Momoa Graduating and More Gyaru-fied 109

As January has been a clusterf*ck of events, let's focus on something else. There's been a few things that are going on in the JP gyaru world.  Let's cover them, shall we?

Soon to be ex egg model, Momoa

One of them is that Momoa is retiring from Egg Mag come this April. I briefly watched the video about her upcoming graduation from egg.

Egg, C’mon Now!

Egg magazine pulled another clickbaity, race-baiting stunt again on their YouTube channel. I went to look for it the other day for this post, but it was removed. 

Momoa doing Blackface 

The Original Cybermanba

 Post with terrible text colour choice (a graphic design nono) reads : 

“sweetie, you are a beauty when doing ONLY MANBA. but please, dont so that

Its ugly and scary and mixing styles is wrong. SO WRONG.

The Gyaru Comm is Failing!

 The Gyaru comm is failing! What is causing our community to fail? After 17 active years in the comm and observations of the good, the bad, and the ugly, there are several reasons that I've deduced to why this is. 

Negativity

During the early to late 2010s, there was Gyaru Secrets, a place to originally air out how you felt about certain styles or your views on being a gyaru. The rules changed to be able to allow secrets to be made about individuals, allowing people to talk crap about another gyaru (whether they were gyaru or not) and to still be close to the object of their hate.

Eyelash Custom

Eyelashes

DIY Project!       

Difficulty level 1 star

In the last bit of the summer break I had, I wanted to try out something new with my eye makeup. Not only did I use a different liner shape than I usually do and have done, I decided to do something different with my bottom lashes. If you remember me from a few years ago, I used to cut up and double up lashes to create my own look.

For this dolly gyaru eye make look with bottom lashes, I will guide you through the steps. Don’t worry, its super easy!

What you will need:

§  Diamond Lash  Sweet Eye

§  Eyebrow scissors

§  Patience

1.       Grab two bits of the Sweet Eye lash that you will use, 1 for each eye

2.       Gently snip the lash hairs a few at a time horizontally to your preference to avoid a really boxy appearance

3.       Carefully cut the holding strip twice to create 3 slender parts. This can be pretty tricky if your hands aren’t too steady!

4.       Store for later use or wear immediately!

And you are done! Look at you being all awesome!

Thank you for reading! Comments are appreciated and I’d love to see how your lashes turned out! 

Is Gyaru Racist?

Lately, one of the biggest topics in the gyaru community, outside of the validity of newer gyaru substyles like tropical gyaru and the blunders and controversy of a project that eggmag has been disappointing us all with, is "gyaru fashion is racist." Not just the extreme manba fashion from the early 2000s, but as a whole movement.

Japan- Gyaru Beginnings

For a quick history lesson on this particular subculture and its fashion, there were girls who rebelled against Japan's beauty norms of pale, white skin, being modest, quiet and subservient by tanning, being materialistic, and partying. As time passed, girls involved with the style seemed to want to outdo each other, or to just push the limits, to stand out even more. This brought upon changes of the next popular accessories and clothes, to bleached/dyed hair, and affected the makeup and also their intensity of their tans. Some of the notable trendsetters and icons at this time were Buriteri and the gyaru circle Angeleek. 

Kawaii Gyaru Themed Wallpaper pt 3

 Here is the third installment for gyaru themed wallpapers. The theme for these themes (wowzers, thats a lot of "th" words...) is pretty in pink!

Nokia Phone
Technological nostalgia with a pretty twist. 

Quilted Cushion

SailorMoon

Now, some wallpapers with a hint of pink. 

Pretty Dark Chocolate

Black Pink

Simplistic Black Lace on Pink Background

I do not own these images, but curated them from submissions on the web. 

GAL REVO

GAL Revo, short for Gyaru Revolution, by Miyu Yoshida is now available as a website! 

GAL REVO was founded in February 2014. We are the largest source for digital Gyaru magazines, as well as to archive other things GAL. We aim to provide HD & watermark free scans.

I have been a subscriber of Gal Revo for many years, becoming quite impressed with Miyu's sharing of a large variety of gyaru fashion magazines. She is the proud owner of an extensive, drool worthy collection of trendy Japanese gyaru fashion magazines, possibly out of all the gaijin gyaru.  And with her ig accounts as well as a brand newnwebsite, you can enjoy these scans as well, whether at home or on the go. 

Check them out here! 

Stay inspired!  

