Shibuya 109 Review / Tenso Review

      Hi cuties! Today I'm going to be talking about the order I placed a few weeks ago with Tenso; I had been wanting to order something from the Shibuya 109 e-shop for a while, and when the Liz Lisa store had its New Year sale I decided to give it a try!    

I wanted to try out Tenso's forwarding service for the first time, because I know its a super popular service with lots of bloggers. I just ordered one item to test out the process, so I picked a cute winter top from Liz Lisa! (I didn't like the look of the matching sukapan very much sadly). 

Here is the top I chose;

 

This caught my eye because it suits the model's dark hair really well, and my real hair is a medium brown colour. I also have a slightly olive-ish complexion, especially in the summer, so I thought a light pastel colour would suit me really well!   I signed up with Tenso, which is super easy to do; you just enter your personal details, and your address, then provide them with I.D for your address and to confirm your identity. Once they have checked it and confirmed everything, they provide you with an 'address' and phone number you can use to shop at Japan-only websites. They have a little advice section on their website which tells you how to enter your address and details when you shop, so its super easy to use!

I went ahead and placed my order through the Shibuya 109 e-shop; please note that the website is in Japanese so you may need to use a browser translator to find your way around! I put the top in my basket, and checked out, entering the details Tenso had given me. Fortunately, Shibuya 109 accepts international bank cards, so I was able to pay using my regular card. Shipping was around 600 yen which was totally reasonable for a heavy-ish winter top! I got a confirmation mail from the shop soon after to say my order had been received. I had a follow-up mail 2 working days later to say that my order had been sent from Sibuya 109, and a few days later it showed up on my Tenso account as a 'pending order'. I was super happy that Shibuya 109 sent it out quickly, and I was relieved that there were no problems with ordering from a Japanese website.    

    This was unfortunately where I had a little difficulty with Tenso; initially I chose registered airmail as my shipping method, and paid through paypal. A few days later, I noticed that my payment wasn't showing up on the Tenso page, and my item was still 'pending', so I contacted them through the help form on their website. They mailed me back saying they had already contacted me (they hadn't) saying that my item was too large for registered airmail (which is odd for a single top?) and that I had to change to SAL parcel instead. They offered to reduce my package size, which they did in a day or so, so it could be sent SAL small packet, which was cheaper. They refunded me the original shipping and I paid again, this time for SAL, and my item got posted a few days later. This whole process was a little stressful, as their communication was somewhat slow and I was a little put off that they claimed to have already contacted me, when I had received no messages from them whatsoever. Fortunately, once my item got posted out, the shipping was super speedy and the top arrived to me in about 5 days (so quick for SAL!!). As a result, my opinion of Tenso is somewhat neutral as I had to chase them to find out what was happening.  

I was pleased to see that Tenso had packaged my top in a sturdy box, and I was so excited when I opened it and saw that the Liz Lisa shop had included a cute shopping bag along with my purchase. I thought that was really nice of them, as I haven't been into a physical Liz Lisa shop before (I totally missed it in Harajuku, but this summer I'll be paying them a big visit!).

 

Here's the top in person!  

The gold detailing around the buttons is such an elegant touch!

I love the rose embroidery detail on the waist!

The pom pom on the neckline is detachable which is super useful!

There's a layer of chiffon material on top and a knitted cotton layer beneath!

It's so floaty and dreamy! 

I'm really pleased with the quality of the top; the collar and cuffs are so soft and fluffy and the under layer of the top is very soft and comfortable as are the sleeves. It's a lovely fit and very cosy in the cold weather; it is worth bearing in mind that the top is a small size compared to a lot of Western sizes (as is typical of Liz Lisa clothing), so it wouldn't fit over about a 84cm bust comfortably. Some of Liz Lisa's clothes do stretch or have larger size options, but most are relatively small.

Something I love about this top is that it's super versatile and can be dressed up with a fancy skirt or shorts, or toned down and worn with some light coloured jeans and comfy fluffy boots!

Worn photos;

(Apologies for the silly lighting, it was very sunny and then very shady >.< )

*Silly faces*

*Shellie May is lounging around in the background*

    

 

So that's it for my little combined review! Overall I felt neutral about Tenso's service and would probably stick with my normal service Japonica Market in future. I was super happy with my Shibuya 109 experience however, and will be ordering from their web shop again soon! I'm also really excited to be visiting the real Shibuya 109 in July when we visit Tokyo again! I want to visit as many Liz Lisa outlets as possible, as I'm beginning to love the brand more and more!

Thanks for reading! 
Love, Cee x