Missing Purchased Items

I’m new to this game so maybe I’m not looking in the right place, but I am missing items (to merge) that I purchased with jewels from the store icon and the shell tab. I tap to spend the jewels on them, and I go back to the game board and they aren’t there, but the jeweled I spent are got. I’ve wasted about 30 or so jewels doing this! Is it an error or am I doing it wrong?