Life and a weekend in London

Photos taken from my Instagram. Follow me @bloomzy

This week has been pretty uneventful so far.
I spent the beginning of my week stuck in my room, writing a presentation with an injured leg.
My leg is a lot better now, but it’s still pretty painful to walk on/bend, but…life goes one!
Thanks to those who sent their well wishes.
This weekend I shall be in London to meet one of the people I’ve really missed since Tokyo; Mitsu!
I can’t wait to be reunited with my gorgeous gal, and some wonderful friends! I also can’t wait to get back to London!
As you probably guessed, that means I will be away from the blog this weekend (Friday to Monday). I will try to schedule some posts though, and I will also have my phone so I can approve comments, update Twitter etc.
I promise to come back with lots of stories and pictures.

Velvet & Hearts ♥

(Velvet Dress; Topshop, Shoes; H&M, Accessories; Marc Jacobs & Swarovski)
New Years Eve Celebrations; Dressing-up for Mexican Food

I don’t usually go ‘all out’ on NYE, just drinks/food with friends or family. 
For 2011 I wanted to spend it with family, as it was our first New Year together for 2 years – I had abandoned them for Japan in previous years. 
Anyway we (parents, me and the fiancé) booked a table at a Mexican restaurant in the city, as I adore Mexican food. Needless to say the night was wonderful, filled with good food, cocktails & champagne. I couldn’t have asked for more…actually I would have preferred it if I had been able to eat all my dessert, but unfortunately it was too much for me. I only managed half.
It’s a little embarrassing that I’ve only just remembered to post my NYE pictures, so please forgive me. I promise to make it up to you.

Lush Cupcake Event

In October a few friends and I went to a specially arranged ‘Cupcake Event’ at our local Lush store. I’m a big fan of Lush, as you already know, and cupcakes, of course. The event drew us in with it’s offer of a free facial, make your own face mask and decorate your own cupcake.
And of course a nice chat with the Lush shop staff, always a pleasure.
Click ‘read more’ for the full post.

Friends getting facials, their colourful array of bath bombs & some cupcakes
&& the sparkly cupcake I decorated!
Shhh…it’s supposed to be a rose.
The chocolate & peppermint face mask I made & I also bought some toner tabs and a shower bomb.

The event was so much fun, and perfect for a girly evening out. My tomboy-ish friend even commented on how she had ‘enjoyed being so girly, but it had probably filled [her] quota for the month’. Girly-ness aside, the facials were very relaxing and it was so much fun making our own face masks and decorating cupcakes. Not to mention I chatted for ages with the lovely shop staff. We discussed; shopping trends, Lush in Japan, their latest gift boxes and how they were designed, and much more…

I can’t wait for the next Lush event!

It’s a ‘Life Experience’…

Remember that ‘life experience’ I was talking about the other day
Well that is the name that my tutor likes to give to the activities and field-trips that we have been taking part in during our stay here in Paris. And this one, was er…certainly interesting…
I’m not a fan of anime or manga, although a lot of people on my course are. Therefore, our tutors thought that they would give us a few days off classes to enjoy one of the biggest expos in Europe related to Japanese pop culture. Yep that’s right, they sent me to ‘Japan Expo’
Originally I wasn’t planning on going for the reasons above, however some of my friends managed to talk me into coming along after talks of silly costumes and other things. I also wanted to give it a chance and ‘experience’ something new…I like to give things a chance before I say I dislike them
So for those who have also never experienced this kind of thing and for those who are just curious, this post is for you!

I didn’t dress up especially for the expo, but it did mean that I was able to add a little drama to my make-up, compared to what I have been wearing latelyNatural, simple make-up is favoured here so anything else tends to turn a few heads.

Tshirt: JSG
Shorts: H&M
Thigh high socks: Donki
Boots: Topshop  
I wore my Jeffrey Campbell dupes which went better than I had expected. I also got a lot of compliments on them which was nice.
  
The friend who managed to persuade me into coming decided the night before that she was going to ‘troll’ everyone by turning up as Nyan Cat (the latest internet phenomenon), complete with speakers looping the infamous tune. Everyone loved her costume and she was constantly stopped by people wanting her photo. Not bad for a costume made from a cardboard box.
But that’s enough chit-chat for now, enjoy the rest of my photos from the event…
Click images to enlarge!

