Strawberry Vibe

Amai Furiku? 11

It’s finally up :) took some time (darn technology) but it’s done and posted!

Please, go check it out ^^

I would like people to email me submissions for my 12th (1 year anniversary) edition of the article next month! If you have any photos of you wearing any j fashion, please email your favourite along with your main blog address to missescupcakeface@hotmail.co.uk

The best ones will be featured in next month’s article so what are you waiting for?

Photo by Charles Shepherd

Amai Furiku? 10 !

Hello everyone! It’s a little overdue, but finally got my newest article posted up for you all :) please enjoy!

New article

is up now!

:)

Amai Furiku? 2

This was my 2nd article, posted nearly 6 months ago.

Find the rest here.

Amai Furiku?
- The sweet freak’s guide to VK fashion

All brand clothing is notoriously expensive and the new h.naoto x kera line is no exception. The new floaty babydoll dresses cost a staggering 15,540円 (about £117/$176). There is no doubt that the garments are beautifully made and of course look gorgeous, but that amount of money may be a little too much for some of us to pay out.

Lucky for us, there are a few alternatives. Ebay is full of stores dedicated to gothic, visual, lolita and generally alternative clothing and accessories. Off brand clothing will always be cheaper, but remember that you often get what you pay for. Admittedly, a lot of the stores are China based, so beware and be sure to check the ratings before buying.

Also, Ebay has many private sellers who maybe have too much in their wardrobe and need to make room for that BTSSB JSK.
This is often a great way to buy clothing as often, private sellers will be more than willing to take extra photos and help out as much as they can to get their items to a new loving home.

Another interesting site is fururun.com. It is in Japanese, so you will probably be best off searching it in Google first, and then translating the page. Essentially, it is a second hand online store for all things J-fashion. You can find inexpensive brand clothing as well as some even cheaper off brand. Each item is graded according to the state and quality of the item, “A” being the best.

Lastly, there are many journals and blogs dedicated to VK fashion, many of which are US and UK based. You will often find that true aficionados of VK/J-fashion will sell on their older items (often in pristine condition) in order to gain money to buy more brand clothing. I recently was bought a gorgeous pink Bodyline cardigan from a mini matsuri for only £15/$24 as there was slight bobbling on the material!


 

Now, those infamous sarueru pants. Love them or hate them, they’re extremely popular right now. While browsing for some brand sarueru, I came across these beautiful Deoart pants.

They look as though they would be very flattering and they have some subtle, but cute detailing. However, the price threw me off a little. They are cheaper than the h.naoto x kera line, but at £67/$105, it’s still a tad too much for me to splurge out on. So I made it my mission to search for an alternative.

Sarueru are very fashionable right now in both eastern and western cultures. They are currently available in a variety of shapes, lengths, sizes, colours and patterns from many different stores both in the highstreet and on the internet. Highstreet stores such as Select, H&M and New Look all stock differing styles. It is certainly far cheaper to buy from the highstreet and places like ebay.

The problem is, a lot of the sarueru sold in these places are quite plain or dull. This can be a plus point though as they are suitable for both men and women. Once you have found your perfect pair of sarueru (the cheapest ones I have found are about £15/$24, that’s less than a quarter of the Deoart pants!) it’s time to customise. And so you don’t have to do the legwork, we’ve done some searching for you!

In most towns, there are craft stores or dollar/pound stores. These are treasure troves for buttons, beads and various things you can stick and sew to your clothes. Ebay also has a huge selection of stores selling these sorts of things. I found these beautifully detailed silver buttons from a UK based Ebay store called “Dragonswann Designs” and it only costs about £2/$3 for 10 of these buttons.

Don’t fret, they also ship internationally! With these buttons, you could either imitate brand sarueru by sewing them at the top, or you could use your creativity and make interesting patterns or even sew them on sporadically to get a new and interesting look.

The braces on the Deoart pants add a really nice touch and I found a store on Ebay called “ChasingRainbows” that sells a variety of different coloured and patterned braces for only about £3/$4!

