Some Taobao Terms

There are TONS of places to find taobao search terms, but I put together some random terms anyway. I believe the Resin Haven on Facebook still has the files available with these key words. Den of Demons also had (?) an amazing list of taobao terms.

Remember, Google Translate is amazingly helpful. Just put in random English words for things and see what pops up. Copy and paste the Chinese characters into taoabo and see what you find.

A Few Useful Shops (not mentioned in my reviews I don't think)
 http://licht-bjdwig.taobao.com/

http://formydoll.taobao.com 

http://yymao.taobao.com

http://idollzoo.taobao.com/

http://miyawork.taobao.com/

http://sunflowerdoll.taobao.com/?spm=a1z10.3.0.27.y32Eqh

http://shop34088410.taobao.com/

http://m3bjd.taobao.com/

http://shop33606846.taobao.com/

http://m7doll.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3.GxxSiP

Start EVERY search with BJD. You can refine the search by adding the words for male or female, or different sizes. Here are a few random, common search terms. You can use google translate to find your own search terms.

女 = Girl

男 = Boy

3分 = 1/3 SD (or just type 1/3)

4分 = 1/4 MSD (or just type 1/4)

6分 = 1/6 Yo-SD (or just type 1/6)

Lati = lati yellow stuff (you can also type 1/8 or 1/12 to find things)

鞋 = Shoes

假发 = Wig

外套 = coat

夹克 = jacket

裙子 = skirt

制服 = uniform

耳机 = headphone       

连衣裙 = dress

裤子 = pants

眼 = eye
背景  = really cool backdrops

咖啡 = coffee and coffee colored things XD

手机 = cute cellphones

拉面 = cute noodle bowls and stuff

头带 = hair bands and hair accessories (there's a seller on esty selling some of these for double what they are on taobao)

           

A Visual Guide to Taobao

Originally, this was meant to be posted on the Haven site, but with the situation as it is I'm not sure what's happening with it so it'll be posted here. (Hopefully that doesn't cause drama or offend anyone. Oi.)

There is an excellent set of documents floating around various places on the internet to find terms and such to search for. Some people are still having difficulty, even with the Haven's helpful materials, so I thought I'd pitch in and make a tutorial using screen shots of one of my taobao orders. 

Brief overview: Taobao uses Chinese yuan, not yen. I usually use google or paypal's currency converter while I'm browsing.$1 USD is about 6.25 yuan (or 1 yuan is .16 $). As you're shopping, taobao trends will provide the CNY cost, their agent fees, and the USD value of what you're buying, all at the bottom of your cart.

I don't use a browser that automatically translates, as things just start to seem weird. If I need to know what the text says on a particular listing, I copy that text into google translate to get the gist of what's going on. Options are often weird. Some are intuitive: "coffee" usually refers to light brown color, but others make zero sense. There are lots of amusing taobao translations out there. XD

On this blog, under the reviews tab, you will find lots of my favorite taobao stores, so I'm not going to do a separate post just for those.

Alright, onto the tutorial!

The Big Eyes Photo Comparison Post

LONG POST IS LONG.

The photos of the dolls wearing eyes in this post have minor editing in photoshop, but the others will have no editing unless noted. I've used mostly blue eyes for the comparisons, since that's the majority of my collection and because blue tends to capture a lot of light when photographed.

I'll update this with more pics as I get around to it, and hopefully compare company pics to my own photos at some point too. I will also update when my Vings urethane eyes get here later this summer and as I buy more eyes in different varieties. Next on my list are some Enchanted Doll, Dollflowers, Gum Drops, and Ersa Flora. As a note, if you like a pair of eyes, get it. Photoshop can make any pair of eyes beautiful, so don't rule it out as an option if you can't afford higher end eyes or simply don't want to spend a great deal on eyes.

Personally, I feel that eyes make or a break a doll, especially on larger eyed dolls (like Delf Soony for example). I like to spoil my rarer, higher end dolls with stupidly expensive eyes lately. My grandpa once told me (granted he was talking about drawing, but the point holds) that eyes are the most important feature. They give expression, they give life. A good eye gives your doll a sense of life and that special spark. And when you can't or don't use top of the line eyes, a little photo editing goes a long way. ;) (Hey I've done it, and I'm not ashamed. I know a couple popular doll owners personally who do the same thing.)

After all of this, I can say urethane and glass eyes are my favorite. Urethanes and glass photograph the best and most vividly, and have the most depth and life to them. Granted, I'll need to use acrylics to get the right dragon-pupil eyes for my dragons eventually, but that's okay. I don't use anything other than glass, silicone, or urethanes in my dolls' eyes anymore.

