Sunday, July 26, 2015

Oh, the places you'll go

Actually I just went to a couple stores that sell cosmetics, clothes, etc.  Not quite a department store, but I don't know what they are called.

Took some snaps of cute or funny things to share!

Tiana patch

Drunk turkey wine holder

Every cosmetic store needs this!it's got a cosmetics remover tester on the left, a stack of cotton on the right, and a dustbin behind. After testing several foundations, this setup was a godsend!

Foam-filled soft lip to show you just how luscious your lips will look if you buy their products!

Tea color eyeliner tape. Somehow I doubt this will fit most eyes. 

this mascara is just too funny!  This was at a Japanese shop. 

what does the Fox say?  This foam visor is meant for children but it was funny so I took a snap!

I'm pretty sure this is an American product. Make this style easily!

What's the most interesting or funny beauty products you've seen (or maybe tried?)

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Magical Lolitas Meetup


On the 12th (yes, I'm a little backlogged) there was a Lolita meetup where the theme was "magical girl"!  As fun as that is, it turned out to be more difficult than I initially thought... and a few of us worked really hard to BS our way into saying our coord contained magic somewhere ^^;

Check us out and let me know who you think is the most magical!

RouRou with her magic wand she made herself!

Miyo with her Card Captor Sakura umbrella

QiQi with her Sailor Moon selfie stick

NiYa with her Sailor Moon necklace

Hako with her spellbook bag

Neco with her magical print (with fairies)

Kamiko with a print technically called "Magic Rabbit Tea Party" but has no magic elements illustrated
CangXing with something I forgot... I'm a bad memory person :(

Me with my mermaid print which is sort of magic? 
Lilith with "magically never ending cherries"

Everybody
Shoes
Skirts and Card Captor Sakura umbrella
Lilith lost this round :P  So she picked the random number for next meetup's theme... horns.  Why are we getting such difficult themes???  Many of the lolitas already have deer and ram horn headpieces, which you can find on taobao.com if anybody is interested.  Suggested keywords would be 羊角,鹿角 for "sheep horn" and "deer horn" respectively.

Does anybody have any ideas for me???  Help!!!!   My current plan is to make my own unicorn horn so I only need to have one ^u^v  Not 100% sure that will turn out well, though... I've made the horn itself out of paper clay, but need to find an elegant way to attach it to my head (headband or circlet?) and figure out how to make the horn's twirl more defined, probably with sandpaper.

Well, this is a rather long entry so I hope you've enjoyed the photos at least!  Thanks for keeping up with my blog!

Friday, July 10, 2015

Lolitas Got Game

On July 4 we had a tea party and then attended ANO's collaboration electric party for the Reality Plus Game we are doing... Which launched as a mobile game!

There is a Mac Airbook being given away as a prize if you upload your score.  I'm sure it's for Taiwanese players only, but you can check out the game anyway (I'm a little bit of a geek like that) plus reader Lucinda did ask when we were actually putting out a game ^_~

In order to play, you need a smart phone that runs on Apple or Android.
Use the QR code here to download the app called "marq"
Then scan any of our characters to activate the game!
Scan the QR to download marq
Scan any of these characters.  I drew that chicken thing.  It's small.  I also designed the guinea pig, the hermit crab, the crocodile, and the original mushroom of the Shroomies family.  You can open the picture in full size in a new tab if needed.
The game is mad simple.  Click a character to swap it with a surrounding character in order to create three or more in a row.  When time runs out, you will see the following screen:

You can upload your score to Facebook
Choose the pink button to take a photo with our custom frame!
Upper left button allows to change camera, upper right cancels, and bottom center takes the photo

OK, now for the actual Lolita meetup part!!  Since our new housing doesn't have proper lighting... I did the equivalent of putting my makeup on without looking.  It was awful.  Here are two photos after I tried to cover the bruised-eye-look with my Daiso powder (which is meant as a foundation, not a coverup...)

Quick!  Look at my Hello Kitty tights!!!!
Gosh I look like the victim of domestic abuse...  I'm going to stick to pink + brown in the set horizontal gradient pattern until we get new lights!!!  I can do that look without really paying much attention!
RPG

Me, reimagined

I look like I'm a recovering drug addict with those eyes!!

The ever-elegant Taiwan Teddy

Our meal

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Mix it Up! Hakka + Kawaii

As some of you may know, Kawaii.i is running a Kawaii Leader contest with the theme "MIX-it-up Kawaii."  I entered, but that is not my reason for posting this time!  You can still vote for my entry here if you'd like (you must be a fan), but I would prefer you read this post first to understand why my entry is a "mix it up" rather than just Lolita fashion.

Most of the winners for the larger prizes will be chosen by the Kawaii.i committee rather than user vote anyway ;)

This is the photo I submitted:


Hm, just looks like some Lolita fashion, right?  But my focus here is on the headdress, which is done in a traditional 客家/Hakka style called 纏花/ChanHua, which means "wrapping flower."  We learned about this in my Chinese Clothing History class and I wanted to give it a go when I made this outfit!  So, what makes ChanHua different from traditional hair chopsticks or embroidery?

Well, it began because the Hakka people were not quite so wealthy as to be able to do traditional embroidery or metalwork.  So they cut out cardboard shapes and wrapped silk thread around and around to create shining crescents on a wire base that could then be folded into all sorts of shapes!

A basic flower
Some could get incredibly complex!
Cicadas!
Different shapes and patterns emerged and the art is still practiced today, though not as frequently.  I found a recent piece (I believe it' from the Hakka channel on TV) introducing a Hakka woman who began to learn the art in her 20's.  You can see the skill it takes to make such intricate art!




OK, in comparison my work is abysmal, but it was fun to try!!!  I actually also cheated and used double-side tape to help my thread stay in place... I'm not even adept enough to cut the card shape properly, so the threads would slip!!!

I personally really admire handicrafts such as this!  The time and tradition behind cultures have such a great history.  Tribal peoples are vanishing all over the world, but I hope their art forms live on eternally!

By the way, I can subtitle the video on Amara.com if anybody is interested in what is being said.  I wanted to share the making process, and they just talk a bit about why the woman chose to learn the art really.

I'm not Hakka myself, but it was great to give this a try!