Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Personal outfit 25

My outfit today consisted of:
Scarf: Borrowed from mom
Checked Dress: Nichii (I actually bought it like 2 or 3 years back and it reminds me alot of Alice in Wonderland because of the colour and the shape)
Cowboy boots: Bought in Macau
LV monogrammed bucket bag: borrowed from mom
Finally tried out the scarf bow trend! I dug around my mom's scarf collection and pulled out this long red scarf, it took abit of practise tying the bow but I think it's pretty decent looking. I think I maybe hopping on the bandwagon for this trend, because its cute and matches alot of styles.

After nearly 2 weeks of working non-stop, I finally had and off day and actually went out instead of resting at home.

I would have stayed at home if it weren't for the fact that I had to collect a pair of Andrea Bocelli concert tickets!!! I love his voice alot though I'm bit disappointed that he isn't appearing "live" for the concert but rather I'll be watching him through a "live" screening. But since the tickets are free, hey, its better then nothing.

New Lashes


My MAC No.7 lashes!

My star accent lashes! (Sorry just stole this off the net as I forgot to take pictures of my own pair)

The Black Leather Lashes that I failed to get my hands on (photo taken off Sushi Cat, check out how it looks like on her!)

Hey sorry for the long time between my blog posts. My job has seriously been draining me of energy and not just physically but mentally too!

Anyway, as my job requires me to wear makeup everyday, thus, I have been wearin my circle lens and false lashes pretty much everyday which has resulted in my eyes becoming swollen, irritated and painful to the touch, so I finally understand why those magazine models' eyes look so horrendous everytime they have zero makeup on. The daily removing of the lashes from my lids is the main cause for all the suffering, however on a good note, the swelling has resulted in my having the best double lids ever! I now have thick double lids with ample space between the fold and the lash line, the kind that so many girls use double-lid glue and stickers to try and achieve!

Anyway, as I am required to wear false lashes everyday I recently got myself a pair of the Shu Uemura star lashes and a pair of MAC No.7 lashes. Sorry but no pictures of me wearing them yet as I keep forgetting to take pictures at work.

The star lashes are cute and really elongate the eyes,however the spine is pretty stiff and hard, so if you place it too far at the edge of your eyes, it can be pretty painful as the lash edge would keep poking the corner of your eye. Not to mention, after wearing the lashes twice, one of my stars has already dropped off, so I'm pretty bummed about that especially when I paid $34 for it!
After trying out the MAC No.7 lashes, I understand why alot of gyaru love it. It's spine is really thin so its not very obvious you have a pair of falsies on and the lash isn't too long either. My complaint is that its really not that long, even the lashes I got from Daiso are so much longer. If you're hoping to compare it to Dollywink, sad to say, Dollywink wins hands down on lash length and volume. But if you're looking for something more natural, its pretty good though I don't think it can last as long as Dollywink. The MAC salesguy told me it'll probably last 3 times max, whilst my Dollywink pair has served me well for nearly 3 months already! I've only used my No.7 pair once, so we'll see how long it can actually last.

On a sad note, I tried looking for Sushi Cat's Black Leather lashes, the one with the extended lash line, and sadly I found out that any of the lashes left have been sent back to the office/warehouse as it has already been discontinued. I tried calling any outlet that the database showed had any stocks left, but all came up nil. Oh well, I was actually on the fence about it anyway as it came with a hefty $42 price tag! So in a way, I'm glad that the stocks have already been sent back.

I'll upload pictures of me wearing the star lashes and MAC No.7 lashes soon okays?

Monday, April 19, 2010

New Job

On a side note, I recently got myself a new job in order to properly finance my vain-ness and my cosplay needs.

I'm working at Shu Uemura as a makeup counter girl, so I get to play with make up all day!

However, as the work requires me to work in shifts, I may not be able to blog as often as before, but that doesn't mean I'll leave this blog to rot away, I'll still be back to update time and time again, just be patient if there isn't any new posts for say a week or 2 as I maybe scheduled to work for up to 8 days straight.

For local readers, if you wanna pop by to say hi, I'm working at a counter smack in the middle of Orchard road, lets see if you guys can find me, Tata!

Circle Lenses!!

In order to be a full fleged Gyaru, there are numerous things that one must do, such as styling your hair properly, putting on proper make up, dressing the part and many other things. However, there is one part which many girls fail to realise that its a crucial part of getting the Gyaru look, and that is, Circle lenses!!!
Moi finally got her hands on some circle lens after much research online (and not much help from the local government that kept plastering signs against buying contacts online), and finally found a local seller who imported lens direct from Japan with reasonable prices. Thanks to http://www.exclusive-lens.blogspot.com/
I bought 3 different lens as I not only wanted a pair for daily wear, but 2 others for cosplay purposes, so after tons of reasearch I bought a pair of Max Pure Browns for my daily wear as I'd read that they are more natural looking and one of the most comfortable lenses in the market.