Brow Blindness

As a formerly fuzzy browed gal finding myself in love with gyaru fashion, I found the importance of shaping and designing a brow look for myself that worked.  

I happened upon a trend on TikTok recently called “Brow Blindness”; a phenomenon where you are so used to your former brow that you don’t recognize how thick or oddly shaped they are! A few people have shared some of their looks, being able to laugh at themselves and showcase how great their brows have gotten over time.

TheLanarenee 

Her brows are impeccable now 💖

Janelle on TikTok looks quite flabbergasted at her old brows

Strongest of brows

Strong, but doesn’t overpower her features 

Dinero wishes someone would have informed her that her brows weren’t working for her. 

Before

After
Aren’t her red locks GORGEOUS?!

I can definitely relate as my natural brows had several transitions since I’ve became gyaru. Here are a few pictures of my old brows.

The arch is plucked… can’t you tell? 

What kind of shape is this?! 

Have you had brow blindness? What did your brows look like before you found the best shape for yourself?

Gyaru Spotlight: Ari Marie

 This (cross posted) Gyaru Spotlight is for Ari Marie! 

I met her around 2010 or so when she applied to a nago-sa project co-founded by me and LA. We didn’t give her a clear cut answer as the Chicago nago-sa/gyaru project was having internal issues that needed to be resolved first and foremost. Our bad for not being upfront about that when you applied. 

Veteran Gals Vs. Newbie Gals

Its a thing currently. 

As I dive gently back into the realm of online gyaru worlds, I am met with tons of posts that I would have loved as a beginner gal. There is so much content out there to inspire and enjoy. Some things, also bring to light some of the darkside of Japan and several different fashion subcultures like Jiraikei.

Amongst the plethora of nostalgic fashion posts, or people debating whether or not manba is offensive to black people, I am met with posts declaring how mean and callous gaijin gyaru veterans are. I am met with posts about how ignorant and helpless newbie gals are.

Gyaru Themed Phone Wallpapers

 It’s been a long time since I’ve done gyaru themed items here on this blog. Posts about scenarios and what would you do in them and my mission statement, my values etc is great especially with what has happened with meeting new people who seem to be oblivious about that, but what about the MAIN topic of this blog, Gyaru‽ 

So, I’ve dedicated some time to finding some cute wallpapers that you can decorate your Home Screen with. If you need these in a bigger size, let me know. 

Enjoy.

GAL💎VIP

 

Hey rockstar⭐︎

Besides writing for my blogs & a site for gaming& tech, did you know I also wrote a few articles for GAL💎VIP?

During the year of 2012-2013, there was so much going on outside of Amerigyaru and college senior life. I was quite busy at the time, but it felt great dedicating some of that time and effort for the gyaru comm. 

I was given prompts to write about; very different topics than what I’d normally write about for my own blog or for the gaming/tech site. I hope my articles,(non alc.) beverages and managing S.A.D.S. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) helped you❤️. 

Mata ne 🌺

SHIBUYA! by softboiledegg

softboiledegg of the legendary egg gyaru magazine just dropped a new catchy song four days ago after sharing some behind the scenes clips on their Tiktok. I was curious how it will turn out as there were clips of gals doing parapara to a nonstandard beat in the background while two of them had close ups of them rapping/singing. Its also a bit refreshing to see a more recognizable gal makeup being worn by the main artists of the song. The song is also complete with some wild lyrics, but what could be wilder than opening your song with how fresh and clean.... you are from their song Gal is Mind?

Check it out here:

Diamond Gyaru Mistakes (storytime #3

 This is a post in two parts; Here is the link to the youtube video~ 

So, during the last few years after not getting my fellowship at the University of Chicago possibly due to someone breaching my boundaries and contacting another manager where I am working to get me fired again, I had time to think about various facets of my life. Of course, my involvement in the gyaru community, me being gal and things of that nature come flooding back to me, the good and the bad. 

When I joined Diamond gyaru event circle, America's #1 gyaru circle back in 2010 or so, not only was I elated that I got accepted into a galcir, but I was also so nervous! The best of the best! Gals whose subgenre styling; makeup, hairmake, outfits and demeanor, were on point. 

With my acceptance into Diamond gyaru circle, I felt validated as a participant no longer new in the scene. My efforts spent into my look and commitment to engaging positively with others were noticed. 