Before the pictures I will do a table summary of the pros and cons of each kind of eye in my personal experience (yours may differ of course). Pictures will follow!

Again, this is all just my opinion and experience and your mileage may vary.

Posts on this blog about eyes:
Eye positioning
Eye Company Reviews
Types of Eyes and How to Care For Them (forthcoming)

DoA threads with great info on eyes:
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?609940-Best-Eyes-Ever!
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?388342-Eyeco-eyes-deteriorating-over-time

Flickr pools dedicated to eyes (tons out there, just search for them, especially specific brands)
https://www.flickr.com/groups/urethane-eyes/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/762488@N24/

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!

Licht Bjd Review!

I recently hosted a GO for Licht wigs and decided to do a review!

Communication: 6/10 They were good about communicating, letting me know things were out of stock and such. However, they never gave me the tracking number nor let me know they'd even shipped it. It showed up quite the surprise lol!

Quality: 8/10 The wigs don't look anything like the pics in many cases, and the two I bought and opened had a great deal of frizzies. I was disappointed by this. It's going to take a lot of styling to make them look like the pictures. You can see thin spots in a couple places on the wigs as well. However, the colors are beautiful and rich, and the fibers are soft and easy to work with.

Stock: 6/10 It seems like nearly a lot of things on the site were out of stock but not necessarily marked out of stock. We were then messaged about a few things that were no longer in stock.

Extras: We qualified for a free wig but they did not send it. I'm not too worried about this since I was planning on ordering even before I knew there was an event going on. Extras and freebies like this are always nice, and I don't judge a company for not including them.

Shipping: No airmail shipping option, and EMS for this order was insane. It was nearly $48 usd to ship this to us. I've paid less for larger Dollmore and Taobao orders. That's about the cost of shipping one minifee from Fairyland….. 0.o

Over all, they're really cute and affordable wigs, and hands down better than any of the Happy Camille wigs I have gotten in the past. Overall I'd order again.

Hope this is helpful! Here are pics of the two wigs I ordered (I didn't open anyone else's items):

the first one is L-435 in Rose Gold, size 7-8

 The second wig is Licht #L-382 in Vanilla, size 7-8

This wig looks much better after styling. These pics are before I styled it. It's still very cute!
The proportion is large enough I think I could have gone with a 6-7 on her and been fine, though
ordinarily I HATE 6-7 wigs on my minifees.

Big Changes

I've stepped down from admin-ing the Underground group on facebook. My reasons for this are fairly complicated, and I'll be going more into detail about that in a couple of weeks.

Essentially, it boils down to the fact that I'm expecting kiddo #2 and going back to school. I don't have the time to dedicate to a group of that nature and size whilst maintaining my own household and sanity. XD

Other reasons, which I'll summarize here for the time being, are essentially that my position regarding recasts is changing. I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I'm not quite sure what my position is. When I figure it out I'll let you wonderful people know. I'm sure the rumor mill has been busy discussing the latest development on the recast issue, and I'm not prepared to discuss that yet.

That said, this blog needs to take a new direction.

I'm going to focus mostly on reviews for things I buy, and posting will likely slow down towards the end of the year. I don't know if I'm going to let this blog die or not- I haven't decided for certain.

I need to spend some time in my garden and reconnecting with my own dolls for awhile.

Until the next post, happy collecting and thank you for reading. <3

Short Review: Eyelashes from Nomyens

Nomyens Strong Black modeled on Legit CP Soony

Item: I ordered 1 pair of Strong Black, and two pairs of Strong Cocoa Brown. (I'm wishing I would have been able to get more.

Price Range: $3.60-$6.00, $6 for the stronger colors/fuller lashes. Shipping is a tad pricey, but it is registered airmail. I had to sign for mine.

Communication: Good! She let me know when the items were going to ship and requested I leave feedback, which I did. 

I have lots of eyelashes from different companies, DDE, random ebay ones, and then a ton from taobao in different thicknesses and colors. A friend suggested I try Nomyens lashes, and I couldn't be more pleased.

They taper beautifully, are sturdy, and they're very full in a classy way. They have a very elegant effect compared to other eyelashes I've used.

I just used regular glue to attach them, but I believe she sells a special eyelash glue in her shop.I've never used this so I can't say whether it's good or not.

As a note, if you have a doll with very large eyes, like Soony in my example below, you may want two pairs of lashes to use on each eye. These were too small for her eyes, but I made do and they still look lovely.

Where to buy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Nomyen

I will definitely be buying again!