GYARU JAPANESE GIRLS, BIG EYE MAKEUP IN AGEHA MAGAZINE. TOKYO PURIKURA, CIRCLE CONTACT LENS, CRAZY NAIL ART.
Japanese subculture beauty and fashion seems to come from a different planet! Here are images from Ageha, the gyaru (gal) and hostess style magazine.
Big eye makeup, false eyelashes, a twisted or curled hair set, and sparkly everything.
Ageha Magazine has step-by-step tutorials for how to make your eyes look as big as possible. The gist: fake top and bottom lashes, eye-shadowing techniques (white on the inside corners), circle contact lenses with giant irises… and of course, Photoshop.
One easy way to get the look: purikura (sticker picture machines). The new “Lady by Tokyo” has classier options and a matte finish.
After choosing the photos, Cotton Bale and I decorated them with bows, stars and cat-noses.
My Pirate striped top is gifted by CamdenLock Clothing, who also sent me this knit punk set.
All the purikura machines emphasize eye-enlargement.
And very white skin.
Bling-bling nail art is another gyaru must. (In fact, I’m getting my nails done today for a magazine photoshoot!)
Here are more big-eye Japanese girl photos.
What do you think of the gyaru look? Thoughts on Asian standards of beauty, and the techniques for big eyes and white skin? Let’s have a discussion in the comments.
PS: Thanks to the Seoul Times for featuring me.
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LA CARMINA
51 Comments
This is fascinating. It’s almost literally another world. I’m rather partial to the look, because I already have big eyes. What’s also nice is that it doesn’t involve surgically altering the shape of the eye; it’s all done via cosmetics. I knew for a time Asian women had this obsession about having more ‘Western’ eyes and having surgery to reshape the skin to remove the epicanthic fold. I think it’s a cute look, it emphasizes that almost childish expression of wide-eyed innocence. I’d like to try this look myself, just for fun. I never wear fake lashes; I play it up with very careful applications of mascara. The lip colors seem to be pale glossy pinks, light corals or an iridescent shimmer, which is nice, because the main focus is on the eyes.
I like the way they do their lips.
I found a lot of the other responses here very interesting and thoughtful. Some very good points are made, especially the idea that women are being made up into almost a doll-like caricature, something to be posessed rather than being seen as a human being. I suppose it’s amatter of how much one wants to look into this subject, whether to see it from a fun, girlie kind of trend or as a more serious issue of the de-humanizing of women.
I’ve always been obsessed about my looks, having been born with facial birth defects and having a lot of reconstructive surgery to repair it. My anguish was not being able to look ‘normal’, as in having a face free of scars, normal looking features, no disfigurement. To me, plastic surgery is no laughing matter, and the notion people use it as a cosmetic means to look ‘pretty’ is deeply disturbing to me. One’s natural beauty should come first and foremost, not fake modifications on what one already has. At least to me.
For an upcoming photoshoot, I insisted on not being too caked in makeup and transformed because I wanted to still be Me.
I think its kind of sad actually. I mean, its cool and of course it looks pretty but its not very Japanese. I was reading a New York Times article recently about how the Koreans do similar things with plastic surgery, like adding another fold to their eyes and thinning their face. The article quoted a Korean director who was very frustrated because it was nigh impossible to find an actress with “traditional Korean feature”. Also it makes every one look the same. Americans are guilty of it too; plastic surgery to a barbie like perfection. It takes all the individuality out of it. The girls on the front of purikura machines are pretty, but they look more Swedish than any other race: big blue eyes, white skin, uber blond hair. I’m all for white skin (I couldn’t tan to save my life) and blinged out nails, but I think its kind of sad that so many people, of various cultures, are trying to erase their unique and beautiful cultural characteristics to match some broad idea of what is pretty.
I saw a TV show where the girls said the greatest pressure came within their cultural community (Asian relatives telling them they should “fix” their eyes). That’s really sad.
I almost feel like this look is based primarily on anime because all of the anime characters (especially the girls), I’ve seen have these huge expressive eyes… or maybe it’s the other way around?
It could be…
interesting article
adorable!
I love how they curl their hair; I still don’t know about circle lenses though because I feel like those can damage the eyes. And sometimes the lenses make them look a little cold.
I’ve never worn color or circle contact lens, partly because of dangers and my bad eyesight, but also because I’m not so keen on the look either.
i personally hate this look simply b/c these images pop up all over tumblr and other blogs and not a single one of the girls in these pictures look human!
You seem to look pretty much the same tho..maybe slightly rounder eyes,but not alien-like or anything; I guess the machine knew it could not improve La Carmina ;) haha
haha! I never wear circle contact lens, I think that’s where the alien/creepy effect usually comes from.
they ( Gals) are like Doll alive… amazing! thanx for wearing ace pirate t-shirts!!! you look amazing as always. xoxoxo
I have your Pirate motto up on my wall. It’s words to live by.
lovely **
I love circle lenses!
