Buying the Aurora and Ariel Rainbow Petticoat - A Guest Post by Fluffy Kawaii Jo

You thought that was the end of the petticoats collab with Fluffy Kawaii Jo? Oh no, there’s still more! And in a first for this blog, this post was written by Joëlle based on her video that’s out today, so you should check both of them out. Enjoy!

I always get asked where to buy lolita fashion and there are so many options. Some cheaper, some easier. So let’s get a real example so we can compare all the places it’s being sold and see which are the easiest and which are the cheapest. I recently published a video where I compared 15 lolita petticoats to find the best one for me. I decided to get the Aurora and Ariel rainbow petticoat. In this post I will try to buy it with you and compare all the places to shop.

Searching for the petticoat

After a Google search, checking literally everywhere - legitimate lolita shops, “shady websites” and even second hand sales websites - these are the shops that I checked if they carry the Aurora And Ariel rainbow petticoat:

• Devil Inspired - only had the white one; the rainbow one was sold out, but a photo search gave me the listing to at least compare prices
• Lolita wardrobe - only had the white one
• My Lolita Dress
• TaoBao
• Lace Market - no active listing at the moment but this is my favorite place to buy lolita fashion
• Glitzy Wonderland - nothing AA at the moment
• Lolita style (not familiar) - only had the white one
• Lolita knot (not familiar) - only had the white one

I wanted to buy the rainbow petticoat, but since most of them carry only the white one let’s pick the white one for the comparison’s sake.

The one that I wanted.

First of all let’s see all the options that we have:

• Colors: Rainbow and half rainbow, white, and black
• Size: free size or custom size (recommended over 80cm waist)
• Length: 45cm, 60cm, 78cm
• Poof level: 6 meters (mini), 8 meter, 12 meters, 16 meters and 20 meters cat walk

Note that not all of these shops have all the options and some combinations might not even exist.

What I was confused about was the number of tiers. On some photos, the 2-tier one seems more cupcake than A-line (not always though,) and the 3-tier more A-line (always). But when I ordered on Taobao, the picture of the white one had 3 tiers and the picture of the rainbow one had two, but I received one with 3. I thought that it was an option for cupcake and A-line and there doesn’t seem to be, but I don’t understand why they have the 2 tiers in the picture. Someone mentioned they have the 16-metre and it’s 2-tier. I’ll ask to confirm when buying.

The white ones are separated in different articles for each poof level, which is easier when ordering. But the rainbow one has only one article and you can pick the poof level also.

Buying the petticoat

So let’s say that we want the white one in 16 meters in 45cm and custom sizing.

Lacemarket

Lace Market past listings have the white 16 meters between $15 and $60 (including shipping) so you might get lucky. Many people are selling it because it’s too poofy!

An example past listing. You may also get this lucky, so keep checking if buying as cheaply as possible is important to you.

Reseller (No custom sizing, so I couldn’t order because it wasn’t my size)

• Lolita style white: $48.40: $32.99 but no custom sizing +$15.50 shipping
• Lolita knot white: $51.99: $33.99 but no custom sizing + $18 shipping
• Lolita wardrobe white: $52.99: $36.99 (would have been $43.99) no custom sizing), + $16 shipping

Reseller (Custom sizing)

• My Lolita Dress white: $53.32: $41.99 + shipping $11.33. They don’t have the white one in 16m, but in the rainbow one the 16-metre option says no rainbow. So it’s the white one. They ask for waist, hips, height, and length which is good. There is no price difference between the half rainbow and the full rainbow. The last option is 43cm (which is the length, not a quantity of fabric, very confusing - also note my bad experiences with this reseller). Very affordable considering that the other 3 without custom sizing are almost the same price.
• My Lolita Dress: full rainbow 20 metres: $59.32: $47.99 + shipping $11.33.
• Devil Inspired white: $69.77: $39 (would have been $47) + shipping $30.77 (with 10% off). They ask for waist, hips, and height.
• Devil Inspired full rainbow 20 metres: $90.47: $59.70 + shipping $30.77 (with 10% off). They ask for waist, hips and length if you want it shorter than 45cm.

Make sure to also check each reseller's shipping rates to your country, as these will vary.

Taobao

Taobao won’t let you order directly if you don’t live in China and it’s all in Chinese. So you need to use a shopping service. It’s an agent who will buy for you, receive the goods in their warehouse and then ship to you. Because of that, it’s hard to estimate the shipping costs in advance. You usually pay a very small shipping fee (sometimes it’s free) from the seller to the warehouse. You can order from many shops and they can all ship together for you. Some shopping services charge you a fee for their buying service, while others do not. And some will charge you for storing goods over a month. They also have inspection services where they send you photos of what they receive. You can pay to get more photos and some are usually included in their service.

I have used two different shopping services. The second one I have used has been the most recommended and doesn’t charge any fee for buying for you. It’s called SuperBuy. I am not sponsored by them, but if you use my link to sign up and then use them, I receive a small commission that helps support my channel.

