Popsister; 04/2011 brief roundup

As promised, a short roundup of April's Popsister.

Most of this issue seemed to be a summary of the upcoming spring trends, one of the more outstanding (albeit outdated) one was denim.

Heaps upon heaps of denim. It tends to start trending again every spring season and seems like it transitioned over from fall and winter, to be fair it goes extremely well with flower prints and soft materials (e.g. chiffon). Light blue denim as well as vintage cuts are favoured; high-waisted jeans/shorts, calf length high waisted skirts.

I'm pretty sure everyone and their cow likes Tsubasa, so it's going to come across as cliche to say that she's another gyaru i admire. Getting married, having a kid, running a cosmetic line, how does she even stay so fabulous?!

Ankle socks worn with sandals have been popping up everywhere, IDEK IT ALWAYS FEELS LIKE A FASHION FAUX PAS, but i guess it's rather cute. Does that count as vintage though?

Also, LARGE FLOPPY HATS ARE MAKING A COMEBACK. Not drastically, but enough, they always make me feel like it's melbourne cup week where everyone wears ridiculous headpieces. I do like them though, not as easy to match as cancan hats, but they give outfits, especially dresses that feminine air.

Preppy american schoolgirl style! I've always had a fascination with having sweaters tied/slung across the shoulders, but i've never had a proper sweater to try it out. Vintage doesn't look like it's fizzling out of gyaru spring trends anytime soon.

Finally, some sensible, wearable, comfortable gyaru shoes. Sneakers have wormed their way into casual gyaru, nuff'said.

THIS IS ENTIRELY FRESH NEWS, but AMO'S GRADUATED FROM KERA AND INTO POPSISTER!! She was my favourite model when i still bought and read Kera so hopefully she gets featured more in Popsister!

note: guys, i cannot actually read japanese so my roundup posts are based on DEDUCIN and what minimal japanese i understand in there. If i make any glaring/embarrassing errors please do not hesitate to tell me.

DIVING INTO BED NOW.

MAGAZINE SNAPS (Jelly;02/2011, Popteen 03/2011) and some rambling.

PROOF THAT I DO BUY MAGAZINES.

yeah, but no i just didn't download these issues (Jelly, 02/2011 & Popteen 03/2011).

I've done something simpler this time, with the magazines, and just picked out several outfit sections that i liked.

This was my first time getting Jelly actually, Kana Nishino made me do it. Not regretting this decision anytime soon though. Jelly's very substantial on the trend and outfit front. I love how they classified some of the upcoming trends (Ojicasual, Blogger, Mix and Match, French, etc).

I was rather baffled by the Blogger casual style, it makes no sense if you take it literally. If i'm right to assume most bloggers blog from the comfort of their homes and equally comfortable home attire. Of course they're probably referring to fashion bloggers, or blogging, that's been taking off quite well in Japan; then again most fashion bloggers have their own sense of style so how do you define a Blogger casual style?

Either way, the style they've presented is one of my preferred intepretations of blogger-wear(i.e fuss free) and  I LOVE IT. Can i abandon my Popteen clothes and just run here please, omg. I feel that my liking for this style stems from my interest in korean pop culture, y'know with the ulzzangs/kpop idols and all.

Loose tops, hats, and flyaway hair contribute most to the laidback aura of this look. Loose tops also can hide all my wrong curves. I LIEK. GIMME.

The blogger casual outfits are quite appealing; they're casual, yet retain more dressy elements as compared to casual casual outfits.

I APPROVE GREATLY (not because i'm a lazy slob) 8D

WELL, OBVIOUSLY, GOING BY THE DIRECTION TOPSHOP, ZARA AND NEWLOOK ARE HEADING IN; RETRO IS BACK. Topshop, Zara and Newlook because those are stores i frequent in town (read: orchard road, i.e. limited choices). Look at the peter-pan collars, colours, and waistline cuts! LOVELOVELOVE. Also, those oxfords and espadrilles are so rustic. (totally not hipster. i insist that espadrilles are not hipster.)

random pick of the day; sadly, i am unfortunately shaped and any attempts to wear skinny jeans results in my resemblance to a turnip. This is such a well executed casual outfit though.

