Gyaru vs Ulzzang

The biggest mistake I see amongst J-Fashion enthusiasts is the amount of people who get these two terms mixed up. Whether or not it's through not being educated in the way the two fashions are or through ignorance, it's actually frustrating. There are so many differences between the two that it shouldn't be difficult. I believe the main reason that the two styles get completely confused it because they're both asian make-up styles, and with gyaru toning down compared to old school it's easier than ever to get mixed up between the two.

But the two styles aren't interchangable.

Gyaru is not ulzzang.

Ulzzang is not gyaru.

With the natural beauty that ulzzang covets, most gyaru would be irritated to be mislabelled as following ulzzang trends. Gyaru is about rebelling, standing out and it's a style that is completely fake. Whilst ulzzang uses make-up it's much lighter than that of gyaru.

The two styles that have the most in common and are most likely to be be mixed up and confused is an old favourite of mine, himekaji.

For gyaru I'll be using Yui Kanno as an example.
For ulzzang I'll be using Shin Ae Sol as an example.



Throughout the years gyaru has toned down from it's hair and make-up and is much more relaxed compared to what was all over gyaru magazines back in 2008. Himekaji make-up is definitely much more relaxed compared to what would make it in the past.

Instead of big, bold eyelashes you have more natural looking brown eyelashes and there's a trend towards more natural looking lower lashes. Brown circle lenses are more trendy than blues, greens, and other colours that would be unnatural to asian colours which is a trend that's been in ulzzang for quite some time. Instead of using bold, black liner it's more common to use muted browns and eyeliner on the lower lash line? A thing of the past. It's much more popular to use eyeshadow to line the lower lashline. Blusher is still prominent but there's a trend to place it towards the eye area as opposed to the cheeks.

As for lips? Trusty pinks and neutral colours for lipsticks are still in. Some girls do rock a bright lip for a pop of colour although it's not usually the staple for himekaji girls.

Ulzzangs, on the other hand, tend to go for a even more natural look than this (some exceptions though due to the photoshoot like nature of ulzzangs but standard trend is much more natural looking).

Instead of the carefully groomed and arched brows of gyaru, ulzzang trends point to a straight brow. As for false lashes, some ulzzang to wear the more natural kinds but they absolutely aren't a staple of ulzzang make-up. You could still wear your make-up as an ulzzang girl and still be considered to following the style (whereas a gyaru without her false lashes will absolutely not be called gyaru). Natural brown or black circle lenses are the normal and although a more natural look is favoured, some ulzzang do rock different eyeliner styles; just last year the infamous gyaru 'puppy eyeliner' was trending. Blusher can be used but it's not important and it's usually light to the touch - if anything stains are much more popular. Lip-wise, ulzzang tend to go for a natural lip but the now famous gradient lip is a popular ulzzang trend.

Although the two styles do share similarities there are differences.

Similarities:
♥ Trending natural looking circle lenses in browns
♥ Natural lips
♥ More natural looking eyeliner are trending for both styles presently
♥ Nude tones are trending for both styles

Differences:
♥ Stronger blusher is trending in gyaru compared to ulzzang
♥ Gradient lips are completely ulzzang; gyaru will tend to not favour this trend
♥ An ulzzang can be an ulzzang without false lashes; a gyaru cannot be a gyaru without her false top lashes at minimum and there's a lot of debate whether someone without lower lashes can or cannot be considered gyaru




Himekaji gyaru and ulzzang are very similar when it comes to their hairstyles.

For ulzzang, natural hair colours such as black and browns are favored. It's rare that a ulzzang will choose to dye her hair any lighter than a medium brown and any girls with hair lighter than this tend to be wearing wigs of some sort. Hair is usually kept natural or waved; styling wise the hair is kept in cute, easy to do styles. It's rare that elaborate hairdos or hair pieces will be used.

For himekaji, presently medium brown to light brown hair is trending. Although in the past gyaru were known for having blonde locks but times have changed. Their hair is very rarely straight and will always be curled or waved. It's popular to keep hair in updos such as cute ponytails, pigtails or dual-buns at the moment but it's not to say that the hair won't be worn down. Hairpieces may sometimes be used to add extra body to the hair. Gyaru will tend to use more hair accessories.

