I felt like we had stepped back in time when Chewiee and I found ourselves in our pj’s watching TV and scrolling on our phones. I can clearly remember the first time we had a sleepover back when we were both students, living in/near London, and at the prime of our Gyaru days. I was so relieved to have found someone who was happy just to laze about and relax (as I get really exhausted after spending a whole day shopping in London) and it has been part of our sleepover routine ever since. This time, however, we were going to do something different… For the first time in our lives, we were going to try out manba gyaru!
We didn’t decide this until we were heading out of the door to go to the kitty cafe in Nottingham, and made a note that we needed to pick up some makeup before we headed home. This was soon put out of our minds as we were both extremely excited to see all of the cats and couldn’t wait to get out of the one-way roads and inside the warmth of the cafe. It was incredibly busy when we arrived but a little kitten – obviously wanting to get away from all of the noise – climbed over to where we sat and made herself comfortable within the space between us. It was so adorable!
related post: I left my heart in Tokyo – gyaru life in Shibuya!
sweater: forever21 / skirt: boohoo / boots: boohoo / earrings: new look
After our hour was up we went to Victoria Street for a little bit of shopping – to pick up supplies for our manba gyaru look! Luckily we found some foundation and white eye pencil from NYX after spending quite a lot of time searching in boots. A few hours later we headed home so that we could start doing our manba gyaru makeup!
And gosh we had so much fun. Luckily I slowly built up the layers because I was wary of making mistakes but in the end I just gave up and had fun with it – the true gyaru way! We had grabbed some hibiscus flower accessories from a costume store and, together with our kigurumi, it completed our manba look. We couldn’t stop laughing at how silly we looked but to be honest I actually really liked doing it. It probably would be a while before I can wear this outdoors, but it was fun to do at a sleepover. The rest of the evening was spent watching friends with a cheeky Nandos.
And here’s our look!
Have you tried manba gyaru before? What do you think of our first try?
Love,
Lizzie xx
(P.S. find out more about manba and the other gyaru styles here)