First and foremost, this is how my eyes look like, completely devoid of makeup, so pardon the horrible oily skin and open pores and such for all the subsequent pictures. My eyes are really dark brown, almost black so it's hard to even locate the irises.



After putting in the Max Pure Brown lens on one eye, as you can see, there is an enlargement at 14.5mm and the colour appears lighter.

My Max Pure Browns without any flash, they look really really natural


With flash, you can see more obviously the brown colour, sometimes, I think they look like the glass eyes of dolls and soft toys, but I really like them alot



I received 3 of these pinkXwhite cases, one for each pair of lens I had bought, absolutely free from Exclusive Lens, I really like them, because I can see which ever lens are inside each case because they're see-through, so no need for me to guess which lens are in which case.

I've been using my Max Pure Browns as a replacement for my daily disposables, these lens are really thin, so I don't feel them at all in my eye, however as compared to my dailies, they have more protein build-up and are abit dry, so I usually apply an eyedrop or 2 in the middle of the day. But other then that, I'm really happy I got them (though the Bf is still creeped out by them).

I'm planning to buy more brown lenses soon, hmm wonder which ones I should try next, maybe Honey Wings?

Oh yes, scroll down to see my reviews on the other 2 lenses I bought!

Green Circle Lens!!

For my most important cosplay of the year, I really wanted a pair of quality green lenses. So after reading about different type of lenses, I finally settled on DollyEye's green lenses. The lens are fairly comfortable and it's less problematic as compared to my blue ones, the lens don't swivel about when I blink which is a real plus for me (double pupils are waaay creepy) and I don't get the coloured edges in my line of sight unlike the blue ones.

The green is less obvious then my blue ones, on my pupils, but still enough to see the colour


Without flash, the green is only minimally obvious, but you can still see abit of colour difference from normal eyes.

With flash the colour is more obvious, but from far, the colour isn't as obvious, bit disappointed actually.

My only gripe is that the colour isn't as obvious as I would like it, but its fairly comfortable. I haven't worn it out for a full day yet, so I can't say just how comfortable it really is, but it's definitely thicker then my Max Pure Brown lens.

*edit* I tried this pair at work one day, and they were quite comfortable. I had a bit of blurriness and some of the green colour blocking my line of sight at times, but abit of blinking and a drop or two of eyedrops fixed it. I even had a customer comment on how much she liked my lens! Yay!

Blue Circle lens!

For most of my cosplay characters, I needed blue lenses to get the look right, so after researching different coloured lens, I decided to get the DollyEye Blue lens, because not only is it one of the lesn with more obvious colour effect, but at 14.2mm wide, it also enlarges the eye, perfect for achieving the anime look.

Comparison of the lens, you can see, the blue isn't affected by the dark colour of my eye and that there is some enlargement

Here, I'm wearing the lens in both my eyes, but with zero flash, there's still some blueness

Now with flash, as you can see, the blue is very obvious and the best part is that the colour eliminates the redness of my eyes, I really like the colour of this pair of lenses

My only gripe with this particular pair of lens is that it swivels about when I blink, resulting in havign 2 pupils at times, which is really creepy. I haven't actually worn this pair out for the day before so I can't say whether it's extrememly comfortable or not, but it is certainly thicker than my Max Pure Browns and sometimes, I see the edges of blue in my line of sight. Not to mention, I have abit of an "alien" look when I wear this as it doesn't look natural at all.
For daily wear, maybe this isn't such a good idea, but for cosplay, it's good enough.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Cosplay Plans for 2010 & 2011

One of my more expensive outfits, of course it had to come from the Kuroshitsuji series. Ceil (that's the character) actually has alot of nice outfits, but this one was too nice to pass up on, it totally captured his regal image and the layers of cloth looked so good whether he was standing or sitting, so I immediately felt compelled to get this particular costume.

One of the Vocaloids again, this time it's Len in his Imitation Black outfit. Yes, its a "him", I'm a girl cosplaying as a guy whose wearing a dress, pretty warped sense of logic, ahahahaha. But the costume was too nice to pass up and yes, I need to wear black lipstick and tons of black liner for this character.

Trinity Blood's Esther, this is the outfit she wore when she went to The Empire. Note the large amount of detailing all over the entire outfit, this is gonna be one of the most expensive outfits for me to splurge on

Kagura, it's hard to find a nice picture of her standing still while showing her complete outfit so this was the best shot I could find. I prefer her shortened kimono over her chinese-inspired outfit

Ugh I'm having so many cosplay plans drawn up that my head is starting to whirl from the utter chaos and confusion of ordering this and that for this costume and that costume and such.

