Sunday 27 December 2015

10 Months

Wowwww, it's been a long time since I last wrote to you all.

First of all, Merry (belated!) Christmas! I hope gyaru Santa was kind to you all this year.




I disappeared again.

Thank you for all of the comments asking if I'm okay and where I am, I'm fine, thank you. ♥ 2015 has been a very weird year for me.

After a long time of thinking there was nothing out there better for me I bit the bullet and quit my little office job. As a result I've had no money for most of the year and I distanced myself from gyaru to stop the urge to splurge (hey, I rhymed!!) on absolutely everything. MA*RS still has a place in my heart and everytime I see news about MA*RS I just want to buy everything!! Money was so tight for awhile I even stopped wearing make-up because I couldn't afford new foundation and I'm still very carefully rationing Diamond Lash eyelashes (whilst weeping as I'm on my last set of lower lashes).

Since February I've worn gyaru around 5 times, maybe 4.

It sucked to read and follow the scene for awhile because I still wanted to be part of the culture and buy everything so I just... stopped. Went cold turkey. Bing, bang, boom.

Instead I replaced it with perhaps one of my biggest mistakes so far. The time I spent reading blogs, researching gyaru, looking at the new trends all went into...

MMO Gaming.

Aka the biggest time sink you can imagine. I also tried streaming on Twitch for awhile (which was fun and if you tuned in you would've seen me running around with no make-up on due to literally being so freaking broke).

I'm not sure if I'll ever come back into blogging as frequently as I did again but I'd like to a lot. ♥

Please tear me away from MMO Addiction, LOL!

However, I recently got an amazing job. It's hard work and does restrict some of my appearance (nude nails, natural hair colours only, etc.) so soon I'll be able to tentatively take steps into going back into gyaru.

Or at least replacing my false lashes. Those are getting nasty, yo.

Love,

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Monday 9 February 2015

Where have the Bloggers Gone?

Back in 2010 when I had the first glimmer of interest in gyaru fashion, things were pretty different. Tans were the dying out trend, usamimi were the amazing new trend and circle lenses were starting to gain their status as a staple in gyaru make-up. There were other things that were different too.

There were a lot of gaijin gyaru bloggers.

I loved those girls and they were the girls who filled my head up with the knowledge of what being gyaru was. ZhiZhi was my absolute idol, Universal Doll was my trend bible and I absolutely adored lurking in the comment sections of blogs because there'd be a lot of new girls to follow in there. Unfortunately, time has passed.

ZhiZhi has left the scene, Universal Doll has slowed down to a steady plod and comment sections are slowly dying out.

My blog feeds are empty, old blogs I used to follow have become overrun by spam bots and a lot of the blogs I do manage to stumble across are dead.

It's sad and it begs the question:


1. They've left the style.

It's sad but this happens.

People change style, they grow out of it and move onto other things. It's sad for us who followed those girls and admired them but everything changes. Recently, a lot of the prominent gyaru who pushed the style forward have upped and disappeared. The scene of bloggers to follow is completely different two years ago compared to the present!

2. Blogging became less important.

Let's not beat about the bush - blogging is hard.

Staying motivated to come up with interesting topics to talk about is draining and it's not for everyone. Some people prefer to post about their life, others don't. When you're constantly trying to think of blog posts or things to do or things to buy just in order to push out a new content saps creativity until you'r left with nothing but a barren wasteland.

It's a lot easier to put the blog on the backburner whilst focusing on things which are really important.

3. Drama, drama, drama!

It's not a secret that there are certain communities dedicated to gyaru drama. We're a community full of girls and unfortunately, girls are notorious for stabbing each other in the back and getting into cat fights.

Unfortunately, if enough drama and negativity are focused on one person enough then it'll be likely for that particular gyaru to stop blogging. Sad, but true.

4. BRB, Tumblr.

Tumblr is a fantastic blogging platform. There's thousands of pictures for inspiration there at the touch of a button and it's a lot easier to post mini updates than longer blog posts like this. As a result, some gyaru prefer to use Tumblr and leave their other blogs behind.

Whilst this isn't a bad thing it does leave people who aren't in the Tumblr loop to wistfully hope that their favourite gyaru get around to updating their main blog. I personally also find a lot of useful articles and posts tend to get buried underneath the plethora of inspiration pictures on Tumblr which is a shame.

5. Real Life

Real life eats up a lot of time. For example, I work full time and finding the time to sit and blog is a pain in the behind. There are girls with even heavier schedule and in between everything they need to do, blogging is one of their very last priorities.

When it comes to extra sleep for a busy day of work or writing a blog post, sleep wins out.



There are still plenty of gaijin gyaru who keep their blogs up to date and plenty of new resource sites to replace the ones who faded out. I've listed my favourite ones below:

Gal VIP - if you haven't checked out Gal VIP then you've been living under a rock. They're an e-magazine dedicated to the gyaru style and are a 100% must read for any gaijin gyaru.

