Review || Blippo

Hey there pudding cups ^^

I'm here today to bring you a review of an online store that's quickly becoming one of my favourites. Most of you have probably guessed it; it's Blippo!

Blippo is basically a store that has everything you would associate with the word 'Kawaii'. If you recall, I said something along those lines in my review of online store Tokyo Otaku Mode - this is better. Well actually, that's not really fair. TOM isn't worse, it's just more focused on one kind of kawaii product: toys and figurines. Blippo has a much wider range, from food to toys, to stationary, to accessories; it's everything you could ever want, all in one place.

(Blippo's kawaii home page)

Selection ♡
Todays review will be focusing on Blippo's food selection, or to be more specific, the pocky. The first thing I noticed when I went onto the pocky section is the wide range of flavours. Living in Australia, the only pocky I've managed to find is plain old chocolate and strawberry. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's good to go to the classics - but when those two are your only options, no way. TL;DR: this range had me excited before I even decided on what to buy.

(Just a few of the many flavours available)

Pricing ♡
For the majority of it, the pocky on Blippo is reasonably priced. There are a few that make you wonder if the pocky will be lined with gold or the frosting is made of unicorn tears, but overall, I can't complain - plus the shipping to Australia was free, and to get it tracked was only around $2 which is super awesome.

Shipping ♡
I ordered a cart of four items on the 31st of January, which was a Friday and received an email saying my order had been shipped out on the 2nd of February, which was a Monday. I'm assuming the delay was due to me placing my order just as the business week had ended.
My package arrived just over two weeks later, on the 16th of February, which for Australian shipping, isn't bad at all.

Condition ♡
When I opened the box, I was delighted to see that it was packed full of foam to keep the separate items protected. Everything was in excellent condition, except for one item which was a small pudding cup (I know) that was advertised to contain pudding shaped chocolates. As I looked at the cup, I noticed it had been dented and was slightly open. I'm assuming this is because it was a dairy product coming from overseas; boarder protection may not have liked that. I decided to look past this, but when it came time to open my pudding fully and dig in, all I found inside was a giant blob of melted chocolate stuck to the lid and dripping down the side. I was pretty disappointed, as the pudding was the item I was most eager to try.

Customer Service ♡
Due to the fact that one of my items was completely inedible, I decided to email Blippo and let them know what had happened. I wasn't sure what their policy was on this kind of thing, but I figured contacting somebody couldn't hurt. A member of the Blippo team responded within an hour of me reaching out and didn't even hesitate to apologise and offer to send me a new product to make up for the damages - this time, not a product that could melt. I'm so impressed at how they handled this and although I took them up on their offer to replace my poor pudding, I'd just like to mention that I don't hold them responsible. In retrospect, I should have thought more carefully before I ordered, considering that I was requesting a chocolate product be sent to my home in Australia, in the Summer time, from overseas. That one was my bad so please don't think badly of Blippo, even though it wasn't their fault, they still offered to make things right. 10/10 customer service.

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So now that all the formal stuff is out of the way, let's get to what really matters: the food~

I ordered three different kinds of pocky: Green tea, cookies and cream and green tea coated in chocolate. I couldn't pick which one I wanted, leave me alone

A bonus item that came with all this was a cute little keychain which I think will look really cute on my new school bag which is coming in the mail. Also included in the package was an advertisement for Kawaii Box. Oh Blippo, you so silly~

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Cookies and Cream ♡
For those of you who read my Kawaii Box series, you will know that due to my warped luck, I've already had the pleasure of trying these. I downed a whole packet of these in about 5 minutes, they're so addictive. I really like the extra crunch that the cookie pieces bring, even though the pocky already had a biscuit base. The contrast between the smooth frosting and cookie pieces are to die for.

