Being Touristy

Globe-trotting gyaru, Kayo, was back in town for a week or so a few months back. it was fun being a tour guide and showing her around town like before, though it was more of a shopping/ sight seeing trip this time, unlike the food driven trip last time. 

Started the day with brunch a la Singapore style:

Half boiled eggs mixed with dark soy sauce and white pepper, Kaya (coconut jam) and butter toast with strong coffee

It was amusing to hear Kayo comparing the eggs to Japan's onsen eggs, and she loved the strong coffee.

After that, we headed to Haji Lane, as she had read up about it online.

Tourist shot! My face looks really weird here

Steph's tattoo artist, Kevin, helped to take this picture after we popped by his store to cool off due to the intense heat.

My outfit consisted of:

Inner shirt: Uniqlo

Lace Nightie: Taobao

Shorts: Lowry's Farm

Stockings: taobao

Denim Jacket: Calvin Klein

Badge: taobao

Shoes: Random shop in Holland Village

Hair clips: Sasa

Final shot before Steph had to leave for the day

It was fun catching up with Kayo again and hopefully, I'll get a chance to head to Japan and she'll be my tour guide the next time we meet.

Compiled Update

Hey guys, sorry bout the lack of updates, just alot has been  going on for me mentally and emotionally. With me being unemployed and free at the moment, I took it as a much needed break/ holiday for the first week or so, but after that, doubts started plaguing me and my self worth and esteem has kinda plummeted especially when some negative things were said to me by my ex-boss. 

I've been trying to keep myself busy to stave off the negative thoughts so I've been catching up with friends and stuff. Here's a lightning post on what's been happening in my life lately:

Attended Mini's 21st birthday party. Here she is cosplaying as her favourite character Kotetsu (from the anime, Tiger & Bunny) and posing with her cake made in his comic likeness. I attended dressed as Crista Lenz/ Historia Reiss from the series Shingeki no Kyojin/ Attack on Titan but didn't really take a pic.

Also attended Skippy's birthday and had a blast drinking beer, getting stupid and playing truth or dare while almost everyone was half wasted. The silly antics we did were really fun.

Shirt: Emoda

Skirt: Bought in KL

Thigh high socks: Cosmode

Choker: Taobao

Went to the premiere of The Wind Rises and a few of us in the group decided to dress up as Studio Ghibli characters. I did another wardrobe/ ghetto cosplay of Kiki with a blue dress I dug out from my wardrobe this time.

Dress from Nichii

The movie was really nice, and really evoked alot of emotions. Definitely a fitting end to Hayao Miyazaki's amazing career.

Watched an Indie film with my mom called, Size Does Matters. It's quite a cute show.

Dress: Jouetie

Jewelled hairband: Osewaya

Stockings: Taobao

Accompanied Steph when she got another tattoo, this time of her other cat on the other thigh. Felt like dressing up abit that day though I did mostly window shopping on my own.

Dress: Topshop

Inner blue shirt with white polka dots: Uniqlo

Belt: Taobao

Beret: Accessorize

Round framed spectacles: Taobao

Badge: Katie

The final product! Now she has both her beloved cats' portraits on her.

A friend of mine wanted to explore cafes, so we went to a pie specialty cafe called, Windowsill in the Woods. It's really popular among the local hipster crowd but their pies are definitely worth it. Threw a jumble of clothes on and somehow they fitted together hahah.

Inner striped Turtleneck: Uniqlo

Shirt: Candy Stripper

Mullet skirt: Bought in KL

Red bowler hat: Can't remember

Round framed spectacles: Taobao

Shoes: The Salvation Army

Since I have time on my hands now, I decided to start on a healthier diet. So I've been whipping up alot of home-cooked meals whenever I can. I cook mostly salmon, white fish and chicken with lots of vegetables and very little carbohydrates.

So far, my stomach has become less bloated and I definitely feel more energised and my skin has become alot clearer now. Hopefully I can continue whipping up healthier meals when I get a new job.

I also took the opportunity to clear out and streamline my wardrobe, so my wardrobe is less cluttered now. I'm getting round to cleaning my room and updating it as I've had the same posters stuck on my room walls since I was a teenager. Man I feel so old knowing I'm in my twenties now and I still have posters on old anime stuck on my walls. I've been looking at Tumblr for inspiration but since I can't exactly change the layout of my room and my furniture, I'm left with just sprucing up my walls and neatening everything out. let's see how I can make the best of it.

