Sweet Dolly House Lucky Pack Review

Another lucky pack has arrived. Well, it actually arrived just before 2017 ended, but there were other things to prioritise posting at that time – but the review still stands true!

The Brand

Sweet Dolly House is a kawaii accessory and decoden brand based in Moscow. All of their accessories are handmade out of polymer clay and are a dream come true for anyone deeply in love with Sweet Lolita and its aesthetic. While some (myself included) have sometimes confused them with Moon Bunny, Sweet Dolly House creates accessories that are only based around cute themes like sweets or adorable animals, whereas Moon Bunny has done some darker pieces as well. The lucky pack was advertised as having 7 items: a pair of hairpins, a ring, a necklace, a brooch, a cellphone strap, a kawaii ball pen and a hair scrunchy and together with postage from Russia to the UK it cost just over £35 – which given the quality and style of the contents, was a very good price. It was posted to me on December 14^th, after placing the purchase on December 12^th, and arrived on December 29^th. Since Russia is fairly far from the UK and that was around Christmas, when postal services are massively overworked, I still make that a very reasonable shipping time!

The business card included in the order.

The Order

The lucky pack arrived securely packaged in a box lined with bubble wrap and then additionally all the items were in a cute paper bag. There were no damages to anything, the packaging (inner or outer) or the items, and everything arrived safely. Spoiler alert: I actually somehow received eight items instead of seven, as was advertised. I’m incredibly grateful and thankful for that. But let’s get into those, in the random order that I photographed them.

Plain but practical.

Hiding this exciting pink paper bag!

The first item was this adorable necklace shaped like a jar full of heart-shaped macarons. It’s large enough to be clearly visible, yet remains light and shouldn’t burden the wearer. The two dangly charms add extra cute, but also stop the necklace from twisting, which is an absolute godsent. Chains moving so that the clasp is at the front is a massive pet hate of mine, I battle with it daily with my regular necklace. With this, as long as the pendant is at the front, the clasp remains at the back, so no stress. The chain itself is very simple rolo style in silver, so should match most Sweet Lolita. And because the little macaron charms are actually individually placed inside the jar pendant, they make the cutest soft rattle noise that’s incredibly satisfying. The necklace is available in the shop for around £7.50 and based on the stock photos, the dangly charms may vary, so if you wanted something in particular, I suggest you send a message first to check.

Next I pulled out the mobile phone strap. I remember when these were a thing and I miss those days. Modern phones and cases don’t have a special place to attach the straps anymore and it pains me greatly. Especially as this one is so adorable. While I would’ve preferred a different accent colour instead of yellow, I can’t deny that it looks good enough to eat and the yellow compliments the lollipop amazingly well. It’s just the right length and size to not look awkward with a smartphone (remember when tiny mobile phones were the rage? This would’ve been a bit too big for one of those). I am not yet sure how, but I’m determined to find a way to attach it to my phone and have it dangle there. Even though I could just use it as a keyring or probably even a small bag charm, I’m a big fan of mobile phone straps and want to bring that time back. These retail approximately £6.40 and are also available to purchase individually.

Now, this ring is what I suspect is my free item. Why? It’s the only one, except for the pen, which didn’t have the Sweet Dolly House backing card and the pen was advertised as being included in the pack – and there is another ring there. Nonetheless, it’s a great surprise and a great ring. On the photos it looks milky white, but the real shade is a nightmare-to-photograph very pale, pearly lavender hue with bits of glitter in it and a plain white crystal on top. I’m not sure what material it’s made out of: the swerve tip is actually soft and it feels slightly jelly-like to the touch, so maybe resin not completely hardened? I wouldn’t even know how that could be possible, so if you know more about crafting, let me know what you think it could be. It’s the only item that I can’t find on the Etsy store, so it’s either one of the very old items or maybe something upcoming, like a sample piece? Not sure. Still, I’m very happy with it, it looks cute and the colour is neutral enough that it’d go with plenty of Sweet Lolita coords. It’s also on an adjustable gold-tone base, which allows for better fit.

This is the nearest I got to photographing the colour.

This ring, on the other hand, was definitely meant to be included and it’s a perfect match for me. A bow-shaped cookie with red and white icing is exactly the colours and style I like and will fit plenty of coords. It looks like a real cookie too, good enough to eat – but don’t because polymer clay isn’t edible. This one sits on a much slimmer, silver-tone adjustable ring base, which is a little more comfortable than the thicker gold one (or maybe I’m just more used to it). It’s also fairly large, more of a statement piece than small filler, and you may have to move any other ring one finger over to fit it properly. I believe it’s this ring (none in the shop now are actually red) and it retails around £6.80 individually – worth every penny for that scrummy quality and appearance!

