~Online Shop Review: Cloud 97 (Long post)~

Hello all! Today I have another shop review and it's not a Storenvy one this time ^.^ I've been following this shop (via e-mail notification) for a while now and I noticed they had some things that I wanted that I had previously seen in other Storenvy stores but were overpriced. So I decided that I should try buying from them since I also came upon a 10% off coupon and free shipping! You can't beat that!! xD

Like with all online shops, especially ones that have "One size" items and ship from overseas, I was skeptical about whether some of these things were going to fit me haha~ If you've read through any of my past review posts (especially my popular Dog Dog review) you'll see my size range is L-XL for average US clothing sizes. Sometimes even 2XL if it's a particularly fitted garment/runs small/I want it to be looser etc. With that being said, one should wonder why I even bother to buy "One size" items from Asian brand websites, as their XL sizes are notorious for being a US medium at best. And despite my third order from Store Dog Dog, which was bad in terms of size, I was foolish enough to order from Cloud 97 anyways! YAY...

Here's what I ordered (partial screen shots from the Cloud 97 website):

I ordered a L with Length: 69cm, Bust:108 cm, Shoulder: 50 cm.

Length: 65 cm, Bust: 118 cm, Shoulder: 63 cm.

Length: 60 cm, Bust: 106 cm, Collar opening: 16 cm, Shoulder+sleeve: 36 cm.

If you haven't read any of my past store reviews, my measurements are (approximately) as follows:
(Over) Bust: 104-106 cm
(Under) Bust: 96 cm (give or take a cm)
Waist (smallest): ~106 cm
Waist (largest): ~116 cm
Hips: ~119 cm
Preferred length (shirts): From shoulder to bottom of shirt, about 55 cm-70 cm(sweatshirts) and 40ish cm for crop tops
Preferred lenth (skirts): 45-50 cm
Height: about 5"-5"1'

I mainly look at the bust measurements (especially when there isn't a waist measurement provided) and length (especially with skirts).

The shirts I ordered!

I had a feeling the skateboard tee and sunflower sweatshirt were going to be too tight like my Back to the Future sweater from Dog Dog T^T:

Is it just me or does the embroidery look off center? I think it's supposed to be that way though ahha~

Let's play a game: can you tell what bra I'm wearing?? LOL

OH NOOO! Online order sadness repeat 3: Now let's take a looksie at the measurements of these garments:

Just for reference, this is the same measuring tape I use to measure my body measurements. I don't know how my measuring tape compares to the one used to originally measure these garments for the website but I compared my tape to a standard 12 in. US ruler and they are accurate. 

The bust measurement for the Skateboarding tee was about 44 cm across the front and 45cm across the back for a total of 89 cm around the shirt for bust. This is 17 cm off from what the website measurements were! The length of the shirt was approximately the same though! I measured about 59 cm and theirs is 60 cm.

This was the thinnest shirt and the one with the most defects in the stitching and whatnot:

Maybe it's just the sewer in me but this neckline really bothered me lol. Either line up the neckline with one of the other seams or line it up with the middle back so it doesn't look awkward. I'm so picky OML T__T. 

LOOK.HOW.THIN.

Oh look my hand! And lot's of loose threads. 

Now on to the Sunflower sweatshirt!

62 cm I measured for the length vs. 69 cm on the website. Also note how I measure length from the highest point on the garment.

45 cm across the front bust and 47 cm across the back= 92 cm bust vs. 108 for "L" on the website means a difference of 16 cm!

Once again the bust measurement is wrong for this sweatshirt as well. Sigh.

Also quite a bit thinner than I expected.

Both the Sunflower and Skateboard tops were a disappointment to say the least. But what about the third sweatshirt?

