This Semester's Been a Little Cray: Life, Style Investments, Lolita, and Make Up Tutorials

No really. This semester has been a complete crazy mess in terms of my schooling. THIS is why I haven't been blogging as frequently. D: and I miss it so much. However, my studies come first-so please be patient with me for just a little bit longer. I'm almost finished for just a second and then maybe if I'm not too drained, I'll be able to be a bit more creative like I had been in the past. <3

Regardless, I've been trying very hard to keep up my "once-a-month" update on here as best as I can. So I thought I would talk about some of my splurges with you guys. <3

First off, Yahoo! Auctions happened right during my birthday and a little after. Between make up and clothes, I've been seriously hoarding what I can for the times I can fully do J-Fashion again. Because school has been so crazy and has kept me on my toes this semester, I've really casualed down my outfit of the days and such. However, I've for sure, went on a major shopping spree in hopes of actually getting to look how I want to when the time does permit.

I feel like because it's been colder weather and because Halloween was a thing for a second-that I really got heavily into rock gyaru. Brands like Tutuha, Ghost of Harlem, ect. really screamed out to me. Last year during the fall I really was heavily into the cute dusty pink/rose/cream Liz Lisa asthetic with an occasional Golds Infinity or d.i.a piece on the side.

However this year, I've really been dressing in a lot of blacks and vamps if not jewel toned colors for school. Ghost of Harlem and Tutuha are WAYYY too out there for school in comparison to Liz Lisa's bits and bobs but it hasn't stopped me from dressing dark or splurging on those brands to dress up in when I get the chance.

Another reason for this need for 'rock' style clothing in my life was the occurrence that I had strayed from those roots for a bit. I didn't realize it until I preparing to go to the Gazette concert and realized I had one BPN piece and two Ghost of Harlem pieces-one that was super over the top and one that was stupid casual. But nothing quite in between. SO I decided to change that.

Yahoo Auctions was quite the thrill to get into. I found so many gems for stupid cheap and also things that are relatively hard to find.

First piece that arrived in the mail was this gorgeous Ghost of Harlem dress from the 2015 collection. I absolutely adored it from the time that SakuRina was promoting/modeling it. Hell, she even made the white colorway grow on me. However, I found the black version for literally 10 bucks. What. A. Steal. I remember when this was retailing for 60-70.00! <3 Also super glad I got it in the black colorway because the fabric is pretty thin honestly. White stains/fades out to yellow over time and also I'd have to be mindful of my undergarmets.

Here is my dress in comparison to the promo ad that Sakurai Rina is in. The dress has a really neat alternation feature. You can have a gathered hem or a straight full on dress. Personally, I prefer it with the gathered hem at the bottom. <3

The next two pieces that arrived were my Hellcatpunks dress and the Tutuha skirt.

The Hellcatpunks piece was 8.00 and I couldn't resist. The from had a red winged heart that says 'Miss Vamp' and the from sleeves down to the back are done up with ties/laces-which I thought was a really nice detail. The bottom is just an attacked red 'skirt' piece that I happen to like a lot. This piece is surprisingly very loose and comfortable on me. I thought it would be short on me but it actually goes down pretty long surprisingly. It happens to be one of my favorite causal 'rock' pieces for when I don't want to spend an insane amount of time getting ready but still want to look fashionable and cute.

The Tutuha skirt was a HUGE wishlist item. I kept having so much trouble finding it this past year. I REALLY wanted to wear that skirt to the Gazette concert but I literally could not find that skirt anywhere. I still want the matching union jack top to go with it (super inspired by Himena Osaki's shop staff picture from way back in the day) but the skirt will do for now until then. I found the black and white colorway for 5.00 (yes wtf) and thought that this was the most versatile to coordinate. However I would GLADLY take this skirt in green (yes they have green and I don't see the green one often), red, and of course-purple (because it's my favorite color!!). The skirt is a lovely material and the lining below is all silver sequins. I was super afraid that this was going to be too short for me but this actually fits pretty well surprisingly. I still would probably wear spanks as a precaution regardless. Point is, I'm so happy to finally own this in my wardrobe.

