♡ Little Twin Stars Fukubukuro Review | Sanrio Lucky Pack 2019 ♡

Hello sparkly bunnies! 

Firstly-- Happy New Year! I hope 2019 is magical for you all ♡

Although I look forward to the new year each year for many reasons, there's one particular thing that I'm always excited for... the release of fukubukuro!

I imagine that if you're reading this post, you already know what fukubukuro are, but in case you aren't familiar with them, I'll briefly explain.

In Japan, a lot of shops release fukubukuro, or "lucky packs" at the beginning of the year. These lucky packs are usually full of mystery items, and are valued at several times greater than what you pay for the actual lucky pack. I believe this was originally created as a way to get rid of old stock, however in more recent years, shops have started making items particularly for these lucky packs, so you know what you're getting (for example, the Ank Rouge LP I reviewed last year). If you're getting into Jfashion, or want to try out a new brand, I think fukubukuros are a great way to become familiar with their clothing, and instantly acquire a lot of items that you can mix and match!

This year I didn't pick up any clothing lucky packs, however I did see one that I knew I couldn't miss out on... from Sanrio! They had several character themed fukubukuros, and when I saw they had a Little Twin Stars themed one, I knew I couldn't miss out on it ^^ And so today, I'll be sharing what I got in it! (Spoiler: I am a very very happy bunny).

Let's begin!

I should first begin by briefly saying how I ordered this, since I know people will be asking.

I have an account on the Japanese Sanrio site, and as such I get frequent emails from them (such as when they have new items in stock). Near the beginning of December, I got an email saying that they had released their lucky packs! 

However, their lucky packs were only viewable to people who had accounts on their site. So, assuming that they do the same thing in future years, you'll need to have an account if you want to buy a lucky pack! (Their site is in Japanese, naturally, but with the help of Google translate, it's all very straight-forward).

The listings are long gone from the Sanrio site, but from my purchase history, I was able to find the 'stock photo' for it! In case you're ever purchasing one for yourself, and aren't sure what to look for ^^

I ordered the lucky pack directly and just had it sent to Tenso, my forwarding service (I'm not going to go into detail about Tenso, since there are plenty of guides out there for how to use it ^^). Due to the fact that you had to have an account to order the item, I was worried that using a regular shopping service might have some delays, and I didn't want the LP to sell out! I should take this chance to say that when I checked back a few days later, all the lucky packs were sold out, so you'll want to be quick!

The lucky pack was 5,400 yen (about $50 USD) and if I'm not mistaken, claimed to have a value of greater than 15,000 yen (a bit less than $150 USD). I must say, that's quite a nice deal! Lucky packs are generally valued around 3x more than what you pay for it, so this was quite typical. I considered getting one of the other character lucky packs (such as Cinnamoroll, another favourite of mine), but since I hadn't purchased a Sanrio lucky pack before, and all the items were a mystery, I decided to just get Kiki and Lala's fukubukuro~

The lucky packs were set to ship in early January, I believe (which makes sense, since that's when fukubukuros are released in stores). It arrived at the Tenso warehouse on December 29th (surprisingly early!), and after a bit of trouble choosing the shipping option (I wanted cheaper shipping, but it turned out the package was oversized, so I had to choose the more expensive, but thankfully faster, EMS option). My package was shipped to me from Tenso on January 5th, and it arrived on January 9th! (However I had to pick it up from the post office the following day, since the mail arrived when I wasn't home). 

With all the logistics out of the way... let's get into the actual lucky pack!

As all my Sanrio purchases, it arrived in a really cute Sanrio-patterned box ^^ I love that they decorate their boxes-- it instantly lets me know where the package is from!

Inside the box, all the items were held in a very cute plastic bag with a lot of characters on it!

I have no idea what that simplified odd-looking panda (?) at the bottom right is though (or the pink bear at the top, for that matter)... if anyone knows the character, please enlighten me!

From the customs form, I knew that there were ten items inside-- I was already excited!

The first thing I pulled out from the bag was this really cute Kiki, Lala, and boar plushie! I have a suspicion they made this specifically for the lucky pack, since the boar has '2019' written on it, and the tag for the plushie is quite a bit simpler than their usual tags. It's one of my favourite items from the fukubukuro however! They're not the softest/cuddliest of plushies, but I love the colours and design~ And the lavender coloured piglet is just too cute! I need to find a nice place in my room to display this~

The next item was a plush Kiki popsicle charm-- I remember this collection from the summer! It was really cute and juice/fruit themed~ I really like the design of this charm; the colours on it look a bit more warm toned than usual, so it has a very charming 'retro' feel! I also really like the clear star beads sewn on~ This is a fairly firm plushie, since it's filled with some sort of foam rather than usual toy stuffing, and as such feels a bit more like a squishy!