A concern I had about the Earth sweater was that in some pictures it looked like the sweatshirt said "Barth" and was printed instead of embroidered on. I contacted a different shop that also sold this item and she said the sweater was embroidered and it does actually say "Earth" on it. SO without asking the shop I'm actually buying the sweatshirt from, I just bought it anyways and assumed it would be fine:

OH GLOB. (or should I say "OH GLOBE"? LOL)

I'd like to note that this was the "loosest" of all the tops I bought, as it should be according to the given measurements on the website, but it was still very fitted on me.

I REALLY had high hopes for this sweatshirt because the bust size listed on the website is wayy over my measurement! If you read my other store review I did recently for MEI NU you would see that the Hot Dog Sweatshirt had a measurement of 120 cm on the website and I could actually fit into that sweatshirt nicely! So I should've been able to fit this one as well...but alas~ At least it didn't say "Barth" lol.

64 cm. compared to 63 cm on the website= OK!

About 49 cm across the front+ 52 cm= 101 cm bust measurement compared to 118 cm on the website. 17 cm off again, so at least they're consistent? Hahaha~

 The bust measurements were off for this garment as well. At this point I'm not even surprised.

Aaand this one is pretty thin as well.


Ratings:
Customer Service 7/10: The seller responded in a somewhat timely manner:

A screenshot from my e-mail haha >.<

Three days ain't too bad I suppose! And they responded that their sweatshirt shipments were a bit later than usual but they would ship out my order pronto! I actually sent this e-mail originally because I didn't receive any notice of my order being shipped or an approximate date or anything. I wish they had sent me an e-mail at least that the sweatshirts were going to be a bit late because that affects the time my order might be received. (read shipping down below)

Accuracy of measurements (Fit?) 3/10: I measured Bust and Length because those are the two I'm usually most concerned about (and waist measurements if they are given, but they usually aren't) and the only measurement that was accurate were the lengths of the Earth sweatshirt and Skateboard tee. The bust measurements were especially wayyy off! I don't know how these sweatshirts were measured because when I measured around them and simply front and back I didn't get very close to the given measurement on the website.

Quality 3/10: I was expecting a much different quality of garment than what I received. Ideally I thought it was going to be like those Gildan or Hanes type sweatshirts with embroidery on the front. At the very least it could have been as thick as my Hot Dog sweatshirt from MEI NU. But no, I received neither of those. Think of those thin layering long sleeve tee shirts that are semi-sheer, that's what this is. I really was not expecting them to be this sheer or thin at all! I will say that the embroidery looked nice at least.

Price 8/10: The prices are what I liked best about this web shop compared to some other ones. This one sells them for slightly lower prices than some other places (and now with the quality of the garments I see why they were so much cheaper lol).

Get what you paid for? (Worth it?) 5/10: Two of the items on this site were much cheaper compared to other shops that sold the same sweater (Sunflower sweatshirt and Skateboard tee) and the Earth sweatshirt was only a bit cheaper. The cheapness really shows through (literally--get it? because they're so sheer! Did I mention how sheer they are? lol) especially with the Skateboard tee. I really expected the Earth one to turn out nice because it was the most expensive and other web shops sold it for about the same D-: In total I paid about $47 with a code I found via Tumblr (pro tip! always check Tumblr for codes before paying full price for web shops!)

Buy again? Maybe: I don't think I will buy anymore shirts or clothing in general from this shop. I might take a look at the adidas dupes and a few accessories to see the quality of those though! I hope it won't disappoint!

Shipping 5/10: When I first discovered this shop quite a while back they didn't ship to WA and I was sad, but now they do! And shipping is free! So I was stoked about that. My real shipping concern happened when I sent the e-mail above. I suppose it's partially my fault that I didn't remember details of when I placed my order. I see free shipping and just jump right on it. But I hadn't noticed there was a free option shipping and then right below it a shipping option where you can also get "tracking info" for your order (which you do have to pay for). I checked the about page:

There wasn't an info about having to pay for tracking information as an option besides free shipping. I think that's an important thing to add in the about section so people can take that into consideration when they place their order or forget that was an option like I did. So not only did I not know the day my order was shipped (which is the least they should include so I can know approximately when my order should be here since I didn't order tracking info! I mean the about page says contact them if you don't get your order 40 days after your package is shipped, but how will I know when to start counting if I don't get an e-mail about when my packaged is shipped?) So did I get it on time? I think so? I'm not exactly sure when it shipped but I got my order receipt on Oct. 8 and I got the package on approximately Nov. 19 (it was delivered to the office of my apartment complex and that's what the manager told me at least). Between the 55 days it supposedly should have taken from ordering it did come on time.

