Review: Introducing the most comfortable heeled sandals...

M.gemi has always been high on my list of to-buys, but the shipping cost to Singapore always held it back. Was it worth to ship shoes which are considered heavy items all the way here? In my mind, I made a promise that I will buy when I see THE SHOE that I really like.

Here comes The Attorno, seemingly the perfect shoe for me with it's medium height block heels and in neutral tone. M.gemi has it in 3 colours - black, spice and taupe.

I'm always looking for apparels that are versatile so that's how The Attorno caught my eye. Some of M.gemi's designs were too flashy for my liking while others too caught up in curent trend. The Attorno seemed effortlessly classic and nailing it in all technical aspect.

I chose spice, although taupe (as seen above) looks great too. If I were in the states, I'm pretty sure I will be buying both colours!

The sandals arrived in the best packaging I ever come across for online shopping. Each shoe was wrapped in foam and stuffed to protect and retained it's structure. It was then wrapped in a pretty paper before being enclosed in a neat box. When opened, the first thing you see will be a personalised note from M.gemi. How cool is that! It is no wonder the entire package weighed more than 2kg and costed me quite a bit for the shipping :( That's basically the only cons I have about this purchase.

The sandals were P.E.R.F.E.C.T. no joke. I was very surprised with The Attorno and how comfortable it felt despite it being a heeled sandals. The heels were of perfect height, just to give me the extra height without being taxing on my feet. The inner leather lining and padded soles made it so comfortable to wear. I had also no problems with the leather straps being too loose or too tight since it's adjustable.

I know some of you wanted to know how does M.gemi stack up against Everlane's loafers and flats. While the Everlane shoes that I bought were quite different in style to The Attorno, but I can safely say that M.gemi's Attorno is much more comfortable than the two Everlanes that I own. If I'm looking for my next pair of shoes, it will probably be M.gemi instead of Everlane. That said, Everlane's other products are still pretty top notch and the design of their shoes does me feel like owning one!

I wish M.gemi would offer free international shipping or sale/discounts for international customers. The shipping is crazily expensive and is holding me back from buying out all colours of The Attorno haha.

Taobao Forwarding Agent - DEX-I 递壹时 (Missing Parcel)

For some reason, this is a belated post. I am reviewing one of Taobao's forwarding agent, DEX-I, which I used during the 2015 double-11 Taobao sale. It was my fourth time buying from Taobao using their forwarding agent, and my second time using DEX-I. The first two times I had used 4PX which was the cheapest at that time.

The first time I used DEX-I, it was non-peak season and there were no issues with them. They got my stuff delivered to me in good condition and relatively fast. However, maybe this time round it was the busiest day in the entire year, so one of my item actually went missing! This particular item also happened to be the most expensive of all my purchase (about S$40).

After placing my order, I will check on the status of the items I bought almost every day. This item was one of the first few to arrive at DEX-I warehouse. The item's status was updated to 'arrived at the warehouse' on 14 Nov. When the status showed that, it usually means you can start to cart your item to be delivered to you i.e. international shipping. However, I waited for a few days but the option to cart did not appear and it still show 'pending arrival at the warehouse' on the 'items I bought' page.

I went to message DEX-I and they told me they will inform their warehouse team to search for it. I waited for a few days, no reply from them and my item still showed up as 'pending arrival'. I decided to cart the rest of my purchases and have it delivered to me first since they have a policy of having to pay for items storage at their warehouse after 20 days.

I decided to message them a second time. They told me they did not receive the item and asked me to obtain a proof of receipt from the courier. I asked the seller of the item for help and she wanted to call me but I said I am using a forwarding agent so I am unable to answer any queries regarding the receipt of the item. Instead, I asked her to help me with getting the information from the courier. She did so, but the image quality of the receipt was bad. DEX-I said the image is too blur to make out anything. I told DEX-I to get whatever information they need from the courier themselves and they said ok. Having heard no news from them for a few days, I asked about the progress and they showed me the conversation they had with the courier and courier said they will check.

A few weeks had passed and I had already given up hope of getting my item. I went to Taobao to do my usual surfing and happened to go to the 'items I bought' page and to my surprise, the missing item had the 'ready for international shipping' status. Wow! They actually found my parcel and secretly change the status. They did not inform me that they have found my parcel and if I had not went in, I won't even know my parcel's there. Luckily there was still 4 days left before the end of the 20 days free storage if not I might have to pay more to have the item sent to me.

Moral of the story, if they say your item is missing;
1) Check with them on the discrepancy between the statuses on the item page and the 'items i bought' page
2) Identify the local courier used and the tracking code. Go to the courier website, key in the tracking code, and they usually will have a copy of the proof of receipt. If you are not sure how to do this, ask the seller to provide you with the receipt.
3) Show DEX-I the proof of receipt and ask them to check with their warehouse
4) Check back on the 'items i bought' page every now and then.

