.Amani

.Amani
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Monday, October 29, 2012

MintyMix split wig VIDEO review

Right now I'm sitting here waiting for this Hurricane Sandy to supposedly wreak havoc in my area... the winds are slowly picking up, though the worst is supposed to be around the afternoon. Ugh.

My power's been flickering in and out, so I tried to just upload this review that I finally put together! It's just a review on my Mintymix Deep Pink x Black split wavy wig. Like I said before, I wanted to start doing this so other darker skinned girls would be able to sort of get an idea of how unnatural colored wigs look on them. Hopefully soon I'll be making another one in the coming weeks~







I'm hoping my power won't get cut, but in the case that it does, I guess I will talk to people later e_e ugh

Kawaii International Contest...





It's been like 2 days since it was announced that I won first place for the recent Kawaii International contest focusing on Hime gal style. But every time I look at the video (which I saved, to look back on later) I'm still partially in disbelief.

Like how did I win? Especially out of fabulous gals that I look up to , like Sui Princess and Malin?

I keep thinking about this over and over.... and I keep being analytical over my outfit and breaking it down so I'm just gonna go on about everything here so hopefully I'll stop thinking about it. LOL


This is kind of the guideline that Ayano Tokumaru, store manager of the La Parfait store in Shinjuku, made for the contest... where she dressed up in a lolita-like style, a koakuma-like style, and a very casual style.



So with that guideline, I tried to put my code together.

My outfit...









My main style points:



A) The hair! Not the bows and pearls I was wearing, but the style itself. In my old post I showed that I did this little experiment that resulted in this nice hime updo to the side, with a nice 3-tone effect that I wanted to show off more. Definitely plan on working on and perfecting in the future. (Probably with a Youtube video in the future? Probably.)

B) The hime style Angelic Pretty dress, for obvious reasons. Like I said in my old post, I was really thinking of a DIA or MARS outfit, but I wasn't too confident in what I would make up for those... so instead I went with my Rose Princess Doll OP, since I've seen both Western and Japanese himegals wear that specific dress for Himegyaru, not just lolita. Plus I figured since Kawaii.i explained that 'any hime style' is a valid entry, that someone probably asked as far as lolita styles and stuff. Thinking a bunch of lolitas would enter anyways, I entered with this dress.

C) The nails. This was one of the more 'natural' deco sets I had, so rather going with my other pink clusterfucky ones, I went with these... even though they got washed out by lightning. sigh

4) A touch of fuschia, just because the color pops xD



There was a couple of things that I really wanted to change...

1) My Jesus Diamante necklace. For some reason I couldn't find it for the life of me, it's not showing up anywhere in my room... I really wanted to wear THAT, and any of my other pearl necklaces seemed too gaudy for that particular look... so I decided to just go without.

2) The shoes. All my other shoes are pretty much strictly lolita shoes, or totally not a matching style to the dress. These shoes were actually the shoes that my sister wore to her wedding, and after her shoot last month (I still need to put the pictures up!) she gave them to me since they were only for the wedding, and weren't her style.

One of the things I really loved about the shoes was the rhinestone detail * w*
The design reminded me of a tiara or a crown and went pretty much all around that part of the heel.. and then it has some simple flower design on the side of the shoe.

But if I had the time to, I would've taken that flower off and put lace and roses instead, like a Jesus Diamante style.. It's definitely on my list to mod. I just wish I had the time and money to do it before the contest.

3)Bracelet-- I didn't even think about. I went with the one bracelet I usually wear on a regular basis, and I totally forgot the other one I had, with the pink fuzzball attached to it, or my one simple cubic zirconia one to give it sparkle. Otherwise, I didn't want to be gaudy. I thought of my wristcuffs, but I really didn't want it to look that lolita. And I didn't want my hands to look cluttered, especially with the nails I had on.

4) Self-shot in my bathroom. Really though? I was going to my friends to see if someone wanted to come over and snap shots of me, but no one had time to. My cousin was barely home, and other than that I had my grandparents, and I felt it was more trouble than it was worth to try and teach them how to take a photo on my camera... especially when Opi's a straight up troll, while Omi gets paranoid about jacking up technological stuff. So~ bathroom self-shots it was .___.
All my self-shots are usually in my bathroom, but I wanted to avoid it since the warm lighting and the pink walls usually washes out my contour, my lighter wigs, and pretty much anything light pink. That being said...