I wear them for fun, but think the lengths some Asian women go to to change their eyes such as eyelid glues, and surgery are excessive. Almond shaped eyes are perfect for doing fantastic makeup, and with no crease, the makeup looks spectacular without getting ruined!
Yeahhh there are so many possibilities!
I love the look! ❤
Awesome! Do you know where I can find the good purikura machines in Tokyo? Say, Shinjuku or Shibuya area?
They’re everywhere… lots of good game centers in Kabukcho. This one was in Ueno. :0
Best place to get circle contact lenes? Info on them too. Where do you get yours?
you have big eyes like anime. I love it
Nice!
I have always admire the gyaru look, because yes, they do look pretty and it sorta have that glam factor. But too be honest, I don’t think I have the balls to rock make-up like that. It seems a little too much for me to handle on a day to day basis. By all means, I do wear make-up and everything else like that, but for circle contact lens… I don’t know. I mean I already have jacked up eyes to begin with, and even to myself, when I do see an average person rocking those.. I did a double take, and be “whoa”.
But, I have do love your make-up the best. It’s a lot different and unique. All these gyaru looks are the same, maybe because I can’t do it. I usually stick to something that works out best for me and doesn’t look too superficial for me to rock with. I always add into my own adaption or my own style to my look, and that’s what I think it matters. Is the uniqueness to each every individuals. I say La Carmina, you should definitely make a make-up video. I want to know your skils.
Aw thank you! I’ll post more makeup step by steps. I think it’s important to experiment and see what’s right for you; different colors and shading for different people. haha yeah, circle contacts aren’t for me.
I like the gyaru look for fun, but I too find surgery and other invasive interventions excessive. But I think this kind of things stems from the same problem all over the world: women wanting to look different from how they do naturally, because they (or people around them) can’t accept how they look. Pity, and pity also that, Asian ot not, they generally tend towards a Western look. Asia has nothing to envy the West (in many cases, it’s quite the opposite), so they should take pride in their culture and looks. I hope they will realise someday.
I love your looks because you take what elements you like of other looks and adapt them to your individuality to create something always original and unmistakably La Carmina. Go, girl!!! YARRRRRRRR!!!!!
aww thank you! I can’t go by-the-books, it’s not me… I think it’s important to find a look that’s YOU.
I have a really pretty Asian friend. Her skin has this nice complexion and she looks a bit tanned all year around (she’s from the Hakka tribe in Taiwan, their skin tends to be darker than many Asians’ skin). I’m so envious of her because she looks so healthy, and yet she keeps on saying how much she loves my super white skin (that makes me look like I just came out of the graveyard yesterday)… her family keeps on telling her this too. I guess this is just a general pression on women from the whole society, which leads them to be something they’re not, just to fit into an ideal model (which is usually far from their natural beauty because we tend to want what we can’t have). I guess this happens all over the world and it’s sad all over the world. Nothing wrong with using make up to look prettier and taking care of yourself, but having to do surgery (or starve yourself) to look “beautiful” in the eyes of the society just makes me sad.
Mm. :( It’s too bad that so much of it comes from their families… it’s a lot of pressure.
They look very pretty, but if these are women doing this, the infantilisation is a bit… strange? Some of those girls look like they’re about 11 years old! It’s the flawless skin and huge eyes and girly clothes. It’s definitely adorable, and a kind of prettiness that isn’t like the sexed-up kind I see a lot of western teenagers doing, which I find really kind of worrying (when I see girls who ARE 11 wearing high-heels, mini-skirts and padded bras, I worry,) but I don’t understand (and I genuinely mean “don’t understand” – I’m not criticising) why they want to look like they’re children if they’re not. I would understand if they were wearing sweet lolita clothes or something, where the aim is to emulate a doll-like aesthetic, and it’s all very “Alice in Wonderland”, a sort of fantasy of a sweet world, but I’m a bit confused about this one. What is the thinking behind it? Maybe I’m just being an ignorant westerner here, but they also look like Western girls, not very Japanese. Maybe it’s like the reverse of Japan-obsessed westerners who go around saying “kawaii” too often and are always eating bento food and being dressed lolita – not that any of the above activities are bad – I do them! I wouldn’t be here posting otherwise :P *smoothes her lace and thinks about the Skull Danger bento set she wants*
It’s a look popular in Shibuya, among trendy, young people. It’s a subculture in itself, which used to be more extreme-looking… here’s some more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyaru
Thankyou for the link. The girls in your article look a lot better than the ones in those short skirts and strappy high-heels in the wiki article – they look like what in the UK gets called ‘Essex Girls” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_girl – not something to emulate! I’m not sure about the emphasis on conspicuous consumption that apparently goes with some parts of the subculture, though. I’ve never understood how one can buy into a subculture, like the hipster types – surely a subculture should be about expressing a different way of thinking through a different way of dressing… Are these related to the style where the girls wear lots of fake tan/bronzer/dark make-up and really blonde hair? This softer look is much prettier than that one! Initially I thought the girls/women in the photo looked really childlike, especially with the dresses, and then I realised that in a some of the photos they’re done to look topless, which is really disconcerting considering how young they look. It’s interesting to see them seen as a kind of rebellion in Japan, whereas in the UK, girls who look like that are seen to have descended to the lowest forms of conformism, especially as it’s popular amongst trendy youth.
