07/07/2013 - DEATHGAZE

Sorry for not updating more, I'm terrible at this lately! orz

On Sunday I went to DEATHGAZE's London live! It was such a fun day~ I only decided to go a few days before, but I'm so glad I did!

If you don't know DEATHGAZE, you should check them out! They're excellent, and I highly recommend them to anyone who likes Lynch. (or Nagoya-kei in general). 

It was incredibly hot that day, so I tried to wear something that I wouldn't overheat in too much. 

Despite the heat, I headed to the venue (Camden Underworld, which I love!) a few hours early to hang out with people. At J-rock gigs in London there used to be loads of drama amongst the fans, but it seems to have all calmed down a lot, and everyone was really chill and friendly. We sat, ate ice cream, and complained about the weather in true British style; it was really nice haha. Also, there were so many incredibly well-dressed people! I wanted to take photos, but I was too awkward to ask haha. 

There was absolutely no shade to hide in, so it was crazy hot, and I was really worried I'd get sunburnt. I guess I wore enough sun block, though, because I was fine in the end. You can see how bright it was by how my legs are glowing in the sunlight aha. 

I would have had some weeeeird burn/tan lines haha. (As would Chriss, on the right.)

Photos weren't allowed during the performance, but it was a m a z i n g. I was right at the front on Takaki (lead guitarist)'s side, which is exactly where I wanted to be. DEATHGAZE is one of those bands that sound great in recordings anyway, but so much better in real life. They played amazingly, were very energetic, and interacted with the crowd lots. At some point Ai grabbed the top of my head and just sort of... held it for a couple of seconds. It was strange. He also tried to crowd surf a couple of times, but must have decided we didn't look strong enough, and just leaned out into the crowd instead haha. 

I wanted to buy a CD, but they didn't have the one I wanted, so I just bought this tank top~

There was only one size (S) available, so it's a little big on me and quite unflattering (I'm pretty sure it's meant to be fairly tight-fitting), but I still like it a lot. I've been wanting to get more non-plain tank tops, anyway.

Here it is worn in an outfit:

After the live finished, a large group of us headed to the nearby Bar Fifty Five. Despite being long past happy hour, for some reason they were doing 2-for-1 drinks, which was a great excuse to consume even more ice cream, but in the form of cocktails this time. 

Seriously, if you like ice cream and alcohol, go here. They have loads of different ice cream-based cocktails. 

I'll leave you with my favourite DEATHGAZE song (which can't be embedded gahhh).

28/04/2013

Yesterday I went to Japan Underground~ It was a lot of fun! 

I found my camera charger! So I (or rather, my dad haha) was able to take some slightly more decent photos of my outfit~

Outfit rundown:

Skirt: Miss Selfridge
Top: H&M 
Necklace: tutuHA
Horns: Paris Kids
Garters: Noctex
Shoes: Bodyline
Choker: Ebay

Three bands played at Japan Underground. I actually went to see Brain Death Zombie for the last time before they go back to Japan, but the others were great too! 

Here's a video from Colors, the first band! 

Afterwards some of us (including at least half of Colors, who were really nice) went to another bar (the one in that video, actually!), because Japan Underground finished way too early for our tastes. People kept buying me drinks, so I got a bit too drunk haha. It was a lot of fun, but my head still hurts even now! 

And now, back to stupid barely-frozen-yoghurt-having Birmingham to do the rest of my exams. :< 

17/04/2013

I went out to buy French magazines for my French media coursework today~ 

The weather was actually nice, so I felt like wearing dungarees for the first time in about a year haha. I was wearing mini horns too, but they didn't really show up in the photo. (´・ω・`)

I went into a few other shops too, and came out with this stuff~ The skeleton thing isn't actually a swimsuit, unfortunately, just a bodysuit thing. I have no idea how I'm going to wear it yet, but I'm pretty excited about it haha. I got it (and the frilly socks) from Primark~ The thing above it is a nail art pen by Barry M.

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I also wanted to talk a bit about this band I've just started getting into. They're a relatively new visual kei group called RedruM. I think they have a lot of potential! You can watch one of their previous videos here.

They formed a few years back, but now it seems that Hizumi (ex. D'espairsRay) has become their producer. Apparently he's producing the songs, album art and costumes. As a massive D'espairsRay fan, I'm really excited about this, and it's great to see Hizumi back in music, even if he's not singing. 

There's also a preview of their upcoming PV here. I can really hear Hizumi's influence on it (and it also reminds me of D's music, which is awesome)! I seriously can't wait for the full song to be released~ 

Fun photo-decorating apps!

Recently I've been having loads of fun over-decorating photos with various iPhone apps, so I wanted to blog about some of them. C: I also joined Instagram so I could share them more easily, so follow me if you want!

1. LINE camera

This is the one I've started using most recently, but it's my favourite, because you can do just about everything. There are lots of brushes, filters, and looooads of fun stamps and sparkly things!

There are lots of stamps featuring this character.