5) I would've done my makeup over. It was the last minute, and the makeup I had on was already on for a while. I tried to touch some of it up, but once my face is oily, that's pretty much it... so basemake-wise, there was nothing much I could've done, and then with the eyes the same thing. I wish I went through the trouble of  taking off the lashes and reapplying eyeliner and gluing them back. And I wish my eyes were well hydrated because my eyes were hurting too much already from oils trying to seep into my eyes.



/baw


I had gotten the news first from Facebook when I was checking my phone at church.... I did one of those sudden screams like when you see a rodent by surprise xD And since it was in the video and not in texts, I couldn't see where it was said! I had to wait till I got home and got on my computer and caught the stream itself..



As dissatisfied as I was with my outfit.. hearing Ayano's explanation about why she liked my outfit helped me relax. Really, everything that was said between her and the other hosts were pretty on point with what I was going for. Since my focus was the 3-toned hair and the Rose Princess Doll OP, I didn't want to OD similarto Ayano's style in the vid just to please her and look like her...

I liked how she recognized how I didn't choose to wear any tights or any regular lolita pumps and went  for the strap heel instead, and that the dress was the main focus and the ribbons and stuff were just a little add-on and not too ridiculous. Even in the very beginning she explained that she was looking for tasteful stuff, nothing overbearing which was a bit ironic and a bit of a different turn from what anyone would expect. xD Especially from her, who wears like 6-8 wigs every day throughout the year...

I really admire her choice, especially with the other two winners, because all of our outfits as far as I saw, weren't obvious hime brands like Jesus Diamante or MA*RS or La Parfait... It wasn't all matchy-matchy with prints or ultra deco or anything like that, besides the 3rd place girl who had her Hello Kitty nails and I think hair accessories and etc, our styles were for the most part pretty simplistic and not too piled on.



So all in all, I'm very happy and humbled I won, regardless of how I felt. I'm totally looking forward to receiving the 1st place prize! I can't believe I won this chick's dress. Just wow..
I'm wondering if it'll even fit, though? @ A@ Ashley and Shiena told me that La Parfait actually fits pretty well, so I'm optimistic. If not... then I'll make the dress my thin/fitspiration for next spring and summer xD Hahaha~

They're going to post the winners pictures up to the kawaii.i FB page soon... something I'm not looking forward to, or even look at xD nope. noooooooope. nopenopenope

I'm so glad I've gotten the comments that I did from both the hosts and from my FB friends and Tumblr followers though, I really take positive feels to heart and I'm definitely looking to expand my hime closet now that I got this job ; w;

Can't wait to receive this in the mail and post pix!





Saturday, October 27, 2012

So...

I won the Kawaii International Himegyaru contest.

.

I.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012

OOTD ~ 10/22/2012



This outfit smells of VS Seduction....and fresh employment~
Totally killed that interview ♥ and was told I was the best dressed applicant so far xD



 







Coat: Yumetenbo
Top: Jesus Diamante
Skirt: Express
Boots: from Rainbow's
Accessories: Curvy's, dollar store
Bag: (not shown) Victoria's Secret


Thursday, October 18, 2012
I'm here at the moment trying my best to focus on my final project (as always, p.s. managed to get another extension, thank god),
but I just wanted to say how happy I am that I FINALLY got the confirmation that I finished the Wedding Planning course. My certificate should arrive in 4-6 weeks ♥
I was so hyped having received that e-mail earlier this week!

Then to top it off, I got another confirmation, this time for an interview for a job in Times Square. It's only temporary, maybe for about 6 months, but the pay will be really good, and hopefully I'll be working 30-or-so hours to make it worthwhile. I already estimated the amount of money I would get if I land it (before taxes), which would be well more than enough to take a certain ~international~ trip afterwards * w* plsplsplsGodpls

I'm praying for it so hard! If  I land the job I immediately start working next week. It might wreck my Halloween plans, but I'd rather have those plans wrecked and start getting paid than anything else!