Green Tea ♡
Oh my god these have got to be my favourite out of the flavours I ordered.     These taste exactly like green tea! The second I opened the packet there was just this whoosh of green tea scent and I knew I had done the right thing by ordering these. I think this is going to be my new favourite snack food. Anyone who likes green tea, you need to try these; you will not be disappointed. Nice one, Blippo~

Chocolate Coated Green Tea ♡
Once I saw this box, I understood why it had been priced so differently on the website. I thought maybe because I'm getting both green tea and chocolate, Blippo may have decided it should cost more - but no. The box is freaking huge! Inside there were four separate packets of pocky that were all in really good condition - no melted chocolate.
As for the taste; I was a little worried that the chocolate coating might overpower the taste of the green tea biscuit, but somehow they managed to get the flavours at 50/50. It was a bit of a weird sensation, being able to taste both green tea and chocolate at the same time, but it was really yummy and I will definitely be buying this again in the future.


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So that was my review of Blippo. I would have ordered more, but I thought I'd test the waters first by starting out with just a few things. So far, so good, I'd say; although next time I'll be sure not to order anything that wouldn't be able to withstand the Australian heat. That small mishap aside, I'd definitely recommend Blippo to everyone who's after authentic Japanese snacks. I'm super impressed with every aspect of this experience and will most certainly be ordering from them again.

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If any of you puddings have ordered something super awesome from blippo, please let me know, I'd love to expand my snacking horizons  ^^

Diary || Valentines Day ♡

I started today by peppering my partner with kisses and staying in bed for the next hour cuddling with him. It's the 14th of February, which meant we were allowed to be sickeningly sweet together. However, as the morning began to slip away from us, we decided it was probably time to leave the warm blankets and start getting ready for the day ahead.

The night before, my partners brother had hosted a party to celebrate his 21st birthday. As a result, breakfast was left over pizza and hash browns from a hungover macca's run. Although our meal may not sound particularly luxurious, I had a fair bit of rum in my system from the night before and greasy food was just what I needed to get myself feeling back to normal and ready to face the day.

Before we knew it, my partner and I were in the car, headed to the Fremantle Markets. The Fremantle Markets are probably 90% of the reason anyone goes to Fremantle. They're open pretty much every weekend and always have such unique things to see. I haven't been there in probably a couple of years, so I was super excited to visit again and see what was new.

We found parking pretty quickly and it was close to the markets, too. After a nice walk, we had arrived and it was time to check everything out. It was almost completely different to how it was the last time I had come, which I think is a good thing - I was after something new. As we walked around, we noticed that the place had kind of been divided into two groups. One half was full of mostly home made goods like jewellery, clothes, uniquely scented soaps and other miscellaneous things.
The other half was full of all sorts of food: fresh fruit and vegetables, coffee beans, seeds and lots of different stalls that cooked fresh food upon request. Everything looked and smelled so good, it was a bit overwhelming.
The atmosphere was really nice, too. I feel weirdly comfortable in crowded places, probably because I know everybody is too busy with their own lives to pay attention to me and my anxiety can take a break. I like being able to blend into the world around me. I made an effort to talk to lots of shopkeepers too, because it must be lonely and boring sitting at a stall all day only to have a majority of people walk right by you. Everyone I talked to was really friendly, and I didn't get the feel it was because they wanted me to buy something - that was nice; it's not often you find a genuine conversation.

After we had a look at everything, it was time for lunch. I went to one of the stalls in the food district and got.. well I'm not exactly sure what it was. It was some kind of cooked bread, I think, filled with chilli beef, spinach and potato. Whatever it was, it tasted unbelievably good, kind of like a taco, but way healthier. I took my food to go because as I've mentioned before, my partner isn't very daring when it comes to food. He lead me to a cafe tucked away in a corner of the markets and had bacon and eggs. We sat there for a while, eating happily and chatting about nothing in particular.