The next Tutuha piece that came a couple days later-was a bit of an impulse buy admittedly-but I needed it. I LOVE this babydoll. I can't wait to have decent occasions to wear this to. At first I debated if I really needed it. But then I realized how hard these pieces are to find and the price point and couldn't help but snag it. Like my skirt-this was in the black and white colorway. Yet again, something I can easily work with because I have black and silver things that go well with this and black and white can still work if you want to add pops of color. The material is super thin, soft, and fragile. Be wary of your nails. The babydoll is certainly a babydoll too. On some girls it looks like a dress but I'm a bit curvy so I ended up wearing it as a long top with my WC skirt underneath for Halloween. I love the sequined star at the chest and the cross/skull print. There's really beautiful lace lining around the breast pieces and those pieces are also padded.

So now all I want from Tutuha on my remaining list:

Union Jack Top (different colors and the black and white one)
Union Jack Skirt (in different colors)
Lace Babydoll
Sequined heart top
Cross necklaces (different colors and in matte/sequined glitter patterns)
Zipper Camisole (matches the babydoll's print)
Batwing Corset Belt


Slowly crossing off things from my list though!! <3 -is a huge fan of Tutuha.

Here was how I coordinated the Tutuha babydoll for Halloween. I placed my hair up in half twintails with my devil horn clips in. The babydoll is paired with my black WC skirt (for length and because it's less sheer that way), For modest I threw on my BPN bat wing cardigan since I was giving out candy to children that night. I also wore my bow thigh highs (which are dying. looking into ma*rs or Golds Infinity thigh highs). For accessories I placed my gunmetal Vivienne Westwood large orb necklace on since I felt like it matched the theme. Pretty sure I also paired the necklace with the silver orb dangle earrings as well. :)

The last item I purchased was something I didn't expect to buy. It was a HUGE bonus and I nearly died when I saw the price it was going for.

I've left lolita fashion for awhile-not because I disliked it. But because of a variety of reasons. 1. I live in a weird area. Nobody wears lolita out here and honestly, I don't appreciate the crap I get wearing any of my "out there" clothing thus making myself a walking target for harassment. There's clearly strength in numbers. 2. With that said, while I live close enough to San Francisco-I would still have to commute in lolita. Thus, making me yet again, a walking target. I already get targeted in "normal" clothes or even if I limit myself to only doing my make up nice. Honestly, I don't feel safe wearing lolita. Why? 3. I would be considered a 'lone lolita'. I've talked about it here before on the blog, how I seriously felt like the real life Momoko from Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls). While I own an okay amount of lolita brand-I've never quite fit in with the lolitas. I'm a little out there and delve into a lot of different styles. Not only that, but I've always failed to "keep up" because I almost feel like you have to be active, be able to afford to stay fresh and trendy (or at least have an arsenal of different outfits for tons of different tea parties and fashion events) and afford to be active. None of those categories have I ever fit into. So I kind of gave up on doing lolita because of that.

Gyaru was way more accessible. And I've always been limited to wearing lolita fashion to conventions or J-Culture events where I feel somewhat safer roaming around in it alone. There's no point of me spending hundreds/thousands on dollars on lolita that I would rarely get to wear versus spending a lot less money on gyaru brand and getting to wear it more often.

Regardless, I do a couple of staple brand lolita pieces. Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Alice and the Pirates, BPN, h.Naoto, and Juliette et Justine. However, in all my lolita life. I never got the chance of owning Angelic Pretty. Secretly, it was a dream of mine. A hidden desire because AP was really gaudy and detailed. I didn't care for the "OTT sweet" phase that Angelic Pretty went through for a bit. Anything with cakes and toys and cutesy pastel aesthetics kind of deterred me from AP. However, AP started getting darker and a lot more relatable in the past years.

I think it was Wonder Queen that really got me hooked. Then Sweet Girl Room, Crystal Dream Carnival, and Holy Lantern came out and I was hooked. There were just things about those designs that had me interested. Prints and designs that really screamed me. Make up vanities, keys, stars, moons, chandeliers, and Alice in Wonderland...<3 Even the colorways were gorgeous.

