory and Lavender.

Here are the main two coordinates shown in Kera 203 (July 2015)

On the left, we see what appears to be a navy blue colorway in a JSK cut. The caption lists:

• Castle Mirage ジャンパースカート(Castle Mirage JSK) – 29,800 Yen
• スクエア姫袖ブラウス (Square Neck Princess Sleeve Blouse) – 14,800 yen
• Mirage キャノティエクリップ (Mirage Canotier Clip) – 3,600 Yen
• Celestial フレームネックレス (Celestial Frame Necklace) – 3,800 yen
• Twinkle Ribbon ネックレス (Twinkle Ribbon Necklace) – TBA
• Cosmic お袖とめ (Cosmic Wristcuffs ) – TBA
• Twinkle Ribbon リング (Twinkle Ribbon Ring) – TBA
• プリンセスティアラリング (Princess Tiara Ring) – 2,000 yen
• Castle Mirage タイツ (Castle Mirage Tights) – 4,000 Yen
• Partyグリッターシューズ (Party Glitter Shoes) – 15,800 yen

On the right is the fancier of the two OPs; Castle Mirage Dress in lavender. The coordinate list in the cation is:

• Castle Mirage Dress  – 45,800 yen
• Castle Mirage ハーフボンネット (Castle Mirage Half Bonnet)
• レースアームウォーマー (Lace Arm Warmers) – TBA
• フェアリーハートチャームお袖とめ (Fairy Heart Charm Wristcuffs) – TBA
• Castle Mirage タイツ (Castle Mirage Tights) – 4,000 Yen

(She’s wearing a bracelet and a ring that they skipped in the caption as well)

Castle Mirage Dress  – 45,800 yen

This dress features a sheer peplum, ribbons down the front of the bodice, and on the skirt, vertical lace down the skirt where the bows attach, and horizontal lace going towards the back, and bows on the sleeves. It have a gentle-V shaped sweetheart sort of neckline, and if you look really closely you can see the back inside of the bodice neck, which looks like there might be some shirring at least at the back neck.

Castle Mirage ワンピース (Castle Mirage OP) – 30,800 yen

This dress is 15,000 yen less than the other OP and as such it has a much more simple design. It does have neck halter straps and it is a design that AP usually makes with back shirring, and if you look very closely there does seem to be some wrinkling on the upper back that could indicate shirring in this version as well.

Castle Mirage ジャンパースカート(Castle Mirage JSK) – 29,800 Yen

The JSK version seems to have the V of lace on the front that AP used on the Mercator Antique Shop JSK. I’m personally not a big fan of this JSK style but some people like it.

Castle Mirage ハーフボンネット (Castle Mirage Half Bonnet)

Mirage キャノティエクリップ (Mirage Canotier Clip) – 3,600 Yen

Castle Mirage タイツ (Castle Mirage Tights) – 4,000 Yen

レースアームウォーマー (Lace Arm Warmers) with フェアリーハートチャームお袖とめ (Fairy Heart Charm Wristcuffs)

Twinkle Ribbon ネックレス (Twinkle Ribbon Necklace) , Cosmic お袖とめ (Cosmic Wristcuffs ) and Twinkle Ribbon リング (Twinkle Ribbon Ring)

Closeups of the print from Kera

Update 5/19/2015 – Angelic Pretty announced that it will go on sale on 5/23/2015

Updated 5/20/2015 – Fabric Samples from various AP Blogs (click for larger images)