I wish to obtain her hat. It is big, floppy, and LEOPARD PRINT. Ugh time to go hat scouting in Bugis Street or Far East.

Popteen 03/ 2011

Emoda section. Occasionally i find myself bored of the constant consecutive saccharine sweet coordinates plastered on almost every page and inch of Popteen, so this section was a welcome break amongst all the tooth-rotting cuteness.

Loving the holey knitted pullover on the right. I don't even know why. Don't really fancy this season's mode makeup though, never was a fan of orange blusher, idek.

The ultra-high waist (ribcage?) skirt on the top right is gorgeous, one of my favourites from this set. Accessories this season don't differ very much from last season's emoda pieces, except the head scarves aren't printed this time round. Seems like they're going for an overall minimalistic look, with the exception of a singular statement piece this season. Also, Ilyana, correct me if i'm mistaken but, those rings on the bottom left look right up your alley.

I've recently started liking Mizukitty a lot more, i don't even know why. That aside, the large fluffy animal carcass on her head is waaaaaay too big. White fluffy hats are adorable when they don't look like giant roadkill. Seriously.

That's all for today's entry. I'm sorting out photos from Chinese New Year and some recent buys for posting purposes, they should be up soonish, seeing as i don't have work now.


To be or not to be

CLICHE TITLE IS CLICHE.

yeah anyway, as you might know i've been reconsidering some decisions i made in the beginning of this blog, and lately, i've figured that while i love gyaru fashion, my lifestyle doesn't allow for the luxury of putting on layers of makeup every morning.

OK, NO I AM NOT DEDICATED ENOUGH TO WAKE UP 2 HOURS EARLY TO SLAP SOME MAKEUP ON MY FACE.

you know what i'm dedicated to? Liquifying.

And blogging about random crap that happens every day.

k, maybe i'm not that dedicated to the every day bit of the second one. But i do love blogging. INFLICTING MY OPINIONS ON THE WORLD LIKE JOHN WATSON A LA SHERLOCK (BBC). Minus the psychosomatic limp and PTSD, but you get the idea.

I feel the need to clarify WHY i'm focusing mostly on the makeup aspect so much. When wearing circle lenses with minimal makeup, i find that they don't cause any problems at all. nil, nada zilch.

But after having to turn up for work with makeup, my eyes started feeling achy and sore every night after work. After some deducin' i've concluded that this might've been caused by daily use of false lashes and eyeliner and eyeshadow.

So i guess my makeup will flip between the gyaru and ulzzang techniques.

But i love gyaru makeup, so i'm probably going to do it occasionally. Outfits? almost always. Liz Lisa is my one true love ok.

So for the time being, feel free to unfollow, but if you think the shit i post is interesting, then you'll have to get used to my makeupless/minimally make-upped face.

i like wearing circle lenses with minimal makeup, IT'S SO ULZZANG. except they're all pretty and i'm (sibei chui) not. OTL. Labels all around, gotta love netizens everywhere.

ok then, I'LL JUST BE ROLLING OFF TO BED. CAUSE IT'S 12.10 AM, AND I HAVE A PLANE TO CATCH AT 8 AM. FML.

Popteen picks; January 2011 and some work updates

Capelets, forever relevant and cute. IMO you can wear them out of winter, cause they're kinda airy when the wind blows. Or you could flap it around insanely to generate some wind. W/E IT WILL STILL BE AIRY. CAPELETS ARE PERFECT. Can't wait for mine to arrive. Taobao, Y U SO SLOW!




Your very own How-To-Be-A-Kpop-Themed-Gyaru outfit guide. Includes Big Bang, Kara and SNSD (i think?). Evidently the Hallyu tsunami's hit japan as much as other asian countries like Singapore.

How to wear your hair under the various hat designs this season! THIS IS PARTICULARLY INFORMATIVE, CAUSE EVERYTIME I WEAR A HAT, i have no idea how to do my hair. none at all. OTL

Sorry for the utter lack of updates and this half-hearted entry.
I've been working every weekday from 2pm to 8pm so when i get home after the 45 minute MRT ride and after dinner, i physically cannot bring myself to do anything but sit in a corner and  rot read/tumblr/tweet.