I think a lot of the expo was lost on me as I didn’t understand much, but the Japanese culture sections were good and I found an interesting stall that I think I will mention in a later post. I also found someone stocking Candydoll cosmetics, but they weren’t selling that day and I didn’t want to return the following day just for that…shame

 Puri with Nyan Cat
I love the comparison!
I also managed to buy ye ol’ Tsubasa’s blog book – a book full of her blog entries, fashion/make-up tips and lifestyle items. It’s almost 5 years old I think haha
…and the new issue of Popsister, which is really growing on me lately

Happy Halloween!

☆★☽ ~ ハッピーハロウィン ~ ☆★☽
Here is a Halloween post featuring my pictures from last weekends party at the infamous Tokyo Decadance event – some of you may remember it, as EGG’s Kaoru attended the one in Paris last year.

Make-up for the evening.
Not a great angle but I think you can see my make-up pretty well.
I had wanted to wear my purple lenses for the event but I was out from 11am that day and I didn’t get home until 9am the following day, so I think it was a smart move on my part not to wear them XD
So the big question is, what did I go as?!

A MAID!!
Haha my costume is courtesy of Donki. To be honest I had so many costumes in mind, but in the end I choose something that was better on the bank balance…plus I can wear it again.
Sorry about the pixelated faces but I didn’t want to post my friends faces all over here.
The actual event was held at Shinjuku’s ‘Christon Cafe’ which is a gorgeous Christian-themed restaurant. The decor is amazing and I completely understand why they decided to hold Tokyo Decadance there.
Of course that’s just a picture outside, whereas inside it looks like this…
I wish the picture had turned out better but unfortunately my camera couldn’t really grasp the beauty of the architecture under all the lasers and lack of light. Maybe I will make a trip back there some time during the day.
Apart from a gorgeous venue, and some pretty decent DJs there were also performances throughout the night. Unfortunately I can’t post pictures of all of them as some were a little risque and I don’t want to offend anyone.

I don’t have a picture of the actual performance but a bunch of people in Anime Kigurumis (the person above was included in the performance) paraded around the stage, and actually creeped me out a little.
Selia was the host for the night, and he was certainly workin’ his outfit – so jealous! It was a shame that he didn’t sing as my friend is a big fan of his music, but he kept us entertained nonetheless.
These guys messed around and then with a little bit of a not-so-quick costume change the headless man turned into…

…this girl!
I really loved her, she was so energetic and she pulled the craziest faces. She later did some stunts with the guy in the left corner.
This guy was actually amazing. He gave us a few twirls of his outfit and then proceeded to slide out of it. Ok I wasn’t too keen on the thong-only undergarments he was sporting but his snake-like movements and contortion made me forget about that.
He crawled off the stage and into the crowd, which was great as I was stood right at the front. I think my friends and I really had the best positions.

This ‘character’ did a little piece by himself and was later joined by the people in Anime Kigurumis. I didn’t like him at all, I’m not sure why but his outfit freaked me out D:
And FINALLY the main reason that I went to Tokyo Decadance, and something I can tick off my ‘to-do in Japan’ list….

I’ve been a big fan of theirs for several years now so I was really pleased to be able to see them perform. Exo-Chika is even more gorgeous in person and their music is great live. They really gave off a great energy and it seemed like everyone was enjoying their music.
The funny thing is I didn’t notice that many Gals at the event until Aural Vampire came out. Maybe they were just late to the party or we all share the same taste in music. Either way I was pleased to see that a variety of people were there.
I hope all my readers are going to enjoy All Hallows Eve, and I can’t wait to see some Gal inspired Halloween posts!!
What will you all be doing for Halloween?
And what will you be wearing?!
Source; 1

Quick update – Cocolulu….

COCOLULU Image Group


“Four members of the NICE GIRL! project are forming a new unit called COCOCREW.

The members consist of Ogawa Mana, Robin, Eri~na and Tokki.
They will be used as a image group for the clothing store ‘COCOLULU’.”

A special event will be held in-store on 8th May (3pm~) where you can meet the ‘COCOCREW’ and watch them perform a special live show. There will also be Ranzuki models in attendance and Cocolulu’s new productions will be in-store as promoted by the Cocolulu Campaign Girls.
The song;
What do you think of a unit/an image group for stores?
Maybe more will follow in CO&LU’s footsteps?!
Source; 1