Another Kiki plushie! This is also from a collection a little while back. I can't say the design is my favourite (I'm not much into the sporty aesthetic), but I do like his fluffy pompoms, and the fact that the visor is made of a clear plasticky material! This too, is charm-sized (he's about as tall as my palm). He has a ball-chain at the top; I think it would be cute to hang him from a gym bag or something like that!

And last of the plushies, is this bunny costume Lala! I don't quite remember this plushie online, but I imagine it was from around Easter? I think the fact that she's holding and egg designed as one of the bears that often accompany Kiki and Lala (Pim? Poff? Puff? I have no idea what their names are, but there's also a blue one-- like in the picture below!)



Like the two Kiki plushies, this one also has a ball-chain so you can attach her from your bag (or anywhere else!). When Sanrio releases plushies, they're either full-sized (about 30 cm tall), or this sort of "mascot" size. I do wish I had gotten a larger plushie, but I'm still very happy with the four that I got! And I imagine this way, it was easier for them to include more things in peoples lucky packs ♡

The next item was this little pouch, from the same collection as the cheerleader Kiki plush! It's made of a canvas material with the design printed on, and has a cute tulle pompom on the side~ At the front, the flap opens up to reveal a main storage pocket, and it closes securely with a metal snap (I think that's what they're called?)
At the back is another sort-of pocket-- I believe it's for holding tissues! I imagine this is the sort of thing that's useful to have in your bag for storing makeup you might need during the day, or other small things like that~

The next item is another favourite of mine, although I don't have any use for it at the moment... it's a card holder! If you live in a city that has a metro/public transit system, you can put your card in here, attach the strap to your bag, and just tap it when needed, rather than having to go into your wallet to get it ^^ The strap is attached to a string that's wound up inside the small circular bit near the strap, so it's very convenient!
I love the magical design of this, and though I have absolutely no use for it at the moment, I'll keep it with the hope that someday I'll live somewhere I can use it ;v; I just love the look of it so so much!

A small, but rather useful item: a trinket dish! It's made of melamine, and has a cute, sort of vintage Little Twin Stars design on it~ Perfect for storing jewelry you take on and off frequently! 

Something I can never have enough of... stickers! Honestly I prefer sticker sheets to sticker flakes, but it is nice to have multiples of each design, so I don't mind ^^ I've been journaling more frequently lately, and I like to decorate my pages with cute stickers, so these will be perfect for that purpose!

The next item was a full-sized bath towel! It features a lot of Sanrio characters, including some more obscure ones! I don't know who the strawberry girl reading a book is, but she's very cute~ This is a fairly thin towel, so not the kind I would use on a day-to-day basis, but I imagine it's very useful when traveling, or perhaps to bring along to the pool or beach! 

The last item was this super soft and fluffy lap blanket! Like the towel, it features a lot of different Sanrio characters. The vibrant, limited colour palette gives me a sort of 'vintage sporty' feeling, but I think it's quite cute! One side is soft minky patterned fabric, and the other is ultra fluffy off-white fabric. It's so soft and cuddly, and although it's quite small, and not the sort of colours I'm usually drawn to, I quite like it!

Finally, an image of everything I got together! I'm really really happy with everything I got ♡ I admit, not everything was my taste, and I'm not sure I would have gotten any of the items if they were full-priced in store... but I'm still very pleased with it all! And that's the fun of lucky packs! ♡
I think it's definitely worth more than the price of the lucky pack (even when you factor in shipping to the US from my forwarding service). I wanted to find the items online and give their prices (since the Japanese tags don't write the prices on them) but sadly it seems they were all taken down (I assume they placed all of them in lucky packs?). However, based on my rough estimate/experience with Sanrio prices in the past, everything does add up to about $150 USD!

I'm definitely going to be purchasing more Sanrio fukubukuros in the future-- this was a very very positive experience! I had high hopes for it, and it certainly lived up to my expectations ♡ Sanrio also offered larger lucky packs ($100 for $300 worth of merchandise) for several characters, but I don't know if that's something I could spring for >< However, it would be fun to get lucky packs of several other characters! If they have Cinnamoroll again next year, I think I'll want to get his lucky pack~



I hope you found this review helpful! If you're reading this around the time I post it, it's unfortunately too late now to buy any lucky packs, but I hope you'll get the chance to next year, if you'd like! ♡ Regardless, I hope you enjoyed seeing the things I got ♡ Let me know what your favourite item was!
Thank you so much for reading~
My next post will be another Day in Paris, so stay tuned for that! ♡
Bye-bye~

♡ Ank Rouge Fukubukuro 2018 Review ♡

Hello my lovely bunnies!