This brooch is one that I hoped I would get. Or to be more specific, I was hoping to get anything from the snowflake cookie range because they’re very seasonal right now and 10/10 adorable. Again, it’s good size: not too big so as if to dominate the coord, but still big enough so that it should be clearly visible. Just like the cookie ring, it looks good enough to eat and has that same realistic shine to it as if it were real icing on top – even the pearl in the middle looks like actual cake decoration. Although I can see other items from this series on the Sweet Dolly House Etsy shop, I can’t find the brooch, which must mean that it sold out – and I’m not in the slightest bit surprised. That whole line is beautiful, would go perfectly with a wintery print such as Sugar Dream Dome, so no wonder people want it. I’d love to add other bits, maybe the earrings or the ring to my collection. But as the Sweet Dolly House brooches range in price from approximately £6.80 for the smaller, simpler designs to £13 for the more elaborate ones (there’s one costing £21, but that looks very big and is full of adorable detail), I’ll wager a guess that this is worth probably in the region of £7 with some change.

Next is a pair of cookie bear hairpins, which I’m so glad I got. Although I generally struggle with placing hairpins like this in a way that I’m happy with and that won’t slide off, the design is a fairytale fantasy come to life and I was hoping that I’d get a bear item in the lucky pack. I can already see a coord with Revival Sweet Teddybear forming in my head as we speak. Since the bear heads on the pins are decent size, I might actually try to attach them to a bow hairclip or even a headbow, if I can’t manage to figure out a way to pin them to my actual hair. The fact that the pins themselves are a complimenting shade of pink is an extra touch that I really appreciate, it goes to show the level of detail that goes into Sweet Dolly House products – although you can also buy bear hairpins on plainer pins and even with different colours and styles of bows they’re wearing. These particular ones are around £7.50 in the shop.

The hair tie is my only non-pastel item in the lot, although it’s still sweets themed as it’s a big chocolate macaron. The colour is a lighter brown, so it should show up on my hair (especially at the ends where I have remnants of lighter hair dye) and it has a shiny finish to it, which I’m slightly surprised by as I would’ve expected a macaron to have a matte finish. It’s not a complaint, don’t get me wrong, just an observation. As far as I can tell the two crystal gems on the top are also a kind of brown shade, although it’s hard to tell – white ones would probably shine a lot more and reflect more light. What I like about it though, which I haven’t photographed, is how the charm is attached to the hair tie, which is with a thick plastic loop attached to the charm itself. Since the hair tie is a standard one, nothing fancy, it will wear out if worn often and may eventually snap. With that kind of backing, you could still use the macaron charm by threading it onto a chain and making it into a necklace or a bracelet, or maybe sticking a thin alligator clip through it to continue using as a hair accessory. Very cute and I guess it must also have sold out already, but all hair ties are between £6 and £9 and something tells me that this might be one of their earlier products, so let’s put a safe-ish guess at £7.

Last but certainly not least is the pen. While the stock photo depicts a pink one, mine is plain white. However, it’s not the pen that matters, but the decoration on it – the pen is merely a simple thing designed to be a carrier for the cuteness. The design that I got features a big pink strawberry, a star shaped cookie, some tiny macarons, a big mint bow at the top and lots of smaller sweets and cute bits as fillers. That part of the pen is the one I often manage to break, so I will have to be extra careful with this one, since the pen itself is a cheap thing (I tend to get all my stationery from Japan, so am used to higher quality, slightly thicker pens that write smoother and sit more comfortably in my hand). But just looking at it motivates me to write things and to use it, so would make such a thoughtful present for any Sweet Lolita who is into journaling. Although at £6.50 you are paying for the decoration and not the pen.

Overall

I can hand on heart say that now that I see these items up close, I would buy things from Sweet Dolly House again, lucky pack or not. Yes, the lucky pack was a roaring success for me and great value for money since I probably received around 20% more in value than what I paid. But what matters to me even more is the chance to see for myself how great these items are after ogling them online for so long. I’m incredibly happy I took the plunge and will now buy things from Sweet Dolly House next time I get a chance.

The only thing putting me off is the postage (what a surprise). When standard postage to the UK is £5.35, seemingly regardless of how much I order, it’s better to save up and get a few things than buy individual items. I mean, deciding on what to buy is a big enough hurdle already since everything is utterly adorable, but I know that next time I buy it will have to be several bits simply to justify the postage. Unless Sweet Dolly House plans on attending any events in Europe that I may have a chance of going to, then all the goodies without the postage!

I give the lucky pack 10/10, definitely will shop again, and I rate Sweet Dolly House at 10/10 because everything is impeccable quality, the attention to detail is superb and the whole ordering process was as smooth and pleasant as you could ever want. Seriously, if you were on the fence, go and support them, you won’t regret it!

Have you ever bought anything from Sweet Dolly House before? Do you also want mobile phone straps to make a comeback? Or the real tricky question: cookie bears, cookie cats or cookie bunnies (all available on the Etsy shop)? Let me know in the comments, I’m very interested to know!