Buying from Taobao using a shopping service is a lot more involved compared to buying from a reseller. In the video I talk a little bit more about how to do that, but in here let’s focus on the petticoats, so check out the video above if you want those details.

In our case for the white in 16 metre: I can pick black or white, but there’s another section with only one option: Color specification: spot. I have no idea what this means and I had hoped to see the customisation option there which there isn’t. The petticoat is only $22.91 and there’s a $1.66 shipping fee inside of China that will be charged. Based on my previous order I was able to estimate shipping to $8.91 in part of my big box (that also included the taxes I paid). Which brings the total cost for it to $33.48, which is an amazing price. But at that point it’s still not custom sized, so I can’t wear it. Let’s investigate more. The translation says to contact the customer service and mention the custom sizing, but it’s not directly an option on the Taobao listing itself, which only shows One size.

I looked at the rainbow listing the same way and I understand the 43cm mentioned in My Lolita Dress. For some reason, the biggest poof that is the Catwalk in 20 metres is not written as “20 metres” but as “43cm”. And the Catwalk got lost in translation in My lolita dress. Note that the full colour or half colour and poof level is actually in the “colour specification” for the rainbow one. So I don’t understand their “spot” in the white one.

Aurora and Ariel's Taobao shop has lots of options for your petticoat's length and poof level.

The rainbow petticoat on Taobao with Superbuy is $39.50 + $1.66 + $8.91= $50.07. It’s almost half the price of the Devil Inspired one. But the My Lolita Dress is actually only $10 more expensive which is amazing! But as I had bad experiences with My Lolita Dress in the past, here are my next steps: I will contact My Lolita Dress to tell them that I want to buy this petticoat and if it’s possible to order it. I doubt that since it’s custom sizing it will say that it’s out of stock. I will mention all the info and my custom size and also ask for a shipping quote to Switzerland. Note that the shipping cost to Europe or the US would be the same from China.

Someone in my comments actually convinced me that the half rainbow was cuter because the white layer underneath makes the color more pastel, so I will end up going for that. It’s a little bit cheaper.
And for Taobao, I am only able to ask for the custom sizing to the shopping agent when I place the order. So I might wait for My Lolita Dress to see what they say before ordering from Taobao. But the shipping cost that I based my quote on was for the super big box. There’s no real way of knowing if I would get a similar quote (or within $10) if I buy just that.

Of course, it’s understandable that a custom sizing option will take longer than an in stock item to come. And the Taobao page doesn’t mention a time frame, while My Lolita Dress says a month for custom tailoring, and Devil Inspired quoted 10-22 days. But both seem like it’s their standard time frame for custom tailoring. 

I ended up ordering through TaoBao. I am very happy about the result. It’s about 10cm bigger in custom sizing, but still a bit tight. The final shipping for just the petticoat ended up being $23.43. So my half rainbow, 20 metre petticoat ended up costing me $59.33 on TaoBao. Which is almost exactly the same as in My Lolita Dress.
 
Here are the final prices from most to least expensive:

• Devil Inspired (full rainbow, custom sizing): $90.47
• Devil Inspired (white, custom sizing): $77.77
• TaoBao (half rainbow, custom sizing): $59.33
• My Lolita Dress: (full rainbow, custom sizing): $59.32
• My Lolita Dress (white, custom sizing): $53.32
• Lolita Wardrobe (white, no custom sizing): $52.99
  
• Lolita Knot (white, no custom sizing): $51.99
• Lolita Style (white, no custom sizing): $48.40
• TaoBao (white, custom sizing): $51.30??

In summary

• Even though the main product price on TaoBao is way cheaper, the shipping cost for one item only was more expensive and the final price was exactly the same as My Lolita Dress. So I would suggest going for the TaoBao reseller for just one item and having the ease of ordering. But for several items, TaoBao might be more affordable.
• I have bought from Devil Inspired in the past and I had no issue. But it’s really expensive.
• Lolita Styles, Lolita Knot and Lolita Wardrobe are cheaper, but they don’t have my size and I have never bought from them, so I don’t know if they are ok or not.
• My Lolita Dress is very cheap, they have the custom sizing option, but I had bad experiences in the past, so I’m not sure if I want to try again.
• Taobao is definitely cheaper, though not that much, but you need a shopping service and you can only communicate with the seller through the shopping service when placing the order. And most of all it’s very hard to estimate the shipping costs before paying and placing the order because they will only quote it when they have received it and you decided what to ship together.
• Feel free to try Lacemarket. It’s like eBay for lolitas. You deal directly with the person selling it and you might get good deals. If you are not in a hurry, you can save a search to get notifications when an item you are looking for is listed.
• There are many new Taobao resellers, some are good and some not, you can look up reviews and lists online.

I am so happy to have a poofy petticoat that's also kawaii!

These are all the prices based on just one petticoat that I selected for myself. You may find that there are other items for which these prices will vary more between resellers, so it’s always good to double check before you buy. For me personally, I am very happy with the petticoat I bought and by buying directly from Taobao I was able to combine shipping with some other items I bought. But if you only want the petticoat, maybe using a reseller would be better for you.