Two Midwest Diamond gyaru, another one, L.A., who was accepted into Diamond after being in Chicago's 1st gyaru circle Kamikaze girls, helped get me acclimated into the new level that I entered. Within any organization, school, social club, and so on, there are ground rules to abide by. A few of the most obvious ones were to be a lifestyle gyaru; hair and make done and styled daily. Another rule was to not be involved in drama. 

That meant no GyaruSecrets posting. No replying to secrets made about you or your circle members. Being catty. bitchy, or starting trouble for others or with others was certainly OFF the table. Little did I know, that my being involved with a gyaru who may have been behind my rejection response with Kamikaze Gals would be my blindspot. 

For those of you who have been with me on my gyaru/gamer journey would have known about the times of me being stood up and blown off by a gyaru who I found out was someone that was deliberately sexting the guy I was in relationship at the time. Not only that, but calling me and some other Black*Cherry members a bitch on her blog years ago and other actions. 

Looking back on it, I did NOT want to be the girl who fights with other girls over a guy with self esteem issues. I wanted to work things out and make gyaru life amazing in Chicago. But, there were things I had to accept even though it weren't things I wanted. 

Gal Circle Rejection (storytime #1)

Rejection 

So, have I ever told you that I was rejected from a gyaru circle before?

Those who may see my posts popping up on Twitter may have seen a little bitty post about that regarding my gyaru lifestyle? era? career?

Graphic Design, Gal, and The Name Game

So, sometimes things do not hit me right away for some reason. I am sitting here trying to update my sad lil Behance page with things related to graphic design work and I just want to nap instead!

ahh.. Good ol memories. 

I am glad to have worked with my gal sa crew over the years. I have not been one to actually work with people in school due to being reserved and also bad communication between team mates and art times having the work be dropped in my lap.

Anyway, back on topic, I loved brainstorming of what our logo would look like, picking and choosing our circle's name and font to try and lead what style direction we were going for and seeing how we should design our webpage and settling on copy for the web. 

It amazes me how much graphic design work, creative and artistic direction work had sat in my lap for so long when I helped with the non event related things for Black*Cherry and Gal*Luxy. If I would have tied more of my two worlds together a bit more earlier on at Columbia, maybe I would have had more design samples and would have liked the projects a little better. 

Too bad our websites have been deleted off though! boooo!

We picked and choose our font for our logo after deciding on a few names I had came up with for our circle.
I made a video in one of my classes to help promote our circle.

I do not recall when the trend of putting text blatantly on a picture came about, but it is shown here from about May 2010, created by LA. Putting text over an image was a BIIIG no no in my design classes. Ha! But you can spot this type of design almost everywhere now. She was ahead of the game.

As for the things hitting me pretty damn late, Yea BD aka BLACK DIAMOND. I am side eyein yall. Yall can call yourselves Black Diamond all you want and do your thang, but La and I were the original Black Diamonds. Get it? We were Black gals... in Diamond gyaru sa.....

Acen!

Acen was just last week, and I enjoyed myself. I met up with a lot of people, took in lots of advice from E and P , and spent time marveling over great cosplays. 

I even helped finalize outfits, and tweaked hair and makeup.

The weekend wasn't too wild or crazy, but it was a little enjoyable. 

Holiday Nails

Nail Pic Collection

One of my favorite type of posts to read and also bring to you were collections of decoden inspiration!
I've been quite cheery this holiday season and loving the Christmas spirit so why not bring it here to my own blog?

Winter Wonderland Nail Post

The Toxic Gal Comm

Since this little bug has been in my ear for a while, I guess I'll post about it. I've heard people critiquing the gal comms as 'its toxic' blablabla. Ok. So?

First and foremost...

The world and its many subdivisions can and can be toxic. Gamer and tech worlds. Beauty worlds. Queer ones. Straight ones. Heteronormative ones. Poc ones. And that list goes on and on, ad nauseum. People can be mean. People can be assholes.

A fashion subculture or something 'different' isn't exempt and the people who participate in forums where people create rumours to best the competition and spread those rumors are toxic. 

But, if the phrase was reworded to atleast seem like a complete idea, then maybe I'd have more to say.

True it has given me a ton of headaches, but I got to meet people with inspiring talents and style and chatted with people all over the world which made me happy. I got to make events and meet people and give advice to aspiring gals or people who just liked the type of makeup I did.

More on this later...maybe.

Coments? Please share!