Similarities:
♥ Natural colours are trending
♥ Waved hair

Differences:
♥ Gyaru has lighter hair colours trending than ulzzang
♥ Gyaru hair is always curled or waved; it's rare to see them with straight hair, especially in himekaji
♥ Ulzzang may choose to use a full wig whereas gyaru will usually go for a half-wig




All gyaru will follow what is currently on trend, whether they're himekaji, agejo, rokku or whatever. Most gyaru will have a favourite few brands that they will choose to follow; himekaji would be Liz Lisa, Ank Rouge, Swankiss, Larme... there's a lot. Himekaji is 'princess-casual' so they follow sweet clothing designs that a princess may choose to wear on her day off. Each style has their own rules so the gyaru who follow that style will stick to those rules.

On the other hand, ulzzang tend to wear comfy outfits and follow many different brands. One day a ulzzang could be rocking a big, comfy jumper and the next oozing glamour with a pretty dress. It's not important that your outfit is a brand name, so long as it looks good. Ulzzang will always follow Korean fashion trends.

Similarities:
♥ Cute clothing rules all
♥ Outfits tend to be well coordinated

Differences:
♥ Gyaru will follow substyles and trends whereas ulzzang will not. Ulzzang girls may dabble in many different styles.
♥ Gyaru love their brands whereas ulzzang will go for what looks good
♥ Ulzzang cherish comfort over all else



In conclusion although there are similarities between ulzzang and gyaru they aren't the same. Both styles borrow from each other and adapt as new trends come out but they absolutely are not one and the same. Your gyaru brands such as Liz Lisa aren't ulzzang although some ulzzang may wear Liz Lisa. Just because a girl who follows ulzzang wears false lashes she isn't automatically classified as gyaru.

Both styles are different and cater for different demographics. If a girl is gyaru she'll look gyaru compared to ulzzang; although there are similarities visually it's easy to tell the difference.

Any questions?

Stay sweet ♥

10 More Gyaru Brands

Gyaru brands come in and out of Shibuya 109 like a revolving door. In comes a new brand, out goes a dearly beloved brand that just couldn't make it (remember when everyone loved W♥C?) in the number one fashion haven. With that in mind it's time to look at some of the brands we didn't look at back in 2012 when there was the little Gyaru Month back on the blog.



Ank Rouge

Following the sweet style and taking cues from the famous Liz Lisa, Ank Rouge follows the himekaji style to a route. It's a little different from Liz Lisa so it's perfect for those girls who love himekaji but aren't a fan of the cookie cutter look that Liz Lisa has a tendency to bring with it.

Popular with: Himekaji, Hime Gyaru, Roma Gyaru
Website





DreamV

Also known as Yumetenbo.

DreamV may not be considered a 'brand' by some but it's cheap, affordable gyaru clothing that ships overseas. It follows himekaji and agejo styles mainly but with cheap shoes and cheap clothes it's easy to mix and match for the perfect look.

Popular with: Himekaji, Agejo, Rokku, Onee
Website





GHOST OF HARLEM

Ghost of Harlem's main aim to make clothing that 'expresses the unusual world'. Now, Ghost of Harlem isn't a Shibuya 109 store and is found in La Foret and Harajuku but it's still a gyaru brand; the girls love it. Sakurina is a huge fan of the brand and models for it. She's also snapped shopping there frequently.

Popular with: Rokku, Harajuku
Website





JSG

JSG is a fun brand (think: Galaxxxy). Whilst it might not fit the gyaru style outright a few items tend to be picked up and used. Standing for Japanese Super Girl the brand is fun with bright prints and bold, brash colours. It's not for everyone.

Popular with: Manba, Tsuyome, B-Gal, Gyaru-kei, Harajuku





JugeETTA

JugeETTA is Liz Lisa's older sister. It has himekaji and roma elements whilst being suitable for the older girls who are afraid that they have outgrown Liz Lisa. It's not as sweet as Liz Lisa and definitely has a more mature look that some girls who can't give up himekaji are looking for.

Popular with: Himekaji, Roma Gyaru, Onee
Website





Laguna Moon

At a first glance, Laguna Moon may not scream, "THIS IS GYARU," at you as it looks somewhat similar to what you could find at your local shopping centre but I assure you, it is. The gyaru who grace the pages of magazines love this brand. This is more suitable for your onee girls.

