AYWi30C #7 - As Sweet as You Can Go

Finally a little change of pace where the outfit was obvious from the get-go! We all knew this was coming up, but let’s appreciate it in the most minute detail.

| Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK | Dear Celine blouse | Angelic Pretty Sealing Border OTKs | Bodyline shoes | Angelic Pretty Sweet Cream Princess headbow | After Midnight doughnut clip | Claire's accessories bow clips | offbrand earrings | Angelic Pretty ribbon | Angelic Pretty Fancy Crepe necklace | Angelic Pretty Milky Candy brooch | Lady Sloth My Coffee Time brooch | Angelic Pretty Logo Ribbon Charm wrist cuffs | Chocomint ring | Love a Lolita cupcake ring | Star Glazed Delights Brandwhore ring | Angelic Pretty Fancy Soda ring | BtSSB Merry Sweet Cake ring | offbrand bow ring |

To me ‘as sweet as one can go’ implies pushing the boundaries of how much sugar one outfit can contain, which inevitably leads to OTT sweet. This feels like an outfit I’ve done with Diner Doll already, although some of the individual smaller pieces are different, so it’s never been quite the same as before. Still, at a glance it looks like my look from DMC or what Joëlle put me in, because in essence this is what it is. And it’s still a very fun coordinate, so why the hell not?

You can just about see that around the tag that there are glittery threads running through this fabric.

The simple patterns on the blouse lace blend very well with simple pattern laces on this JSK (which also has polka dot lace at the hem).

The blouse is one of those elements that is new. This Dear Celine blouse is my replacement for the Angelic Pretty one I had previously. The colour is a bit more peachy than I was hoping for, however, it fits perfectly, which more than makes up for any colour mismatches. There are enough pinks in this print, as well as the coordinate, so this blouse is bound to match something. And just look at those details!

Maybe if I ever change my mind about the design replica shoes, I'll go back to getting some tea parties from Bodyline. Those and the other shoes I have are truly durable and I'm not the kindest person to my shoes.

Let’s make a detour into the slightly less interesting parts before we go to that tonne of accessories. Having bought these Bodyline tea parties as ‘sax’, they turned out to be a wonderful match for Diner Doll, which in turn is an odd blue-y shade of mint. They both got their advertised colours a little wrong and ended up meeting themselves in the middle and matching each other. When I think of sweet lolita, I inevitably think of tea party shoes. They’re both cute and comfortable, which you need when the rest of your outfit demands this much energy to even put on, let alone wear. Part of me would like to own more tea parties for those days when I need to walk more, but I’m also trying to be conscious of not adding any more design replicas into my wardrobe. I don’t judge people who do get their tea party shoes off Bodyline or the various Chinese brands, I understand why you do that – it’s my personal choice. So if any of you know of cute and original flat lolita shoe designs that don’t cost as much as original Angelic Pretty tea parties, let me know, please.

The two-tone pinks make these socks more versatile than I imagined when I was buying them.

And whilst we’re on the topic of legs – socks. I’m grateful that these OTKs still photograph alright when worn because truth be told, they got pretty battered during Dream Masquerade Carnival. My other socks with pink in them are different shades and/or styles, although I am contemplating getting some more pink socks – I just need to find a design that I’d like. Let’s hope that these ones will last me until then.

All of the smaller bits, laid out as aesthetically as I possibly could've managed.

And NOW we can get into the fun part, the one that makes this coord OTT and not just sweet.  This looks quite impressive laid out like this, doesn’t it? And yet I know that people truly dedicated to OTT sweet would’ve had even more going on. That’s bonkers! And why I adore this style.

The funny thing is that this headbow doesn't match the JSK in colour. But they photograph similar enough together, especially with so much pink in between, which is good enough for me.

Although a big centre bow is more OTT, I like this one way too much to not use it. It’s objectively super cute, very much my style with it being a side bow and thanks to this I can better lay out all the smaller clips around it. All the various bows are from Claire’s children’s section, an OTT sweet lolita’s paradise for filler pieces like this. And the doughnut clip is just too adorable to not use. You could say that I could’ve pushed the OTT more by adding my whipped cream headpiece, but I decided to go with lots of smaller bits instead.

The holy grail of my necklaces. The other two bits are nice too, but I can't help loving that stupid plastic crepe!

The jewellery on my head and neck is another mix altogether. These earrings are great for sweet lolita as they’re big enough to show up on pictures, even when partially hidden by hair, yet remain reasonably light. Of course, I had to include the Fancy Crepe necklace – I got it specifically for this dress, so it’d be a crime to leave it out. And the ribbon is a little thing I picked up from the Dress Me Up challenge with Joëlle. This ribbon was attached to the freebie postcard we got during Strike a Pose and I kept it specifically to use as a choker. Too brandwhore to use offbrand ribbons, it’s a way of life #throwitinthebag.