Gmarket Haul #2

frankly speaking, this should be my 5th gmarket haul, but being the lazy me, i didn't blog about the 2nd, 3rd nor the 4th. this haul was ordered during the gmarket black week, aka 1111 (11 Nov). gmarket was having massive discounts, big coupons (20,000W off) and giveaways during black week.

i shall state up front that this was my most disappointing gmarket experience, and i will explain it shortly. before that, let's take a look at the items i bought this time round! shall start with the purchases that pleases me the most.

1) sleeveless turtle neck flare dress (US$15)
this dress fitted me so well! because of my long neck, i like tops/dresses with high neck or turtleneck. a very simple and classic little black dress. i'm on the tall side so many korean one-piece dress tends to be too short, but this was just nice. it doesn't look impressive in my lousy photo as it does when one wears it. i just hope it doesn't shrink after washing!

2) ecole lucy waterproof longwear eye shadow + roll-on makeup remover + lip tint (US$13)
this was such a steal! all these for only US$13, can you believe it?! it's a customizable set of makeup, and the makeup remover was the additional optional item. sorry, didn't manage to get a shot of the orange lip tint, but i will definitely do a makeup review when i try it on. these items were neatly wrapped in bubble-wrap and came in a big box.

3) IPKN starlight eyes (2 colours) + remover (US$9)
i couldn't find any english review of IPKN waterglow starlight eye shadow on the web, but decided to purchase it because of the subtle glittery effect it was supposed to give. their spokesperson is girls generation's tiffany! i did a swatch of one of the colours on my hand, seems pretty cool! again, like all korean cosmetics, it came neatly wrapped and in a big box.

4) henry tee (US$11)
a very simple looking tee, but i don't quite like the material. it doesn't feel like pure cotton and wrinkles easily. although it was neatly packed, but when i opened it, it was all wrinkly.

ok, now back to why i was disappointed with gmarket this time round. out of the 4 items, 3 were very good while 1 was just alright. the problem wasn't with my purchase, but those that i place an order for, but was subsequently cancelled. besides the above 4 items, i also ordered a colourful knit sweater (from same shop as the henry tee) and a checkered sundress. these two items were the most expensive out of the six, so naturally i applied the biggest discount coupons to these items.

for the knit sweater, they changed the status to 'preparing for delivery', only to change it to 'cancelled' a few days later. the money was refunded straight to my credit card. what makes me annoyed is i wasted my biggest coupon on this item which i could have use it on other stuff, and for a in-season item, i wouldn't expect it to be unavailable so soon. btw, they didn't give me the reason for the unavailability, and even after they refunded me, they continue to list the item on their page for people to order.

the sundress was still understandable because it is a off-season item and after they cancelled it, they changed it to "out of stock". the problem is they refunded me in the form of cash balance to my gmarket account. as i have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, such form of cash means you will have to make a purchase from gmarket again to utilize that money. sure you can withdraw it, but currently they only support withdrawing to a korean bank account.

11st Haul #2

following the previous 11st haul experience, i decided to on another spree on 11st! it was a much smoother experience this time round! placed the order for 5 items on 6 aug, received it on 14 aug.

i noticed that 11st consolidate and package the items very neatly and carefully, with bubble pouches to protect fragile items. i was surprised that it came in a big box even though i ordered only 5 items and with the exception of the shoes, the rest are small items.

a review of some of the items i bought from 11st:

rating: 4/5

fashion vintage sunglasses. true to image. comes with a pouch and a hanky. not much complaints except that it didn't look as good on me than i expected it to be. 

rating: 3.7/5

pleated mini skirt. what i like about this mini skirt is that it has an inner safety shorts. its comfortable and more suitable for outdoors and sports, although the material is slightly on the thin side.

rating: 4.5/5

strappy heels. my best buy this haul. its a decent quality shoe, nice design and great comfort! love the buckle part, which you don't really have to buckle, but just hook it over for easier wearing. highly recommend buying from this brand. if not for my budget, i would have bought another pair from them.

Gmarket Haul #1

this was my first time using gmarket but navigating through the gmarket website was a breeze. since it was my first time, i didnt really have any strategy and it was really to get a feel of what gmarket has to offer.

after placing my order and paying for it on 4 march, the vendor proceeded to ship the items to the gmarket warehouse. one of the vendor informed me right away that his item will only be available for shipping a few days later. thats fine with me. most of the items were received within

the package arrived neatly packed. each of the item was either wrapped up in plastic wrapper or in a box. i hvae no complains on the delivery or the package in general!

so here's part of my haul! sorry, might not have real photos of some of the items because i have no time to take photos of them!