With the new year, i've been rethinking my scope for this blog, and perhaps i have been limiting myself too much regarding the scope of things i would like to post (opinions i'd like to inflict on the world). So i'm currently planning a change in layout, widening my posting interest scope a little, and other such changes. The base concept that this is a Gyaru/Gal only blog will only be affected slightly because my interest in the fashion has not waned, and i suspect will not, for a long time to come.

I'll try to update as much as i can, but not much can be said about work, it's rather dull.

These are a couple of everyday scenarios:

Customer comes in

Customer asks to try

Customer buys stuff

There's this:

Customer comes in

"Hi welcome, feel free to browse and/or try"


Customer walks out

And:

Customer demands to try 198470183910 pieces of clothing (which means i need to dig everything out from storage. fffff)

Same customer doesn't buy anything/much

Yep, that's a typical work day.

Till the next update then!

Popteen January 2011 exercise section.

O-kay, i'm incapable of operating the printer-scanner-fax machine in my house. So i've been downloading magazine scans even though i actually do buy the magazines. *technological dinosaur*

As usual, some scans and stuff that caught my eye, especially the exercise section, that should prove useful for those attending christmas parties, new year parties and chinese new year a little later. Social eating = Diet? what diet? IT'S A SEAFOOD DIET. i see food and eat it. i also need to stop using this joke. IT IS NO LONGER FUNNY. SIRUISLY.

k, so here're scans from the exercise section, credits to the scanner, i'm only picking stuff out and highlighting them. 8D.

The exercises are quite self-explanatory and the pictures basically show you how to do everything. Mostly compound exercises though.

Kara's Mister dance! I was so amused to find this and some other K-pop references in this issue.

I honestly don't know what's going on the with nose exercise, but--

Seriously, what is that.

I find these exercise sections rather useful cause all of them can be done at home. No need to go out into the sun or on the treadmill.

Fashion picks will be up after i actually choose them.

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

OMG IT'S CHRISTMAS TOMORROW, I AM SO EXCITE.

 

Weddings; popping the wedding reception cherry.

Sorry for updating so sporadically!
I've been going out a lot more than i expected lately, especially with some relatives coming down from Penang to visit, and spending time with family.

Attended a distant cousin's wedding last saturday. So distant that i'd never even seen the guy before then, so forgive me if i sound rather dispassionate about the wedding, or weddings in general.

Seems like the dim lighting messed around with my blusher (again) i need to learn to take better makeup photos. OTL. Also, a random note, because this can be a bit of an issue with some bloggers, yes i do photoshop my photos marginally, usually i remove the eyebags and dark eye circles as well as narrow my jaw a little. SO HONEST WTF I DESERVE AN AWARD. OTL.

No i don't make my eyes bigger because, HELLO DISTRICT 9 ALIEN SIZED EYES NOT NICE OKAY, ONLY VERY SCARY. And my circle lenses already do a good enough job of SCARING THE WHOLE WORLD WAHAH, er i mean, they're really big, by that i mean HUGE. I've also been told that this pair (Dolly Brown) reflects light really well and gives eyes a bit of a sparkly effect. (though i was told in terms similar to "omfg your eyes are actually sparkling, you look like an anime character, please don't stare at me")

The flower centrepiece of every table. They're pretty and all, but after my grandma nicked them for us and we carted them home, they died within the span of 2 days. Which is why i'll just throw this in randomly and say i don't like flowers because of the negative symbolism in them dying so quickly.*IS WEIRD*

A blurry badly lit photo of the wedding cake, that wasn't actually a cake, sadly. Had to zoom my camera 12 times to get this photo. That's how far the stage was from our table. Though the table was more interesting, with the 817319371983122 course chinese meal. The dishes kept coming, it was like a neverending stream of goodness. If i ever go for a wedding dinner/lunch, IT'LL BE FOR THE FOOD.  In fact, the food was so good, i forgot to take an outfit shot, i did take a photo of my bag though.

I've never really noticed how almost everything in my bag is pink.

