2022 personal gal recap 🎉

 Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful start to your year!! 🎉💕

I thought that the best way to finish starting off here would be to also take a look at my progress the past year as a sort of baseline... to see where I can improve and also because I've been really excited about my looks finally! 🥰

It's fun to catalog everything, but I also would like my progress time to be visible for anyone curious 🤠

So.. what was I up to in 2022?💋

Last winter into spring I was experimenting with hime gyaru a lot! 🎀 It's still a newer style to me versus my usual tsuyome crutches so it took me a minute to find the vibe that works best on me✨️

My Ageha issues from 2007-2008 show some really long, straight lashes and thinner eyeliner even for their hime spreads, so I tried that! ✨️ plus tested a new wig that came a lot darker than I'd hoped 😅 I still think the wig can work since ageha does feature this color sometimes! But I'd love to get it a shade or two lighter!!

references for hair and makeup from Ageha December 2008:

More hime experimentation through spring... I definitely leaned more and more into Jesus Diamante for the style, and I think I prefer softer makeup for my hime vibe? ✨️ 

I was (and am) so proud of this acrylic set I did myself!!! It came out dreamy 🥹

And I've come to really appreciate unusual colors in hime coords! Something about a nice sax or monochrome coord that isn't pink feels so fresh, since most hime we see is all pink all the time 💖

Hiding under all the hime wigs were roots I tragically wouldn't end up touching back up for *a whole year* 😭😭😭

Normally I'd go to the salon at least every few months but with quarantining and everything else going on, it just wasn't happening and I tried to make peace with being yellow 🍋 (笑)

I did start to test out some old school looks finally! Can you believe I've been in the style this long and never went for it? 🤯 

I'd love to get into banba eventually, at least to a level where I feel capable of pulling off the makeup! 💖

I also really loved sparkly catty eyes this past summer!!✨️ also gonna admit I shamelessly wore the maxi dress every week! If its a good look *and* comfortable, you can bet I'm gonna repeat that coord! 😆

I wore this ma*rs look out for my first time trying karaoke! It was super nerve wracking especially because I went with another gal, so all the self consciousness was tripled 😖

 but at least the look was super cute!💕

See? I told you sax is gorgeous for hime!! 🥰

And then as it got hotter out I settled back into tsuyome~ It's just so much more wearable in the humidity for me 😭 

I don't find JD fabrics to be breathable at all and worse, they show if you sweat.. 😖

So I made my peace with d.i.a items and makeup that felt cool but glamorous ✨️

This test was somewhat inspired by the always iconic Izumi Mana 💖

It also marks the beginning of my experimentation with namidabukuro! 

This experiment is where I realized that if I place the shadow properly, I can hide my inevitable eyeshadow creasing and mask my dark circles a bit 😭😭💕 They're hereditary, and I know a lot of middle eastern people struggle with them, but it's always made me really self conscious! I tend to edit them out of my older photos but I'll circle back (ha!) to them again later in this post because it was an ongoing journey for the year ww

Some references for this eyemake:

Anddd back to more coords w

I think by this time in the year I felt kind of stagnant and like I didn't know what to do with myself, so I just hung out in my comfort zone and played with different lashes 🥲 

I also tried something new one of the days I met up with my friend Sasha 🤠 

Oraora is another substyle I haven't really touched until this year! It was definitely fun, but I think I'm just not naturally edgy (笑)

Okay, now hear me out because I'm jumping for joy about this one even though it isn't my best look... I didn't edit this next one!! 🤯 

Stray hairs in my face or not, my dark circles? gone!! Throwing some matte pale yellow eyeshadow under my eyes after color correcting blew my mind and opened up a whole new world for me 😭

 I went on to get better products for everyday use but I can't say enough about how amazing it is to not have to edit that area under every single photo anymore 🥹🥹

(I havent used filters in probably a year and a half, but I will smooth out blemishes and alter lighting and stuff where necessary, fyi!) 

 

Then I finally made it back to the salon! 🎉

It was so revitalizing to not have crazy grown out roots anymore, and the color was amazing!! It got better and better as it faded out as some real icing on the cake 🥹🍰

It also kicked off a bit of an agejo revival for me since that was my inspo for the color 😆

I find agejo really difficult honestly! It's not that I don't love it, agejo is how I first fell for gal.. but a lot of the shapes and cuts never seem to fall on me properly 💔

I've been slowly learning what pieces will work on me and trying to focus on coordinating those in an agejo way instead! 

Not really a gal eye look, but the next one is a good (and rare) photo of my "running out the door" daily make 😆

 I've been trying to find something that keeps a similar-ish shape to my galmake while not requiring lashes and everything else! 

I think it's good to have makeup looks that you can fall back onto for work or other times that doing a full look wouldn't be totally appropriate or doable 🥲 sometimes you just gotta spot conceal, draw some eyes on, and call it a day ww

ft. the lashes I used to absolutely swear by in college 🥹💕 they'll always be classic to me!