It is mentioned when you are checking out though (albeit, somewhat discreetly) in the tick box right under the "Free Shipping" option under Shipping Options:

Basically, yes there is free shipping but if you want to be safe just buy tracking info to avoid complications and hassle.

Overall 5/10: I understand online buying is risky, especially with overseas brands, you don't always get what you think you're going to get. And when you buy from websites that don't use pictures personally taken by them you don't really know if you're getting what you want. Buying online is a gamble and a struggle! Unfortunately with this store I struck out and lost, with these tops at least. I do acknowledge that these stores are best for XS-M sized people in general though, mostly because of the limited range of sizes overseas brands come in.

**Learn from my review! If you are larger or equal to my measurements these shirts will be tight! If you have smaller measurements than mine it could fit loose to tight depending on how much smaller than me you are!**

I was really excited for my package to get here and I've been waiting for months but now I'm just sad is basically my experience.

<3 Tips for people running these stores (Please!): Have the quality and/or material in the description of your garment, or at least describe something your customers can compare the quality to if you don't know exactly the kind of fabric it's made out of. And say things like "stretch" or "no stretch" and "sheer". ---Having actual photos taken by you on your site would also be nice!
-If you have anything like paying extra for tracking info as an option on your site, add that to your about page please!
(p.s. just for Cloud97: the sponsorship e-mail wasn't working for me? I don't know if that is still going on or not but if not maybe you should take it down from the about page for now?)

This was my complete and honest review for this store! I wasn't paid to do this review and this isn't a sponsorship or anything. I just thought these clothes would actually fit and you all might want to see a range of people trying to buy these clothes because the target buyers for these tend to be thinner people. Now ya know!

Thanks for reading lovelies! If you have any questions please comment down below!

xoxo Abby

~Storenvy Store Review: MEI NU Store~

Hey guys! It's been awhile since I did a store review! Mostly because everything I've been ordering has been from Amazon and they've been beauty products lol. I haven't been ordering from Storenvy since my experience with Mountain Deer. But I recently discovered a few cute stores that I wanted to check out and they have a lot of buzz on Instagram and Tumblr so I thought I'd give it a go!

***HINT: If you want to skip my mini guide on how I shop and whatnot, just scroll to the part with the pictures! <3***

I don't have much background info on MEI NU store. All I know is that it's (now) a pop up shop type store that is only open the first week (7 days) of every month. This is due to the owner of the shop going to school and being busy in general. If you don't know what Storenvy is, it's basically a platform that allows independent brands and people to sell all their cool things! MEI NU has a few rules that are all easily accessible and understandable in the FAQ section that talks about shipping and stuff so make sure you look at that before buying! And under every description of a garment there is a notice talking about how MEI NU only accepts Paypal so if you don't have one it would be a good idea to sign up if you want to buy from here ^.^ Just a heads up!

I don't know if anyone has noticed by my style has changed quite a bit from the beginning of the year til now. Maybe I just notice it because I see myself everyday and know about what my personal style is haha. I use to prefer buying a TON of printed things (OK I still do) especially if it was a really cute print like a bunch of cats or popsicles and things. So those were the only types of things I would buy. As I continue to experiment with my style I've been noticing that buying print means I end up wearing a lot of double prints, which I used to think was the bomb! But now it's not really my jam and I'm aiming to wear more of my printed clothes (which I still love a lot) just with less printy things~ So when I looked at these new Storenvys like MEI NU, Bread N Butter, Milk and Sugar (is this a grocery list? LOLOL), etc. I saw cute but also simple clothing items. And I think they were really aiming for that kind of cute but minimal style at the same time thing, ya know? SO without further ado, here are the things I bought at MEI NU Storenvy.

