Review - Girly Cute Japanese Secondhand Shop

Girly Cute's homepage

So a couple of weeks back I stumbled across a Japanese secondhand site I had never heard of before - Girly Cute.

I ran across it while perusing an item description of an auction for Angelic Pretty's Royal Unicorn - a dress I've been eyeing ever since it's release. This site sells both new and used lolita, otome, and even items suitable for mori. Additionally, from browsing their secondhand lolita pages they tend to carry many popular and sought after dresses - some of the sold out items I saw on the page included Misty Sky, Crystal Dream Carnival, and Claudia, the Fairytale Princess to name a few. The site is very easy to browse even without a translating browser plug-in, with categories for each major brand and links for both new and used clothing.

Naturally when I find something on the auction sites I want, I contact a shopping service to place my order, but once I arrived to Girly Cute's page and discovered they shipped overseas, I was intrigued. Using a shopping service is very easy, but nothing beats the convenience of placing an order yourself, what with the back and forth between you and the service, needing to make sure you place the right deposit for the right bid amount, waiting for shipment from the auction seller to the shopping service, and so on and so on. Placing an order with Girly Cute was really easy and much like ordering through Baby the Stars Shine Bright - you make an account, place items in your cart to make an order and they email you later with the invoice.

Before I decided to take the plunge and order, I searched for reviews for this shop, but I was unable to find any. So, not without a little trepidation, I decided to place the order - taking confidence in the fact that they take payment via PayPal. Someone has to be first, right? Now, to the details of my order!

My desired dress! Item description does not say includes head bow, but it is included in the pictures

Ordering Timeline of Events

November 5th - Register for an account, place order, receive confirmation email from Girly Cute

November 6th - Receive invoice from shop which I promptly pay

November 8th - Receive email from Girly Cute confirming my payment

November 14th - Item shipped via EMS

November 18th - Item delivered

As you can see, a pretty quick turn around from placing the order to having it shipped. If you were using a shopping service you'd have to wait for the auction to end (and might not even win!), wait for them to email you about shipping costs within Japan, wait for them to pay, and wait for the item to ship. 9 days from ordering to shipping is not too bad! Although I am slightly irritated about the length of time it took to ship after I pay, I'm assuming they're not a larger secondhand shop with actual stores and staff like Closet Child. Overall, their communication was great, and I felt confident each step of the way.

Cost

I wouldn't necessarily mention this, but it is worth noting if you're used to ordering from Closet Child (the only other shop I've ordered from as of yet). Unlike Closet Child, the tax on the item is not listed in the price on the site, and they charge you a "shipping and handling fee" of 10% on top of your order. The EMS fee was very reasonable though, they only charged me 2200 yen to ship my items. I doubt I saved any money going directly through them, seeing as I only purchased two items, but if you were purchasing multiple items through their shop you'd definitely save. I know Japonica Market (who I usually use) charges a minimum of 500 yen for each bid/purchase, which can rack up quickly on multiple items. Add in shipping from the seller to your shopping service for each item, and it's definitely worth it to make larger orders from this shop. Either way, convenience of ordering is also something to consider.

Items and Packaging

As you can see, the items were very professionally packaged, each in their own individual cellophane bag. The Axes Femme scarf I ordered still had it's tag on, and the the dress and head bow were in fantastic condition - as I expected since they were A ranked. The note included in the package thanks me for the order and asks me to post a review, offering 300 points to my account - which is equivalent to a whopping 300 yen in compensation (I was going to post this review anyway).

Overall, I highly recommend Girly Cute as yet another great resource for finding secondhand lolita pieces. The ordering process is very easy to understand, they have great communication each step of the way, and the items arrive in outstanding condition.

If you have any questions about my order and experience, please feel free to ask in the comments!