R.I.P. Ageha...and Almost Everything Else

Soooo, every gal and their momma has been talking about the publisher of Ageha, Aneageha, I love Mama, and NUTS being so in debt, 3 billion yen, and the deaths of the beloved mags.The debt deal that the publisher incurred is beyond ridiculous! It sucks. It really does, but with certain styles dying down, people who did the styles like agejo growing older, it is no surprise. Also no surprise that the media is picking and choosing what it wants to show.

While others seem to be freaking out, im just here like:

I had already taken a hard hit when Soul Sister died. I wanted to collect as many magazines as possible when I had some better income coming in. And now that I kinda do (at least before career related things...) now Ageha has jumped the ship. 

Okies.... I can deal... Hopefully people won't jack up their prices on ebay when I search for issues I want.

But then, Egg has decided to call it quits too? 

WHAT THE FUCK...

So, what am I going to collect now? Or peep through when I visit Mitsuwa? What about the beloved Animal Talk and the silly cute illustrations? Maybe things will pop back up for the magazines. Even though I loved looking at the magazines, it was there for a reason. To help showcase styles and current fashion trends and what the stores were selling at the moment.

As I am in America, some of the items just did not fully apply because there were not a lot of Gyaru fashion being exported from Japan for Western Gyaru lovers. Now, things have changed thanks to shopping services and Yesstyle.com. Not only that, but around the time I started, a lot of the gyaru found their items in their local shops and did the best they could! 

While people emulate what they see in magazine, I feel that the gyaru subculture here might not improve or grow JUST because the mags are not there! BOOO. There has already been girls dismissing the crazier styles because the magazines didn't show them, so I can only speculate what will happen if the mags never resurface. 

Hey... I may be wrong though.

But for now, we play the waiting game.

Make Up vs No make!!

It is kind of amusing, this world, that if one always wears make up (if it is a bit more than "natural" make up) they are being "fake" or if they do not wear anything at all, they are "ugly". Or some people act like the world is going to fall apart if a girl who usually looks very pretty (from wearing some to a lot of make up), doesn't wear anything at all! 

A friend of mine sent me this video of Ms. Izumi Mana where people had made some big deal of her when she posted a photo with her make up on. 

Izumi Mana with out make up

For me, its like, BIG DEAL? But, when you are in the spot light all the time, when all eyes are on you and what you wear and how you dress helps solidify your identity (or part of it), I guess for some audience members, it is a big deal. However, they have to realize, that these idols, celebrities, make up gurus, adult stars, models, etc and so on, are people too and they are not "perfect" all the time.

Here are some more make and no make shots:

a three gal, three step process:

no make up, foundation+brows, then full face

Popular models before and after

How lashes and eyeliner can change the shape of the eye.

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My before and after. 

I would have taken some of the Western gals before and after, but I kind of just rushed with this post, and didn't want to show off the pix without their permission.

For another make up post, 

check out:

Be Natural!

Manba Boom?

So, the other day when I was browsing through the forums on ricoche.net, i saw a thread regarding manba possibly making a comeback(because of Geha becoming an egg model). One person replied that they hope it doesnt become big, because they did not want to do manba.
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WHAT?

Just because a style pops up and gets big or has a bit of a folllowing, it does not automatically mean that you HAVE to do that style if you like it or not. If that was the case, everybody would have ditched manba for something else, or became hime gyaru when it popped up on the scene.

If you don't like a certain style, then you don't do it. Simple as that! I and a few of my gal friends didn't do hime style,or resort style, or alot of other styles that other  people prefer or that are popular now.

 I do like to play with my look a bit, but I mostly stick to rock style, banba,tsuyome(and manba on occasion these days.)and just go with what *I* like, not what a magazine "wants" me to do.