Popular with: Onee
Website





me Jane

It genuinely makes me sad that I never see girls announce that they're wearing me Jane. They're another onee kind of brand with a celebrity like look. The clothes I've seen are luxurious and more glamourous than that some of the other stores offer. It can be overlooked easily, though.

Popular with: Onee, Gyaru-kei





Princess Melody

Another hime gyaru brand. It's a little more agejo style than the others whilst still being distinctively hime. It's not as elaborate as Jesus Diamante or La Parfait but the dresses are genuinely nice and it's modelled by Himena, one of the leading himegyaru models.

Popular with: Himegyaru





Sexpot Revenge

Dark, gritty and edgy, Sexpot Revenge is another rokku brand. What's unique is that as well as women, this brand also caters to mean and is more likely to be seen on the page of Kera than it is Popteen.

Popular with: Rokku, Harajuku
Website





titty&co.

Things you never thought you would have to say: "I got my shirt from titty." titty&co. is a nice brand that manages to cover a wide range of styles without sitting too much in one substyle.

Popular with: Onee, Roma Gyaru
Website


There are so many gyaru brands! What's your favourite?

Stay sweet. ♥

Gyaru Makeup CHEAT SHEET

Make-up. Every girl uses it, whether they love it or hate it.

I personally adore make-up as it allows me to change myself into someone who looks better than they usually do. Make-up is absolutely essential in gyaru; without their trademark eye make-up a gyaru is nothing. Not even gyaru. Nope. Don't even try arguing that you are when the basics just aren't there.

But not to worry, I've brought what I call a cheat sheet for you girls.


★ BREAKING DOWN MAKE-UP ★


The first step is breaking down gyaru make-up. Most gyaru will wear the same kind of make-up but how heavy they wear it is completely optional on what style they're going for. Someone embracing oraora-kei is going to want to wear more eyeliner than someone who is himekaji. An agejo girl is going to have darker and more prominent blush than a girl who is dedicated to onee-gyaru.

One of the gyaru who wears the most 'natural' make-up to me at the moment would be darling Tsubasa Masuwaka.


Forgive the crude image, I'm terrible at Photoshop. Truthfully she probably wears more than this but my arrows won't fit that much sadly! As you can see there's, well, a lot of product there and that's without including her hair styling. A gyaru's make-up is important to her whole look and looking gyaru. I did a post on before and afters which shows the sheer difference that gyaru make-up makes.

See the below image of Serina. She wears a lot of the same kind of make-up as Tsubasa but applies it differently, giving her a heavier make-up look but still distinctively gyaru.


Her eyelashes are a lot more dramatic than Tsubasa's and her contouring is a lot more noticable but they essentially are using the same make-up types. The difference is that it's applied differently.

Something to note is that although both girls are wearing nude eyeshadows, it's not uncommon for gyaru to wear bright eyeshadows and others. I used browns for the sake of this comparison.

A gyaru tends to have a nude lip but some gyaru choose to wear brighter lip colours such as red on occasion. It's not usually a day to day thing.


★ CONTOURING & HIGHLIGHTING ★

Contouring is amazing. It can make you look like you have a completely different face from the one you were born with. Recently make-up artists have praised contouring, particularly in the Western scene, but contouring has been a thing for years in the gyaru scene. It can change the shape of your nose, give you cheekbones, etc.

I mentioned contouring being a part of Tsubasa and Serina's make-up and I've made the below image (v. high quality as you can tell) to show where contouring would be. Contouring is in brown, highlighting is in the pale pink.


Contouring around the face gives the illusion of a slimmer face. Contouring around the chin gives the illusion of a smaller chin. Contouring around the nose gives the illusion of a smaller nose.
Highlighting the cheekbones helps bring out the illusion of cheekbones you created by contouring. Highlighting the bridge of the nose makes it seem more prominent.

It's all simple. Draw out and draw in what features you like and create shadows and depth on your face.

Contouring is important and is actually really simple to learn.


★ THE CHEAT SHEET ★

I've compiled a little cheat sheet for you. This has the basics as well as some extras that you might find useful for your look. I hope that this helps someone.