And THEN I'm inches away from getting my passport. Selling my NYCC pass was the best decision I've ever done, and now I'm only 40 bucks away from having all the money together! I'm planning to sell baked goods at the Guyana trip's rally day at my church on Saturday, and after service on Sunday ♥


I've been in a ridiculously good mood because of everything going on. It feels like everything is falling into place for me. ♥ I just hope I get the job, everything else is in the bag!
Monday, October 15, 2012

New York Comic Con 2012


So NYCC was pretty short-lived for me, having only gone on Thursday and Saturday, but as always, it was good to hang out with people I've haven't seen in a while. Cons for me are just a meeting place, mostly-- I never was into too many panels, besides lolita ones and whatever might've been relevant to my interests (Final Fantasy, Sailor Moon, etc.). Panels I like barely come up, so most of the weekend I'm usually always wandering the show floor and artist alleys and stuff.

I decided to go to Comic Con on Thursday since I had a 4-day pass, and I tried to just get all the things I wanted done on the show floor that day, knowing that the rest of the weekend would have been absolutely ridiculous.

 Found out that the speaker's pass was a 4-day pass. I was mindblown. Since when did this happen? Maybe I'm getting old and thinking of Otakon but... I swore not too long ago, speakers were only getting one day passes and stuff o__O but anyways, I was pretty set for the rest of the weekend.... and I ended up selling my pass for Sunday entrance to get money for my Guyana trip.

 My outfit on Thursday~



       
 Square Enix booth.
Merch-wise, there has never been so many things that I've wanted before. dem Lightning and Serah figures. dem FF plushies. Especially the FF Theatrhythm mugs, oh my god.

There were barely any games and things that I wanted to look at but..



 

Played the Tomb Raider demo~ the graphics are pretty damn nice, I think I could get used to it~ I might just get it. Square Enix pretty much outdid themselves by absorbing Eidos and taking on this 'prologue/beginning' story for Lara Croft. I'm actually pretty satisfied by her not-ridiculously-sized tits and her overall character design.



Tia on Thursday~

I was chilling with Susan the rest of the day, where we basically roamed around the show floor, locating the h.Naoto booth, 8bit&Up, etc. I ran into my ladies Nikki and Laura modeling at the Necomimi booth, but I didn't think to take pictures of them ; w; and after a long wait, I finally got my Prisila hair pieces (see previous entry)

Nothing was too out of the ordinary, with the exception of this one booth blasting Gangnam Style. Come to find out it was a booth for this 2D to 3D convertor and Jesus Christ, it was so cool. 3D Gangnam Style. 3D Halo. 3D ASSASSIN'S CREED LINEAGE MOVIE. I was dying.

The converter reminded me of the old 'switch boxes' or whatever, the things you bought to hook up multiple game consoles and crap to the TV without having to constantly pull out the image input cords and mess up the jacks in the process.. it basically translates anything on the monitor to 3D image, and it had modes like 3D with glasses, or without, 3D from afar or relatively close... it was so cool... ; A; I'd totally get that crap too.





When we came and left, Susan kept passing by the Tiger & Bunny merch and dying at the light-up action figure displays. Her body wanted it. But her wallet could handle it... the figures were $300.


 

We spotted this ghetto Sailor Moon knockoff plush. When you see it, you'll lol



Saturday I actually arrived pretty late. The only thing I was really looking forward to the whole weekend was getting my Final Fantasy 9 artbook signed by Yoshitaka Amano. I had that book since I was a little kid and I was always gushing at Amano's work since. He came to the late New York Anime Fest back in 2008, but since I was volunteer-modeling for Baby, the Stars Shine Bright. So this year I figured that I would take the chance to actually push to get his autograph...

until a friend told me that people were camping outside the con since before 2am. Are you freaking kidding me?


I was going to get to the con at sunrise to get the autograph ticket to meet him, but I was NOT going to sit out in 30-degree weather in the earliest parts of the morning! It was so disappointing, I wish I was able to take the earlier opportunity and not having to cry about it now .____.

