laupäev, 27. jaanuar 2018

Review: Elegant Rose Cocktail dress Barbie


My review for Elegant Rose Cocktail dress Barbie- the latest silkstone doll, the first BFMC doll in 2018!

On December 17th last year I found she was already selling online, so of course I had to have her asap! I was really hoping to get her for Christmas, but due holidays postal madness she arrived to me almost exactly 1 month later: on January 16th! Luckily she looks absolutely flawless despite spending 1 month in transit! 🙂
By the time I got her I had already seen photos of her online, but it is always very VERY exciting opening a brand new silkstone Barbie box for the first time! This time it started with the box, as in 2018 we have completely new box design! The BFMC boxes have been slightly changing last few years (remember- Fashionably Floral had beautiful pink box inside with a bow on the cover, really loved that box also!). 2018 box with a photo on the lid is quite nice, hopefully it will suit for the next dolls to come in 2018 too!

 


So after a little admiration and quick photos of Elegant Rose in her box, I took her out for display and closer inspection! 😊



Here I tried to mimic the pose she has on the box cover but it is not easily achieved with the stand that was included in her box. The stand was really weak this time, not locking properly & moving. No matter how hard I tried - poor doll's legs cannot reach the stand! 😄 I have to look for a replacement stand soon!

When removing the protective packaging plastic underneath her dress & gloves, I found for my big surprise that the top half of her dress is actually a little jacket! And you can take it off easily! Underneath, there's a separate beautiful dress! So the lucky doll can wear it two ways, very nice!


 

Her hands and legs move just great, I only wish she had a bit fuller figure, she looks a bit too skinny without her jacket on top of her dress. So here, much better with her jacket and gloves and hat & bag:


About the accessories: the hat- it does not sit easily on her head! Taking the hat out from the box, it's definitely not 'ready to use' as the rim of it is really wonky and not round at all. I had to iron it, to look something like the one on the promo photos.  
Her little purse (made of cotton like fabric) is sewn on to her glove, so if you want to remove protective plastic inside her gloves, you have to cut open the bag from the glove first! It was quite a challenge to remove it and not to ruin the glove or purse! I also had to iron the bag, because it looked quite wrinkled! I am always recommending ironing the dolls clothes/accessories carefully. They are shut in these boxes and their clothes get wrinkled very easily, they look much better after ironing!
I am thankful Elegant Rose has earrings! They complement her outfit well and look really nice on her! One problem though, that I have with all my newer silkstones is: I wish there was more hair!!!


Seems like they're trying to cut costs on silkstone hair! Older silkstones all have much more thicker hair, especially in front and on top of their heads. That is the biggest flaw of the new dolls for me, it already started before poseable dolls: hair is thin, sometimes you can see the dots where the hair should go. She has nice thick hair on her shoulders, just not on top!

Elegant Rose's eye-makeup and face screening is very delicate, I would even say she is one of the most beautiful silkstones that I've seen lately!



She is reminding me a lot of Ingenue Barbie (2007) and Cocktail Dress Barbie (2013). Here you can take a look at the comparison photos. Side by side they all have different skin tones. Their platinum hair also has quite different shade on each doll:





Here she is side by side with Boucle Beauty (2015), who also has platinum hair:

Another doll Elegant Rose reminded me of is: Fashionably Floral Barbie! They both have hats and floral dresses. I must say the material is quite different, as Floral's dress has much thicker fabric. Here they are side by side:



Here we can she has the exact same earrings as Cocktail Dress Barbie:




So for now I have my Elegant Rose Cocktail Dress Barbie sitting on my table, in her BFMC silkstone chair (BFC's gift a few years back) I love how great the new poseable silkstones look on chairs, I think I need to find more of these chairs soon! 😃


Conclusion: I'm very very happy with the doll, love her classic look, makeup, hair color, accessories. Completely satisfied with the first silkstone doll of 2018! I am now hoping that rest of the collection will be as exciting! Can't wait to see all the new dolls!
 

Hope you enjoyed my little review and if you have any questions about the doll, feel free to ask!


teisipäev, 16. jaanuar 2018

Elegant Rose Cocktail dress Barbie has arrived!

Look who just arrived! Elegant Rose Cocktail dress Barbie! After a month long waiting, she finally arrived today! Well technically 1 day less than a month as I ordered her on December 17th last year! She got delayed by all this holiday mail and finally she is here! 

Opened the box as soon as I got home from the post office:


 
Very happy about her, she is my first doll for 2018! I will post more photos with her out of the box, she looks real pretty in real life. In depth review of Elegant Rose Cocktail dress Barbie is coming soon!🙂🙂


New Barbie stationery & gifts!

Here is the new 2018 Barbie stationery collection from Graphique de France:



Including note cards, planners & calendars for 2018. Love that once again they use exquisite Barbie illustrations by Robert Best.



My favorite is the note card collection:









Here is the other box set with greeting cards, I think it was released earlier, but also very nice and available on their website:





To read more about this Barbie collection, head on to their website:

https://www.graphiquedefrance.com/barbie-collection-s/311.htm

They only ship to USA, so for us in Europe, I've found some of their stuff like calendars and planners to be available at Amazon!

esmaspäev, 15. jaanuar 2018

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog about collecting Barbie dolls! 'The Life and Times of a Barbie Collector' would be the 'official' longer name! 😃 I am going to post my reviews & Barbie news, look back at different Barbie dolls & collections, thoughts and musings about new Barbies. Just about everything that is going on in the life of a Barbie collector these days! 
I've been collecting since 2013, I can't believe it has been 5 years already! There is still things to discover, as new dolls get released every year and collecting Barbie is never boring. There are times when the excitement winds down a bit, but then news come up about brand-new silkstone doll, designer collaboration or some new line of collection is coming out and you are back on track and hooked again! My main focus for now are silkstone Barbies, but I am VERY interested in all Barbie dolls: collector, playline, vintage - you name it! Can't wait for the new year 2018 ahead, let's see what dolls it will bring us! Enjoy and thank you for reading this!😙💕