After we were done, we left the markets and went for a walk. It was sunny, but the breeze was refreshing, perfect weather for the kind of day we were having. We found ourselves at a large park with a ferris wheel where we sat on the grass and soaked up the relaxing atmosphere and summer breeze.
Once it felt like we were both starting to get burned (despite the suncream I compulsively put on hourly), we returned to the markets. Having seen everything there was to offer, it was time to buy. Surprisingly, I only bought one thing. I'm really sensitive to smell, so when we came across a stall selling a bunch of beautifully scented soaps, I couldn't resist. There was so much to choose from; lemongrass, strawberry-mint, cinnamon-lavender, it was really impressive. However, they were pretty pricey, and the combinations were a bit weird, so I only bought one; Coconut and white french clay. If heaven is real, it smells like this soap, I promise you.

After that, it was almost time to go home, but not before we stopped by a little place called Michele's Crepe Suzette. I've wanted to try crepes for so long, but I've never known of anywhere that sells them. I'm not even a little bit ashamed to admit that half of my decision to go to the markets was based on the fact that I heard there was a place that did crepes - and what a good decision it was. Everything on the menu sounded wonderful and the ladies there, although they were working flat out, were still so polite and lovely. They were always smiling and when I was joking around and said 'and can I please add coconut to that? Like, heaps of coconut.' the lady actually wrote on the order '+ LOTS of coconut.'. The food took a while to prepare, but fair enough, there were so many people there, I'm surprised it didn't take longer. It was so worth the wait though.

We carried our crepes in a take away bag, back to the car so we could eat in peace. It was a good idea, too, because it turns out: crepes are messy as hell.
I had a crepe filled with slices of banana, chocolate mousse and lots of coconut. My partner went with a fruit salad and cream filled crepe. They weren't like the crepes I've seen on the internet, though. Instead of being open wraps, these were folded and sealed closed. Thanks to this, the pictures couldn't really do them any justice, but trust me, they were delicious.

After crepes, we decided it was time to start heading back home. We arrived in the evening and went down to the deli near my partners house to pick up some cup noodles for dinner. We ate these while cuddling on the couch, watching Sky High. It wasn't much in the way of romance, but we figured why put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to make the night perfect when we could just do whatever suited the both of us? To us, it was the perfect end to a really nice day and I couldn't be more grateful to have spent it with someone who I can comfortably say 'hey let's sit on the couch and watch a kids movie and just eat noodles for dinner because really can't be bothered making anything else'.

And if you don't understand why that's so great, well.. you'll understand when you're older.

♡ ♡ ♡

I hope all you pudding cups had a lovely valentines day, whether you have a significant other or not, because all of you deserve to feel as wonderful as I did today ♡

Diary || Safari Zone

This morning I woke up to the sound of my alarm, a kiss from my partner and the excited screams of my younger sister as she ran around the house getting into her cosplay. This was a day that we had all been looking forward to; the first day of Safari Zone. Safari Zone is basically just a Pokemon convention. It wasn't organised by a big company, so we weren't expecting anything extravagant - but the organisers promised lots of stalls, anime screenings, a cosplay competition and a Pokemon tournament, so we figured it was worth taking a look.

Equipped with our phones, wallets, my trusty travel bottle of suncream and a bag of sliced apples, we were ready for the hour drive up to Subiaco. Getting there was a bit of a challenge, with the city's constant traffic and all the complicated turn offs that Siri forgot to mention when giving us the directions - but eventually, we got there. Entry was only $5 and upon arrival, we were greeted by a seedy Professor Oak and a Pikachu to take.

We arrived just as they announced that the cosplay competition would be starting soon, so that gave us just enough time to check everything out. I was honestly surprised at the number of stalls there were, given that it was such a small convention. They all seemed to be really good quality, too. We managed to have a good look at what each stall had to offer before the competition started.

The cosplay competition didn't go for very long, as there were only about 8 people who entered. But nevertheless, the cosplays were pretty good and the hosts, although seemingly inexperienced, did a good job at keeping up the vibe of the convention. Hopefully if the convention happens again, there'll be more people, because I felt so bad when everyone was supposed to clap for the cosplayers and only around 15 people did. I just hope the cosplayers realised that those 15 people made up 90% of the room.