September was another really good month for me in gal 💖

Getting to see ex-bdia member Keichamu off before she went back to Japan 🥲💕 We'd met up a few times before but it was always so busy we'd forget to take photos! I'm happy we finally have pics for the memories 🥰

I changed into sneakers because you won't catch me dead trying to survive in stilettos when the plans involve nothing but walking all day 🤣

Did I wear my gauchos a lot this year? Yup.

But they're seriously so comfortable!! 

I wanna find the white lace pair next year for sure 😆

And then my birthday happened 🥳

I love boho coords so much!! 😆💕

This was also when I started to really feel my looks hit their stride for the year!

 The most gyaru Vix yet 🥹

I got to meet Tsuki from SelfishxRomance while she was in town all the way from Spain over summer too! 🥹💖 

She's so sweet and it was fun getting to finally catch up with another long time gal irl 🥰

The fit n make that day from before the heat got to me ww

I tried an onee look for the first time too!

The coord was using solely items I already had in my closet, so honestly it's not that great as far as representing the style goes 😭 

But I feel like the makeup was really really good! I would have taken more pictures but the dry body oil I used broke me out in hives right after these 🤧 totally my luck!

 I'll try an updated version with some better onee pieces eventually!

References from the Rienda Girls blog 💖:

Finally got to coord this d.i.a top properly! 🥰

ft. a bolder eyeliner than I've done in ages

And trying to make more use of my legwarmers 💖 

Is it weird that I find it hard to decide what weather they work for? I feel like it's always too hot for fur or too cold for bare legs 😭 maybe I need to stop looking for the "right" time and just go for it more often!

I finally gave proper himekaji a try too! 💕

I've owned a lot of Liz Lisa, but I've never really had the right makeup/hair/coord all at once to consider a look worth posting 💔

These were super fun and I'd love to find more himekaji items that suit my body and style! My ideal for himekaji is to keep an Ageha vibe more than to look like Liz Lisa staff, just to suit how mature I look better 🤔

...and then a look from one of the days I got to meet up with Kira 🥰

Kira gave me a pair of Princess Eye lowers to play with because I haven't tried them since I was a baby gal 🥹💕 I wound up loving them and can't wait to use them more often for some extra ✨️drama✨️!!

Some agejo tests with goldsinfinity instead of ma*rs for once! I definitely think I prefer looks like these for the style 💖

I tested more banba too! But I'm still not in a place that's satisfying even now 😖

I know the lips would be better nude but I felt washed out that day and kept fiddling.. adding a little more makeup... regretting that the reference I used from Ego System didnt have obvious false lashes (I dont feel right without them for gal, on my face).. and just generally wasn't feeling the makeup that day 💔

 It happens! That's why we test things out and experiment! I'm sure that next year I'll be able to find a look that feels right!

Also if you noticed my hair getting orange.. no you don't 💀 I started trying to upkeep the color after a certain point with some Adore semi permanent dye so that it won't fade out to yellow again... but their cinnamon color was more firey than ideal for me (笑) I'm gonna mix in some honey blonde and hope that helps for the future! ✨️

From a hime meetup with Kira in which I was totally cool and prepared and definitely didn't change outfits multiple times until I was happy 😤🤧

I looooved this d.i.a coord but ran out the door before I got more pictures 💔

Andddd to top off my looks for this year 🎉

I found a way to layer my maxi with a cropped sweater for winter and I couldn't be happier! I snuck some thermal tights under the skirt too 🤠 

I love finding new ways to wear favorite pieces, especially when it means they work for multiple seasons! 🍂

So those were my most notable looks this year that I remembered photos for!

 I don't usually take pictures on days where I don't feel done up enough 🤧 There's plenty of normal days in between where I'm lazy about my hair or stick to more casual makeup so that I can leave faster or not stress about my lashes coming loose somehow ww 

✨️What major things did I learn?✨️

*I really don't feel my best when I let things go.. keeping my hair bleached and dyed and my roots managed really helps me feel gal! I've always felt blah about my hair being dark when I'm in gal too (笑)

I also felt totally amazing with my long claws when I was able to do acrylics at home! I'd love to be able to find the right salon for me next year 🤞

*Covering my dark circles properly boosts my confidence so much!! It took a LOT of trial and error, it turns out that pink/peach/orange color correctors all do nothing for me on their own without extra help! Finding a method that not only hides them in good lighting (since there's no getting rid of the actual hollows safely) but lasts throughout the day is one of my biggest gal accomplishments this year!! 🎉

*I also got into style analysis and have been trying to pinpoint my body type using the kibbe system and what color season I am! 

It blew my mind when it started to finally click that a lot of the periods where I was fashionable but felt "off" were times I was using the worst possible palettes for my skin tone! 🤯 it's also so validating to see some of my favorite wardrobe pieces and colors fit right into what's reccomended for my types!! Like "yes!! I knew that was good!" I'd love to make an in-depth post about this later for others wanting to explore it! 🥰🥰

*And ultimately I want to connect with more gals this year! 💖 I'm all for doing the style for myself/my own intrinsic happiness, but I miss the days when the community felt tight knit and like everyone was in a healthy competition to improve and be the best~

I wanna challenge myself more, make more friends, and hopefully sharing what I've learned can help others gals or at least entertain them too 🤠

See ya soon 🥰