GAL 109 MONTH MEME

Hi!! How are you? I know, I'm spamming but this month the adorable Reilaless with other gals created this "109 Gyaru Month" full with gal activities so I'm on FIIIIIIIIRE
They put together panels, makeup and parapara lessons, group videos and blogging projects and so on T__T

Obviously I had to take part to the blogging activities XD

So today's activity is a gyaru meme *0* 

You can find this challenge's template here

 Let's start!

 GAL 109 MEME   

1. Name / Gyaru nickname and country: 
I'm Natsumi or Natsumin, and I'm from Italy 🇮🇹

2. Since when are you gyaru? 

I started around 2008/2009, but my first attempts can't be seen as gyaru 🤣 in 2010 I finally stopped being stubborn and accepted a lot of advices from other gals who were more informed than me at that time; following their suggestions I started buying magazines and then BOOM! I became totally obsessed. My love for gyaru had some ups and downs, I quitted 2 times due to some problems, but everytime I regretted it and came back to gal www

 
3. How did you discover the style?  

Probably in the "worst" way lol: through Super Gals! Manga XD I say it's the worst way because I was so obsessed with it, that my first gyaru attempts were more bad cosplay attempts than gal www thank goodness after some time I got to Gyaru Wardrobe, an Italian site about gyaru, and discovered the "real" gyaru style www
The funny thing is that I read SuperGals since 2003/2004 (when it was published in Italy), and I was obsessed with it back then, my first alternative fashion attempt ever was actually a Ran inspired outfit XDDDD me and my bestie back then were obsessed with it (we even called each other "Ran" and "Aya", and I was Aya www), we spent a lot of time searching and customizing our clothes to make them similar to theirs... (obviously no makeup, no big hairstyles cuz we didn't have the skills or the products) Then we started the HS, got into rock/metal sh*t and bye bye gyaru XDDDDD Only I came back to it 5 years later, in 2008, sadly with the same concept of gyaru in mind that I had back in 2003 XDDD thanks goodness internet allowed me to learn the right way wwww 
Here you can see how I changed through my three big "phases", it took me a while to find those pics XDDDD

4. What's your current substyle? Why do you like it?  

This question is always hard for me www I love every single side of gyaru so I tend to wear a lot of substyles depending on seasons, my mood, where I go etc. But I can say my most worn styles are agejo, onee and tsuyome! Mainly because I'm old www I have a job that only allows me elegant clothes (so onee) and I love strong, feminine coords so my choice often comes to be agejo or tsuyome! 

 
5. What are your current booms? 

OMG I have so many! But the strongest ones surely are Chanel, AGEHA, Duras, Cecil McBee and white/beige/cream colors!

6. Share 3 of your fav codes. Why do you like them so much?

 

 I choose those three cuz they represent my favorite styles: colorful gyarukei, agejo, tsuyome and ora ora/anegyaru :D I think those represent every side of me, also you can see my favorite wig and my favorite hairstyle with my real hair www

7. Share 3 things your learned during your Gyaru journey.

Apart from makeup and hairstyle skills, I had to learn how to take criticisms and learn from what other gals point out; even bad comments can point out a real mistake (example: I ended up on gyaru_secrets because of my large nose; even if the comment was offensive it was right somehow, cuz back then I didn't care about contouring and without that secret probably I wouldn't started to learn how to contour) so I had to take my time to think about the criticisms I received and try to take the best lessons out of them.

Another thing I learned is to mix and match, I have to say XDDD when I was younger I loved colors but I used to mix them in the worst ways XDDD especially cuz I was influenced by manga and anime 

Now if I ever mix again pink and brown at least I know how to do it www

Last thing I learned that I wanted to share is that thanks to gyaru I finally started to take care of myself - literally.

Gal's motto is "Get wild and be sexy" but is also love yourself, to me. After all why we dress this style? Cuz we want to look amazing for ourselves. And isn't this love for ourselves?

Thanks to gyaru I started to do skincare, haircare and tried to have a healthy life style (but also funny, so I still eat out or drink sometimes XD), but also I started to work hard on myself to improve as a person too before as a gyaru.

A beautiful appearence is useless if the inside is ugly, isn't it? So gyaru really pushes me to move forward and become the best version of myself.
8. Share 3 gaijin gals and 3 Japanese gals you look up to.

It's hard to choose just 3 T___T

Western:

Georgie, cuz she's the western Tsubasa Masuwaka to me, she should have a makeup or fashion line imho!! I love her taste, her chameleon style, and all her knowledge sorry I'm a fangirl www

Lizzie Bee, cuz following her gyaru journey through her blog never made me feel alone, and her style is so dear and cute!!

