Irregular Choice Alice: My Cup Of Tea

Hello, hope you're all well tonight. It's been a few weeks since my last Irregular Choice review as I've been struggling to fit everything in and these types of posts are rather time-consuming.  I usually dread the editing process (let's face it, it's pretty tedious), but it's been weeks since I took these photos, so I was enjoying looking at these beautiful shoes and their tea party setting again.  You may recall my first Alice review (here) was of the pink version of these shoes, My Cup Of Tea. Already owning two pairs of teapot heels from the first collection, I was only allowing myself to buy one of the two colourways that launched this time.  I was drawn to the blue immediately, but I ordered the pink as well, only to see what they looked like and to check sizing really.  I was adamant I was only keeping one, but I really fell in love with parts of the pink (which I'll go into later) so I had a hard decision to make.
One major thing to note about the "blue" pair is, they aren't blue.  Mind blown!  I expect a lot of people are thinking from all the stock photos they've seen that these will be that pale "Alice blue" like we saw on the glittery Tea With Alice from the first collection.  They really aren't.  They are very bright and very green.  However, I suspect the reason behind this is because these shoes just fail to photograph their true colour.  When they arrived, I immediately took photos on my phone and was alarmed to see a soft, pastel shoe staring back at me when they were so much bolder in the flesh.  It's going to vary between monitors, but I've had to increase the saturation, vibrance and contrast even on these photos (taken with my DSLR), to get a more realistic colour and even then, imagine them a little brighter if you can!
So the two colourways do have some variations, other than colour. The main uppers though feature the same type of sporadically glittered material and like I say, this green is bright and most definitely green. The sparkling hearts are turquoise, leaning more blue toned, so there is some blue in there. The shape is exactly the same, with that curved front, t-bar strap and buckle fastening. The buckle was white on the pink, here it's gold.
The scalloped trim around the toe on the pink was covered in chunky glitter, the blue though have a softer metallic finish. It's that material that has a sheen and shimmer when tilted, but turn it the other way and it dulls a little. It's pretty, but lacking the wow factor of the glitter in my opinion. I do love the colour though.  The cake platform and heels are exactly the same mould and colouring as the pink and indeed the two styles from the first Alice collection. As I mentioned in my last review, the pattern on the teapot seems a little smudged in bits, so has perhaps been applied differently. Other than that they still have that heavy feel, but manage to remain within the parameters of the shoe with no majorly sticky-out bits.  The teapot spout doesn't protrude too much and the handle of that and the teacup are hidden, safely beneath the sole of the shoe.
Another notable difference between the two colours are the bows at the heel. I really loved the dramatic impact of the ones on the pink. All that shimmer and glitter; it was really over-the-top and right up my street. Once more the green pair pale in comparison, but is it just because I am comparing the two? On their own, those bows would still pack a punch. They are sparkly, just not as glittery as the others. I like the turquoise one on the bottom, the silver in the middle is alright, but it's the pale blue one on top that lets the side down for me. It's got this distressed type finish, where the contours look worn away of sparkle. The edges of the bow look shabby, even brand new, which is a bit of a disappointment.
That said, I still love the overall look of the shoe and the colours enough to want to own this pair. If only I could steal the glitter section and bows off the pink for the blue, I'd have my ideal shoe! I did return my pair shown here, but only because of the sizing and actually I bought the new pair this week to complete my collection. I know a lot of people figured this colourway was too similar to that of One Lump Or Two? from the first collection (I put photos up on Instagram at the time to compare), but really they are very different. OLOT? are very blue and obviously all the floral and trims are totally different from the sparkle and hearts on these. So you're just left with the same heel and platform really.
As I said, for sizing, I bought the pink in a 5/38 (my regular size) and the green in a 6/39 (the size up) and I found the 6 were gaping too much on top and my heel was slipping out. The strap did stop the shoe from coming off when walking, but I personally felt although both sizes were snug (they are a hard shoe, so need breaking in), I felt the neater, comfier fit for me was the smaller one. There's not much in it, it wouldn't be disastrous if you had to opt for the size up.
The soles differ from left to right, with images of the dormouse in the teapot and the Mad Hatter. These were the same soles on All Mad Here and OLOT? last time. The inners again feature the all-over Alice printed fabric with Irregular Choice and Disney Alice In Wonderland embroidered branding. The boxes have been the same for every style in both collections, which you can find photos of here.
So in the end, the green and blue were the pair I decided were for me.  They should arrive this week and in anticipation, I even have a space for them in my "character heel" shelves in the shoe room.  Let me tell you, those shoes have been moved all around the room, until they found somewhere ample enough to house them all.  I do have my ballerinas in a light up display box and a few pairs elsewhere (like the Lost Your Muchness boots, which were too tall to fit in), but I'm happier now that the majority are together.  Now we have news of a Cinderella collection coming soon, there might be some rearranging yet again, hmmm!  What do you think of this pair and my little tea party? I changed it up a little from the pink tea party.

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