I'm certain I've missed something so any tips you guys want to share would be fab!

Stay sweet! ♥

5 Things I Learnt about Gyaru through Cosplay

Cosplay is mainstream. Cosplay is popular. Long ago those who consumed and enjoyed Japanese media were labelled as 'otaku' (not a good thing, I promise) or even worse; a weeaboo. Nobody wants to be tarnished with that brush or have that insult hanging above their head. Nowadays the hobby has started sneaking into mainstream media and gyaru are beginning to open up and admit that they actually enjoy this sort of activity.

For example, take Pikarin. She's cosplayed characters such as Madoka Kaname, from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Miku Hatsune and even Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. Ageha (RIP) had a feature on titan make-up from Shingeki no Kyojin as well as other subjects.

Although I've learnt a lot from following gyaru that aids cosplay (usually make-up), I've also learnt a lot of skills from cosplay that can be used in gyaru.


1. Wearing high heels for a long period of time.

I won't lie. I have naturally weak ankles which tend to collapse if I so much take a step once the colder weather stepped in and if it hadn't of been for cosplay I wouldn't have even dared to wear high heels in this weather. However, for the sake of cosplay I was forced to and I found out that I could wear heels as well as have comfy feet all day long.

We've all had that incident where you have to whip your heels off and wonder why you're subjecting your poor tootsies to something so painful. Thanks to cosplay I can avoid that for the most part. Mostly. I still have times where my feet scream, "WHY," at me.

2. Eyelashes make a difference.

I thought a pair of false eyelashes is just that; a pair of false eyelashes. I never imagined the difference the style of them would make to my eyes! I was the type of girl who used to bulk buy off eBay and then settled for my oh-so-gyaru Dolly Wink lashes that would make me look like an Ageha model (spoiler: they didn't). It was when I bought a pair of Jewerich lashes for my Junko Enoshima cosplay that I realised that there was a difference to be made here.

Your false eyelashes can change the way your eyes look. Whether it's a cute himekaji look or whether you're going for a rokku look, the eyelashes make a world of difference. I can't imagine Dolly Wink lashes being dramatic enough to be rokku in any way, shape or form. Maybe if you wore 3 pairs of them simultaneously, maybe.

3. Styling wigs. And halfwigs.

For years wigs have been part of gyaru, whether you wear them or not. Hairpieces, too. There's no way that a girl with thin hair is going to be able to have a huge sujimori style without some assistance and there's not a chance in hell that you're going to have blonde hair one day and red the next without wrecking your hair. With cosplay the importance of wigs is stressed and unless you're a pro at cutting hair, you have to learn how to do things the hard way. Styling wigs isn't like styling hair as unless you're working with a heat resistant wig, I'd be wary of sticking the hairdryer on close to the plastic fibres. Mmm, plastic gloopy mess. Just what I wanted.

By being a cosplayer I learnt how to both style and care for wigs before I moved onto my pricey half-wigs and billion hair pieces. I've been known to wear 5 - 6 wig pieces at once which I don't think I'd be able to deal with if I didn't have some sort of experience.

Thank you cosplay gods.

4. Wearing your make-up like a drag queen.

I'm sure that all gyaru want their make-up to show up in their photos. Heck, if I've made an effort I want some of it to show up instead of looking like I'm going au-naturale. If I've done my make-up especially for photos I've learnt from photos that I want it to look heavy; like a drag queen. That way it's gonna show up.

Same applies with gyaru make-up. At present I'm not happy with how may own make-up shows up on camera so I have to make it heavier. Bah. I don't need the natural look at all.

5. Fixing accessories.

Raise your hand if you've been guilty of breaking an accessory over time. I am. I remember how I watched on in horror as I watched the clasp of my brand new MA*RS necklace go flying across the room as I tipsily tried to pull the thing over my head. I was pretty devastated. Thanks to some jewellery pliers I had laying around it was easy enough to attach a new clasp to my precious brand. If I hadn't of had those pliers laying around from the time I made some earrings for a cosplay I would've probably still been scratching my head.

I'm terrible at creative things. Doing this was easy peasy.




If you guys have any tips I'd love it if you left them in the comments.

Stay sweet! ♥