Emirichuu, I know she left gal but I still look her old gal video in loop and I love her AGEHA boom into my heart T_T even if she won't dress the style anymore her old looks are still a big inspo

   Japanese:

Yumachi, cuz she's still gal, have you seen her IG?? Even if she toned down she's still undeniably gal

Chie, cuz through her journey she tried so many styles and trends that her blog is like a gal manual to me

 Sakurina, cuz she's the goddess of AGEHA and her movie "Girl's Life" is another gyaru manual to me XDD
9. What's your favorite Gyaru memory?

Surely is this 2016 Harajuku Fashion Walk! I was there with my besties back then and had the best time of my life XD I truly lived the gal lifestyle that day, and had so much fun! I miss a lot those days, but now my life doesn't allow me to do this kind of events and nobody here dresses gyaru anymore :'D
10. What would do advice to people who want to start in the style but doesn't have the courage yet?

My advice is to have courage XD here in Italy we say "Buttati, che è morbido" ("Jump, it's soft underneath") XDDD 

Jokes aside, if you really want to be gyaru, then be gyaru! Take your time to study, learn how this fashion works and make lots of attempts and experiments; you don't need to spend lot of money from the start (in the 2008 pic I'm wearing flea market clothes and a Liz Lisa shirt I managed to buy for 10$ on ebay www) and above all DON'T RUSH, everybody grows at different speed (it took me more than TEN years to get this look and it's not even the best for me) so don't be hard to yourself and have fun!!

And remember: it's just clothes and makeup XDDD they don't bite, and if you get negative comments don't give up, as I said above, but try to take the best lessons from them! There's nothing wrong if you fail and in those failures you can learn and improve yourself!

Also, you're never too old for this ;) I'm 30 and I still do this and I'll do this until I die XD and if somebody says you're too old they can go to... "relax" themselves somewhere else wwwww

I wish you all a fun gyaru journey!!

*Challenge ended*

I'm so happy about this month's event, I swear T___T if somebody manages to organize also an international meet I would die happy, I swear

Anyway while I'm here I'll show you my co*de from yesterday:

 

トップ,ベルト: d.i.a

ズボン: D-Stiag

付属品: Chrome Hearts replica, aliexpress 

I was inspired by this Yumachi's co*de

 

Simple makeup yesterday, I was in a rush as always ops but I tried to follow some steps from Emiriichu last makeup tutorial

I played around with SNOW filters, I found this one and now I look like Kinashen www

Now I'll go back watching the routine for the parapara session, see you soon and take care!

Yours, Natsumin~

Summer Memories n. 2: Mid-August Barbecue + Pool Day + Second Vacation

How are you? I'm back with the second part of my summer memories!

It's a long post with lots of pics so beware XD

Let's start!

Mid-August Night Barbecue

On 15th August in Italy it's Mid-August (feast of the assumption) Festival! Most shops and stores are closed for the holiday and most people have a barbecue or go camping, to enjoy summer at its peak :) so with S.'s friends we had a barbecue in his courtyard. He lives in another city so he picked me up by the station, and as we drove to his home I noticed that the city was decorated with lights *0*

This was my co*de:

トップ: Galeo
パンツ: d.i.a
付属品: Chrome Hearts replica, Aliexpress 

 

As soon as we arrived also his friends reached his home too so we lighted up the grill and the night started!

We made french fries and salad too so at the end I was so full www

But it was a nice night  

Do you celebrate Mid-August in your country?

Pool Day at Otre'

On 20th I went with my parents at the pool one last time before my second vacation, cuz my holidays would have ended when I would came back from it, so it was my last chance to spend a day with them :)

So I invited them to go at Otre', a beautiful pool that my friend Nerissa recommended me

The pool was so nice but small XD I loved that it looked like a beach but my mom was annoyed by the dimension www

The place was so beautiful and there were kittens too T_T 

 

I don't have any outfit pics of that day but at least you can see my bikini www

I took a lot of pics with my family that I love but I can't post any cuz my parents don't wanna be online... well at least I can print and hang them lol XD

And finally on 21st of August me and my hometown friends left for our vacation at Sunsets Residence!

Beach, Pool, Sun and D&D XD

 

Sunsets Residence Week

 We arrived on Saturday with a lot of troubles XD we had to split our luggage between F. and R.'s cars but R. had to reach us on Sunday to wait our other friend Fe. 8D so we arrived with half of our things lmaooo 

We also arrived a bit too early so we had to wait ages to do our check in lol

But the place is so perfect and nice that it's worth any wait

We wasted a lot of time and were too tired to cook so we decided to go to Gallipoli and eat out at WeGrill, a grilled meat restaurant (like the name says, I mean XD)

The meat was really good but I wished I checked the portions before ordering www

On Sunday we simply enjoyed the pool the whole morning while waiting for R., our friend who organized a D&D campaign to play during the vacation 

 

As always I was a half-orc barbarian www

  

 

