Shopdo Update

Starting off this week's Shopdo update with a stylish Chic styled outfit! I tried to give the outfit a preppy feel to it but still show off the sophistication of the Enid Chen brand. The second outfit is a preppy look of course to match the boutique interior. I've had a lot of fun the last few weeks designing preppy styled outfits as it's a style I love in real life but I'm more into the girly image in the Style Boutique series. No clue on what the new theme will be of my boutique next week, might have to take a look at the miniatures available for some inspiration. The last outfit for this week is a feminine outfit as those have been popular as of late on my Shopdo. When it comes to the feminine style, I'm always drawn towards purple toned outfits. So that was my main inspiration for this feminine preppy look. You can find all three outfits at Shopdo ID 0006271056 in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS Region).

CocoSori 愛しのマーメイド Itoshi no Mermaid - Single Review (Type A Edition)

 A while back when I posted my giant Zenmarket haul, I managed to get my hands on the Type A edition of CocoSori's Japanese single 愛しのマーメイド Itoshi no Mermaid. I did a review of the Type B edition last year which you can read here! The editions are quite similar so this review will be quite short as I've covered most of the stuff in the Type B edition review.

CocoSori 愛しのマーメイド Itoshi no Mermaid - Type A Edition

愛しのマーメイド Itoshi no Mermaid was released by duo CocoSori in August 2016. The single was released exclusively by Tower Records in Japan and was only available through their online or physical store. The single came in two editions: Type A and Type B. Type A only came with the title song 愛しのマーメイド Itoshi no Mermaid and the instrumental. Type B included 愛しのマーメイド Itoshi no Mermaid and the original Korean version of the girls Korean single Exquisite. I got Type A for my collection and it was on sale on the Tower Records online store when I brought it. Type A comes with the following content:

• CD - 2 Track album
• Jewel case
• Lyrics booklet
• Promotional Flyer

The single has a beautiful sea/beach inspired design which is gorgeous and features the girls in different outfits to the Type B edition. The back has the track listing and information about the single which is mostly about social media links.

The interior of the single is stunning with some cute photos of Coco and Sori. The CD features another gorgeous design just like the Type B edition. Honestly this one Japanese single the group released has one of the best single designs I've seen from groups. The CD actually has a image on it rather than a standard pattern and the photos are of high quality. You also get a little promotional flyer about the events the girls held in Japan. Quite an old flyer considering I brought my single in 2019 years after the single was released and the group disbanded not a while ago too.

Shopdo Update

The weekly Shopdo update is here and I have another round of school inspired looks. First off is a casual girly look which is perfect for the autumn school holidays. This outfit is perfect for the kind of weather we've been having lately where it's kinda cool but you can still get away with long pants. Next is a feminine outfit that is more suitable for teachers and features gorgeous gold and brown tones. I quite like this outfit and felt the pieces worked well together. Lastly is a preppy outfit of course and I went with another casual look with this t-shirt style dress. All three outfits can be found at Shopdo ID 0006271056 in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS Region).

ぴこぷり Pikopuri Summer 2015 Magazine - GIRLS MODE 3

It's time to take a look at another Japanese magazine featuring information on the Girls Mode series. This is the ぴこぷり Pikopuri Summer 2015 Magazine released in June 2015 in Japan and features 124 dedicated to various video games aimed at young girls. I mainly brought this issue for the content on Girls Mode 3, Disney Magical Castle: My Happy Life and Animal Crossing. This particular issue came with the usual Animal Crossing QR Code appendix book, stickers and some special origami of some villagers. Today we'll just be looking at the Girls Mode 3 content of the magazine which covers a few pages. First off is the cover of the magazine which is bright and colourful as usual.

ぴこぷり Pikopuri Summer 2015

 The title page of the Girls Mode 3 section features the character that the magazine uses for the game and a cute photo of a character in game wearing a dress from Marzipan Sky (known as La Chou Chou in Japan). The next page features some more outfits which is the standard content you will see in the Pikopuri magazines with Girls Mode stuff. There are some cute Girls Mode themed comic manga strips included on some of the pages. They follow the adventures of the character shown on the title page and her doing things around Bougainville and interacting with characters like Sophie.

Some more outfit photos are shown on the next few pages. The Pikopuri magazines along with the Girls Mode content in the キャラぱふぇゲーム Chara Parfait magazines and special Girls Mode book are great resources for getting outfit ideas. I know I've gotten some inspiration from outfits I've seen in the magazines which were combinations I never thought of or items I've kinda ignored.

Shopdo Update

It's a new week and it's a new round of outfits for Shopdo! The first outfit for this week is a baby-doll outfit inspired by the preppy style. I tried to pick pieces from Marble Lily and Raven Candle that I thought represented the preppy look. Turned out pretty cute, didn't it? The second outfit is a preppy outfit to fit with the boutique theme and I always find these types of outers interesting. Like they look super comfy but whenever I try to wear them, I get annoyed at them. So I just avoid them nowadays plus they're a pain to store. The final outfit is a girly outfit with a slight preppy feel using one of the check outfit sets I've been loving in the game recently. I think this green and the purple one are the most stylish ones. You may have noticed this week I gave all the outfits fun class themed names to tie in with the preppy/school them. I thought it was a cute thing to do plus I find it hard to come up with names sometimes. You can find all three outfits at Shopdo ID 0006271056 in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS Region).