So after hearing that, I decided to just take my sweet time getting to the con... which I didn't get to until like 7pm. I was glad because a lot of the people were clearing out since the show floor was closing, so there wasn't as much crowd inside the convention center.

Decided to just go 'simple' and went out in Little Bears Cafe. I tried to make this curly bun style but it kept falling apart as I was walking around. It was really frustrating and I was basically having these epic battles with my weave, trying to keep it pinned together. At the end of the night though, I saw it fell apart AGAIN. I just hope they looked okay in pictures ; 3; These pictures were when I got home from the con when I put them back up and together again with my Prisila pieces...

When I got there, I found my girls, chilled for like an hour, and then it was time for our "Lolita Behind the Frills" panel.

We took a different route than the usual "Lolita 101" type panels and talked about Lolita in terms of communities and myths about the lifestyle and how to go about communicating and becoming acquainted with people in meetups and stuff like that. It was a surprisingly good turnout, barely anyone left during the panel, and people actually seemed to enjoy what we talked about! Especially with our (sometimes profane) jokes and conversations. It was pretty satisfying.

Since I pretty much gave up on everything as far as the rest of the con, I didn't pay attention to the fact that Moyoco Anno was here this year and was having an autograph session TODAY (Sunday)... so I missed out on yet another person D; bloo





CON SWAG








Nothing much as far as con swag. Yoshitaka Amano FF poster, which I'm glad I was able to get (even though it would've been better to get it signed..  ; w;), TRUTH t-shirt, AC blow-up tomahawk (not shown), the con program and stuff, etc. Paypal had a booth and they gave out candy and things like that. I was actually making jokes about that. They had these hot booth people, had them wear logo printed loafers, give out free candy and a bag (if you had a smartphone) but their service continues to be complete crap. Yeah, ok xD



Susan gave me this Keith keychain that I attached to my camera ; A; #teamsexybrows
I was never a real fan of Tiger & Bunny (I haven't watched past Episode 10 yet..), but I'm all about Keith/Sky High. I don't care about his dorkiness or his inability to get chicks. HE CAN HAS ME ANYTIME



This t-shirt... TRUTH was there giving out these t-shirts and had some interactive stuff that I didn't bother touching, so I'm not at all sure if this is a real game, or just something they made up for a new campaign... but they gave out this t-shirt which is okay looking. The real front of the shirt (above)  is what's shown at first, with the cute cherry creature (below) on the back, but then you flip it inside out...


and there's the same cherry creature looking demonic as all hell. BIG BAG OF #NOPE'S





Overall Comic Con this year didn't seem too interesting... Square Enix didn't have too much to show off. Ubisoft was being cheap this year, lines and crowds were ridiculous, I don't think there was a Rockstar booth... unless I completely missed it. Didn't see Draco Malfoy (rather, didn't want to pay $40), didn't get to see Yoshitaka Amano or Mayoco, bloo. And literally had 10 dollars to my name, so I couldn't get anything period ; w; I'm glad I went though, got to chill with my peeps, and definitely glad I got to go on Thursday, otherwise I would've been exhausted and irritated for the rest of the weekend.. Dunno if I'd be back next year. Maybe I will, and then I'll do the same as I did this year and sell off my badge for part of the weekend... >w>
Friday, October 12, 2012

Prisila pieces!


So at the con I was -finally- able to get the Prisila pieces I ordered from Taobao with friends.

I was pretty disappointed because my friend's Taobaospree agent, Doris, was such a derp. She jacked up the invoice and ended up never ordering one of the hairpieces I wanted..


You might've seen this little tutorial/run-through on tumblr! I was trying to get all the parts in this tutorial, but since the girl goof'd I can't do it anymore , for now, anyways :/ I really do miss having Lucy as my agent...

In any case, I got "2 out of 3" of the things, that being the curly extensions, plus the bang piece. I might need more of the curlys, though... I'll get them eventually, I have plenty of time and the Prisila taobao site isn't going anywhere!


I did a couple of simple updos, just to see how they looked! They're super cute.



