Originally published at lovepinkcross. You can comment here or there.

I wanted to talk a little about how I got involved in BT, but it got crazy towards the end. Maybe I’ll talk more later! Hahahaha

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Originally published at lovepinkcross. Please leave any comments there.

Lately, a lot of people have been writing blogs and talking to me about how mean it seems everyone has become on various livejournal communities. I was thinking about it over the weekend, and this is what I think.

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Originally published at lovepinkcross. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve heard a lot of talk lately about why manba shouldn’t be considered a dying style. People don’t understand why no one likes it so much anymore, or why it’s never featured in magazines and the like. I have some theories, and I’d like to share them with you all.

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Originally published at lovepinkcross. You can comment here or there.

I’ve started washing all of my clothes that I haven’t really gotten a chance to wash before because I didn’t have my own machine. I realized something amazing by doing a few loads a day.

I have a lot of clothes!

Even though I have a lot of things, I always feel like only certain pieces are “gal” enough, or are something I really want to wear. Other times, I want to wear something, but don’t seem functional enough for what I’m doing. I want to buy different stuff, but I feel guilty having so many clothes already!

I know you all feel the same way. Don’t you dream of having the money to go and get all new cute stuff? To completely start your wardrobe over? Me too!

Maybe we can’t do that all at once, but we can whip our closets into shape by first looking at ourselves. What’s our life like?

{a picture was going to go here, but my left eye is having an allergic reaction and I can’t wear eye makeup. actually, I’ll probably have to toss all my eye makeup. guess that’s good for you, because I’ll do product reviews.}

What are all the activities you do in your waking life? Honestly, this activity showed me just how boring I am, as 40 hours are spent at work, and probably only 5-10 hours are parties or get-togethers. The rest is either me at home or out shopping or casually hanging out. But you probably lead a better life than me, so your plan will be better!

That’s about 40% at work and a little less than 10% parties, with 30% being casual wear and 20% or so being home wear. You can get detailed with this if you wanted, but as long as you have a dedicated grasp of what things you would wear for each area, you are probably good.

Now~ Look at how many things in your closet fit the balance of lifestyle that you actually wear.. Most of the stuff, we don’t wear, or isn’t right for the occasions we live in. That’s why we feel so overwhelmed by our closets!

Activity!

Today, lets look at our closets. What is the one item you love the most that fits into your lifestyle and makes you feel gyaru or gyaru-o? I’ll post my favorite work piece tomorrow with the next step in our closet makeovers! <3

Originally published at lovepinkcross. You can comment here or there.

I know there are some who read my posts who have no clue what I am talking about, and there are some who may want a better grasp on things other people talk about. So I formed this small list of general definitions. Add, subtract, comment.

They’re alphabetical!

Circle Lens – Contact lenses with a dark outside circle, which makes your eyes look bigger. All makeup styles in gal focus on making your eyes look big, so these are commonly used. Some people feel that this is a quick fix for Western gyaru, and no focus is put on the rest of the makeup when these are used. I’ve seen this done as well.  Some only use colors like brown not to appear too outrageous. I personally want the brightest, most over the top color possible. It’s just not worth the trouble just to have lighter brown eyes.

Deco-den – The art of decorating various objects with rhinestones, clay, stickers, or other small things to achieve a unique and overdone everyday use item. Cell phones (ketai), handheld mirrors, and boxes are most common, although I’ve seen laptops and such done as well. I’m personally much too lazy to take the time to decorate in tiny detail, but for those of you who have iron patience, it’s a fun hobby. Nails sometimes fall under the deco category when searching on ebay or etsy.

Gal Circle - or “gal-sa” is a formal group of gals who depending on the structure of the group, create and promote events with night clubs or organizations (event circle or ive-cir), or attend said events and generally socialize (nago-cir). Here in the west, events are coordinated with anime conventions, and attendance is still fairly low. Joining is by application, and is governed similar to a sorority. Men either have separate circles that plan events with the female only circle, or the circles are co-ed.

Gyaru - (sometimes called Gal) a style focused around an overdone, iconic image of Western pop culture. Hair is big and curly, usually blonde or honey brown, skin is at least a warm glow, if not a solid tan color. Nails are long and extremely decorated, makeup is perfect, with big eyes and nude lips. Clothing is usually overly sexy and/or youthful. There are many variations to this style, including Hime and Manba.

