A royal trio

At the end of last year I won a mystery runner-up prize in Ashley's holiday giveaway. When it arrived on March 1st it turned out to be an "I love shoes" Cleo doll which is the third Cleo in my collection. On this occasion, I brought the other two for a little photoshoot.

I had no idea what the prize was going to be until the very end. I have little faith in our postal service who "lost" a couple of important packages and slashes carelessly the ones that do get through (US packages have it the worst for some reason). Whenever I receive something, it's a holiday and this time was double, triple, multiple special!
- a surviving package for me
- from the USA
- with a surprise gift
- I was told it was MH-related
- and I was down with a cold, the timing couldn't have been better to lift my spirits!

Try to feel my excitement... I reached into the padded envelope and drew out a piece of cardboard that made me jump with joy:

An actual doll, and none other than my favourite ghoul, Cleo! Wow!

Cleo is the most special to me because she's the only one without any monster traits whatsoever. She gets the best of both worlds - the awesome Monster High body with great articulation and unique head (one of the best sculpts, too) and the versatile human skin tone of a regular fashion doll (and no foreign body modifications). I don't care that the character is a bitch in the webisodes. Doll "personalities" don't interest me. I just want them to be pretty.

Okay, long introduction. I love Cleo, is what I'm saying. This one is no exception. The doll comes with two extra pairs of shoes, one extra pair of earrings and a paper bag. This is not a review - I didn't take pictures of all the stuff. Here is Cleo rocking very straightforward Egyptian attire. She reminds me of Anck-Su-Namun (loved that girl!). I half wished for gold tinsel in the hair =)

 I Love Shoes Cleo looks equally good as a modern day fashionista:

I like how the belt was made from a very bendy plastic. It's not stiff like I thought.

The black bangle seems to be a snake, something I didn't notice until I looked close. It's hard to capture on camera, too.

This is the first time I found a recolour of an accessory. It's the case of the purple collar, which appeared previously as a gold upper arm bracelet on the Scaris doll. Despite having different destination, they are exactly the same.

...And it's only now that I realized I used the gold arm band instead of the choker for the whole photoshoot! Oopsie. It's because I removed all clothes and accessories for about a week to clean the hair of the disgusting goo we are seeing lately, and I forgot what went where. The hair needed several washes but it's nice and clean now and I restored the gelled look with fabric softener - sooo proud of myself for discovering that trick. Short hair like this needs to be tamed. It wasn't bad when fluffy, but the fringe and everything looks much neater now.

Moving on to the outfit, I was pleasantly surprised that the top under the pantaloons extends to a full bodysuit!

Finally, someone to keep Skull Shores Draculaura company. I don't have other swimsuit MH.

To show the shoes, I brought the other two Cleos from the shelf. Meet Dead Tired Cleo, the plain one who can wear anything. Natural hair and makeup. I can't understand why they never made another fringeless Cleo, this one was insanely successful.

The flashy Scaris Cleo is a different kind of beauty.

Neither of them screams Egyptian the way I Love Shoes Cleo does. It's a very bold style and really fun to have in my collection.

ILS Cleo brought footwear for everyone. The default pair is a bright gold, shinier than the Scaris cat shoes.

A pair that caught my attention is the purple one with detailed moulding on the sole and heel.

I had some difficulty pairing it with an outfit. This is the best I came up with:

I love all three pair of shoes. But even if she only came with one pair, the rest is still very nice. The double-duty bodysuit, the black sunglasses that go with everything, the unusual (for me) haircut, the strong Egyptian vibe... and mostly, the fact that it was a gift sent with love and care from overseas. Thank you, Ashley, for this wonderful present!

The Black Kitty
(^^)~