2. #Catwang

This one isn't so good for making photos pretty, but you can make some pretty amusing things. It's pretty much just a large collection of cat head, laser, and explosion stamps. 

(I added the hearts in a different app)

3. RAKUGA-cute

This is kind of like a more basic version of LINE camera, but with a wide array of sparkly brushes and cosmetics (blush, false eyelashes, coloured contacts etc.) you can apply, I find it easier to make "pretty" pictures in this one (I rarely do, though, as you can see).

I've been slightly addicted to Costa's Christmas drinks lately.

All of these apps are free, too, so I highly recommend trying one or two (or all of them)!

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Song of the day is Angeldust by D'espairsRay, because it's Karyu (the guitarist)'s birthday. It's also my favourite song of all time. C:

05/12/2012

Hello! It's the last week of term, so on Saturday I can go back to London for the Christmas holiday! 8D There are a few things I've been meaning to post about, so here they are, all in one awkward, poorly structured blog entry: 

 Firstly, I’ve entered Lockshop’s model competition, and if you could take a second to vote for me by clicking ‘like’ on this photo, I’d really appreciate it! (｡-人-｡)

Some gets from the past month or so:

 Tony Moly lip gloss bar

 Dress (that I have no idea how I'll wear lol) from Rare London

Cat ear headband from Topshop

Tights from Primark

And finally, here's an amazing song from Mucc's new album! It's quite similar to their old style, and while I also enjoy their newer, more dancey stuff, it made me really happy to hear it:

04/10/2012

Today I got some tights from New Look. They're the warm, cotton kind, and I love them. 8D I haven't had warm, patterned tights since I was a child haha. 

They might be good for lolita (none of my lolita clothes go with them haha, but I'm sure someone's would).

Close up of pattern.

In other news, university has been good so far. C: In French cinema we're studying horror, so that's cool. On Monday we watched a really old horror film. It wasn't particularly scary (for me, anyway, but other people were freaking out a bit during the screening haha), but entertaining nonetheless. I didn't catch the name, but it was good, so I'll let you know if I find out. 

Also, we have to start organising year abroad (next year) stuff now! I'm really excited about it, but it's kinda scary. If you're studying 3 languages, you have to do one term in two of the countries, and an intensive language course in the 3rd country during the summer holiday at the end of the year. I've decided to go to France first, then Japan, then do the summer course in Italy. Most of the Japanese partner universities are in Tokyo, so I'll probably end up there. 8D In France, we have the option to do a work placement, but I'm probably just gonna go to a university there haha. Paris would be great, but there are limited places, so I probably won't get to go there.

Lately, I've just stopped caring about what's appropriate for the situation and wearing mini horns to class haha:

No one here cares how you dress, though, so it's cool. Unless you're wearing a onesie/kigurumi of some kind. Students seem to love onesies.

Song of the day:

-Finlay

Laser tag, Tron, cooking, haircut

On Friday, Goth Soc. did laser tag! 8D We rented out the whole place so we could play our own music and stuff. Laser tag is so much better when you have this sort of thing playing:

My team lost by far (probably my fault, as I actually got minus points haha), but it was still a lot of fun! 8D

My outfit was a bit boring because I needed something I could run around in easily:

Super awkward photo haha

Afterwards, about half of us decided to go to Eddie's, because Tron (club night playing EBM and such) was on. When we got to the station, the next train wasn't for something like 40 minutes, so some of us went off to find a shop to buy alcohol and start drinking, which made waiting outside for the train a lot more bearable, and by the time we got to Eddie's, I was already quite drunk without having spent much at all. I don't remember an awful lot from that point on, but I do remember being super excited when they played this haha:

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Today I just did some grocery shopping, but here's my outfit:

Inspired by Nana.

I also tried cooking something new, and it turned out really well! It was based off this recipe.

Also, last night I cut my own hair because it was a mess and annoying me. It's not amazing, but I like it better than before, and I've actually paid for worse, so yeah. 

It's actually quite a bit shorter, but I straightened it a lot in this picture to make sure things were even. You can probably see the real length better in the outfit shot.

-Finlay

LGBTQ bar crawl

Thursday was the LGBTQ society bar crawl, which was a lot of fun! Here's what I wore:

I should really start taking outfit shots before I start drinking, but I'm sure you get the idea of how it looked.

And this one is just to show you how the tank top I talked about in the last post looks worn, because I really like it haha.

Make up. It didn't show up in the photo very well, but I tried contouring a bit. 

Better view of ear cuff and hair. 

There was about 40 people on the crawl, and they were really nice! I even met a few people who like K-pop (and not just PSY haha). I think we went to 4 bars in the gay district, and one big club at the end (quite a few of them gave us free jelly shots, too 8D ). Although I had fun, the music really wasn't my thing (pretty much the same as every club ever), so I probably won't go to any of the places very often, except for maaaaybe the last club if I have  fun people with me. 

Cocktail slush 8D

I actually lost my wristband right before the last club, but the guy on the door was really nice and let me in anyway. C: And then later the fire alarm went off, and everyone had to go and loiter around outside/eat burgers for a while. 