Photo taken when it was sitting on my sister's chair ofcourseit'snotoriginal.  The foxtail charm was bought in Korea for about 20,000 KRW. Bought it for the colour, cause you usually find black ones with dyed white tips, but this one's white with a dyed black tip. Matches my bag, that is notoriginal also white and black. Okay, so i get that Gyaru sees brands as valued commodities and all, but a poor student is a poor student. For the curious, the bag was bought in Penang, Malaysia.

Wedding gift thing, i'm told that they're given to all guests. Ate both the chocolates upon getting back home. Chocolates are the one thing you shouldn't give up in any diet. Depriving yourself probably make you crave it a lot more, and assuming you go off the diet, you're likely to binge eat ALL THIS GOOD STUFF YOU'VE MISSED. And boom, all weight lost comes back. Everything in moderation is ~perfect~.

Er, i'm on a seafood diet now though, I SEE FOOD, AND I EAT IT. Okay sorry, bad pun. I am so punny wtfhbbqlol.

Derp face in all its glory. My hair keeps deflating in this weather, IT'S DEPRESSING *SOB*

Okay, i should have a cosmetics haul post up by today or tomorrow, so i'll leave you with this while we're still on the subject of weddings.

Hope the video doesn't get taken down before you guys see it! 8DD

Jelly; Dec 2010 picks

OHAI! Just got back from Seoul on Monday night, at around 1am.

Photos will have to come later cause i've got 675 of them to sift through. I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW I EVEN MANAGED TO TAKE 675 PHOTOS.

Autumn colours are terribly dreary, hopefully winter brings in some cute fluffy colours. Then again, i was looking at Jelly, not Popteen. Popteen picks should be coming along soon!

Recently i've been drawn into more understated styles. Might be the influence of korean street fashion, which is, judging from what i've seen, ladylike, semi-formal, and subtle. It really depends on what you're looking at though. I did pick up this sweater in ghastly shades of purple and green. Purple and green happen to go quite well together, for some inexplicable reason.

But, i digress, beige, camel, brown, grey, black, khaki and tartan seem to be recurring colour palettes in this issue. As well as fur, in the form of legwarmers, vests, coats, scarves, or bags. Pants range from denim shorts to skinny jeans, boyfriend cuts, and slacks.

Red seems to be one of the more heavily featured vibrant colour in makeup now. Classic colour, goes with the season's muted tones, but tends to be a little tricky when it comes to picking a shade of red. Some are too orange, some are too pink, you might get it on your teeth and that's all kinds of awkward. One of my favourite lip colours is Chanel's Rouge Allure in excessive. Should've gotten it in the airport ugh, i'm such an indecisive shopper.

I'd suggest taking the advice of pairing red lippie with natural eye makeup. Heavy eye makeup and red lips as a set can be rather volatile; it either makes you look like a Harlot, Tranny, or well, to be honest i don't see any good coming out of overly dramatic eyes and red lipstick cause there's gonna be too much drama going on all over that face.

Some recurring shoe trends i've observed would be the laced up ankle boots, lots of suede, and fur. Though it seems like ankle boots are more popular than thigh highs or knee highs this season. Okay no i'm biased cause i just bought a pair of laced ankle boots from Korea. Yes, there'll be a mega haul post sometime soon.

One of my favourite pieces this autumn? The knitted socks. Lovelovelovelove them so much. My horrendous thunder thighs make it impossible for me to wear them cause, hello, muffin top. Also, would someone be so kind as to inform me where i can obtain sock glue? Because my thigh high socks keep slithering downwards. It's ridiculous.
Also, just a little note for the scarf under belt style in the top right hand side of the picture. Try using a scarf with less elasticity, then it's not as likely that you'll stretch it out of shape.

Lastly, one of my favourite coordinates in this issue. It also happens to be unwearable in Singapore. Tragic.

Short snippet on korea:

It was incredibly fun, there was touristy stuff as well as a whole lot of shopping. Cosmetics, mostly. Clothes need to be washed before keeping them away, so i'll get photos of the stuff i bought sometime later, maybe in a week or so. Either way, there'll be a haul post and general tourist photos to look forward to. Hopefully soon. 8DD

I'll see if i remember enough of Dongdaemun to point anyone who needs information in the right direction, in terms of shopping for clothes.

Till then, 안녕~!