Review: Body Jewellery Shop

Today, readers, we have something new; the first review of this blog.

I was emailed during August asking if I would be interested in reviewing some products from Body Jewellery Shop, and after browsing their online store I was very keen. The range of products for different piercings is impressive, as is the range of materials and information on piercings - indeed, they have lots of guidance on what you should be considering when choosing a piercer, aftercare and even videos of some piercings being done.

 



 

Disclaimer: I was contacted by a representative of body jewellery shop to carry out this review; I was given £20 worth of jewellery for free, but was not otherwise paid or reimbursed. All opinions are 100% my own, based on feedback given by my testers.  

 

 

Review after the jump!

Ordering, Delivery and Product Images

For the interests of comprehensiveness, I should mention that there were multiple problems with my order. This is not something that should affect normal customers, as I was using their relatively new system for bloggers, and the representative dealing with my order was very helpful and friendly, and got the issue sorted out as soon as possible. Delivery itself is very prompt (including for North America), and all items were wrapped in bubble wrap and undamaged on arrival.

Some of the images showing models wearing products are labelled ‘for illustration purposes only’, and looking at the photos in question there are a few telltale signs of photoshop. Whilst this isn’t a problem for some items and the site features a disclaimer, it is worrying if you are using the image as an indication of size or of gauge, as it won’t be true to life. That said,  their gauge calculator is a piece of genius, and may be useful if you're unsure of the size of your piercing.

Products 

I chose several different items to review - a scaffold piercing, a bioplast belly bar, several faux piercings and, simply because the concept intrigued me, semi-permanent tattoo pens. I haven't tested the first two myself, due to having neither type of piercing, but I did have willing volunteers who reported back to me.

My tester described the Titanium Rainbow Scaffold piercing in only positive terms - it was a good fit, had received many compliments and she liked how the rainbow colouring of the bar changed depending on what side was facing outwards. Because of its colouring, I would warn any potential buyers that there will be variation in colour between piercings, so only use the image as an indication. The titanium means there won’t be any irritation, too which is a good bonus!

I was also asked to review one of Body Jewellery Shop's bioplast range, which are made from bioplast plastic - this is particularly good for swelling, piercings subject to stretching or movement (such as belly bars during pregnancy, or for exercise) and apparently also helps with healing times. My tester did state that the belly bar, though clearly of good build quality, did seem a little long and she was worried it would catch. Regrettably, she was unable to test the piercing properly due to what she believed was an allergic reaction on first wearing it. I'd be interested to know other people's experiences of bioplast piercings, however, as they seem incredibly useful for a lot of situations where metal isn't suitable.

As well jewellery for piercings, Body Jewellery Shop also stocks fakeand non-piercing jewellery, which is useful if you want to test out a piercing before getting one, you're not keen on needles or you can't get it for work reasons. As well as faux plugs and tapers for pierced ears, Body Jewellery Shop offers magnetic earrings, false nose, nipple and belly piercings and ear cuffs. It seems odd that they don't have clip on lobe earrings or faux tapers and plugs for non-pierced ears, however, as I have seen these in a lot of non-specialist jewellery shops such as Claires.



Left – jewelled nose ring. Right – own photo of BCR septum ring. A better quality photo is on its way.

I tend to make my own fake septum and nose piercings, but I wanted to try a shop bought version to see how they compare. I chose a BCR septum and a jewelled nose ring, which turned out to be somewhat disappointing. The septum I was quite happy with, though I was initially sceptical about it being slightly too small for my taste, and was very comfortable to wear and easy to bend to shape – plus a lot of people actually believed that I’d got my septum pierced, so points for how realistic it looks. The jewelled nose ring wasn't satisfactory at all, with the jewel falling out almost immediately after trying it on and the ring itself feeling uncomfortable to wear, although it was very realistic when in.

For ear cartilage, I got two different types of ring ear cuffs (a black three ring cuff with ball closures and a plain silver two ring cuff), and unlike the nose ring I'm quite pleased with these. You will need to bend them a bit to help them fit your ear, but they do look pretty realistic and are far sturdier than the aforementioned nose ring. Again, they seemed a little small to be completely convincing, which seems to be a recurring issue with the faux piercings. However, false piercings seem to be more of a niche market that hasn't really been properly exploited by anyone, and Body Jewellery Shop do specialise in true piercing jewellery, so I won't complain too much.

But that's not all! I also discovered that Body Jewellery Shop sells Stargazer Semi-Permanent Tattoo Pens, which I didn't even know existed until they popped up in the 'customers also bought' section. If only for the novelty, these had to be reviewed. And it turns out that they're... alright. They look better than if you drew on your tattoo with eyeliner, and could probably fool someone from a distance, but up close they look more like you've drawn them on with a felt tip.

A shoddily drawn ankh, because drawing on yourself is harder than expected.

After wearing for a day or two it starts to fade a little and fuzz around the edges as a real one would, but it still looks drawn on. Although smudge proof, they do bleed in contact with water, and do leave marks when they’ve been resting on a surface (waking up after sleeping on a doodled-on hand was… interesting), and the pen tip loses its sharpness fairly quickly. However, I won't slate Body Jewellery Shop for a product that isn't even theirs (they do also have transfer tattoos and stencils, if drawing one yourself doesn’t appeal to you) and I can see that they could have some uses - they would be great for stage productions, and also for testing out tattoo ideas before taking the plunge. They are a devil to remove even with a make-up wipe, so bear that in mind!

 

Conclusions

Body Jewellery Shop provide a very comprehensive variety of products, and the quality of their own products seems pretty decent for very good prices. I would love if they were to look at other types of jewellery as well (like expanding on the faux piercing market, which nobody has really capitalized on yet), but I very much enjoyed trying out Body Jewellery Shop's products – even if the review took far longer than it would normally, due to my being ill - and would recommend you browse some of your other products (some of their lobe piercings are fabulous, and I love their studs!). All I can say is that I’d really like to work with them again and try out more jewellery!



Body Jewellery Shop has been doing a fair bit of blogger outreach recently, and you can read The Everyday Goth’s review of some of their Alchemy Gothic pieces here. Images used with permission of Body Jewellery Shop.





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