The color is TMB, by the way. I wanted to get that color, figuring that it'll be close to my own color, but it's still pretty light. I definitely favor the bang piece over my own makeshift one xD It lays on the face better and doesn't start acting all weird.


In this image you can see the difference between the hair and my own a little bit better.

The difference inspired me, if anything. In a recent Facebook status, I expressed wanting to get a -little- something down to my hair. At first I decided that I'll probably get caramel highlights, since I haven't had highlights since middle school! But then, seeing how this TMB color looks on me, I think I want my own hair to match it almost! I wanted a lighter brown but I want to be safe. (I plan to get my hair done around Christmas/my birthday, which is a pretty bad season for my hair. In the past I've had loads of my hair fall out due to poor conditioning and whatnot, so I avoid any work that's too damaging.) So I think I'll settle to trying to get this in my hair~ and then maybe the caramel highlights to top it off.


Now I just need to plan how I'm going to style my hair for this Saturday... I want try and have it big as always, but how do I accomplish that with just these? Hm...

In any case, these pieces are definitely on my 'to-do' list for wig reviews! Can't wait. Maybe in the meantime I'll start trying to get hair extensions in this color...

3 more days...

I didn't make good use of this week at ALL. It's such a struggle to really focus and concentrate-- I think the hardest part for me is bouncing between three different design concepts... my mind is getting all scrambled and I can't seem to just pull out the elements that I want to...

Today (Thursday) I went to what I'd call 'Day 0' of NY Comic Con. I had to meet up with my teacher who hooked me and my friends up with discounted 4-day passes, so I decided to take that time to look around, play the demos I wanted to play before the craziness that would ensue over the course of the weekend.

I also decided to get my speaker's pass, to just make it easier for myself...
Which was a weekend pass???

NYCC/NYAF was always going back and forth on the passes for panelists and whatnot. I remember at some point in time they gave panelists only one-day passes.. now it's a whole 4-day weekend? @ w@ I don't even

So with that... I'm perfectly capable of attending NYCC all 4 days.. but because of school, I'm not going to do that. It's pretty depressing. That, and the fact that I literally have like 5 dollars to my name at the moment! I can barely feed myself.. I don't even think I have enough trainfare to go back and forth over the whole weekend. .___. so I'm not going to try.

I'll be at the convention all Saturday, hopefully getting all my panels in and whatnot... but Friday and Sunday and Monday will be "busting ass" days, getting together the last of my work and just submitting it, no matter how crappy.

I was never good with deadlines...
Friday, October 5, 2012

NYC Lolita Day Tea Party~


Hey guys! So I'm hosting another tea party this winter for International Lolita Day, here in New York City.
If you're a lolita and you're in the area, visit the EGL page for more information~

Monday, October 1, 2012

Entered the Kawaii International contest..


This time was a "hime" theme, or at least was originally a "himegyaru" theme.

I was actually really dissatisfied with my outfit. I don't know. A part of me wanted to do some D.I.A.-type stuff but that wouldn't have been all that princessy... I also have things from MAR*S but I don't know, I didn't want to dress up in it. Maybe I should have ; w;

So I went with my lolita dress instead.



It was way too simple. ._____. I don't know...
I was still sick so I'll just blame my lethargy on that.
 (My God, I have to post about those heels though. Seriously)

What I -did- like though, was the hair that I managed to do * w*

I basically started playing around with some of my hairpieces... since I barely used the ponytails that went with my brownxpink fade wig from Mintymix, I chopped them up and tried to layer them a bit~

I was playing with them and then I realized hey~ this actually matches the brown on my brownxtan short wig xDD 

I went through the process of straightening the ponytails, and then curling them again to how I wanted them.. and then I took one, put it on my short wig, and started playing around with the matching wire pieces to the split wig... and finally, tried to sort of pin the side up without it looking too jacked. And this was the result!

It was so cute, high-five for creating this 3-toned look xD
I plan to make a video for it soon! I just need to try and touch up the messy points and try to get it looking more correct~


Not expecting myself to win unfortunately, I felt that I could've done so much more outfit and makeup-wise, but hot damn, this hair * w* I cannot

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