Once again it has been quite a while since I last wrote, and I apologize for that ;-;

However I've been recently reading Lace and Lucy, which is the blog written by Dollielulu, who you might know from Instagram! Her blog is just as sweet as she is, and it's inspired me to start writing again! Blogging was something I really loved to do, and I've missed the satisfaction that comes with taking the time to write a blogpost, on whatever sort of topic!

Although I don't have much in mind for what to write, I do have a post which I've been meaning to write for a while... the review of my Ank Rouge 2018 Fukubukuro!

I thought it might be a bit too late to write this post, since I did get the lucky pack in early January, however I asked on my Instagram whether people would be interested-- and the overwhelming majority said yes!

So, I hope this will be useful for those of you considering buying a Ank Rouge Fukubukuro (or any brand, really) in the future!

Let's begin ♡

Firstly, I'll give a bit of introduction to lucky packs/フクブクロ/fukubukuro, if you aren't familiar with the concept!

In Japan, many shops will sell what are called "lucky packs" on January 1st. You pay a set price (generally 10,000 yen, or approximately $100 USD), and receive a selection of items whose value exceeds the price you paid! Typically this is a way for shops to unload their stock from the old year, however a lot of shops have now begun making lucky packs with the contents revealed! Liz Lisa and Swankiss, for example, do this. Ank Rouge had a similar lucky pack, where you received six items-- five of them known, and one unknown.

Their lucky pack cost $10,800 yen including tax, or about $95 USD (now the Yen-USD exchange rate is a bit worse, unfortunately ;-; ) They claim that the contents of the lucky pack exceed 40,000 yen in value, which is quite impressive!

Here are the items from the lucky pack that they revealed-- you could get the item in one of two colour-ways!.

The tote bag (that all the items arrive in)

Faux Fur Coat

Sailor Collar One-Piece Dress

Turtleneck Sweater

Lace-up Skirt

A 'mystery' item is also included, and there were no hints as to what it was (given what I got though, I think it was just old stock!)

Another thing I should mention, is that in order to purchase a lucky pack from Ank Rouge (and the majority of other Japanese brands), you will need a shopping service, since the vast majority of Japanese brands don't ship outside of Japan. Luckily there are many shopping services out there, most of which are fairly easy to use!

I talk about them in my most recent YouTube video, if you would like a brief overview!

Now enough about my rambling-- let me show what I actually received!

(I actually did an unboxing on my YouTube, if you would prefer to watch that! However here I will speak more about the quality-- if you're just curious to see what I got though, feel free to stop reading here~ and sorry if it seems as though I'm over-promoting my YouTube ><)

The first item that I received was the tote bag in the black colour-way~

This tote bag held all items inside, and it's actually a fairly cute design! I wasn't terribly opinionated on which colour-way I wanted, so I was pretty pleased with what I got. The fabric is black with little pink hearts, as well as the brand name written on the front, with a small ruffle on the edge. It's made of a fairly sturdy synthetic material, and has a matte finish. It zips up the top, and is lined as well. Although I haven't found a use for it yet, it's nice to have good quality bags like this! Perhaps I will store fabric in it..?

The next item (which is one of the ones I was most excited about), was the coat!

I received the coat in the black colour-way, which admittedly I was a bit disappointed about because of how darling the pink one was (... it was really similar to one I tried on while on vacation with my family-- however that one was close to $100, which I couldn't justify spending on a coat given that I live in Florida!)

Back from that tangent however-- this coat is surprisingly light-weight! It's made of a very soft faux fabric-- I couldn't quite say that it feels like faux fur, but it's something similar? It's lined as well with a soft and silky material.

The coat closes on snaps, which is certainly more convenient than buttons~ 

It also comes with a pom-pom brooch, which you can pin on the collar if you would like. I think it's a very cute detail, and it's nice that it's detachable! I do believe this is real fur though... ^^"

My disappointment in receiving the black coat was short-lived, thankfully! I was able to find a sweet girl on the Facebook Larme Sales group who was looking to swap for the black coat, so within a few days I had the pink one instead!

I much prefer the pink version of this coat, it's such a darling shade of dusty pink, and it's much more my style!

It's the perfect sort of coat for Florida winters, I think! It certainly wouldn't keep you warm if you live further up north, however in 50-60 degree cold, I think it's ideal~

Here's a small coordinate I put together with it, I was quite pleased with how it turned out!