After the cosplay competition, we decided to go back to the stalls and buy the things we had set our eyes on when we were there earlier. A few days ago I had sold some of my clothes to a girl who I used to go to school with and made a fair bit of cash, so although some of the things I bought were not worth the money, I figured I could justify being a bit stupid with my cash just this once. The first thing I bought was an adorable Pusheen plushie. I've wanted one for ages, but I had no idea where to look since it's not a very popular or common brand - I was shocked to find it at somewhere like a Pokemon convention. The ladies who sold Pusheen to me were super nice and friendly, their business was called Static Fluff Anime and I would definitely buy from them again.
The next items I bought were from a stall that didn't give me a business card like the previous one, but I found out from the convention map that it was called CrystalTheEchidna. The people here were so friendly and helpful and the stuff was so cheap! I picked up three Pusheen sticker pages and a Rilakkuma pen (obviously for education purposes).
The final thing I bought was a pair of beautiful hair clips from a small business a few of my friends run, called Peppermint Carousel. These girls are from my local Lolita community and are so sweet, I couldn't not buy something from them. They sell basically everything that comes to mind when you hear the word 'kawaii' and work so hard, I hope I see them at the next Con.

After we shopped around, we sat down at watched My Neighbour Totoro, which was being played on the big projector. It was a really nice atmosphere to sit down with a bunch of strangers that all had this common interest. We didn't finish the movie, because we had plans to go into the city for lunch later, so we decided to do one more lap of the convention and then call it a day. Although on this final lap, we noticed that one of the many consoles around the convention was finally free; so to wrap it all up, all three of use sat down and had a super intense game of Mario Kart 8.

(Rosalina: My sister || Baby Daisy: Me || Toad: My partner)

After Mario Kart and a final look at everything, it was time to get back in the car and head into the city for lunch. Keeping with the Japanese theme, we decided to go to a place you puddings may remember me mentioning a while ago: New Arigataya. That's right, I finally found myself in the city on a day that it was open, and I was not missing this opportunity - plus, my sister and partner both really wanted to try ramen.

I ordered the teriyaki chicken ramen with gyoza, my sister had the miso ramen with pork and my partner who doesn't really like to experiment with his food got dipping ramen with soy broth on the side. We were all super hungry, so I only took a couple of pictures of the food before we all dug in. I'm absolutely kicking myself for not trying this dish sooner. I think this is my new favourite thing to eat; everything was so well prepared and tasted so delicious. And they gave us so much, I couldn't manage to eat it all. By the time I had finished the chicken and gyoza, I was so full. None of us managed to finish everything in our bowls, I would have taken a doggy bag home, but the idea of carrying noodle soup around the city just screamed for a disaster.

After leaving the restaurant and shopping around the city for a little while, we started the drive back home with full bellies, a bunch of cute new things and smiles all around. All in all, it was a really nice day. I had a super good time and my sister and partner got along really well, which I'm happy about. It was a really nice way to kick off the month and I can't wait until the next Con.

...and the next excuse to stop off for some ramen.

Review || Kawaii Box

Hi there, pudding friends,

Today I'm writing a review that I've been looking forward to doing since the beginning of last month. That's right, it's time for me to show off my second Kawaii Box! For those of you who are new to my humble little blog, for Christmas last year, I decided to buy myself a three month subscription to Blippo's monthly service, KawaiiBox. Basically what happens is you subscribe for however long you want; one month, three months, six months, a year; and every month for that period of time, they send you a box of kawaii goodies from Korea and Japan. Not only is it a wonderful thing to look forward to each month, but it's amazing value. Each box has 10-12 items and although I've only received two boxes so far, the contents of each box are worth way more than what I've payed in subscription fees.

Anyway, without further ado, I present February's Kawaii Box ✧･ﾟ: *ヽ(*´∀｀)ﾉﾟ*:･ﾟ✧

I received this months box on the 6th of February, so just like last month, it's come to me really quickly and hasn't left me in suspense for very long at all. When I opened it, I was delighted to find that the box had a back to school theme. This is perfect, because the University year is starting again soon and I was just thinking that I should probably start getting some cute things together, I'm glad that now I don't have to go to much trouble.

