A Short Review: Vings Eyes

Unedited Vings in my kitchen they day they arrived! <3

Let me preface this with the fact I completely forgot to write this post last year. I even looked to see if I could find an older draft, and nothing. That said, I won't be able to get into details about arrival times and stuff because it's been so long. I'm also not sure exactly which shade of green I ordered either. I know they were about 18mm and teal.

Around the time I ordered, Vings was having issue after issue. A lot seemed like they were just making stuff up, but for you dear readers, I elected not to get a refund and waited something like 6-8 months? for them to arrive so I could review them for you.

We ordered from their taobao to save a little money (the pricing difference on the large eyes was enough we decided to go with that instead of their direct site). I believe my eyes were approximately $60 + shipping. I paid more than average because I had to get giant eyes because Soony has giant eyes.

Anyone who has been following my posts and photography will have seen them, as Junko generally wears them.

These eyes are gorgeous. They are my favorite urethane eyes that I own. The color is crisp, bright, and very accurate to their sample photo. They are even with no bubbling, irises and pupils are the same size.

The catch the light in an absolutely magical way, and rarely require any editing at all, unless it's in low-light conditions.

Vings are definitely worth the money. They've aged well in the year or two that I've had them, as in, no noticeable  yellowing or anything as I've heard urethane eyes can do overtime, just like the dolls themselves.

So basically, if you're on the fence about them, get them.

Here are some pics for you so you can judge yourself. I've noted where I've used editing and to what extent.

Thanks for reading as always, and happy collecting!

Very, very little editing.

Brightened a bit because of the severe lowlight.

All I did here was edit the eye shine and desaturate the image.

Review: Mako Eyes (urethane)

Mako Eyes Review

Juri 08 (legit) wearing 12mm Makos

Site: http://makoeyes.com/index.php

Size Range: 12mm to 22mm

Items: AM-006 (x2), DAN-009, AM-019, IB-017, AM-020

Price: $25 per pair; shipping is affordable. They offer very, very cheap airmail, and ems is affordable if you're doing a group order.

Communication: 2/5- They never replied to emails (I sent a total of 2 emails when the estimated shipping date had passed), and only responded on their Q&A board about four days after I asked there. I did receive an order confirmation and a shipping notice with tracking info.

Quality: 5/5- These eyes are bloody gorgeous, and for the price, way, way worth it. The colors are sharp and crisp, the irises are even.

Shipping speed: 3/5-While the initial estimate was a month, they actually shipped about a month and half (maybe a little less) after that. I was given a second estimate of 4/18, but they didn't actually ship until 4/21. They arrived three days later on 4/24.

Packing: 5/5-They arrived in this huge box, and my first thought was, "Uh, how many eyes did they send me?!" Turns out they were just packaged really, really well. Better than some dolls I've ordered.

Ease of Payment:  5/5- It was easy, just paid with paypal.


Overview:

Mako eyes are made from urethane, the same stuff your resin bjd is made of. Urethanes can take a long time to make overall, sometimes as long as 9 months or longer. Mako cuts the time to a couple months at most. They are also more affordable than most urethane eyes (compare $25 Makos to $50 Vings, for example).

The eyes are gorgeous. They're pretty low dome, with flat backs. They're a bit difficult to position, but look gorgeous and photograph well. (I'll be doing an eye comparison post soon to show you the differences between urethanes, acrylics, and glass eyes.)

I can confidently say I will be ordering again. The range of colors is wonderful, from realistic to more fantasy colors. I wish they had smaller than 12mm sizing, as I have dolls that I prefer 8mm or 10mm, but it seems to be quite hard to find urethane eyes in those sizes. 

Outdoors with no flash

Indoors with flash

Hope this review was helpful. ^_^ Thanks for reading and happy collecting!