Customer service: I follow Wendi, the girl (or one of the girls maybe?) that runs the MEI NU Storenvy, on Instagram and I almost bought a dress off her personal Instagram sale page (but it seemed to run small for me huhuhu T___T) and she was very nice and helpful on there so I thought I might try and buy something from her main shop since I didn't buy her dress hahaha. One of the first things I did was I scrolled through all the items and put the ones I liked in the cart without looking at size or price. This is my shopping process you guys lolol. I'm terrible.

THEN I go through all the things I put in there and click on each one and look at the measurements, size options, and sometimes even color options to see if they fit the bill! My measurements are:

Bust: 41 inches (over not under my bust)
Waist: 44 inches (widest)
Comfortable length: most things around 70 cm (unless I specifically want a crop top! I don't really like super long things)

But most of the time I'm looking at the bust and waist measurements since those are the areas I most often run into problems with. Especially in places that sell things that are One Size only. This usually occurs in places that sell items from overseas like from China, Japan, and Korea to name a few popular places.

Once I have the garments with comfy measurements (which usually ends up paring my cart down quite a bit anyways lol) I go through and check the prices of all the items and assure that they're reasonable. Here's my list to check to see if a garment is reasonable for me or not lol:

-How many things can I wear this with?: If it's above $15 I should be able to wear it with at least five different outfits with it($5 per outfit). If it's below $15 I can usually justify it if I can wear three outfits with it.
-Is it in a color scheme that goes well with some of the clothes I already own? If it's a jewel tone, for example, and most of the stuff in my closet is pastel (it's not, I have a jumble of colors and that's why I'm shopping so strictly now lol) then I probably can't justify the jewel tone unless I'm trying to redo my wardrobe.
-Is it unique?: If I've been having a hard time trying to find a particular style in regular stores like Forever 21 and H&M I like to look online~
-Can I buy this somewhere else or buy something similar for a better price? A lot of the times Storenvy stores stock some of the same things, so it's smart to browse around and check to see if another vendor is selling something for a cheaper price!
-Can I make this myself? This is a question I ask (and my family and sometimes friends ask as well) all the time and it can get frustrating because then I get to thinking if I really can make it and I pan out my supplies and consider the if making it would be cheaper etc. But it's also a good thing because it prevents me from buying so many things that I easily forget about later. I'm a joke lol.

Those are some of my main bits of criteria anyways lol.

I originally bought a graphic tee from an independent designer, tote bag, embroidered striped dress, and hot dog sweater from MEI NU but Wendi e-mailed me and told me the dress was out of stock so I could switch it for something else of the same price or get a full refund on it! That was actually SUPER nice and helpful of her since not all stores are willing to go out of their way to tell you that something is out of stock until you've received your packages and find out it's not there! So I ordered an embroidered skateboard shirt in black ^.^ Which was unfortunately sold out as well T__T haha~ So in total I just got the tote, graphic tee, and hot dog sweater!

My package finally arrived today! (Nov. 12) and I'm a super happy camper because I was initially a bit worried that the package had gotten lost somewhere after it was shipped from China. When I last checked the shipping service it's target destination was apparently the UK o.O I e-mailed Wendi about it and she said if it doesn't arrive by Nov. 14 (approx. 40 days after my order was shipped) I should e-mail her so I can get a refund for the items I didn't receive. Oh yes, an important thing to note: it's quite common to receive your order in separate packages even if you ordered them all at once because they are often from a bunch of different vendors! So I actually got my graphic tee a couple weeks after I ordered and the only things I had been waiting for were the hot dog sweater and tote!

