Here's the breakdown of how it got an overall four stars in my book:
Design wise, this is five stars in my book. I don't like ordering things online for things where color is important to me (basically, clothing and some decorative items) because I never known what the color is really going to look like until I take it out of the box. At least on my computer screen, the colors portrayed online in the first are surprisingly accurate, and the darker look in the second picture is far from reality. The actual thing has a little less green and a little more blue than the first picture, though (at least for my screen). It's still green enough to qualify as "aqua" and blue enough not to count as green. Anyway, I'm too persnickety about color. Onto the rest of my review.
The sheets that came with it are also five stars, some of the softest sheets I've ever had with no visible manufacturing flaws.
I love the comforter. However, all things considered, this item only gets four stars. It's also made of a great fabric like the sheets. However, there were a few places where the sewing quality was questionable, like it had been hand-sewn by someone with little experience with a sewing machine. It was salvageable, though. I just had to snip a few wonky threads, and now it looks great. It didn't have a tag on it giving the care instructions and other things typically on a fabric tag, which seemed a little strange, seeing as putting tags on things seems to be the industry standard. However, the other items had tags, so I'll just go with the care instructions listed on the closest one to this piece and the information listed on this website.
The pillowcases and shams were like the comforter--great design, great fabric, some weirdly sewn spots (more than on the comforter) that I was able to salvage through some modification. Due to the amount of modifying that was required, I'll give these three and a half stars.
The pillows were like the pillowcases. However, they came with one additional disappointment: they got a little squashed in shipping. I have no idea how whoever packed the box got the bag holding all the pieces to fit in that box. They didn't let the fact that the box was too small deter them. It came bulging--busted and taped back together in one spot--and was so tightly packed that I had to fight for a bit before I could get the bag out. The over-packed conditions led to the pillows getting warped and squashed (Unless they were like that to begin with. We shall never know). However, I was able to manipulate the stuffing and revive them. Three stars for the pillows.
Since everything with problems was salvageable, I didn't think it was worth returning the set, and I liked the overall design enough that it was worth it to me to salvage the problematic items, but it would be nice to have a product come in perfect condition so modifying isn't necessary.
Also, I didn't care much about this since I didn't order the set for this pillow, but when the online description says it comes with an "additional embroidered elephant embroidered decorative pillow," it's actually a rhinoceros, and its printed onto the fabric, not embroidered. Not a huge deal, but if you have an aversion to rhinoceroses or would be majorly disappointed if you did get an elephant pillow with everything else, this is probably not the bed set for you. If you're like me and you don't care about that and you don't mind making a few modifications (unless of course, my set was just the factory defect and other sets would be fine), this is the bed set for you if you like the look of it.