1) leggings with mini skirt (US$ 11)
i have a wide hip so the H-line skirt version doesnt suit me well. opted for this flare skirt instead. i was so satisfied with this item. its not too thin, the quality is good and it fitted me so well. initially i was afraid it will be too short, like many leggings which i have previously bought, but this was long enough without the leg ends keep moving upwards. you can wear it with a sweater, long blouse or a jacket!

2) knit sweater with bow and split back (US$ 22)
quality is there, nothing major to complain just that the cutesy-ness of the bow makes it feels like a cheap wear at times.

3) sweater with ruffle collar and ends (US$ 24)
saw this style on korean tv often so i guess it was the trend there. it gave off a more feminine look as opposed to your usual sweater. wore it twice ever since i bought it... comfortable and warm enough for spring weather. the only bad is the ruffles part seems to form creases easily as the material is not good quality as the sweater part.

11st Haul #1

a month ago i wrote about my first experience with 11st, but i havent had the time to update on the final outcome of that first experience.

after receiving that email notifying me of trying to push for a quick delivery from the seller, i received a call from 11st. the customer service guy informed me that one of the delayed item was out-of-stock and asked if i wanted to cancel or wait. as i was going on a overseas trip soon, i decided to cancel the item. the guy sounded apologetic over the phone and told me the money will be refunded to me. his english was clear so thats a plus point. i would have been satisfied if they just email me to confirm, but the fact that they did this long-distance call showed that they were more responsible. the problem this time round was quite minor, but imagine if im having major issues, i would think them initiating a phone call would be easier.

ok, so things really did speed up after that phone call. within less than an hour, i received another auto-message email informing me that item has been cancelled and the money refunded. i paid for my order by paypal, so the money was refunded straight into my paypal. this, to me is very important. i know of e-commerce websites, especially korean sites, refunding back to your account which you can either withdraw it to your bank account or use it for future purchases. i dislike the idea of the refunded money being left in the site's account because it sorts of force me to have to buy something if not my money's going to be just left there. the other option of withdrawing to a bank account is very troublesome and most of the korean websites will only support korean banks or credit cards.

my order then proceeded to ship out by ems. ems is usually very fast. from past experiences, shipping by ems will take no longer than 5 working days (on average it was 3) to reach my doorstep. if the parcel reaches singapore at 2-3am on a working day, i can receive it on the same day (by noon). if it reaches singapore in the afternoon, im able to get it the next morning. really fast!

items i bought

rating: 4.7/5
mint green flare skirt. i bought this as a working attire and it didnt disappoint! my most basic expectation of such skirt is that it shouldnt crease or crumple easily. this skirt doesnt. in fact, the material used was above average, though there was minor fray ends. the skirt ended up slightly above my knee (im quite tall), so its still length-appropriate as a working attire. i have since wore it once to work, and my friend complimented it! the mint green is a lovely pastel shade!

rating: 4.7/5

grey glitter slip-on. i really have nothing negative to say about this shoe! its comfy and fits snugly on my feet. i wore it twice so far, never gave me any blisters. its well crafted, shimmery without being too bling. no flaws that are obvious to the naked eye. the only reason why i didnt give it a 5/5 was i think i saw similar slip-ons going at a cheaper price but of cos i can't be sure of the quality of those.

The 11st Shopping Experience Thus Far

made my first order with 11st on 19 apr (sat). a total of 8 items that are available for worldwide shipping.

it is now 23 apr (wed) and the order status on 6 of the items is still stuck at 'paid'. a description of the status from 11st website is shown below.

the 'paid' status was there ever since i paid i.e. on 19 apr. bear in mind that since this is for international shipping, the 'completed (shipping)' shown above only equates to 'delivered to 11st logistic center'. 11st will then shipped out the entire package of 8 items to me. with the exception of 2 items, the other items seemed to have not been acknowledged by the seller.

i received an email from 11st informing that they have sent an email to the sellers 'pushing for quick delivery'. i guess this is their standard when an order hasnt been acknowledged for more than 3 days. this calmed me down a bit knowing that there is someone to rush the order for me instead of my having to draft a message to tell them to do it. since most of the sellers are presumed not to be well-acquainted with english, we might not be able to communicate well.

11st also mentioned about the option of cancelling the order if the seller takes too long. personally i dont like the idea of cancelling what ive already set on ordering. i usually spend quite some time weighing my options of the different items so having to cancel it annoys me. and then theres also the problem of where the refunds will go. will it be credited to my 11st account? which means its hard to withdraw and i will have to make another 11st purchase? or will they refund it back to my paypal which im not sure if they will refund the transaction fee too.

since this is my first experience with 11st, i just hope things speed up from here on and leaves me with a favorable impression.