Outfit Of The Day - Starry Perfection

I was cleaning and sorting some files on my computer and stumbled across some outfit posts from Styling Star that I never posted on here. So today is the day to post a new Outfit Of The Day! No clue when these pictures were taken, obviously when I had a pink themed boutique which maybe was last year. My character is sporting one of my favourite outfits in the game which is this gorgeous dress from Marble Lily paired with ombre pigtails and the best shoes in the game. Everything about this outfit is perfect and it works in so many colours as the dress comes in a few different tones. I swear I've posted different versions of this outfit a billion times on here since the game came out because I love it so much.

Dream Ami Good Goodbye - Single Review (CD Only Edition)

Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye is finally here so it's time for a review. I love reviewing her singles as they are always aesthetically beautiful and have great tracks and instrumentals. Good Goodbye is no different so let's take a look!

CD Only Edition of Good Goodbye

Good Goodbye is Dream Ami's eighth single and was released on January 30th 2019 as a digital single and on March 13th 2019 as a physical single. The single is available in two editions: CD+DVD edition and CD Only edition. This is the second Dream Ami release to only have two editions and I'm guessing it will be the standard from now on. Not sure if rhythm zone has dropped the One Coin editions as I haven't seen them for other E-girls releases either. I got the CD Only edition as it's the usual one I collect and it comes with the following contents:

• CD - 6 track single
• Lyrics booklet
• Jewel case
• External bonus from CDJapan - A3 sized poster

CD Only Edition of Good Goodbye

 The concept for this single is super fun and has Ami portraying six different images of her self in the MV and single photos. I loved this concept and the bright colours of the single design. I think yellow always looks great on releases and it matched well with the pink tones. Now to talk about the one thing that I hate about this release - the removal of the cardboard sleeve. All of Dream Ami's other CD Only editions have come with a cardboard sleeve which you will know about if you read my other reviews of her releases. This was my favourite part of the single design and it was great when it had a different image to the jewel case design. The sleeves were always had that beautiful matte feel and gave the singles an elegant look. Now without the cardboard sleeve, this single looks out of place with my other Dream Ami releases. I did some searching on Instagram and it seems the CD+DVD edition has the cardboard sleeve but not the CD Only one. Not sure why this is the case as both editions have always had the cardboard sleeve in the past. No clue why rhythm zone went with the removal of the sleeve but I feel they've been dropping the ball with the quality of her releases lately. Waiting to see what the editions of her next release are like and then maybe I can work out if rhythm zone is just cheaping out on releases now. Anyway here's some pictures of the back of the single showing the 6 tracks included on the CD Only edition.

The cute dots design continues on in the interior of the jewel case. The CD design is super adorable and is simple yet stylish. Underneath the CD is some production credits and a photo of the bench from the MV and promotional material. At least I got a OBI strip with this edition which makes up a little bit for the lack of cardboard sleeve as I do love me some OBI strips. I don't know what it is about them that I'm so crazy about, but I just find them so interesting and get excited whenever I buy a used CD and it includes the OBI strip.

Shopdo Update - New Preppy Boutique Interior

Decided to switch out the sweet themed boutique for a new style this week. Thought I'd go with preppy for something new and whilst it isn't my favourite interior style due to lack of matching items, I do love making preppy outfits. First off is a girly outfit styled around the preppy look and features items from a few brands (mainly Marzipan Sky). I used the same dress/tunic my character has on as I quite like this simple style of dress and it comes in various colours. The second outfit is a preppy outfit from the main preppy brand Brooke Bridge. Oh how I love navy and red together as it reminds me of the nautical style which I'm a huge fan of. The third outfit is another preppy look but a bit more unique. I just threw some stuff together and tried to work with blue and pink. Looks crazy but is still cute. You can get all three of these new outfits at Shopdo ID 0006271056 in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS Region).

The boutique has a preppy feel to it this week and it put this together rather quickly. I never really used this style as I cannot find the perfect items for it. Drives me nuts how I couldn't match the timber on the counter perfectly to the other items in the room. I'm a huge fan of the book miniatures, they're so adorable and I need to use them more!

April Favourites

Somehow April just flew by and we are already nearly a week into May. Time just goes so quickly nowadays, it's hard to keep up with what month it is. I know it's a little bit late, but here are my favourites for the month of April!

Gaming
Still playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and there was a fun event last month which was a fishing tourney. I managed to collect all the items and this tourney wasn't as hard as the Nintendo themed one. Loved the school uniform items you could collect and here's a cute picture of my workmate and I in the game wearing the uniforms. Don't we look adorable?