Gyaru-O - the male equivalent of gyaru. Long spikey hair (called a wolf haircut in Japan), clothes are well fitted with attention to details such as jewelry and shoes. I’ll be honest, I suck at defining this one. But I looked through a Men’s Egg to try to get a good idea of what to say and finally thought some of them were cute! I was never attracted to Gyaru-O before this. LOL

Hime-Gyaru – Hime meaning princess, is a fairy tale done only the way a gyaru can. HUGE curly hair, sweet and fun dresses (not ballgowns, more like tea party). Deco everything, crown everything.

Manba - gyaru done to the other extreme. Dark tan, white or unusual color hair, white eye makeup and nose stripe, (it’s like makeup contouring overdone) big lashes and contacts.  Clothes are neon bright (sometimes black) and very sexy. This is usually the first style people try, and really really suck at. But you really feel like a rebel when you do it right?

Para-Para - coordinated dance routines to techno, eurobeat, and other dance songs. Mostly hand and arm movements, these routines are similar to line dancing, only in that you learn them in clubs, to repeat them in clubs, and everyone does the exact same routine to the song. There are group competitions and para teams both in Japan and in Western countries. Most event circles expect you to know some para, since they compete as well.

Shibuya – a ward of Tokyo, known for gyaru to meet up and shop or go clubbing.  Shibuya 109 is here, which is a famous department store among gal.

I might add to this list if I come across something that is used often enough without ever being defined.

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Originally published at lovepinkcross. You can comment here or there.

click to see in all it's glory

I’m going to sound like a total jerk here, but I love my hair. Look at that stuff! I just woke up, brushed it out a little, and sprayed it with hair spray. (I need to bleach it again though.) Envy it!!

Anyway, tell me something you like about yourself, ask questions about hair to me or anyone else who reads these, or comment in some other way that keeps this from looking like a vain cop-out post because I had to close the store last night and I’m about to head back to work now.

I’m counting on you guys to make this post worthwhile! Don’t let me down people!

Originally published at lovepinkcross. You can comment here or there.

I am so horribly sick, and I just broke my fake Chanel necklace. The only thing that brings me joy in this cold, dark, lonely world is my new nails I bought from Walgreens. I know some people feel like the gold standard for gals is getting them done at a fancy salon, but I love buying pre-made nails, and I refuse to hide this secret anymore!!

Let me tell you why I love them so!

They are so cheap (most of the time)

Nails at drugstores and supermarkets are around $5-$7 dollars. On ebay you can buy them for as low as $3! Look at these amazingly glittery tacky things! You know you would pay $3 dollars to have amazing tranny nails like that! I know you can type deco nails in etsy or ebay and get amazing expensive stuff, but I can’t ever bear to pay that much for them anymore. I always lose them at work and cry because I spent so much, then my bosses always wonder why I cry over losing a press on nail but not over losing the keys to the store all the time. It’s gives me a bad image, worse than glitter zebra nails ever could.

They are everywhere

I live in Arkansas, people. Not in SoCal or NYC (yet) where I can run down the street and get my nails done. Okay, okay, so there ARE nail salons, but they usually only do solid colors or french tips, and the people who do fancy stuff never understand why I would want my nails done in glitter leopard. Or they can’t understand why I would drive to the next town or pay more than a standard acrylic set to get them done. JUST DO MY NAILS OK? The cashier at Walgreens won’t look at me strange when I buy a pack of nails and Doritos, they’ve seen people buy pregnancy tests at 3 in the morning.

Tell me some deep dark beauty secret of yours. Pretend it’s a sleepover and that I won’t tell anyone (I won’t, promise! ). Or just make up an amazing secret, starting this hilarious internet rumor about yourself. You’re a celebrity!

PS – My posts on my wordpress blog are being crossposted to lj not only because I have a captive audience, but because I know most of you thought I died after turning off loud twitter and were looking for my obituary. Well, put down the paper, I’m still here. Use the money you planned on spending on flowers to send me glittery animal print nails.