Finally, the chains. Chains are not necessary but will add something else to look at on your newly decorated pants. Chains can be found in plenty of places; if you want heavier chains, try pet stores and dollar/pound stores, if you want more delicate and patterned chains, try jewellery stores, antique stores and even raid your own jewellery box. The chains could be sewn into the pants, but if you can’t bear the thought of sewing on your prized necklaces and bracelets, try sewing on some belt loops if your pants don’t have these already. All you’ll need is a couple of small pieces of fabric which you could probably nab from your mum’s sewing box!

Approx final cost: £25/$39
This is only a small fraction of the price of brand sarueru!

Add anything else you like, after all, VK is about being unique! I’d love to see anything that you come up with, so if you decide to try this, email me your photos!

Here, I am modelling a pair of patterned sarueru from a China based shop on Ebay- “Little Chili Shop”. They were pretty cheap, again, about the £15/$24 
mark.

 

To accessorise, I added a pretty pink studded belt (mine is Lowlife brand) and a cute Miffy phone case. I found some old braces and wore these as an extra accent, similar to the Deoart sarueru.
Obviously men can wear them too, and this is often the case in J-fashion. Charles can be seen wearing the same pair of sarueru; he has added a plain silver dog chain to accessorise.

Amai Furiku? 1

Originally posted here: Visual Kei Heaven

This was my first article for the blog, first posted nearly 7 months ago!

Please enjoy and spread the word about the blog :)

Amai Furiku?
-The sweet freak’s guide to VK fashion


 

Hi! My name is Ellen, but on the interwebs I go by any number of variations of the name “Pandora”.
I love hair, makeup and fashion and so I’m here to bring you news and tips and tricks on VK fashion and the many variants and spin offs of VK.
Myself and my partner in crime, Charles (Skeletone Creep) will be bringing you new articles monthly to feed your addiction to all things VK fashion related.
You can expect news on VK fashion lines, tutorials, product reviews, places to shop and more. You will also see sneak previews of my photoshoots!
If I can get my camera working, I may even be able to make some video tutorials :)

If you have any suggestions or anything you particularly want to see, please email me at missescupcakeface@hotmail.co.uk.

This month, we have an online store review for you!





bodyjewelleryshop.com is actually a UK based company, but they ship overseas for a reasonable amount- Standard International Mail is only £1.90 and free if you spend over £10. You can also upgrade your shipping to tracked Airsure for as little as £4.95 ($7.50)

The store is great for those everyday fashion accessory essentials from the obvious body jewellery, to contact lenses, makeup, hair dye and more.

Since the store’s namesake is the main thing it sells, we’ll look at their body jewellery first.
They have a huge variety of piercing jewellery. There are so many different materials to choose from (they even stock flesh plugs made from coral!) and the website has an easy navigation bar on the side to help you choose whether you would like to search by material, the type of jewellery and places on the body. There is also an advanced search option where it lets you search the specifics of your jewellery for example the gauge, colour and material. They have a great deal of information on body piercings as well as a gallery full of images of people’s various piercings.
For those of you possibly feeling a bit daunted by the idea of getting a piercing to pay homage to your favourite VK guitarist, they also have a large selection of “non piercing jewellery” which can often look just as good as the real thing. They even sell special glue for them! Besides this, they also sell cleaning solutions to keep your piercings feeling clean and fresh.

Body Jewellery Shop also stock an amazing array of contact lenses from several different brands. All are in different price brackets so there is definately something for everyone. Terror Eyes lenses are the most expensive at £20 a pair ($30) and the cheapest are Funky Eyes lenses for only £12.95 a pair ($20). With some of the brands, there is the option of mixing and matching lenses so you could for example order one black lens and one white lens (a particularly interesting and currently favourable VK look). They also sell solution, cases and special contact lens tweezers which definitely come in handy. In fact, in the image of me above, I am wearing Funky Eyes lenses purchased from Body Jewellery Shop.

Besides all of this, they stock Stargazer and Manic Panic cosmetics for a reasonable price. A particular highlight for me was the recent introduction of “permanent tattoo pens” from Stargazer. These are marker pens that are safe for use on skin (although I would recommend a patch test before drawing a whole sleeve!) and only come off when washed off purposely. This means you can now have crazy looking tattoos without all of the pain, hassle, money and regret of a real tattoo!

Although none of the items are specifically VK, the products sold at Body Jewellery Shop will enhance any cosplayer’s or J-fashion lover’s look and with the great prices and stunning selection on offer, who can resist?