Posted by Princess Porcelain on May 14, 2012 in Uncategorized
Okay, several months later I finally have a write-up!
This is how to order from TaoBao using TaoBaoSpree. TaoBaoSpree is a Chinese shopping service for overseas customers.
First of all, you don’t need to register with TaoBaoSpree as they do all of their orders through emails.
You choose the products that you are after by going to www.taobao.com
If it is specifically Lolita items you are after, TaoBaoSpree have put together a handy store list here: Stores (Please be patient, many TaoBao links are quite slow to load).
After finding the items you want, save the web links to each product.
Because TaoBao is a Chinese website, the sales descriptions are often in Chinese, very few posts are in English. I use Google Translate to translate the sizes etc into English and XE to convert the prices.
How the prices work:
* Once you have worked out the total for all of your items keep in mind that TaoBaoSpree charge 10% of the total price as their shopping fee.
* You will also be paying the shipping costs from the TaoBao store to the shopping service.
* Lastly you will then need to pay for shipping from China to you.
I put together this form. To order, email it to: susan(at)taobaospree.com
Form I use for tailor made dresses:
My name:
Link 1:
Garment colour choice:
My measurements (Or just quote the size S,M or L etc, if it isn’t a tailor made item)
Bust:
Waist:
Hips:
Desired skirt length:
Shipping address:
Paypal address:
Phone number:
At this point you will be assigned a member of staff who will deal with your order.
You will then receive an email containing the total cost that TaoBaoSpree would like to be paid. But it will exclude the final international shipping cost! (Remember that you still need to pay this at a later date!).
At this point I often just reply with “Please send me an invoice” and they will send you a ‘money request’ through Paypal (I find this easier than sending them the money from my end).
This payment that you are sending covers the item costs, the 10% fee and the domestic shipping costs.
The dresses I buy often take about a month to be made. One Lolita dress costs approximately £20 to be shipped by EMS from China with a tracking number to Scotland (varies depending on weight). You can always ask in earlier emails for a shipping estimation, so you know roughly how much to expect their second invoice to be.
After you have sent that payment, TaoBaoSpree will be back in touch once they receive your goods. Again, when they send you the email asking for the international postage payment, I prefer for them to send me an invoice. So you can just ask them to do so again. (I shop with TaoBaoSpree so regularly I don’t even need to ask anymore lol, I receive the invoices straight after I receive their emails).
After paying your second money request, TaoBaoSpree will ship your item promptly and email you again with a tracking number. I have found that most of my parcels arrived within 4-10 days.
I hope that this helpful! If you have any questions please just leave me a comment. There are slightly other ways of ordering too however I find this to be the easiest and most straight forward. There are links throughout this post, if you follow through the TaoBaoSpree one you will find FAQs and more info on how to order etc.
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Apr 23, 2012 in Uncategorized
I thought I would write a quick post about ¾ wigs. I tend to wear these wigs/extensions with my Classic Lolita day-to-day co-ords. They are very simple to insert and remove.
About a year ago I bleached my hair so I could go ginger (and I LOVED IT!) but after a while the bleach caused quite a bit of damage to my hair. I have been trying my best to let my natural colour grow back in and little by little I have been getting the ends trimmed. Last week a got fed up of continually spending money to get tiny amounts chopped off, so I bit the bullet and got about 3 and a ½ inches cut off! My hair is in much better condition now but I do really miss the length! So I got the ¾ wigs back out! ;D
I used to wear these all the time when I had black hair (black was the easiest hair colour ever, to find matching extensions for!) This store was my favourite: Annabelles Wigs. Their wigs and extensions are very thick! I also recommend this shop on Ebay: ozukis2012 Again their ¾ wigs are excellent quality.
x
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Apr 20, 2012 in Uncategorized
I know I know, I haven’t posted a You Tube video in a while. The truth is I am really struggling to come up with any topics that others would find interesting :-s
I think I will put together a hair styling tutorial this month… If anyone has any better ideas or requests please let me know! :D I have also received a few questions on You Tube and Facebook, so I was tempted to do a ‘Questions and Answers’ video, but is that boring?…
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Apr 1, 2012 in Uncategorized
For work I have to tie my hair back. I wanted to try something different. I wanted to try styling my hair into one of those bows you can make using just your own hair, no extensions.
I should have taken a picture this morning before my curls fell out and the bow flopped, but I took one this evening after finishing work. I spread out the bow and made it look a lot bigger. I also used all of my hair instead of splitting it like shown in the tutorial. I used this tutorial: I watched it twice last night and it was simple. Very easy to remember :)
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Mar 28, 2012 in Uncategorized
Today I achieved a life… month long dream! I finally learnt how to do a ‘Fishtail Plait’! This is my first attempt so I’m sure with practise it will get better and better.
I might make my next YouTube video about hair styling. I have a few quick and simple hair styles like this, which a few Lolita’s might find interesting/helpful.
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Mar 21, 2012 in Uncategorized
I am looking for some assistance please! :D
I have already posted this on Facebook and on Livejournal but no one can seem to help me. I am looking for the brand that released these dresses:
Milanoo’s website has stolen the image (and now I have too! :-s) it defiantly isn’t one of their own designs. I can’t find who made the originals anywhere. I have recently found a replica but even that was a nightmare to find! A few people suggested it was made PinkHouse but I don’t think it is theirs?…
Any help would be much appreciated! Thank yooou!
x
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Mar 13, 2012 in Uncategorized
I reeeally missed my red hair. Unfortunately it was just way too high maintenance for me, so I bought this red wig instead :D
A lot of people have been asking me recently where I buy my wigs from. Honestly? I just use Ebay. You can buy from places like Gothic LolitaWigs.com but I find that they tangle just as quickly as any of the other wigs I have bought in the past. One thing I would say in their favour is that they are perhaps ideal for sweet Lolitas. I personally wouldn’t buy any ‘coloured’ wigs on Ebay as they are often very costumey quality. The bright or pastel wigs can often be very shiny, but with G.L.W. you will get a thick, almost matt, pretty pastel wig.
I wear classic Lolita most of the time so I tend to wear natural colours (except for my crazy obsession with red atm! XD) but for natural colours I use this Ebay store: Yinzhi8326
Posted by Princess Porcelain on Feb 16, 2012 in Uncategorized
Today was my 24th Birthday! :D
I met a few of my friends for lunch today in Victor Hugo. After our food we then went on to Doodles Ceramic Workshop. Below is a little video of my day!
