Shopping SHEIN

My SHEIN Shopping Experience

(this is all Fondles’ fault)

(those of you who read her will understand)

SO

What with my online shopping Corona-iduced clickety-buy behaviors and all, I have had to apply my “shop smart” rules in new (for me) ways. I mentioned recently that I have taken to buying secondhand online over the past year; at the encouragement (*cough*) of a fellow blogger, I decided to give firsthand-buying a try and see how it went.

I did not have great hopes, honestly. But what with ‘oversized’ being ‘in’ right now, I figured if I erred on the side of BIG, I’d be fine. And since the total of the seven items you see above came to only $105, I figured it was worth a little risk. (For those of you who don’t understand how $105 is a deal, I should explain that I live in an expensive-real-estate area of the U.S. Sweaters like the ones pictured above easily sell for $39 on sale at regular retail stores, fun T-shirts routinely cost me $15-20, and it’s pretty much impossible to get a swimsuit for under $40. So if I was to mall-shop for all these items, I’d be spending at least $235. Therefore: $105 for 7 items = DEAL.)

One of my pieces of advice to anyone shopping secondhand, online, and/or at a venue that does not allow try-ons is to know your brands. Know how much they sell for retail (so you know whether you’re getting a good deal: as per the above paragraph — check!) and how they fit. It was the ‘how they fit’ thing that most concerned me with ordering from an unfamiliar entity.

BUT

It worked out!

: happy dance :

Partly because I was advised to check for for specific shoulder/arm length/waist/rise measurements listed on each and every garment (thank you!) and partly because Shein has a little “my measurements” tool you can use to enter your height and weight and general body type information. This tool will then ‘configure’ for any item you view and tell you, based on those measurements, what your size should be.

I ordered the sizes advised.

They were not necessarily the sizes I would normally buy when shopping typical U.S. stores, but the site-recommended sizes for each item were the right sizes for me, regardless.

I haven’t tried on the swimsuits yet. I have to be in a very specific headspace for that. But eyeballing them out of the packaging, I’m guessing they’ll be fine.

As for the rest of it (from the top left):

• pink fuzzy oversized cardigan, size Large — FAB, love it! (see below)
• black oversized batwing cardigan, size Large — it’s not nearly as long as it is on the model (I suspect she’s wearing a larger size than is required for her frame) but it’s a good middle weight and will work as a light jacket, so I’ll call it a win
• cat pajamas, size Large — totally the cat’s pajamas! (fits a bit more like a dress than like jammies, but I don’t mind)
• embroidered sleeve black sweater, size 0XL — the neck is a bit tight and the length is neither short nor long; I will wear it tucked into jeans with boots and see how it goes
• 2 swimsuits, size XL — see note above
• giraffe T-shirt, size XL — this is a fitted style, though it doesn’t look it in the photo; it fits but not as expected; no biggie that it’s not ‘big’, I will wear it

Soooo…

Not bad.

As long as the swimsuits fit and the neck on the embroidered-sleeve sweater doesn’t bug me, this will be a 100% KEEP haul.

Even if only one swimsuit fits and I decide I don’t want the embroidered-sleeve sweater, it’s still a 70% KEEP haul.

(Considering that I normally pass-on/give-away about 50% of the items I buy online, I’m calling this a win!)

Especially the pink sweater.

OMG, such fuzzy fun!

As it turns out, it is exceedingly difficult to photograph a sweater. *laugh* Who knew? But hopefully you get the idea. 😉

Did I mention that I love this sweater?

I LOVE THIS SWEATER.

Oh! And also: I was concerned about shipping time because Shein is international (which means you can probably buy from them no matter where you live) but they’re based out of Hong Kong (I think?), so when I placed my order on February 19th they gave me an expected arrival date of March 12th. In actuality, my order only took seven days to arrive. So: WIN!

And also, also: This is NOT a sponsored post. I’m just sharing something that worked for me.

♥

Have you had any online shopping experiences that exceeded your expectations?

Are there any online retailers that you would recommend?