I Love Fashion Venus McFlytrap and Cleo DeNile

I've got a bit of a two-for-one review today! Way way back during Boxing Week sales, I picked up both Venus and Cleo's I Love Fashion versions at Toys R Us on an amazing sale. I first saw these months ago and thought they were really gorgeous, but they wanted $39.99 for them. That is just too much for one doll, even taking into account the extra fashions they come with, and so I passed. In fact, I even told my husband I didn't want them for my birthday when he asked, because I didn't want ANYONE paying $40 for them!

Luckily, TRU had them on sale for $19.99 during Boxing Week, and that's the price of a budget doll up here in Canada, so I grabbed them both! I'm kind of wishing I'd have grabbed Wydowna too, but my local TRU is jammed to the gills with her, and not these two, so I think I'll have another chance! 

The I Love Fashion line has always been one of my favourites, with the edgier makeup the ghouls usually get, and all the great outfits, so I was really excited to get these two out of their boxes!

So without further ado, let's get to it!

I did a quick video opening these guys and showing off their outfits, so check that out if you're interested!

So let's start with Venus, just because! I even always like how these dolls are displayed in the boxes, with the little dress forms for the clothes, and how they make it look like the shoes are displayed on shelves. So cute!

And here she is with all her bit and pieces! These dolls do also come with a stand and a brush, which is nice! I don't remember if the earlier I Love Fashion dolls came with stands or not, but something is making me think they didn't? Either way, I'm always glad when dolls do come with stands!

Here's Venus as she comes out of the box. I have a few Venus dolls, and I'm really glad that they're starting to do different stuff with her hair. Coffin Bean has full curls, Gloom and Bloom has an undercut instead of a shaved side, and this is Venus' first time with short hair!

She also has really cool bangs, cut with a jagged edge. These are obviously gelled down quite a lot, but there would be no way to maintain this kind of sharp style without the gel, so I don't mind it.

Faceup-wise, I like this Venus, but I don't know how unique she is. The makeup is very reminiscent of Ghoul Spirit Venus with the dark eyes and berry lip. I don't have that Venus, so I don't mind, but it's something to consider if you do have GS Venus in your collection.

Her hair cut in a slightly A-line bob, coming to just below the shoulders at its longest point. It's Venus' standard mix of  hot pink and green, with addition of a layer of black underneath. Her shaved side is pink as usual, with a black checkerboard pattern printed on top. I did have Venus wearing the sunglasses that came in this set for awhile before I took these photos, and you can see where the arms of the glasses rubbed away at the black paint as well as dented the flocking a bit. Flocking is notoriously delicate, so this isn't a surprising turn of events, just something I noticed!

In her ears, she's wearing black safety pins earrings in both lobes, and two black rings in the cartilage of her left ear.

She comes wearing a spiked cuff bracelet on each wrist, one white and one hot pink. She has also translucent grey vines above the bracelets on each forearm. You can actually see that the pink bracelet left a stain on her arm where it was sitting when she was in the box. This is always a bummer!

The outfit she comes wearing is a long tunic with a vine/checkboard pattern all over it. It's made of a simple knit fabric, except for one sleeve and a section of the neckline that is made of a pattern mesh. Over top of that she's wearing a white spiked belt. Her leggings are hot pink, and kind of have a ripped fishnet or paint splatter pattern. These are both cute pieces, but are simple enough to be mixed and matched into Venus wardrobe. It's definitely not my favourite outfit in the set though, but we'll get to that!

On her ankles, she has more of those translucent grey vines. These look great but they slide around a lot, and it's hard to get them to stay in a place that makes sense. Her shoes are very dark green booties, with vines for laces and jagged lines on the heels. These are really cool, and I think they're totally new. I don't recognize them at least!

In terms of accessories, she comes with two spiked bracelets, one green and one white, a pair of square hoop earrings made of leaves, and a pair of simple black hoops.

She comes with a purse, which does open, and is pretty cool. Again, I don't think it's new, but I can't be sure.

The second outfit she comes with is a white denim mini skirt splattered with hot pink paint, and a pink sleeveless top. The top has green trim around the arm hols as well as across the chest, and a piece of black mesh attached asymmetrically across the front. Her final accessory is these hot pink sunglasses, which are awesome, and were first seen on her swim doll in green.