The last statement seems like it’s a criticism of the girly Gyaru style, but it was aimed at the girls like the ones in the Wiki picture, rather than the adorable, pretty ones in photos like the ones you posted, and others I’ve seen since I’ve been looking this up. Where I put in my paragraph was unclear of me. Sorry. What I meant that was that looking like the Wiki page girls is apparently seen as an act of rebellion in Japan, whereas girls with a similar style in the UK are seen as conforming to mainstream fashion in a bad way rather than a stylish way (a bit like the Essex Girl types, but not over-doing it quite that much, more that they’re trying too hard to look “sexy”), and that it seemed interesting that the style is popular amongst trendy youth if it is seen as rebellious. Are there different words that differentiate the short-shorts and high-heels types from the girly clothes and eye-enhancing makeup types?
I’ve written a response to your blog entry on my new blog: http://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2011/11/gyaru-looking-at-other-subcultures-and.html I really would like to know more about the subculture. There are a few things that initially I don’t feel too positive about, but I’m sure that this is coming from an outsider’s perspective, and that a lot of people feel uneasy about Goth when looking in from the outside. I don’t want to judge something I don’t understand, and it is also very pretty in its own way, not something that I want to pass me by entirely even if its girlish appearance and sweet femininity are beyond the levels that match me. I’m far too old and curvy to get away with a look like that, and my outlook to Gothic.
I enjoyed reading your thoughts! I’m glad the post spurred discussion. Subcultures are so fascinating…
Indeed, it doesn’t matter which one someone belongs to, all of them have something of interest and to learn from :)
you look like you’re having fun. and i love it. i love people who have fun with what they are doing. keep on going girl. you make life beautiful.
Ｉ ｔｒｉｅｄ
Ｇｙａｒｕ ｍａｋｅ ｕｐ ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ
ｆｉｒｓｔ ｔｉｍｅ
ａｔ Ｔｏｋｙｏ
ｄｅｃａｄａｎｃｅ
ｂｕｔ ｂｙ ｔｈｅ ｅｎｄ ｏｆ ｔｈｅｎｉｇｈｔ ｉｔ ｆｅｌｔ ｌｉｋｅ ｍｙ ｅｙｅｓ ｗｏｕｌｄｍｅｌｔ ｏｕｔｉｄｋ ｈｏｗ ｔｈｅｙ ｄｏ ｉｔｔｈａｔｓ ｗｈｙｉ ｌｏｖｅｐｕｒｉｋｕｒａo(^-^)o
Purikura rocks!
I’m all for manmade beauty, I love high heels and corsets and hair dye and crazy special effects makeup, but I’m really troubled by this. They don’t even look human anymore! And it’s one thing to have a little subculture doing this, but this type of imagery has become so incredibly prevalent on magazine covers and posters that they have become normalized. It’s dangerous to the people who are bombarded with these pictures every day, because it becomes much harder to understand that they aren’t real. It’s dangerous for children who don’t possess the cognitive skills to critically interpret these images and understand the level that they’ve been manipulated by makeup and lighting and airbrushing/photoshop. And it’s dangerous to the young women who are confronted with hundreds of these images every month because it seems so likely that if so many girls look like this, then they should be able to reach that impossible standard too. And clearly the older generation is affected by that logic as well if they’re pressuring today’s young women to look like this. Also they all look like very young little girls, but in a very sexy way. Why are we portraying mass amounts of grown women as passively sexualized children? It’s so disturbing to me.
I have my own personal preferences too… I’m all for crazy hair and makeup, but there are some things I prefer not to do…
I have feelings in opposite directions.. because.. I would like to try it.. ’cause it looks so sweet ~ but.. I think that the asian beauty has something special that I loooove so much more ~ ♥
im half japanese and my family pressures me tu look white….e.e
(yu know a lot about fashion…du yu know about fitting sunglasses tu face structure? o.0)
I love Lumete, the designs fit me and Seba very well. http://lacarmina.com/2011/07/cute-hair-accessories-giveaway-win-big-bow-clips-headbands-from-sproos-shop-lumete-unique-sunglasses/
I am of a Western European background and I don’t understand this trend. Asian girls are so beautiful just as they are – they don’t need to try to emulate the appearance of another race to look “attractive.”
Yes and no. I’m half latino and chinese. I’ve had some issues with my family wanting me to get a tan and to follow the norm look. But they also appriciate my creativity and respect most of my choices.
WOW! LOVE~♥ the new color. wish and your Pirates continued success! m/
Arr!
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