Asian Extreme: Blown Japanese Makeup Guide
Many when it comes to about Japanese fashions and make-up, imagine a geisha or some other crazy images. This view is not too far from the truth - if we talk about Japanese fashionistas from Harajuku, the heart of beautiful Tokyo madness. At the same time, it does not remain a purely local phenomenon - the icon of the blown-up Japanese style, Kyari Pamyu Pamy, went on a world tour this week and implants a Kawai in the States. However, to judge the current trends in Japanese make-up only by its style is not worth it - there are much more options. We talk about the main methods of make-up, which are used by young Japanese women for self-expression.
Yes, from advertising posters of Shiseido, actresses and models with “natural” make-up are completely watched, but the farther away from one of the most expensive shopping districts, Ginza, and closer to the famous Shibuya 109 shopping center, the more often young people with purple hair and sweaters with six sleeves. The district of Shibuya, Harajuku, has long become a Mecca of non-conformist street fashion, in which everyone wears everything he wants. His chronicles from the 90s were kept on magazines like Zipper, NYLON japan, and of course, Fruits, and now numerous websites and street-style tumblr blogs have joined them. Local fashionistas say they like to switch between styles and interfere with everything. Few of them adhere to one flow for too long, and new directions are born several in a year. Fashion icons here are employees of the legendary local stores and models of local street fashion magazines; This is its own separate world, where appearance has already become a lifestyle.
In the mid-90s, it was possible to meet girls on the streets with hypertrophied tan, white eyes and pale lips. That wereganguro (from "gangankuro" - "very, very dark"), the version of girls gyaru (from the English "gal"), and their extreme embodiment yamamba Such makeup can not be found on the street, except that on some convention revival of forgotten trends. By their appearance, Ganguro rebelled against traditional Japanese society and established standards of beauty, and, as in any rebellion, went to extremes: California tan and hip-hop aesthetics were brought to the limit.
Speaking of gyaru (with about a dozen varieties), it is worth noting that they have also undergone changes in their appearance from the moment they appeared. What we haughtily call glamorous describes them well, provided that the glamor is heavily diluted with good looks. And the more glamorous the make-up, the more likely it is that Agejo - girls who most often work in host clubs. Gyaru also preferred bronzer to rouge before, but surrendered - with the onset of zero, the tan almost disappeared (but the contouring remains). Big eyes have always been the key accent for gyaru, so any tricks were used to visually enlarge them, including false eyelashes. Otherwise, their makeup is exemplary natural.
Harajuku girls generally highlight their eyes, so bright lipstick rarely comes across them. At the same time, it is either red or very dark - to top it off in a gloomy gothic image. But often, even for the gothic loli maximum - eyeliner and large false eyelashes. Anime pink or purple hairstyles in Harajuku are in the order of things, and the eyebrows here most often correlate with the hair color, so if you are gothic lolita, if you wear purple hair, then you should paint your eyebrows to match. But the main condition of any make-up, regardless of the degree of its extravagance, remains the perfect skin: is it burned with a tan, pale or completely snow-white. The subject of the first necessity is the lenses designed to visually enlarge the iris; most often they are also colored.
Lolita in fluffy skirts and constant bows and ruffles treat cosmetics quite moderately: pink and blue shades with a shimmer appear on huge eyes, and only that. Without which, not a single Lolita, and almost no Japanese woman in the fashionable part of Tokyo, will go out into the street - blush. Recently, it has become fashionable to wear them as if you were an anime character who was very embarrassed or drank too much: hot pink spots right on the cheeks, not on the cheekbones, sometimes through the bridge of nose. In theory, they are designed to give innocence to the image. Sometimes the blush is applied very thickly right under the tonal base - so that they shine as if the girl had just turned red. Kalt party kei (style, named after the eponymous clothing store) and does put them right under the eyes, deliberately seeking a painful look. The lower puffy eyelid and the area under the eyes are generally taken to emphasize with light shadows, it is best with a shimmer, and even to paint a shadow specifically to create a relief.
In general, "kei" can be translated as "style", so the names of all new trends contain this word. An androgynous visual kei, tied to music, is probably one of the oldest; The style of j-rockers was largely inspired by glam-rock aesthetics. It so happened that the j-rock groups are much more masculine than the feminine, but there are also boys and girls with dark, or even black lipstick, pale skin and blackened eyes.
The most natural appearance relies girls mori ("Mori" - "forest"), emphasizing with their whole appearance unity with nature and comfort: brown mascara and a gentle blush - that's the whole makeup. Butfairy keiheirs decor, use shadows of any bright colors, and also rhinestones and stickers on the face. Everything becomes a decoration for them: and a mask, as if you are escaping from a flu epidemic, and a patching plaster on your nose - the good of them is selling a huge amount. The most courageous ones do not just paint eyebrows, but also pluck them up to the shape of small lines closer to the nose. Everyone's favorite model, blogger and singer Kyari Pamy Pam, by the way, is considered an icon of decor.
However, the main diva of Harajuku last year was not she, but a girl-artist named Minori, she is loved for popularizing sironuri (literally - "painted white") - an image that takes root in a classic geisha make-up, but is quite far from him. Sironuri, unlike other fashionable subcultures, is entirely built around a make-up. With the help of it, girls interpret any topic, most often rather gloomy - they can make themselves a monster, for example. Without Minori’s make-up, it would be difficult to find out; she brings it to a completely cosmic level, making a complex pattern around the eyes and sticking as much as possible theatrical multi-colored false eyelashes.
By itself, the Tokyo strip style is not like any other (you can say the same about Japan as a whole), it mutates in the most unpredictable way, absorbing certain tendencies of the rest of Asia and the West and presenting it in its own way. Make-up from the clothes also does not recede: the pretentiousness is combined with simplicity, and within the framework of new styles that grow like mushrooms after the rain, girls treat cosmetics more and more boldly. We don’t know what to expect further, but we will follow closely.
Photo: tokyofashion.com