Gal Bible - another fantastic gyaru resource. One of the highlights of their blog for me personally is their Weekly Roundup of gyaru related posts. It's helped me to discover bloggers I hadn't heard of before and expand my reading list.

Emi and Lea - one of the best gyaru blogger duos who are currently posting (in my opinion). They update frequently and have a lot of useful, helpful and interesting content. Love, love, love!

BLACK SALVIA - after a brief hiatus Viivi is back. Having been around in the scene for years, she's one of the best gaijin gyaru out there and definitely one to be reading. I know I am.

Chewieepon - a little bit biased as I know and love this particular gyaru to pieces but Chewie is wonderful; although she doesn't update much when she does get around to her looks are inspiring. It feels like playing keep up with her look (even though I'm 10 steps behind wtf)

Stay sweet! ♥

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Monday 2 February 2015

Thank You Giveaway

Since starting up this blog there's been one thing I've always wanted to do and never could figure out how or when. I'm a pretty small blogger and this is a pastime and it's always felt daunting to do something that would get lots of you guys involved.

However...

I've finally bucked up and gotten my head together to throw a giveaway for you guys as a thank you for sticking with my little blog throughout the year.


(Forgive the picture, my DSLR's memory card has gone awol so I had to use my phone!)

There's lots of goodies for grabs, including:

✩ Liz Lisa x Popteen make-up bag
✩ Be Luxury Babe Circle Lenses in Luxury 77 (Brown)
✩ Ifairy Super Crystal Circle Lenses in Blue
✩ 2 Hello Kitty Contact Lens Cases
✩ Dolly Wink lower lashes in Pure Little
✩ MA*RS upper lashes in Glamorous Vodka
✩ Diamond Lash upper lashes in Sexy Eye
✩ Make-up Revolution lipstick in Cheer
✩ Make-up Revolution lipstick in Sweetheart
✩ Make-up Revolution Eye Foil in Black Diamond
✩ Make-up Revolution powder blush in Wow
✩ Make-up Revolution blush lacquer in O'Boy
✩ Lipsy Kabuki Brush
✩ Etude House Sweet Recipe Cupcake in Blueberry Cheesecake

I chose these as they're some of my favourite brands (especially Make-up Revolution, I adore the palettes I own from them!) and I'm super excited for you guys to try these out!

✩ RULES ✩

- One random winner will receive the above prizes.
- Giveaway starts now until 23:59 (GMT+1) on 13th February 2015
- Open internationally
- Items will be shipped free of charge to the winner
- Winner must be open to supplying myself with their e-mail address and personal address
- If under the age of 16, please have parental consent before entering
- Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below
- No following to just unfollow after the giveaway is over; this is unfair for people who actually want to follow my content and ruins the ideals of a 'thank you' giveaway
- All entries will be checked; if the winner is found to have been somehow cheating their entry will be null and void
- Winner will be e-mailed on 14th February 2015; they have 5 days to respond. If there is no response another winner will be chosen at random

✩ ENTER HERE ✩

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck and have fun!

Stay sweet! ♥

email me

Monday 26 January 2015

J-FASHION ATTENTION WHORE

As I sit here typing this I can already tell that this post in particular is going to prove quite unpopular. This isn't going to be the most eloquent thing ever but please remember that this is just my own personal opinion.

I feel like a lot of people use J-Fashion as a way to gain attention.


Before you sit down to tell me how wrong I am, you're right to do that but please read this post. This doesn't encapsulate everyone who is in the J-Fashion community. There are plenty of people who fall outside of this category and I think a large majority of the J-Fashion community does.

You're not an attention whore if you post a selfie (c'mon, everyone loves the fuzzy feeling of validation from having people 'like' your photo). You're not an attention whore if you post on social media a lot or if you cause drama or post outfits of the day. Maybe you just like sharing a lot which is perfectly okay!

I'm talking about people who jump from J-Fashion to J-Fashion.

Even then, if you've been in one or two J-Fashion communities that's fine. Great, even! Personal style evolves over time so it's natural to see someone maybe growing tired with their current style after many months and years and moving on to something that is usually a bit different yet similar at the same time.

I call this natural progression.

Maybe there's a different term for this, I'm not sure.

For example, an example of natural progression is my friend who is a gorgeous lolita who asked me on tips for himekaji. It may feel like a big jump from style to style but they also have a lot in common. Another great example of natural progression is Lizzie from Mystic Thorn. The linked post is showing her making some 'baby steps' into hime. Coming from agejo to hime is a natural progression as although the styles are different they're also similar. I experimented and flirted with these rules whilst going for my Ayacon Ball outfit.


People who are SJAWs (Serial J-Fashion Attention Whores) are those who jump from style to style because it's popular or will gain them enough attention. It's an attempt to stay relevant in the fashion community because J-Fashion is both unique and different enough to drag the eye of people who aren't involved and unaccustomed to the unique look of J-Fashion.

Face it: if you're wearing normal clothes with normal make-up or outlandish J-Fashion clothes with J-Fashion make-up which one will net you more attention?