The second pair of shoes she comes with are re-colours of her Ghoul's Night Out shoes in black. I like these shoes, so it's fun to have another colour!

I really like this second outfit, and I think it has a lot of attitude! The outfit she comes in is rather casual, but this one is a little sassier.

The third outfit is by far my favourite though! The vest is packaged with the outfit above in the box, but I'm showing it with the dress because I think I like it better with this outfit. Mixing and matching is the fun part though!

Keen eyes might remember this dress from the Dot Dead Gorgeous webisode! I'm glad it finally made an appearance on a doll, as it looked super cute in the cartoon. It's a tube dress, with the black strap running up the centre going right to her neck, and attaching around the back in a collar. I love the pattern of this, with the checkerboard and the graphic venus flytraps all over it, it's so cute!

The vest has an abstract leaf pattern on it, and is trimmed in a hot pink pleather. The lapels and collar are stiff so they stick up, and give a very cool look.

The last pair of shoes she comes with is these hot pink booties, with the tops folded over. I believe these are recolours of her Music Festival shoes, and I love them in pink!

So that was Venus, and now onto Cleo DeNile! For some reason, Cleo seems to be the harder one of these two to find, so I'm glad that I got my hands on her! There's some really great stuff in this package.

And here it is, all laid out! I really love a lot of these pieces, but I don't think it mixes and matches as well as Venus'.

Here's the outfit she comes in, which again, is not my favourite. It's a full body suit with one sleeve, made of a very thick knit with an all over bandage pattern. Over top of that, she has...an overshirt of sheer blue material, with a band of black over her bust and gold wrapping around to her back. There's also a grey translucent belt, which I don't think goes with this outfit at all, but I do like it with the other pieces, so it's all good!

Her face is very pretty, with jade green eye shadow and gold glitter up to her brows, and very deep red lipstick.

I really love the hair on this doll as well. It's a mix of black and a very vibrant turquoise, with a complete lack of tinsel. I generally don't like tinsel at all, so I'm always glad to get a Cleo without it!

Her earrings are gold, and shaped kind of like a knife or a feather, in hieroglyphic form.

Her boots are recolours of the ones that Scooter Ghoulia wears, in a bright aqua. These boots are great on Ghoulia in their original colour, and they're great in this colour too!

Accessory-wise, she comes wearing three gold pyramid bracelets and a translucent turquoise snake bracelet.

The second outfit she comes with has some really great pieces! It has kind of a funky casual vibe for me, especially if you remove the little jacket.

This outfit is made up of three pieces. There's a black shrug with gold trim, a beige t-shirt with a hieroglyphic pattern, and a metallic bronze mini-skirt with a bandage pattern. I really like the t-shirt, and it might be my single favourite piece in the set, but I don't know if I really love it with the skirt. I'm not sure what else I'd pair it with, but I think the colour of the skirt is what's throwing me off. It's still very cute though!

There's also a gold belt made of thin, shiny fabric that fits just under Cleo's bust, and a grey snake necklace. I really like the necklace, and I don't really understand the point of the belt thing.

The purse that Cleo comes with is gold with a scarab on the front. It actually opens, and it's very cute!

Her shoes are recolours of an older pair, but they're some of my favourite Cleo shoes so I don't mind! They're translucent grey, and feature a statue holding the heel.

The final outfit is definitely my favourite! It's probably the most simple, but sometimes simple can be really impactful.

One issue however, is that the sunglasses don't really fit her face. I managed to jam them on for the above photo, but they were moments from just shooting right off her face. This isn't a problem I've had with Monster High dolls before, and it's kind of bizarre.

The outfit itself is a simple dress with a sort of peasant style, with long, full sleeves. It's striped with black and blue, and the blue sections have a bandage pattern. It fits her super well, and I think it really suits her!

She's also wearing a thin gold belt, that looks like a chain made of little pyramid shaped links. This isn't a new accessory, but it works really well with the dress.

Her shoes are gold, and have a lot of details! The soles are made up of four pyramids put together, and they have no heel. The main part of the shoe has a bandage pattern, and the ankle straps are snakes. There's a lot going on, but they're really great.

And so, that's all for I Love Fashion Venus and Cleo! What do you guys think of this line in general, and these characters in particular? I definitely love them, and I hope Mattel keeps this line going for a long time!