My taobao haul and a little review of Taobao Focus.

Hello gals! ☆^(*･ω･)ﾉ゜

I finally got around to ordering things from TaoBao. I know that they are doing overseas shipping now but I don't feel confident with using their site as it is so I went through a service called TaoBao Focus. Their service was brilliant and I am going to give them a review and I will recommend them to you gals in future, if you want to buy from TaoBao as they have good rates and all that jazz.

Firstly, I used TaoBao Focus as my shopping service and I thought they were excellent. I think their fees are the lowest I've seen and their service, I have had no issues with at all. The TaoBao store I bought everything from was this one and they were very good at dispatching the items almost as soon as I put in an order with Taobao Focus so I'm really pleased with their service as well ( ⌒▽⌒).

So lets get on with the items!

Everything was well packaged. My mum even said it was more selotape than bag! Haha. It was a little difficult getting into but I'd rather than than damaged items.

These are all my things in their packets. Meep!

The first item is actually like a two-in-one thingy. The black part is just a separate tank-top which is great. The bit with the rings on the sweater is the back. I've been wanting a crop-sweater like this for ages. I love it! It looks amazing when on.

D.I.A. style top with arm-warmers. The leopard-print bit is made out of this weird velvety material which is a little bit tacky but otherwise I think it's cute.

Another D.I.A. style top. I absolutely love the detail on the bra area!

This looks absolutely amazing when it's on the body. It's so cute. I'm so happy with all of my purchases and I've got another order ready to ship! Meep!

I've got a little review of a Japanese face-mask product to do which I hope to do tomorrow so look out for that! But otherwise I will leave you with my face haha.

This is my latest look!

I am thinking I might do a little walkthrough on how to buy things through Taobao Focus next time I do an order. If any of you want me to do this, please let me know and I will do (⌒∇⌒).

You're gonna see some big changes around here!

Hello gals! ☆^(*･ω･)ﾉ゜+。*゜+。

I've been neglecting my duties as a blogger, I know I have, I know. Bad Holly. Naughty Holly. I'll be honest though, even though I've continued to follow the Gyaru style as best I can life kinda got in the way of blogging and the community in general. I'll tell you what, the last few months have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for me! I broke up with my boyfriend (which my facebook friends will have seen), had to move out of my little house and leave my cat behind (TωT) and move back in with my parents. I started seeing someone else and you know what, we clicked. We'd been friends before my ex and I had broken up and it worked so we made things official and we'll of been together for 3 weeks as of tomorrow (๑￫ܫ￩人￫ܫ￩๑).

I'm generally trying to move on with my life and make things more positive for myself. I have been in a slump and I'm not going to lie, my anxiety has been really quite awful but my new boyfriend has been extremely supportive of me getting some help and being able to change my life for the better. I'm not going to let other people hold me back from living my life any more ~(=^‥^)ノ☆.

One thing I wanted to dedicate more time to in order to bring more positive things into my life is blogging and just Gyaru in general. Gyaru makes me happy, it makes me feel more confident in myself, even if some of the comments you get in the street are a little mean 99% of the comments I get are compliments and curiosity and that little 1% are not worth bothering with (￣ー￣). I'm going to be making a few changes around here including changing the name of the blog and the layout to fit better with how my style has progressed. As for right now, well I thought I'd make a post on exactly that, how my style has progressed from my first attempts at Gyaru to my most recent photos.

Me before Gyaru.

My style was generally boring. I hadn't found myself yet and I just wore whatever I could throw on. I had no co-ordination and no thought into what I wore.

My first Gyaru Attempts

Shameful, I'm not going to lie (though I do wish I was still the weight I was then, going out with a chef for 3 years really does pile on the lbs haha).

My most recent pics.

I know that I can see the progress, even though I think there's always progress to be made and that everyone should always feel like they are improving their style, except maybe the Black Diamond gals, they're already perf haha (⌒∇⌒). I don't have any pictures of outfits, again it's something my anxiety and mental health hasn't really allowed me to do, I have been far too self-concious to allow my body to be in pictures much but I'm going to start taking more pictures of myself and more pictures of my outfits to document my style （＾ω＾).

So there we have it, that's my progression through the style. I hope that you liked the post and I hope that you continue to watch this space and look forward to the changes and up-coming posts I'm going to be making, or at least trying to make haha.

Inabizzle my dizzles!

New Extensions and a bit of chatter and goals.

Hello Gals!

This may be a little bit of a long and waffle-y post so bare with me a little bit!

I said that I was doing something different with my extensions so this is my big reveal! They turned out so well that I was quite shocked. I did not think that the dye would take to them quite so well but it did so I'm happy.

This is the original colour of them just after washing them with the pre-colour shampoo (by La Riche Directions if anyone wants to buy it. It comes highly recommended by me).

This is the dye. Yes, I went for PINK! Haha. I was really inspired by some of the Black Diamond gals and their pink and silver or pink and blonde hair and some of the comments on my previous posts about my extensions helped me along with the decision. I have to say that the colour of the dye is just amazing! I really wish it was practical to have my whole hair that colour.