I could finally wear my Banana Moon bikini top that I love so much T_T

 

In the afternoon R. arrived and, since he is our DM, he had a quest for us: reach Torre Uluzzo

 

It's a side of the coast where was a tower that was demolished a long time ago; we were really high so the view was breathtaking we explored the surrounding and enjoyed the nature (even if I was a bit scared of the height XD) 

We saw a pirate (?) ship XD like in our D&D adventure www 

 

 Finally F. and M. found the hidden treasureeeee

 

 Actually at this point I almost cried cuz I'm stupid and misunderstood everything and thought this was a big surprise from F. to M. to ask her to marry him XDDDD

It wasn't lol it really just was a quest by R. :')

After that we decided to watch the sunset and then go back to the residence to solve the riddle inside the box

 

 

After sunset we went back, cooked our dinner and then proceeded to solve the riddle... we can say we had to cook it too www XD 

 

 

R. did a riddle which could be solved only warming the ink with high temperatures

Guess who thought of doing it? XD my teenager passion for spies came out useful wwww XDDDD

 

We played until late night so on Monday almost everybody woke up after 12PM, just me and Sa. woke up early so we spent the day in the pool, waiting for the others to wake up

 

Then after lunch we went back in the pool together 

 

And this time I wore the bikini S. gave me for my bday

In the evening our D&D adventure went on, between laughs and lots of mojito www (thanks F. XD)

On Tuesday we woke up and saw that a big storm was approaching

 Me and Sa. woke up early again so we tried to go to the pool anyway, and guess what?

Yes, we ended under the rain.

 

So in the end we had to wait under the cafe's canopy, playing cards and chatting 

 

After lunch the sun came out again, so we could go to the pool, but the boys wanted to join the darts tournament so we gave it a try (losing www)

 

My bikini that day:

On Wednesday the plan was still the same, pool by the day, D&D and mojito by night ww

On Thursday we wanted to go to the beach in the morning, but everybody woke up late and the sky was cloudy so we just went one hour in the pool

We went back to our chalet for lunch, cooked and prepared to eat outside (for space reason we had to move the kitchen's table outside in the garden), but after 5 minutes a thin rain started to come down...

And after other 5 minutes it became a storm...

WHYYYYY

 

The rain became heavy so fast that we literally had to run inside lol

We finished eating then waited for the rain to stop playing Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

 

I've exploded lol

Homemade aperitif lol

Finally around sunset the rain stopped... The sky started clearing and here you can see why this place is called "Sunsets Residence"

It was too late to go to the beach or the pool so we just enjoyed the sunset drinking, then we had our usual D&D night XD

On Friday we went to the beach "La Grotta", it's called like this cuz it's a cliff over a small semi submerged cave :) since you can reach it only from a pinewood where everybody could go without any survelliance we preferred to leave our phones and wallets at the chalet, so I don't have any pics of it, sorry :') I'm sad cuz it's a magnificent place, no sand, only rocks, soil and pines, a totally different type of beach... and I never get any pic of it because we could be robbed :')

Anyway we had a bath in the sea and reached the cave *O* it was more nice than I thought, there was also enough place to sit down and chat XD we ended up doing stupid stuff and singing, it was fun cuz at some point we started to sing a famous italian song called "Estate" by Negramaro and everybody else in the cave started to sing along us XD so in a second the whole cave became a giant acoustic box playing Estate loud XDDDD

Also F. made frozen pink mojito and took it with him, so after the bath we sat in the sun and drank and had one of the best afternoon ever lol

It was quite magic www

On Saturday it was time to leave too :')))

We packed everything, had our last breakfast at the cafè, said goodbye to the bartenders and the entertainers XD and had our last morning at the pool

Bye Bye Sunsets, see you next year!

 

At lunch the pool closes so around that time we went to the car and left, heading to Lido Conchiglia (Seashell Beach), near Gallipoli

 

We stopped there to have lunch at La Maruzzella, a fresh fish restaurant which is really famous in this area

  

The view from our table 

 

 Fried fresh squid rings

 

Spicy seafood spaghetti

 

Paranza (Mixed small fresh fish, fried whole)

 

Everything was so good! I hope we go there again next year www

After lunch we really had to go home XD but first we did a quick stop to Ostuni

 

And then our vacation was over! But before saying goodbye (my friends all live in other cities to study and come back on holidays or other occasions) Sa. organized one last barbecue in his mansion

A tub to make wine used as plant pot lol I want it XD

 

Thanks F. as always for being our barman XD

This was my co*de for the barbecue:

シャツ: Terranova
トップ,ショーツ: d.i.a
付属品: Aliexpress, Chrome Hearts replica, Flea Market 

 

And finally it's over XD Sorry for the spam but I really, really wanted to remember this summer, it was special to me :3

That's all for today, have a nice day and take care!

Yours, Natsumin~