Actually been playing a little bit of Style Boutique last week because I thought of doing another One Item Challenge. This time it will be an item from Brooke Bridge and no idea when I'll post it as I haven't had the time to create all the outfits just yet.

Music
I have a massive amount of haul posts to put up on here of my recent additions to my collection. I posted a review of CD Japan the other day so check that out if you haven't seen it already. I was quite impressed with the site and will definitely be using it again. Here are the two CD's I got from there and I'm super excited for Dream Ami's new single which I've been listening to like crazy.

At the moment I'm reorganising my music collection which is a massive project. The idea behind this is that I'm having a huge pain trying to sync things between all these tech devices we have nowadays. Plus my new car doesn't have a CD player so I can't play my CD's in it anymore. A few years ago, I had an issue with my computer and it busted up my iTunes making the files all weird. Like I still have all my old stuff, just not the original files and everything is just one single file. So I decided the other day to refresh my whole collection and start from scratch. I want to make sure everything has a physical file now and a back-up in case I ever lose anything. Plus it will help me discover old tracks that I love and forgot about. Speaking of which, I've been listening to some old stuff recently from my collection so I'll post some in this months music favourites section.

Beauty
So the Lipsmacker Kiss Natural lipbalms that I loved are now out of stock where I live sadly. Luckily I still have some left to use up. I did however manage to melt one of them in a hilarious stupid fashion. I couldn't find my lipbalm at work and wondered where on earth I had lost it. Turns out it fell out of my backpack when it was unzipped in my car. So the lipbalm had been sitting on the seat the entire day and melted into the pill shape of the container. Like you can still use it, it just looks really silly now.

Designer Item - Rainbow Circus

It's been ages since I've posted a designer item from Styling Star on Marzipan Wonderland. I did actually make a bunch of new designs ages ago and thought it was finally time post some of them. First off is this Rainbow Circus outfit set which I'm in love with. The colour palette is bursting with colour and features some beautiful pastel tones. I've really been into pastel things lately and that was the main inspiration for this look.

You can download the Rainbow Circus set at the following details:

Item ID: 0003251612
Region: EUS/AUS Players - New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star

CD Japan Review

Finally caved in and tried out CDJapan for the first time and let's just say I was impressed! The turning point for me to finally order something off the site was that you got a external bonus if you brought Dream Ami's new single from there. So that's what I brought along with a E-girls single I was missing from my collection.

CDJapan is a online store based in Japan that sells a variety of items from CD's, DVD's, gadgets, figures, etc. There's plenty of things to explore on the site and they even have services called Proxy Pickup where you can purchase concert goods. For example, you can currently place pre-orders for items from TWICE's Japan dome tour and most stuff was sold out so it seems to be popular. I only really collect CD's and DVD's so that's what this review will be about.

From the site, I brought Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye in the CD Only edition and E-girls first single Celebration! in the CD Only edition. If you purchase first press or place pre-orders on CDJapan, you will get a little bonus! For the Dream Ami single, I got a poster as an external bonus and another example is MOMOLAND's Japanese single I'm So Hot comes with a special photocard if you purchase it from CDJapan whilst the offer is available. CDJapan seems to be one of the only sites left with brand new copies of the earlier E-girls singles and I rarely see used copies of them on Zenmarket. So that's why I brought the Celebration! one from here and it was reasonably priced.

CDJapan has a great points system where you accumulate points when you purchase items or when certain events occur such as your birthday or coupons. The site offers some good deals during the year as well such as spend a certain amount and get a coupon for 200JPY off. I feel CDJapan has better deals than YesAsia as it encourages you to continue making purchases through the site. For example, I have quite a few points already which I can use to get savings off my next purchase. Or bonuses are always a great incentive! I'd rather spend a little bit more and get a fun item for my collection than buying Japanese releases off YesAsia.

Now for a quick look at the two CD's I brought! First off is E-girls first single Celebration! which is a trip back in time. All the members look so young and different! This single is one of my favourites as I love the songs Celebration! and Dreaming Girls. The later was meant to have a physical release for dream (the group that sings it) but it was cancelled and the song eventually ended up on here.

Next is Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye which is my favourite Dream Ami single ever now. Love the single design, love the songs and love the instrumentals. Everything is perfect with it except for one thing. Can you guess it? If you've seen all my other Dream Ami posts, you'll probably know whats missing and it's the one thing I love the most about her releases. It seems this edition comes without the cardboard sleeve!! No!!! I was so disappointed when I saw it and I was rather confused at why it was omitted. After some searching on Instagram, it seems only the CD+DVD edition comes with the cardboard sleeve. I feel rhythm zone has been dropping the ball with the last few of Ami's releases. First we get less versions (i.e. no One Coin anymore) and now the CD Only edition has no cover. It's not the biggest deal in the universe, I just loved the cardboard sleeves and it made all her singles look amazingly aesthetic on my shelf. Now this single looks out of place with the others. Well I'll just have to wait till her next release to see what the next design will be. Anyway, this single is amazing and I love all the songs!! I got a cute poster with the single which is the promo picture Ami was using to promote the single.