This is the extensions during dye-time. Although the pot says to leave it on only around 45mins I always find that that is never enough with La Riche and I tend to leave it on for about 3 hours. I have read that this is completely fine because of the fact semi-perm dye is conditioning so that's what I did with the extensions as well.

This is how them look while in, except the lighting on my camera makes my hair look blonde! It is still silver though haha. I was really pleased with how it turned out, if you'll excuse the herpy-derp face haha.

Now I want to quickly touch on my current fitness goals! I'm going to a festival on the 8th of August called Boomtown Fair that I've been wanting to go to for a while. I finally got tickets and I have to say I'm sooo excited! I can't even begin to tell you. In celebration of this (if celebration is the right word) I'm wanting to lose about 20lbs before I go so I can wear the summery clothes and feel comfortable in it all, along with the fact I've decided to dress-up for the first night as Alice in Wonderland and, lets face it, no one wants to see a chubby Alice now do they? So here are my little diet and fitness goals.

- Get back to following the Blogilates fitness calenders and work out 6 days a week.

- Eat clean and healthy food.

- No more take-aways.

- Cut down my sweet habit (I have a huge sugar addiction at the minute and eat sweets everyday... eep!). I want to only eat them once a week.

- Lose 20lbs by the 8th of August.

- Drop a Dress Size by the festival.

So there we go! Have a great weekend Gals!

A Little Hair Inspiration!

Hello Gals!

On Saturday night I am hosting a girls night at my place and having my best female friends over; NO BOYS ALLOWED! We've all decided we want to get dressed up for it and I'm thinking about how I should do my hair. It's been a long time since I've done any Sujimori and I quite fancy doing it and since I'll hopefully have done what I want to do with my extensions I will be able to curl it (right now if I curl it it goes to a length that is really NOT flattering to my face-shape).

So, with that in mind I decided to do a little blog with some hair inspirations! Yay!

I'm hopefully going to do a test-run of the hair, make and outfit once I get the stuff to do my extensions so I might show you all... but then I might just wait till the night haha.

I'm already crying about how long it's going to take me to do suji. It's a love-hate relationship when it comes to me and sujimori; I love it because it looks really good but I hate it because it takes so long and can be so frustrating when you're still a beginner at it. I guess practice makes perfect though!

Just a quick little outfit post and makeup post.

Hello Gals!

I had such a fun weekend! On Friday night we got a gorgeous new corner-group sofa and broke it in by inviting a bunch of friends over for drinks and a bit of music. Call it a sofa-shower haha.

This is how it was before we moved it into our home. It's pretty isn't it?

Here's a little peek of my outfit from Friday night (excuse the dirty mirror!)

And my hair and make

Saturday I spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself if I am honest. I was so hungover the next day I can't even begin to tell you! My boyfriend was working late that evening so we didn't do much except snuggle on our new sofa and watch films once he got back.

Then Sunday we had a couple of friends over and watch some movies and just generally relaxed. It was so lovely out yesterday too. It's really beginning to feel like spring now!

I have a few gets to show you in the next couple of days once they all come through the post. Eek! I love getting packages but not what it does to my bank balance haha.

My Kuronba and Ora Ora Inspirations and Goals.

Hello Gals!

I told you I'd come back with something interesting today and I'm going to hold up my end of the deal. Today's post is inspired by a recent one of Lizzie's Eternise-Moi blog where she wrong about her Agejo style inspirations and goals and I loved the idea of writing down what you want to achieve and what inspires you in one post, not only for the benefit of your readers but for your own sanity!

Sometimes Gyaru is a little overwhelming, so many sub-styles, so many different ways of doing your hair and make up, so many rules to follow that differ from sub-style to sub-style and it can make your head spin if you're not careful. I know a lot of ladies like to follow a few different styles but, especially if you're working on a tight budget, it's always best to pic a style that you enjoy and stick with it.

I used to be very into the Hime and Agejo styles but as I grew older and my tastes matured I found myself enjoying the look of Kuronba and Ora Ora styles the best as well as finding that they fit my personality and tastes a lot better. I also live in a small town in England and walking around in frilly things with suspenders and the like generally doesn't get the best reception, not that that is the deciding factor but I think that people generally need to feel comfortable in what they are wearing and I just never did in Hime or Agejo even though I enjoyed the way they look, do you see what I mean?

Anyway, enough with the ramble and onto the pictures!

Hair Inspirations.

Makeup Inspirations

Co-ordinate Inspirations

Gyaru Inspirations.

Mipoti

Yuri

Yuritan

Kayano

Miyumero

(that was the hardest part as there's sooo many Gyaru who inspire me)

My Kuronba Goals.

1. Get a deep, dark tan (mine's still a bit pasty at the moment!)

2. More D.I.A! I have a few pieces but I need more, more, more!

3. Lose weight. I want to feel more comfortable wearing shorts and no tights.

4. Learn to do Suji properly. I have a little experience with it but not very much.

5. Dye my hair extensions silver to match my hair, or perhaps a different colour altogether. What do you guys think?