Starry Sparkles

I'll admit it, I'm one of those people who falls prey to targeted Facebook ads far too often. Having disposable income and a collector's brain will do that to you. I can't complain, though; many of those impulse purchases have led to discovering favorite shopping sites, like Tee Turtle, one of my favorite places to get adorable (and sometimes adorably offensive) tees. My hands down favorite is the Murder of Crows shirt; yes, it's dad-joke worthy, but it makes me laugh every time.

On the other hand, I also fell prey to one of those fly-by-night shirt shops. You know the ones; they use a cheap website courtesy of something like shopify, and they're gone within a matter of days, sometimes without fulfilling the orders people placed. I was fortunate in that I actually received the shirt I ordered, but the quality definitely left something to be desired. The image was blurry, clearly a byproduct of upsizing a low resolution image that they obviously didn't own the rights to. Needless to say, I learned my lesson from that one.

Equally hit-and-miss is my history with targeted ads for jewelry. The first site I purchased jewelry from exemplified this. My first purchase was small: get a turtle necklace just for the cost of shipping and handling. The quality wasn't exactly awe-inspiring, but it was cute enough to throw in as an extra happy for Christmas. This monstrosity, on the other hand, was something else, garishly large, bright, and gauche. Thankfully, this was the ideal style for one of my family members, so the purchase still didn't go to waste.

On the delightfully cute side of things, Facebook also introduced me to Gnoce charms. Based on some of the names (I'm looking at you, "Ghost Dog" charm), I question whether some of these are legitimately licensed, but the quality is good. You will pay about as much as you would for a Pandora charm, but with much quirkier subject matter. My favorite purchase thus far has been my Cheshire Cat charm.

My most recent jewelry adventure started in the usual way. I spotted an ad in my Facebook feed (jewelry inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night? My friend would love that!) and clicked my way down the rabbit hole. Wow, I thought as I browsed the site, these are kind of pricey for basically fancy costume jewelry. And what the hell is a Jeulia stone? In the end, I was swayed by the pretty pictures and reassured myself that I could always return the jewelry if I wasn't happy with it.

One week later, I got the email that my order had shipped. I waited anxiously to see if this Christmas present would be a success or a last-minute scramble for a replacement present. When the package arrived, I was first struck by the quality of the box. It was sturdy and seemed on par with the packaging I would expect from a nicer jewelry store. Then, the moment of truth: I opened the box.

I've got to be honest; the pictures on the website didn't do them justice. The earrings were beautiful; they really did resemble Van Gogh's stars. My friend loved them, and I've bookmarked the website for future purchases.

At the end of the day, I'd say I've had more successes than failures with Facebook targeted ads, but I have gotten more skeptical and prone to researching whether or not a site is a scam before I place an order. As the old adage goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. On the other hand, sometimes the risk you take lets you grasp the stars.