Teatime with Steph

Steph and I met up the day before to catch up, we also had high tea at Antoinette. We shared the afternoon special set, it wasn't cheap but having been there before, I knew that it would be well worth the price and I was right. They gave us 3 tiers worth of goodness, a mixture of sweet and savoury buttery pastries for the bottom, savouries for the middle and tiny sweets at the top that were packed with flavour. I left the place stuffed to the brim. 

It's hard to pick any favourites as they were all so so good!

Accompanied with tea to wash everything down. Mine was Porcelain Rose while Steph had Earl Gray

While we were there, these 2 ladies of leisure who were sitting at the table next to us, asked if they could take pictures with us. It was totally surprising and extremely flattering.

Outfit:

Dress: Jouetie

Garter leggings: DollsKill

Wig: Taobao

Floral headband: Taobao

Flower Princess and her super fashionably decked out bodyguard hahahahha

Been itching to wear my black lipstick out on a normal day. Its an Anna Sui Limited Edition that I had bought for cosplay ages ago. I also placed my blush right below my eyes and above my cheekbones.

Did some window shopping and I spotted a lipgloss that I will probably get next month. I did go home with these babies though:

Leather engineer boots from Payless to replace my previous pair that had crumbled away. Hoping it'll be as comfortable as my old pair so that I will be able to use it for travelling and stuff. 

Been focusing on work as I really wanna be converted to permanent staff soon, I do mess up occasionally but I'm really crossing my fingers and hoping they'll just give me a chance. If they do, I'll be able to save up for more cosplays and a trip to Japan. So praying really hard!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Hey guys! Wanna wish all of you a Happy Chinese New Year!! Or Happy Lunar New Year!! 

Found this lovely art on Tumblr celebrating the year of the Horse. Couldn't trace the original source though :( 

Unfortunately, my favourite uncle from my dad's side passed away the week before, so I was pretty upset and mildly depressed as his passing really took me by surprise and hit me extremely hard. I also felt letdown by some of my closest friends so it took a toll on me emotionally. With the passing of a family member so close to the Lunar New Year, traditionally I'm not allowed to participate the festivities, so I couldn't go house visiting and stuff as superstition dictated that I may bring bad luck to the houses I visit. Felt kinda bummed out by the whole thing so I've been going out quite a fair bit to stop myself from wallowing in misery, so get ready for the barrage of outfit shots!

Went out with my mom and sis on the first day of the new year to watch the movie, Her. Quite interesting and I love Scarlett Johanssen's voice.

Outfit: 

Lace Dress: Cotton On

Jacket: Jouetie

Bag: Nadia

Corsage (on bag): Katie

Platform sneakers: Taobao

Silver circle glasses: Taobao

Visited my uncle's place (bro of my passed on uncle so the superstition doesn't apply) and played with his cute dogs and met some aunts on my dad's side. They still gave me red packets despite the superstition saying I shouldn't ask for them as they used the loophole that they're giving it to me before I asked for them LOL.

Outfit:

Dress: Ehyphen Gallery X Amo

Necklace: Osewaya

Butterfly hair clip: Stall at Comic Fiesta 

Visited my maternal grandparents' graves and then explored a shopping mall with my parents in the evening. The beanie makes my hair look like those shaggy dos that emo kids adore.

Outfit:

My Little Pony Shirt: Stall at cosplay event

Polka dot shorts: Gift from Steph

Cardigan: Cotton On

Large Badge: Katie

Necklace: Taobao

Beanie: Maison Gilfy

Met the bf today for a date out. We explored a fairly new mall and then watched Robocop. The movie was alright, lots of action but I felt it could have been better. Ended the night with a Chili's ribs dinner while watching an ice hockey game happening at the ice rink right in front of the restaurant. I also wore red lips again after so long. I also tied my hair into tiny twin tails to kinda celebrate Twin Tails Day in Japan, though I'm a day late as the actual celebration day is on 2nd Feb because 02/02 looks like the side profile of a face with twin ponytails

Outfit:  

Leopard Beret: Accessorize

Shirt: Candy Stripper

Shorts: Unif

Dolfie joints Stockings: Bought from friend

Badges on Beret: Free gifts from taobao

Necklace: borrowed from Mom

I'm lucky that my workplace has given me a week off to celebrate the New Year so besides catching up with family, the bf and friends, I'm hoping to clean up my pig sty of a room and also progress bait more on my 3D Maneuver Gear. If I do complete it, perhaps I'll post a instruction post on how I made mine, though there are plenty of DIY instructions on making your own 3D gears already out there on the net. I'll see how it goes I guess... till next time! Have a happy horse year!