Holy Lantern and Crystal Dream Carnival will always be my dream dresses for AP. Hands down. They're gorgeous.

However, I was browsing Yahoo Auctions out of curiosity just to see what would pop up. And then I saw it. Holy Theater JSK in ivory. For 119.00. 130.00 shipped. Which was such a snag. For those of you who don't know-Holy Theater released this year.  Why it was that cheap? I don't know. Maybe the print wasn't popular?

I debated on my bid for a bit until I realized that kana for the title said "Holy Theater Set" and realized this dress came with the bow and OTKs. For 130.00? For all three pieces? This set usually retails for 350-400.00. I was sold.

AND THUS, I own Angelic Pretty's Holy Theater. <3 It's really opposite of my style lolita wise. I own ONE 'off white' lacey eye lace with cherry embroidery Baby the Stars Shine Bright OP dress. This is the only other "light" dress that I own. The rest of my dresses are purple/black/ or black/white/silver aesthetics. I have the Juliette et Justine Star Money dress as well but I guess you could consider that a 'dark' colored dress as well.

So why Holy Theater then?

Because is shared the same design as Crystal Dream Carnival. There were bunnies and stars and I could't resist. The piece honestly grew on me.

Because this is my first Angelic Pretty piece, I really got to appreciate all the small intricate details that were placed into this set. There are so many...like wow. Now I can see why girls really invest in these pieces-especially now a days.

Everyone always talks about the print and the infamous custom AP lace. However, what I will tell you is that there's more to it than that.

The ribbons on my dress sparkle. There's literal sparkles. Even the lace trims on some places are literally a sparkling gold. The chiffon pieces, the straps, and waist ties are dettachable. This dress doesn't have pockets but apparently a lot of AP dresses do have pockets. Everything feels soft and of good quality too.

In full, I love my JSK set. I can't wait to finally wear it. I haven't done lolita fashion in so long and I'm really eager to try it out again. <3

I'll have to figure out how I'm going to coordinate this. I feel like I'm going to break some serious lolita fashion rules. Aka sin to the gods. Those chiffon sleeves on the sides that are just open and flowy would just look way too strange with a blouse. Literally in my head, I'm going 'fuck it' and might decide to wear it blouseless. All I'm worried about are my lack of wrist cuffs and accessories. </3 I feel like I need to make up for that shit since it's going to lack a blouse. I looked up pictures of models wearing this JSK and I literally saw a model with the sleeves on it with no blouse. SO MAYBE IT WILL BE OKAY.

Please don't hate me? ;_;

Also, I have one petticoat. One petticoat looks okay. However, I feel like it needs another.......


In other news, outside of my hauls-I tried hard to do a make up tutorial for before Halloween. Last year I was stupid active before Halloween with the Misa Amane lookbook and the Sailor Mars make up tutorial. However, this semester has been way too packed for me to make time like I had wanted.

However, literally the weekend before I decided to bust one out in an attempt to try. However, I didn't get it fully edited and finished until this week.

Here is both my Updated Foundation Routine:


Last year, I did a foundation routine video. However, as I've gotten more so into make up and have invested in a lot more products-the more different my make up has gotten. My foundation bit changed up a lot. Mainly because of my skin texture changing due to skincare and me aging. Also, I've learnt some new techniques that I find really helpful. So hear that is!

Lastly, is my Space Girl make-up tutorial!

Recently, I realized that my laptop can handle videogames from steam. Because of that, I've been playing my favorites like Jet Set Radio and Magical Drop. However, I had never gotten to play Space Channel 5. It looked really fun so I decided to buy it. It's so fun! Ulala is so cute!! I noticed that Ulala has really pretty pink eye make up so my Space Girl make up was definitely inspired by hers!

This look is really bright pink and gradiented. It's probably one of the brightest looks I've done in a very long time. I was super proud of it despite it being a trial and error. I really enjoyed it.


Here is the look with hair and make up done. Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures of this look because I was more focused on video content. I also lacked an "uchuu-kei" outfit so I threw on Kokokim instead because that's close enough right?

Anyways, I have finals to prepare for and all. Please be patient with me. I'll be back soon! Until next time guys~