Maybe I should count how many different types of sweets there are in this whole outfit between all the various elements?

No coordinate is truly me without some brooches. The Angelic Pretty one is being worn with this dress for the third time now, though as you’ll see in the video, I’ve placed it somewhere else now. At its ‘usual’ spot on the neckline it would’ve hidden the necklace and I can’t let that happen. The Lady Sloth brooch is my touch of mint and despite there being no cutlery on the print (honestly, that can’t be a good diner if they won’t even give you cutlery), it goes well thanks to those two mint bows on it. I was debating whether to add the mouse throwing sugar brooches too, but while they have mint accents, they would be too far outside the theme. And I started to run out of space to put them.

Now that I look at them up close, I'm not surprised that these are probably my most worn wrist cuffs. Everything about them is just perfect and I love every detail seperately, as well as within the overall design. Let's check what other colours these came in, I might give in to temptation if I see them in the future...

An OTT sweet lolita will not be seen with bare wrists. Of all my wrist cuffs, these may have had the most wear? Which is ironic given how rarely I wear pink. Guess this makes them a great buy. They are a bit stretched out now, since I bought them second hand, which may be great for comfort of wear, but I have to keep turning them for photos so that the bows are facing the front. I’d love to add some bead bracelets to this too or maybe another pair of wrist cuffs, so I guess there’s still room for improvement with this OTT outfit. Not sure if a fourth version of it would get worn though.

The key with OTT sweet is to have ALL the rings. I don't make the rules.

And, of course, the rings! I picked up all of my sax/mint ones and all but two of my pink ones. If I had some smaller ones that could fit my little fingers, I’d definitely add them too. I decided to pick these ones because they best went with the theme, as well as the colours. And I enjoy having both bows and food shaped ones, that seems like the epitome of sweet lolita.

Doing a popcorn themed outfit with this print is also on my list to do in the future.

Tiny bits of biscuit straws are a pop of beige and brown that's surprisingly hard to miss in this pastel mint x pink print.

These cupcakes are peak pastel retro aesthetic and you cannot change my mind.

In other dresses I find these plastic crystal gems a bit too tacky - but not in this one. Just wish they were symmetrical.

Even though Diner Doll is arguably the sweetest piece in my collection and, as a mint one, sticks out a little, I genuinely love it to bits. Even looking at it makes me happy. Every now and then I debate whether to trade this for the blue one, as the blues and reds in that colourway would work with my wardrobe much better – but I can’t really bring myself to part with this one. If I ever find it at a low enough price, I might cave in and buy it. That’d be my first ever print I’d own in multiple colourways, but I think it’d be worth it. Just think of the retro outfits I could make with that one… And, of course, I could twin with myself like the Billy-no-mates that I am.

None of the selfies I took show that off, but my inner conner highlight was light blue. Everything else was various shades of pink. Wig is from Lockshop, while my makeup is a combination of Too Faced, Colourpop and NYX eyeshadows with a Lime Crime lip gloss/topper.

In this case, hair and makeup are crucial at completing the OTT sweet look. Going barefaced and with simple hair with such a busy, detailed coordinate would just be out of place. And even though I threw as much pink and sparkly bits on my face as I could’ve, I still feel the lack of actual glitter or some sparkly face deco to complete this. Having said this, if you ever feel like getting a very bright highlighter, I cannot recommend Colourpop’s Lite Stix enough. Swipe once and you get a nice subtle sparkle – keep swiping over it and it builds up and builds up to absolutely crazy levels!

Left to right these are from: September 2016, April 2017, August 2017 (photo by Emily Valentine Photography), January 2019 and June 2019.

One of the reasons why I’ve felt like trading this JSK for the blue colourways is because when you don’t have that many mints or pinks, it feels like I wear it the same way every time. I know that there are other ways to wear it that I haven’t had the chance to try out yet. For example, there are some biscuit straws in this print, which add light browns into it, and I’d love to put together an outfit emphasizing that. Or join the biker jacket and lolita squad, since I now have a white (faux) leather jacket that’s the right length for this fashion. If any one of you out there wants to come over, look at my wardrobe and point out some other ways I could coordinate this dress for next time, please, be my guest.

Just like this whole outfit and post, the video was very quick to put together too. OTT sweet is such a visual treat of a style, all you need is some upbeat music and you’re good to go. Enjoy me pulling silly faces because I have zero clue how to be conventionally kawaii.