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Ending on a completely different note, have you guys heard the preview of Mucc's new song? I can't wait to hear the full thing! :D

Apparently it's gonna be an ending song for Naruto though lol

Uni, outfit shot, recommendations

This week has been fun so far! 

Tuesday was the first Rock Society weekly bar social thing of the year. Even though I went a few times last year, I was quite nervous because I'm still socially awkward haha. It actually turned out to be really fun, though. There were a lot of first years there, so loads of people didn't know anyone. Eventually they played Gangnam Style haha, so we just danced to that.

Here is my friend's giant foot (next to mine for comparison):

And here was my outfit for the day:

Today was the first Italian class. I really like the new teacher! He's really funny, and seems to be a good teacher. Last year's teacher was lovely, but wasn't so good haha.

Because there are no classes for anyone on Wednesdays for some reason, the LGBTQ society has coffee afternoons. I was kinda nervous about this one too (especially because I couldn't just drink to make myself more sociable haha), but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Everyone was lovely, and half the people were just as awkward as me haha, so that was nice. Tomorrow they're doing a bar crawl (to gay clubs etc.). I'm really looking forward to it!

On an unrelated note, I wanted to recommend these face masks by Naisture to you:

I got some in America, and I really like them! They make your skin so soft and glowy. C: Furthermore, they only cost like $1 each!

Finally, have you guys seen Kyary's latest video? I didn't like the song much at first, but it's really grown on me!

What do you think of it?

24/09/2012

Today was the first day of class! In the morning I had to go to another timetabling meeting, this time for Italian. I got my first choice of non-language module: translation! I love translating things (I legit just do it for fun sometimes), so I'm really looking forward to it! 

After that I had several hours free, so I went to try and find some tights/warm clothes. As you'll see, I'm terrible at actually buying what I go out for, but yeah, here's what I got:

 Lunchbox from Paperchase, because now I'm not on the meal plan I have to take care of food myself haha

 On sale in New Look. It reminds me of the Onespo tomato print dress. Would have been more useful a couple of months ago when it was actually warm, but I'm sure I can work with it.

 Long tank top from River Island

After having no luck finding tights anywhere else, I wandered into Blue Banana (for those that don't know, it's sort of like Hot Topic, only much cheaper), not really expecting much, but found these for £2 each! The legs are a little short, but it's not a huge problem.

The stars are glittery!

I was actually considering buying these same bat tights online just last night, but didn't because I didn't know the site and it looked a little sketchy haha (and they cost more on there), so I'm super happy to have found these! 

After shopping, I headed back for Japanese class. Like last year, we have two teachers, but one of them has changed now. :< But the new teacher seems nice/funny, so I guess it's not the end of the world. And we have three new people in our class; I was really surprised! There are two French girls doing their year abroad, and one English one, but I'm not quite sure why she's suddenly here haha. 

Finally, you should all go and watch UCHUSENTAI:NOIZ's new PV, because it's goooood:

-Finlay

15/09/2012 - Karaoke and clubbing

Yesterday was so busy, but so much fun! 

Outfit shot:

The only thing I'd actually planned to do that day was karaoke with some friends, which was a lot of fun. Because I can't sing, I had to drink a lot first haha, and even after that I was mostly just moral support/backup dancer lol. All (10ish) of us did Gangnam Style together, and it was beautiful. Turns out none of us really know the lyrics though lol, and they were in Korean on the screen (which I and one other girl could read, but nowhere near fast enough lol).

Because it's my last weekend in London before I go back to Birmingham for university (on Wednesday), I really wanted to go clubbing, and texted a couple of people. Alex wanted to go, but was already at some J-pop club, but said he'd go after. The J-pop thing was actually quite near my house, so I decided to go to that. 

Found my shoe twin!

We stayed for a few hours, then headed off to Slimelight at about 1am, stopping briefly at my house for more alcohol. I think we stayed at Slimelight until about 6am, then went to McDonald's, where I had two breakfasts (which I feel really bad about haha), because I'm never awake early enough for breakfast there, and wanted to try everything. 

I leave you with a song from a band I really like lately (GANGLION). It's an all-female visual kei band, and the vocalist is the gorgeous Kera model Oni. 

-Finlay

13

Today would be the thirteenth birthday of D'espairsRay ("would" because they're now disbanded), my favourite band! If you don't know them, it's definitely worth giving them a try! Here are some of my favourite songs of theirs:

My favourite song ever

Their first demo tape

-Finlay

14/08/2012 ☆

Today's outfit:

Just felt like wearing these super old jeans suddenly, but they're way too big for me haha.

I wanted to try this hair style I saw Kyary doing (the camera focused on my face though >:c you can probably see it better in the full body picture). It didn't go quite as planned because my hair isn't really long enough, but I still kinda like the result:

Make up was sort of inspired by her too.

This entry wasn't very interesting, so I leave you with this song that I really love recently:

The vocalist is the Kera model Akira. She's probably my favourite model. c: I was really surprised to find out she could also sing well!  

-Finlay