For those of you that read my last review, you'll know that there were a few damages to the items in the last box, but I'm happy to announce that there are no visible damages or missing parts in this months box whatsoever.

Now, let's get into the good stuff:

Item #1: Alpacasso Coin Purse
So the first item I saw in the box was this adorable alpacasso coin purse. It's super fluffy and actually has quite a bit of room. I already have a coin purse that I like to use, but I'm going to put this cutie to use by using him to store my medication. With my pills inside my cute little alpaca that I've named 'Currie', hopefully I wont get as many people interrogating me when they go into my bag for something, because now my meds wont be out in the open.

Item #2: Panda Charm
This charm is so cute and squishy, I love it. When I saw this, I was a little nervous because of how strongly it resembled the mochi charm from the last box and was worried about its condition. Thankfully, this charm which I've named 'Oliver' is in super good condition and I can't stop squishing it, it's so bouncy.

Item #3: Socks
Look at these darling socks! With such cute detailing, I absolutely cannot wait to show these off. The material seems really sturdy and reliable, they should be perfect for when winter comes and I start going through socks like tic tacs.

Item #4 and #5: Ice Cream Ribbon and Scrapbooking Shapes
These two items, I'm not really sure what I'm going to use them for, but boy are they cute. Item #4 is a lovely pink ribbon, detailed with ice creams and little hearts. I'm thinking of using it to make something like a broach. Item #5 is a small box filled with different shapes such as bears, bunnies, rainbows and bassinets. I think they're for scrapbooking, but they're probably going to end up stuck to uni assignments that need jazzing up. Both items look like they're pretty good quality and although they're not things I would ordinarily buy for myself, I'm glad I have them.

Item #6: Memo Pad
I am absolutely in love with this mini memo pad. The cover has a bit of a decora feel to it, which I love and the pages come in all different colours - perfect for distinguishing which subject the notes are for. I can definitely see myself using this this semester.

Item #7 and #8: Clip and Pen
The clip is so cute! The photo doesn't do it much justice but the shades of blue are really nice. I think I'll be using this a lot near the end of the semester when my filing system goes down the toilet and I find myself with a bunch of stray, yet important papers laying about.
The pen writes like the ink is made from the tears of a baby unicorn - so smooth. The dainty little crown on the top is a lovely touch, when I use it I feel like a princess.

Item #9: Page Markers
I was so excited to see this in the box. I've been looking for cute page markers for so long and was just about to give up - the Kawaii Gods must be watching over me. I cannot wait to start using these; not just to make going through my notes easier, but also to add a bit of kawaii to my work.

Item #10: Self Contained Pencil Case
This item made has actually managed to make me look forward to attending this semesters lectures. With this cute self contained pencil case, I'm super well prepared to take down important notes and look cute while doing it. I don't think this one is ever going to leave my bag.

Item #11: Panda Pocky
The final item in this box made me laugh. Just over a week ago, I went on a bit of a shopping spree on Blippo and spent quite a bit of money on pocky. They have a massive range and pretty much every flavour you can think of. Of course, given their wide selection, I just happened to order the exact same kind of pocky that came in this months box. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy with this, I mean now I have two and don't have to hesitate about finishing an entire box. It was just a really funny way to end this months Kawaii Box adventure. Also can we please appreciate how adorable the packaging is.

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So that was this months Kawaii Box! I've gotta say, it's a big improvement on January's box and I'm super happy with everything I received this month. I'm going to give the February box a 9/10 rating because I'm saving my 10 for something super duper awesome (like a box with something Rilakkuma AND Alpacasso AND pocky - I can dream, right?).

Anyway, TL;DR, I'm really happy with this months box and curious as to what next months box will have to offer. So far, it looks like after my subscription has ended, I'll be buying another one, but just for fun, let's see what March brings. Maybe I'll get my dream box? Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be fabulous~