Angoo-Mart Washi Tapes Purchase and Review

Hi all, sorry for the lack of posts recently. Just before New Year I came down with a flu which took me about 3 weeks to recover from. In fact, even now I'm still feeling a bit tired and lacking in energy. But still, today I wanted to share my Deco Tapes / Washi Tapes haul with you!

Angoo-Mart is a deco tape manufacturer and seller based in China. I have placed 2 orders with them so far, and was very pleased both times, so I thought I'd share my experience with you. The first time I ordered from Angoo-Mart, about 2 years ago, it was very difficult to find deco tapes in Australia, and most overseas suppliers were very expensive. When I heard about Angoo-Mart, of course I was attracted to their cheap prices and large range, and wanted to place an order. The big drawback with Angoo-Mart (but the only one, really) is that their website looks a bit dodgy:

Screenshot of front page.
It's basic and and the design is very old-fashioned looking.There's a bit of 'Manglish' on it, too. Normally these things set off alarm bells for me when placing an order online, but I decided to take a chance when I placed my first order. The site accepts payment by PayPal, which is safer than entering your credit card details.

Screenshot of category page.
There is a huge range of deco tapes and washi tapes to choose from, as well as kawaii stationery, stickers, pencil cases, mobile phone charms and similar items. The site is organised by type of tape, then by width (large, medium or small) and sometimes manufacturer if the category is very large. Many styles are represented: Disney, Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, Shinzi Katoh and other characters; generic kawaii; patterns like polka dots, stripes and checks; punk and goth styles; elegant French styles; and traditional Japanese styles. And many more! The Decorative tapes are made of plastic with a shiny look, similar to Sello tape but thicker and stronger. The Washi tapes are the traditional Japanese style, with a texture similar to masking tape. I have never ordered the paper or fabric tapes, so I can't comment on those.
Angoo-Mart have a Flickr account, if you would like to see good quality photos of the products.

The check-out process is very fast and easy. I placed my order on 6th January, and I was notified that it was posted on 7th January. The notification email had some personal touches that you don't always see when ordering online. I received it on 25th January, which I think is quite standard from China to Australia.

The items were packed into an amazingly small box. I was surprised at how they managed to fit everything in there! Yet nothing was squished or overcrowded. Everything was safely packed in with no gaps, and the box was lined with batting to protect the contents.

2 free kawaii notepads were included with my order (presumably because it was so large!).

As for pricing, the cost was extremely reasonable. The narrow deco tapes were AU$1.10, and ranged up to AU$1.99 for the wider ones. The washi tapes were a little more expensive at AU$1.99 to AU$2.99. The mini sets-of-3 were AU$1.50 per set. The stationery, pencil cases, etc. are also very reasonably priced. Shipping was a bit more than I would have liked though, at AU$17.20. (Bear in mind it was a large order. The fee is scaled by weight so it would be less when ordering less items.) I had a 15% discount voucher for being an email subscriber, so all up this haul came to AU$61.70. In my opinion this is a lot less than what I would have paid on Ebay or Etsy. Even at Daiso this number of items would have cost AU$78.

The complete haul!
Here's a shot of some of the deco tapes in action in my art journal:

Page is unfinished, obviously!
I have found all the tapes to be of very good quality. The glue will stick well on plain paper, as well as paper that has been painted with watercolour or acrylics. Even the tapes I ordered 2 years ago still stick well in my old art journal:

Clear tape with red grid; black tape with text/shapes (left-hand page).
I've painted over the tape in one spot and the paint sticks no problems!
Overall, I was very pleased with my purchase from Angoo-Mart. The tapes are cheap but good quality, and there's a huge range to choose from. My parcel was posted quickly and customer service was friendly. Even though the website looks a little dodgy, it's easy to navigate. The manufacturers welcome international orders, and are obviously trying to reach a world-wide market, with translations into 22 languages available on the site. I receive the email newsletter once every 3 or 4 weeks (not so often that it becomes annoying!), and there are regular offers and discount coupons.

I will definitely order from Angoo-Mart again!

(Belated) Christmas Gift Share, Beauty Edition!

I can't believe Christmas was a month ago already! I'm probably the last blogger on earth to share my Christmas receipts, but as I mentioned in my last post, the flu got me down for a long time. I'm grateful for everything I got though, so I wanted to share it. The photos also feature Kapibara-san, whom I've had for years, but he just felt like posing in the photos, so who was I to stop him?

[above] From my parents-in-law I received a Cellex-D Eye Serum. I've never used this brand before, and I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

From my Mum I received a Sukin Body Lotion, and three Max Factor mini Nailfinity nail polishes, in Opal, Boji and Onyx. These weren't actually Christmas gifts - sometimes Mum gets gifts with purchase, etc. that she doesn't use and passes them on to me. I used the Boji on Christmas day and it came out a nice lavender/taupe colour.

From Husband I received an Almond Candy Milkshake Body Butter and an Etude House Shini Star Lip Balm. I must confess, these are things that I bought and then gave them to him to wrap and give to me. A friend told me that she does this a lot, to make sure she gets presents that she really wants. Thankfully Husband is very good at coming up with gift ideas on his own, but sometimes a girl's needs can be very specific. I doubt he'd know intuitively that I was pining away for something from Etude House's collaboration with the K-pop band SHINee.

It was a complete indulgence buy. Saving Husband the trouble of having to think of more stocking fillers for me made me feel much less guilty about buying it! The pot is so adorable, and the scent I chose is Onew / Peach. (Onew is the one on the right in the band photo.)

[below] I also received these gifts packs. The Palmer's Purse Essentials was from Husband. He thought of this one by himself and I'm very happy with it. I love Palmer's and I'll definitely use all of these products - soon! Also in the picture is a pair of earrings he gave me (again, a self-purchase).

The other gift pack is the Burt's Bees Head to Toe Kit, which I received in the Kris Kringle I have with my group of friends. There's a little bit of everything in this pack. Another one that will go to good use.