...

I don't think I need to state the obvious answer.

A SJAW will jump from J-Fashion to J-Fashion and they feed off the attention. They're gyaru for 6 months, the next 6 months they're lolita, the following 6 months they're mori, then next they're fairy-kei...

If you truly loved and felt invested into a style there would be no need to jump from style to style in such a small space of time.

There are a lot of arguments that people may come up with in order to defend their notorious jumping from J-Fashion to J-Fashion as an excuse for the real reason of, well, being a SJAW.


No. Do not even go there with me. There may be a case where you feel too old to wear a certain fashion but abandoning that and jumping straight onto another J-Fashion isn't progressive but rather a continuation of absolutely needing attention regardless if it's positive or negative.

There's plenty of examples of older people wearing fashions that people were 'too old' for such as Mao-chan and even Sakurina for gyaru. Misako Aoki, the super famous lolita model and ambassador, is 32. Junnyan is a great example of someone who looks older and is rocking the clothes he wants to wear. Age isn't a reason and is more of an excuse to jump to the next interesting J-Fashion.


Furthermore if you're too old to wear, for example, lolita, is jumping to gyaru going to make things better? Fashion isn't meant for just young people; if it was then everyone over the age 30 would be wearing jeans and t-shirts every day.


Why would you choose gyaru over a Western fashion, for example? As it isn't as exotic as a J-Fashion the clothing we see in the Western world may feel boring in comparison but gyaru, for example, has many elements which are borrowed from Western fashion but with a bit of a twist on it.

If it's not truly about attention then why is it that people always jump to J-Fashion and more recently, K-Fashion?

A lot of people use the argument that Western fashion is 'boring', yet with styles such as onee-gyaru and the now infamous Neo Gal which are slowly progressing towards the Western aesthetic and with many of these Western girls jumping onto these trends, I can't help but watch with distain. When Neogal became the 'new' thing a lot of SJAWs jumped onto it.

Feizl, for example, is another Asian aesthetic yet it's rare that girls jump onto the bandwagon of being feizl because it's not popular and will not net them attention (it's basically the Chinese version of ulzzang which is also on the rise). In fact, people are more likely to tag ulzzang than feizl because, as previously mentioned, it's simply not popular despite being extremely similar to the well known ulzzang movement.


Shironuri is yet to explode in popularity although there are one or two girls who have jumped from other J-Fashions and are now shironuri for no reason other than it's slowly increasing popualarity.

People who were once very prominent and very dedicated to a particular fashion often completely tone down once they have moved to a 'new' fashion.

Upon graduating the increasingly toned down Popteen just last year, Kumicky changed to me a 'mature' adult which meant that some of the very staples of J-Fashion make-up such as false eyelashes were gone. The image she has now is a feminine yet still westernised look. I may be wrong but I have never heard of a prominent figure go from gyaru to fairy-kei, for example, nor have I seen the reverse happen (although there may be cases; I will admit I'm not reliably informed and have no idea which figures were once considered prominent in Shibuhara styles unless you're talking about Kyary or Kimura).

In the gaijin community especially I see girls jumping from these fashions like it's normal, yet never once do Western or other Eastern fashions ever enter their new image. It's always J-Fashion. Lolita to gyaru and vice versa is common and one of the jumps I often see which is one of the ones that doesn't bother me personally; a lot of people discover one and then realise the other fashion suits them a little more afterwards. For myself, it's where the fashion jumps keep happening that an issue arises.


Another common symptom of a SJAW is that no matter what they're wearing it will somehow be related to J-Fashion. A darker, edgier look will instantly be rokku or v-kei. A boho look will be mori. A preppier look will be gyaru. A head bow of a slightly poofier skirt will be instantly labelled as lolita.

First off, there is nothing wrong with using the English equivalents of these words.

People use the J-Fashion term (even if it looks nothing like it) to describe these looks because they want the attention that J-Fashion will bring them. It's the equivalent of girls who tag their photos with everything (non-gyaru tagging everything as gyaru and ulzzang and doll and all of those 'popular' buzzwords) because it will reach more people and show them how unique and special they are.




Of course this isn't a catch all post. For example, a lolita who followed the style for 2 or 3 years before moving onto the 'ulzzang' aesthetic (I'm still not 100% sure how this can be called a style) for 2 - 3 years before moving onto gyaru would fall outside of this threshold. This could be seen as a natural progression as mentioned earlier.

It's hard to define through words and perhaps I don't have the best way to communicate on an issue that is genuinely just irritating not only to myself but a few other people. Personally I was worried about putting this up but the people who will get offended by this post are those who I would personally describe as a SJAW.

I'd love if a discussion on any of the points I've raised could be discussed. There's a few more I personally wanted to say but I honestly do not have the words to eloquently get into aesthetics, reasons, etc. It's possible to like more than one style (I do!) but I can't fathom how expensive it must be to have a gyaru wardrobe and then a full lolita wardrobe, haha!

Stay sweet! ♥


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