The graphic tee came with a little card with care instructions which I thought was pretty cool ^.^ I got the Gildan tee in XL! You can choose between American Apparel or Gildan.

It's a pretty long shirt so I plan on tucking it into skirts and whatnot >.< haha

Sorry for not posting a full body pic of this shirt, I was too lazy to take more and this one is from my Instagram haha~

The Hot Dog sweatshirt and Tote bag came wrapped in plastic in a normal plastic parcel thingy :3

When I first rolled it out I was just so surprised at the length! Also, I only realized after taking this picture how it wasn't a good idea to take a picture of this on my bed...my comforter is almost the exact same color lol. Speaking of color, this is a nice blush pink, not neon and not overly washed out pastel, just right light pink!

Ooops forgot to rotate the pic haha~ The pictures look black only because of the lighting in this picture, but it really is a nice navy blue color. It is a bit darker than in the photos shown on the website. But I don't see that as a particularly good or bad thing necessarily!

The material of the bag is thick! As in stiff. It's a good size for everyday wear if you want to go shopping and need to bring your wallet, chapstick, phone, maybe a cardigan or something, and umbrella, and a snack? Those are my purse staples (OOOO REMINDING MYSELF: do a what's in my purse in the future? :D)

Nice little pocket, somewhat deep. I could put my phone in there nicely with my chapstick for easy access ^.^

There is actually quite a bit of room in this sweatshirt! I was surprised a bit because usually sweatshirts that are one size and supposedly have very little to no stretch, don't end up looking or feeling that great on me (anyone remember the Dog Dog turtleneck?! LOL)

It's actually pretty long as well! I wasn't expecting this sweater to be so roomy! :-D (also this was taken before bed so no makeup on! Just toner and then face lotion on top :3

TL;DR:
Customer service 10/10: One of the best I've had so far in terms of online shopping! Especially with shops that get their clothing from overseas. She would always respond within a day or less and she was always super helpful with trying to work out the issues with my order~ Thanks Wendi!

Fit 9/10: The Hot Dog Sweater listed online had the same measurements as the actual sweater! Super! I don't think you can buy this particular item on the web shop anymore because they're in their winter collection right now. From the items that I bought the measurements were correct, give or take a cm error.

Quality 7/10: Tbh for the price the clothes are semi- worth it. The graphic tee was definitely worth it, I love original art <3 The Hot Dog sweater is a nice quality, it fits me nicely, the colors are the same as online, and it's a good thickness for a sweatshirt.

Price 5/10: Buying overseas can get pricey at times, especially when there's shipping and things. I think the clothes and style of MEI NU are super cute and I want to wear them all, but they're a bit on the pricey-er side? Keep in mind that I'm a super cheap-o though ok because sometimes I don't eat if food is too expensive LOLOL. I mean, you're supporting an online business run by normal everyday people so I guess you kind of know where some of your money is going.

Shipping 8/10: Like I said, things ship separately often and it took a very long time for the rest of my order to get here. HOWEVER! All of this information is discussed on the "About" page of the website so it's always good to look on those pages to see how long it might take for your order to arrive. I knew what I was getting into when it said 2-4 weeks on the about page hahaha. So make sure you keep that in mind! Even though it took awhile I gave it 8 stars because it was all stated on that page and you probably shouldn't order if you're worried about delayed shipments or you're really impatient (like me lol) because those happen alllll the time xD Shipping is free internationally though so that's pretty awesome :3

Overall 7/10: Will I buy here again? There are some pretty cute things in their web shop right now but I think I'll hold off on purchasing more things from here for awhile. Partially because I'm too impatient to wait  again (LOL) and partially because the web shop is actually closed until next year right now! ^__^

I hope this review was helpful! Even though it was such a small order to do a review on hahaha >.< Please let me know if you have any other questions about this store! :3

xoxo Abby