Sweet Cherry Girl
Blouse and Coat: Ank Rouge
Skirt: Liz Lisa
Tights: AliExpress
Shoes: DSW (brand is indigo. rd!)

I think this is most definitely my favorite item that I received!

The next item I received was the one-piece in the dusty pink colour-way!

Although my above photo doesn't quite accurately show the colour of the dress, it's much less pink than the coat. I would say it's more of a dusty-mauve colour? In certain light it looks taupe, in certain light it looks dusty purple, however it's rarely pink >< It features a sailor collar, which was one of my favorite details on it! It also has a pre-tied bow that you can pin onto the neckline.

I would say this photo most accurately portrays the colour of the dress!

To be completely honest, I was a bit disappointed with this dress... the main fabric of it was on the thin side, and was a bit like a thick t-shirt? The collar itself is quite well made, but on the whole this is definitely not similar to any other Ank Rouge item I received in the past, in terms of the quality. The bow is also a bit stiff, however I suppose that is just to help it keep its shape!

I do like this dress a lot, and I was happy to receive the pink (if it can be called that) colorway, however I don't know how much I'm going to wear it... I'm going to keep it in my wardrobe for a bit, however I might end up selling this.

The next item was the turtleneck, which I knew I would sell before I even received it because this sort of top is usually not very flattering on me. I received it in the black colour-way.

This top was made of a thin knitted fabric, which luckily wasn't scratchy! It had a ruffle mock-turtleneck, with a small black bow adorning it.
On the whole I think this was the least interesting item in the lucky pack... however I suppose it would be a good basic item to have if you just started building up your wardrobe! I'm afraid there isn't much else to say about it ^^"

The next item I received is another favourite of mine-- the skirt, in the black colour-way!

This skirt seemed very larme in its style, with its pencil fit, lace-up details, and ruffled straps. It's a bit different from my usual style, however I feel quite cute when I wear it!

One of my favorite points of this skirt is the lace up details on the waist- I think they're so cute! The ribbons stand out more on the pink version, however I don't mind that too much, as this makes it a more wearable piece, in my opinion!

This is made from a similar material to the one piece, however it does have a bit of stretch to it (and seems a bit thicker, too). In addition to that, it had a decent amount of shirring on the back, so it can fit a variety of sizes! Due to the cut, I imagine it would look nice on someone with larger hips, since it would accentuate the figure more!

I don't really have a proper outfit to show with this, but here's a quick try-on photo I took!

I think this is the item I will get the most wear out of-- I was quite surprised by it!

The last item I received was the mystery item, and it was quite... unexpected?

I recall Ank Rouge having this sort of odd grunge collection with teddy-bears and crosses, however I had completely forgotten about it until I received this

This is a black knit sweater, which is actually quite cute, when you disregard the applique!

It's made of a soft black knit, with sleeves that puff out a bit at the bottom. It has a fabric applique sewn onto the front, with the words "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do But you may miss out on future opportunities" written in front of a teddy bear. 

Honestly I was quite tempted to keep this piece because of how comfortable it was! However it wasn't my style in the slightest, so I decided to sell it ^^"

Here's a quick try-on I did with it~ I think if it didn't have the applique on the front, I likely would have kept it! It's a good cosy black sweater, perfect for chillier days!

Another quick thing to mention about this top is that it seemed to be of considerably better quality than the other, similar knitted top that I received, which was lucky pack specific. Often brands don't make their items in the LP as high as what they usually make- so please keep that in mind! If you're very familiar with the brand it might be a bit disappointing, and if you're new to the brand, it might set a low first-impression.

Not to say that lucky packs aren't worth it! For under $100 I was able to get five items of clothing (plus a bag!), which is much cheaper than the brand's items usually cost. I was able to sell the two sweaters for about $60 total, so I ended up paying only $40 for four things that I quite like! So, I think it's a bit silly to complain about the quality ^^"

On the whole, I think lucky packs are a great way to get items from brands you like or want to try, at a really cheap price! Although it might seem like a lot to pay (for me at least, paying $100 for things I wasn't sure I would like was a bit scary!), ultimately it ends up quite economical (and you can always sell the items you don't like, if you so choose!)

I think lucky packs are something I will purchase again in the future, especially so if the brand shows what they include! 

I hope this little review was helpful for you, and that it maybe helped to answer some questions you have about lucky packs! 

Please let me know if there's anything else you are wondering about, and I'll try my best to help!

Thank you for reading through this wordy review, and I'll see you in my next post! ♡