Modcloth Stylish Surprise September 2015

This is my first Modcloth purchase ever. I had zero expectations of what I'd receive, and my "stylish surprise" dress lived up to all of them. Take that statement how you will.I bought the "stylish surprise" on a whim when I saw that they hadn't sold out of the dresses several days after launching. In case you don't know (like I didn't before someone posted a link to it on Reddit...), sometimes during the changing of the seasons Modcloth will do some "stylish surprise" products where for a set price, you select your size and they send you a random item in that category. The shoes and general apparel categories had already sold out, but since there were dresses left I placed my order for one in a size Small for $20.

It looks so harmless just laying there....

What I received: A Tie-Dye Muumuu Minidress.It looks so deceivingly lovely laid out on my bed like that, under the soft glow of the lamp. Here is a picture of it on the model from Modcloth's website:

You know Modcloth has that thing taped and lit to look the best..and it still is only meh

The picture doesn't quite show the colors correctly; the peachy color is really a bit more of an orange sherbet shade and the blue doesn't 'pop' as much in person/kinda has more grey in it.

It seems like they decided to make a muumuu, but a rogue hippie came by and stole most of the fabric so they just decided to end it right below the butt. The sleeves can be worn long or bunched short, but either way if you lift your arm to wave hello someone is going to know exactly what underwear you are (or aren't) wearing. There's no definition to separate the batwing sleeves from the body of the dress, and when I first opened the package I was absolutely certain that Modcloth had accidentally sent me a funky skirt instead of a dress.

This is all I can think about when I see those sleeves

For what fabric it lacks down below, they made up by having it kinda balloon out the back and stomach area. On the bright side: I can pull my head and arms inside, tuck under my legs, and read a book in the privacy of my tie-dye mini-tent. I purchased a size small, but the dress appears to be cut for someone with a massive bosom. There is elastic gathers below what was intended to be the chest area, which I'm convinced is purely for decorative reasons.

The fabric is remarkably soft, but also strangely heavy. I assume that since I'm getting it discounted at the end of summer that the dress is intended as a warm weather garment. After less than 10 minutes of wearing it in my air-conditioned house, I was feeling muggy and worried I had sweat dripping down my back. Summertime I think not.

Downside: This dress is ugly as sin and I would never wear it in public unless I was dressing up as slutty Mimi from the Drew Carey Show. You look at the pictures and say "oh, it isn't that bad". Yes, yes it is. It fully earned those 1 star reviews on Modcloth. I wouldn't hate the fabric so much if they swapped the heavy sleeves and non-existent bottom style for a strappy maxi-dress. But that fit combined with the tie-dye is just unforgivable.

Yay? Nay?

Upside: It is really freakin' comfortable as lounge wear or a nightgown. I'm actually going to get some good wear out of this paired with some leggings in the winter. I still won't leave the house in it, but I foresee many a Netflix binge nights in this dress.

Would I buy a Modcloth "Stylish Surprise" again? Maybe, but I'm kind of a glutton for punishment when it comes to these sort of mystery packages.

TesterKorea: More Cushion for the Pushin'

At what point does an order become a "haul"? One product is clearly just a purchase, but what about two? Three? Five? Where is the line between "just grabbing a few things" end and "haul" begin? Yes, these are the things I think about as I'm falling asleep at night. I'm totally serious here; please leave me comments with your opinion on this dire matter.

In other news: I had an order come in from TesterKorea. I had intended this to be a basic restock of my Innisfree Soybean Energy Essence samples, but it kinda expanded by two more items. I like the Innisfree soybean essence, but I'm not sure if I like like it enough to buy 150mL worth of it. My face seems to like it enough right now, but my hormonal acne-prone skin changes its mind more frequently than my cat. If you have a cat, you know what I'm talking about here.

Bad camera + bad lighting + apathy = this photo

So into my basket went four more 4mL samples of the essence. And then I added Urban Dollkiss's Velvety Skin Triple BB Cream miniature. It is only 10mL and pretty cheap, so I figured that if the color looked like shit on my face it was no big loss.