Not to mention setting up my own team is pretty difficult especially when the series is known for especially detailed costumes, so many people are quite turned off by the sheer amount of work that's gonna go into that one costume. However, I must peservere!

Anyway, if anybody's curious, here's the list of cosplays for this year and the next

2010 --> Eager Love Revenge Miku, Sandplay of Dragon Rin, Ceil (Ballroom Version), Gintama's Kagura (Yoshiwara Arc Version)


2011 --> Trinity Blood Esther (most likely Empire version), Kuroshitsuji's Ceil (book cover version), Imitation Black Len


*I'm only uploading pictures of the characters that I haven't uploaded before*

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Hostessing in Japan






After reading Bloomzy's post about male host clubs in Japan, I clicked around abit and chanced upon a few articles about female hostessing in general.

What I found out was that after the boom in the popularity of becoming a Hostess thanks to magazine, Koakuma Ageha and celeb idols like Momoeri, many hostesses now work in cabaret clubs, nicknamed kyabakura in Japanese. These are the less exclusive and lower-priced versions of the original "hostess bars" (high-class Ginza establishments filled with elegant and knowledgeable ladies). Despite this fact, hostessing is now seen as a glamorous and there is less resistance to becoming one, in fact in open auditions, girls sometimes bring their mothers along which would have been completely unheard of say 5 years ago.

In a video, Momoeri herself says that she gets tons of fan mail from elementary school girls who gush about their admiration for her and how much they aspire to be like her in the future. But having known the rigours of this job, Momoeri herself replies that she is uncertain if that is an industry that she would like to encourage young girls to enter.

A friend of mine once quipped that she wished she she could jet off to Japan and become a hostess for a couple of years because of the "easy money" and the illusion of, "its so easy, all you have to do is drink alot, chat with the men, buy a few pretty dresses to wear to work and you're done, some clubs don't even allow touching so no worries about being too touchy-feely."

But I read once an ex-hostess speaking out about the not so glamorous side of the job, she said that a huge chunk of her money earned went straight back into make up and skincare and she had to constantly change her dresses, hairstyles and nails because clients didn't want to come back if she looked the same as the last time they visited. It was also really difficult to look fresh and pretty everyday if you had to constantly drink copious amounts of alcohol and have cigarette smoke blown into your face and forgo sleep on a regular basis.

Despite having seen both sides of the same coin, I must admit I too am drawn to the fantasy world of having to dress like a pseudo princess every night and earning tons of money by just doing so, however every job has its bad side and this job may come with plenty of perks but also has plenty of downfalls.

You should really check out the video at http://video.nytimes.com/?src=vidm there's a short interview with Momoeri and other hostesses.

Information from http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/new-glamour-cabaret-club-girls-645396 & http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/global/28hostess.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&sq=hostessing&st=cse&scp=1

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

DIY Nail Design

My inspiration: Jun's nails, I think she did this design late last year

My end result, I didn't have any of the gold balls that they used for her nails, so I simply used the polish brush to dot on the nail and my gold isn't as bright, but overall I think its okay, not fantastic but decent for a first try

Recently, I finally managed to get my hands on some decent gold nail polish. So because of that I decided to try a nail design that I've been eyeing at for awhile but didn't managed to quite achieve it due to the lack of a gold polish.

Not perfect, but decent enough I guess... I oughta practise doing nails designs abit more...

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Momoeri's Fake Lash Line

The lashes in Momoeri's line, plenty of pictures of her on the packaging

Different varieties of lashes

The lower lashes look pretty decent and remind me of Dolly Wink's No.5 Real Nude lashes

A picture of Momoeri modelling the lashes, but considering she's wearing her usual thick eyeliner, I can't tell if the lashes have a clear spine like Dolly Wink's or a black spine like most lashes

Momoeri and her company has released plenty of different items, from crystals for deco purposes to t-shirts.

Now following the success of Tsubasa's Dolly Wink Lash Line, Momoeri too has released her own line of lashes, but the difference maybe is that these lashes are being sold in Don quixote and other convenience stores in Japan.

The lashes don't look too bad, but since I probably can't get my hands on one, I don't have a say in the quality of the lashes.

Personal outfit 24

Really casual outfit for that day:
Beanie: Gilfy
Striped dress: bought in Macau
Tights: Topshop
Engineer Boots: Bought in Macau
Stussy bag: bought in Australia

Finally trimmed my bangs, think I'll still keep my straight fringe for awhile, because I like the fact that I still look styled and decent even if I tie my hair into a simple ponytail. Really simple make up for that day too, didn't even put on fake lashes.

Once again, I did my soon-to-be weekly habit of hanging out at Sabrina's workplace. Had enjoyable chats with some of her friends who came by too.

Note to self: Avoid wearing pants, including tights, you're still not completely healed from your eczema.

Hate skin problems.....