Baby Metal's Concert

Hey guys! I am so so very sorry about how waaay behind I am with my posts!! I have a tonne of things to write about as I've been keeping myself rather busy lately. 

Work's been rather tiring and to destress I end up packing my weekends with activities and despite recovering mentally, I wind up physically exhausted to do much else and the cycle continues. So kinda realised that I need to scale back abit and take some time off.

Anyway, I'll be writing bout the Baby Metal concert I attended late last year!

The band consists of 3 young girls who head bang to metal despite their outwardly cute appearance

At the concert venue. I hardly ever attend concerts but Steph managed to score free tickets so I figured why not?

The stage light show were pretty amazing that night

Video they showed midway through the concert. If you look closely, it's actually Singapore's Merlion and Marina Bay Sands structures hahahaah!! Steph and I were incredibly amused by it.

The concert was pretty short and I understand why, because the girl are fairly young so they don't necessarily have the energy and stamina to head bang and dance and jump around non stop, though they did give it their all during their performances. Their energy really roused the crowd and I quite admire them for being so into their performance. 

It was generally an interesting concert. I hardly listen to metal but my dad does so I knew what to expect, however I found it kinda jarring to listen to the metal music only to suddenly hear screams of "aishiteru" and "kawaii" in the typical cutesy Japanese manner. It was quite unnerving for me, maybe because I'm not used to their style. 

I was also quite upset with this group that started to violently mosh, I mean I understand the whole moshing thing at concerts, but these were the kinds of people who didn't do it with respect and just randomly hurled themselves at others. It was especially dangerous considering one guy had on a vest with at least two dozen or so metal studs and they were the sharp not rounded kinds of studs. I wanted to punch them when they kept banging into me and laughing at me, though luckily Steph quickly stepped in and dragged me to safety. Wouldn't have been cool if I did aim a punch at them.

Selca with my sister from another mother

Finally got to dress up Rokku gyaru style after so long! I was fretting bout how I was gonna style my hair, so the goggles came to the rescue!!

Outfit: 

Inner Zip Camisole: Tutuha

Red off shoulder top: Tutuha

Ripped jeans: GoJane

Tattoo choker: Taobao

Spiked bracelet: Forever21

Rose chain link bracelet: Thrift store

Boots: Git from Blacklash

I really have so many things to update you guys about, so I hope I can finish writing my posts soon! In the mean time, hope you're enjoying 2014 and perhaps consider giving Baby Metal's music a whirl.

Shu Uemura x Takashi Murakami Job

Hey guys, there's been some changes in my life that's happened during the past couple of weeks, hence the lack of posts. Firstly, I attended Steph's birthday party, and it was a small but cozy affair with lots of chatting, drinks and eventually winding up at a karaoke place. 

The next week, I did a one-day job stint with Shu Uemura to promote their new Christmas/ Takashi Murakami special. I had to dress in Lolita and Cosplay for the job, and most of the time I abhor these kinds of jobs as I personally find it insulting to use Cosplayers and Lolitas as cheap gimmicks to promote products. However, I did it as a favour for an old friend and ex-colleague from my Shu Uemura days and the products are related since the new collection is very anime based.

 Picture of the huge Light box mural at the store counter. It's actually one model but she looks so amazingly different with the contrasting makeup styles.

  

 The display stand. The makeup palettes are missing as the counter staff was using it on a product demonstration as I was snapping this picture.

Me, on my way to the job location and waiting for the train to arrive. It was actually my first time wearing Sweet Lolita as I used to wear Gothic but never sweet, though I've always admired the style from afar. Everything was generously loaned to me from my friend, Jean.

The rest of the Lolita girls for the day, from left, Kairi, me, Daphne (she cosplayed as Tinkerbell in my Disney Princess team) and Jean (my fellow team member of my Claymore group)

Outfit shot with Jean! Really really grateful to her for loaning me the entire outfit, she wanted to loan me stockings and shoes too but I rejected because I didn't want to dirty or scuff the shoes and stockings are really fragile.

Ribbon Headband: Baby The Stars Shine Bright

Dress: Angelic Pretty

Necklace: Angelic Pretty

Stockings (my own): Grimoire Verum

Shoes (my own): Taobao

Wig: Taobao

Unfortunately, Jean had to leave for Church service so I switched out to my Persona 4, Rise Kujikawa costume instead. One shopkeeper said I looked really cute XD 

With sweet Jean, she looks different as a Lolita, cosplayer and in casual wear. Different but all good in their own way.