And then I stumbled upon it. The cushion. MY cushion. It called my name.

You see, I'm not one for cutesy. Every now and then it is okay, but usually no thank you. I hate pink. I hate bows and girly. I was a goth in high school. I still own corsets, leather, and stilettos. My spirit animal is a Dominatrix. This doesn't quite mesh well with the Asian Beauty aesthetic, because a lot of that stuff leans toward the girly side. I might not be able to find a sexy goth cushion, but a sexy Pin-Up Girl cushion? Oh yeah!

Her book title is "Study Hard: Don't be Stupid"

Urban Dollkiss City Propolis Cushion. I couldn't find any reviews. I had no idea what the color, finish, longevity, or anything was. Would it match my NC/W15 skin? Who cares!

Yep, I bought it for the case. I figured that if it didn't work out, I could use it as a really thick and inconvenient purse mirror.

that thing in the edge of the mirror is my knee and ripped jeans

I haven't time to play with the cushion or the BB cream mini, as life has been pretty hectic (soo...I'm on antibiotics now...) but I was planning on photographing a swatch of the cushion on my arm. Well that didn't work...because it blends in so well with my arm that you can't fucking see the swatch. So uhhhh...I'll get back to you on a review of it!

Apparently TesterKorea is doing a promotional thingy where they send you a packet of free samples if your order price is higher than a certain amount. Mine was slightly under, but I still got the free samples. Odd, since TK is pretty well known for not doing the whole free sample thing.

Free stuff? No complaints here!

Okay so I'm going to hit the hay because I have a 7AM date with this lovely lady tomorrow:

Hay/horses...get it? Hahaha...oh I need sleep....

Please feel free to leave Questions, Comments, and Casual Insults below. I apologize for typos, I'm a sleepy narcoleptic, yo!

Shop Review: Cupidrop

This is going to be a very brief review of the US-based Korean Beauty online retailer Cupidrop since I have heard people recently ask about their reliability.

From my Instagram yo: UnlacedDreams

Shop Name: Cupidrop

Ordering & Shipping:
   The Cupidrop website is easy to use and the payment secure. I had previously received a code for 15% of my first order when I joined their mailing list, which is what finally made me pull the trigger and make an order with them. I placed my order late on a Friday night, received an email with a pre-shipping tracking number on Saturday, and my package finally shipped out with USPS Priority Mail on Monday from New York. Because my order was over $50, shipping was free! Priority mail took 3 days to get down the east coast, which I find pretty standard for where I live.

Packaging:
   This is what I really regret not taking pictures of: how amazingly well the Cupidrop box was secured. The box was damn near encased in custom-made tape with the word "Cupidrop" printed on it. Custom tape? Okay, color me impressed. Inside the box, each item was individually bubble-wrapped and secured with more custom tape. I could have thrown the box out of a moving vehicle and the products would have survived unscathed, they were that securely packaged.

Products Purchased:
   I intend to review these at a later date, so I won't dedicate time to discussing them here

• A.True Real Black Tea True Active CC cushion in 01
• A.True Violet Petal Black Tea Hydrating Moisturizer
• A.True Real Black Tea True Active Mask (x3)

Free Samples:

• Kicho Sheep Oil Cream
• Kicho Phyto Natural Refreshing Toner
• Kicho Phyto Natural Total Essence
• Cosrx Advanced Snail all-in-one Cream
• Cosrx Aloe Vera oil-free Moisture Cream
• Cosrx Natural BHA Skin Returning Emulsion
• A.True Violet Petal Black Tea Hydrating Toner
• A.True Black Tea All Day Aqua Sun Gel
• A.True White Snow Tea Brilliant Aurora Cream
• A.True Darjeeling Black Tea First Anti-Wrinkle Cream

Overall:

   The prices were reasonable, the shipping was fast, the packaging perfect, and the samples plentiful. What more could you ask for from a K-Beauty retailer? Cupidrop doesn't have a huge selection at the moment, but what they have is good quality and hopefully they will expand their product offerings in the future. Would I buy from them again? Yes, yes, and YES! They have officially become my favorite US-based shop for skincare products, no doubts about that.