With Kairi, who's also a cosplayer. It was my first time meeting her as we had never crossed paths during events before, so it was fun chatting and getting to know her

 

Changed out after a grueling 5 hours standing in our costumes and dresses, facing the terrible heat and humidity and some unwarranted comments from the general public (seriously, it's just clothes, chill  out!). I knew my hair would be a terrible mess if I took off my wig, so I decided to just head home whilst wearing it.

Lace top: This Fashion

Lace shorts: Lowry's farm

 

By the end of the day the promotional song for the collection was stuck in my head. No surprises since it's quite catachy and sung by Hatsune Miku. I also found out that it is actually a legitimate anime directed by Takashi Murakami called, 6 Heart Princesses. The group of us were challenging each other to watch the anime and actually cosplay the costumes shown in the video after we found out.

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, some changes have occured in my life. For one, I've found a new job for a Japanese hair products company. The job scope is fairly different from my earlier jobs so I'll be learning quite alot of things, it's also my first foray into the world of media advertising. I'm also now working with best friend and sister from another mother, Steph. Yup! We're in the same company and driving each other nuts on a daily basis, though it has its own set of challenges. I'm looking forward to learning new things and getting to annoy Steph everyday, so till next time!

P.S. My new header and background are all thanks to Steph's ingenious creativity and willingness to slave away for me muahahahah! Thanks alot. 

Style Icon: Emilia of Pastelbat

Tody's style icon is non other then Swedish girl, Emilia. I don't follow her much, other then Instagram, but her outfits, hair and makeup always blow me away.

Beautiful hair colour, that was her natural hair by the way, and perfect makeup

Judging from most of the background of her photos of her outfits, I suspect she's a fashion design student, though I may be wrong. Her casual coordinates are also very cute

Another darker, simpler outfit from her, everything she wears is spot on perfect

What drew me to her Instagram was her fabulous cult party outfits, she manages to balance everything just right and despite the shorter hemlines and gathered waist, she hasn't lost the feel and look of a cult party style outfit

Another cute outfit from her, she also wears a variety of wigs to suit her styles. I'm amazed how well she pairs them with her outfits.

I first fell in love with the soft sweet cult party styles she had, but her darker, spunkier outfits proved she wasn't a one trick pony. Everything just looks meticulously thought out beforehand, no accessory ever looks out of place or that there's something lacking in her outfits. This girl has an eye for details.

You can find her at:

Instagram: @pastelbat

Website: www.pastelbat.tumblr.com

Online shop: Eyecandy.storenvy.com

Birthday Celebration: Day 3 (Boyfriend's Date)

Last post about my birthday, sorry that it dragged so long.

On my actual birthday, I took leave from work and spent some quality time with the bf. We didn't do anything too fancy, just a day out together. It doesn't sound like much but it means a lot especially when I'm mostly too tired to bother to dress up and go out lately.

Wore this Dolly kei inspired outfit:

Inner shirt: Uniqlo

Lace Corset: 2nd hand from mom

Skirt: Snidel

Shawl: Borrowed from mom

Bag: Borrowed from mom

Shoes: Itti & Otto

 



Makeup was light with Dollywink No. 2 lashes and only mascara on my bottom lashes. Basic contouring was done and blush was applied just below my eyes.

We shopped abit before catching the movie Despicable Me 2 and had dinner at our favourite Japanese eatery.

Saw this sign on a display piece at Franc Franc, so funny!

The bf was pretty happy with the gift I got for him from Cosfest. It's a cat from the Monster Hunter game and for a home made toy, it's done exceedingly well! The body and tail can be bent to fit snuggly on your shoulder and attached by a pin on its belly.

 

Got some gifts from the bf too, he's always surprising me on my birthday, but he always gives me a clue to what he gets for me and I'm usually able to figure out from the clue hahah

Mawaru Penguindrum artbook!

It's so beautiful! I love the sketches and looking at how much planning it took for all the poses, there are at least 3-4 sketches with just minor differences in the hands and angling in a lot of scenes from the opening song and the Princess of the Crystal's entrance. It reminds me cosplay, where such minor details also affect the overall look and feel you get from a photo

 



He also got me a Princess of the Crystal nendroid. She's accompanying me at work now and yells at me to stop slacking off and get work done!

 

 

I had a really great time during my birthday this year and I'd just like to thank everyone who sent a birthday wish.

 

In the mean time, work has been getting more intense, I almost feel like I'm at a breaking point, but I'm telling myself to just ride it out, get tougher and learn from it. So apologies if I don't update as often as I'd like to, I'm just usually too tired to muster up the brain power to write a post. I do have some posts lined up, so I'll definitely get them out as soon as I can.