*I have no affiliation with Cupidrop and I paid for all this stuff myself*

Memebox sale insanity haul

   Memebox had a flash summer sale last weekend and I managed to snag a few heavily discounted items from the chaos and scramble. It wasn't easy; the goal was to make $30 minimum so that I would qualify for free shipping, but every time I went to check out, half my cart would already be sold out! Finally made the cut off at $31 and checked out. A day later I get an email that one of the masks I purchased, a TonyMoly Red Wine sheet mask, was oversold and they needed to refund me the cost of the mask ($1), plus an extra $5 for an apology. Didn't bother me any, it made my grand total $25 and I still got free shipping. All of these products are completely new to me except for the Innisfree cream, as I had a sample of it previously that I enjoyed.

Holika Holika Penguin's Dream hand cream: $3
Innisfree Orchid Enriched Cream: $10 (I like to think it was actually $5 due to the apology discount Memebox gave me!)

Botanic Farms Polar Energy Camel Milk hydrogel mask (x3): $1 each, so $3
Naexy Genius Pore Tightening mask: $1
Naexy Genius Lifting mask: $1

Leaders Insolution Coconut Gel Moisturizing Recovery mask (x4): $1 each, so $4
Leaders Insolution Coconut Gel Lifting Recovery mask (x4): $1 each, so $4

Mediheal Dress Code mask (Violet, Tone-up): $1
Skin79 Honey Moisture mask: $1
TonyMoly I'm Real Pomegranate mask: $1
Etude House Mango mask: $1

A tiny TesterKorea haul

Shop: TesterKorea

Date Ordered: July 4, 2015

Date Shipped: July 8, 2015

Date Received: July 20th, 2015

July 2015 Mishibox

   So I signed up for Mishibox in a drunken internet-fest one night. Not that I regret it, really, I just needed to be drunk to convince myself to take the final step and actually go for a subscription box. Its a weird thing to have anxiety about, the simple act of getting a cancel-at-any-time subscription to skincare/makeup/whatever, but for me taking that first plunge was kinda like going on a date for the first time.

Internal Monologue: "Is this the right thing to do? Maybe I should wait it out, get to know the box a little better (Mishibox is a new box, could go any direction), and save myself the pain of rejection lost money of getting a subscription that I really didn't like."

   Sometimes I really overthink things, guys.

But I did it. I signed up for my first subscription box and it is the little newcomer Korean beauty box called Mishibox. My first box shipped on July 21st as promised and arrived in my mailbox on July 23rd.

Behold! Mishibox!

A post about Boob Sizes

"To avoid booby traps, stay away from bras" Jarod Kintz

    A young girl getting her first bra is commonly understood as a sort of Rite of Passage in America. Posh mommies may take their blossoming daughter to a department store for her first soft cup, cool and stylish mothers hit up Victoria's Secret for their smallest (and least sexy) push up, and the rest of us tend to find ourselves selecting something practical from Target or Walmart that we secretly hope to not get much wear out of before we have to size up.

   I would like to propose a second lingerie Rite of Passage: when a woman finally learns about bra fit and learns her real bra size.  Somewhere around 80% of women in America are wearing the wrong bra size. It really isn't a surprise when you consider how warped clothing sizes tend to be, but at least bra sizing is fairly well standardized within countries with a few brands having their own weird exceptions. Are we just a country of ladies who don't understand how to properly use a tape measure? Not at all, but we are a country of women being pandered to by a company focused on squishing us into a narrow range of bra sizes. No, Victoria's Secret isn't entirely to blame.  I could wax poetic for hours on here about how society messes with women's view of their own bodies, but if you wanted to read that you'd be reading a sociological journal and not a blog. So VS's warped business tactics are a great (and reasonably short) thing to talk about.