BIPOC Vamp Day 2021 🦇🩸

Hi bats! Today I'm sharing my outfit for BIPOC Vamp Day 2021. The event is in the same vein (ha) as Black Fae Day, which was an online event encouraging black people to dress up as fae and mythical creatures and share their looks on social media. I like vampires (and vampire hunters, of course!) a lot more than I like faeries, so I was pretty excited about this event! 

I adored the Blade, Underworld, and Ultraviolet movies growing up, as well as Buffy and Forever Knight. I read almost all of the Anne Rice vampire novels, too. Like all budding weebs, I loved Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D, and Trinity Blood. I played through Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines a million times. I had a ridiculously long vampire dynasty running in The Sims 2 for years. So yeah, I was definitely into vampires...yet somehow I never had any interest in Twilight even though I was the target demographic - angsty millennial teen girl. Didn't want any romance to get in the way of all the leather pants and brooding and ultraviolence, I guess. 

To this day, I want to get permanent fangs installed so that I can look like Selene from Underworld.

One of my screennames comes from a silly Vampire: The Masquerade forum roleplay character I made up when I was around 12. I was starting to get interested in tabletop gaming at the time and I stumbled onto World of Darkness lore books on some random goth's Geocities homepage. I only did some forum RPs because of course I was way too young to play in-person. Being a tween, I just wanted to be a quirky-yet-insanely-powerful gothic vampire wizard, so of course I made my character an obscenely wealthy mad scientist Tremere. She was supposed to be a sort of silly, over the top, comedic character. In retrospect she was kind of an uninspired mashup of existing characters, but she evolved over the years into a much better character. I still have all of my old character sheets and illustrations! (´･ᴗ･ ` )

I decided to do a cute layered coordinate with lots of sheer pieces and different textures. I really like the look of the tulle skirt peeking out underneath the ruffled skirt, and I chose a mesh/tulle headdress to mimic the look of the the tulle skirt. I kept the layered ruffle theme going with the layered collar, the wristcuffs over the sleeves, and of course the frill along the corset.

Am I a vampire, or a vampire hunter trying to blend in? You be the judge...

Skirts: Sheglit Asymmetric Frill Skirt layered over Sheglit Foliage Skirt

Blouse: Moi-même-Moitié Cross Arch Flare Sleeve Cutsew

Corset: Na+H Halter Frill Corset

Headdress: Moi-même-Moitié x Krad Lanrete Nocturnal Romance Headdress

Choker: Moi-même-Moitié Coffin Lace Choker
Tights: Moi-même-Moitié Iron Gate OTKs

Jewellery: Trickery, Etah Love, Néant Glass, Restyle

Shoes: Na+H Strap Shoes

I'm looking forward to seeing what other vamps are wearing today!

[Current Music: Snake River Conspiracy - Vulcan]

Picnic Coordinate 🦋

One of my comm members hosted a catered picnic meetup in the park recently! The forecast looked pretty bad, but the weather ended up being perfectly cool and breezy. We were getting swarmed by wasps, though. Generally I'm not too fussed by bugs but I'm somewhat allergic to wasps, so I spent a goodly amount of time trying to swat them away from my food and out of my hair. Bugs aside, it was a pleasant meetup! It was really nice to see the comm again, especially since there were some new faces, but I honestly wasn't feeling very social. I think working in a patient-facing job is finally starting to wear my social batteries down - not that I was a social butterfly to begin with...

Anyway, speaking of butterflies, I did a summery butterfly-themed coord with my Royal Princess Alice Gothic Butterfly OP! I figured this might be my last chance to wear it out before it gets too cold.

Me and my best friend (❁´◡`❁) Photo by Firemate

Photo by Firemate

 

OP: Royal Princess Alice Gothic Butterfly OP

Cage Skirt: Écailles de Lune Shadow Garden

Headdress: Moi-même-Moitié x Krad Lanrete Nocturnal Romance Headdress

Choker:  Moi-même-Moitié Coffin Lace Choker
Tights:  Royal Princess Alice Gothic Butterfly Tights

Jewellery: Modifica, Restyle, Etah Love, Moi-même-Moitié

Bag: Moi-même-Moitié Blue Cross Bat Handbag

Shoes: Yosuke

[Current Music: Principe Valiente - Strangers in the Night]

New manicure!

A little while ago I did a really cool futuristic-looking manicure on my natural nails. I used silver chrome powder on one side and painted the undersides neon green. I cracked two at work that week and repaired them with gel, but they were looking pretty rough. I grow my nails super long so breaking even one is traumatizing. Anyway, the other day I was walking downhill on uneven pavement, wearing my rocking horse shoes...and predictably I tripped and went down like a clumsy sack of potatoes. I was wearing a skirt, so I skinned both of my knees pretty badly. I also skinned my hand and knuckles, and somehow smacked myself in the face as I was going down...? I'm not sure how, but I have a big scratch on my face too (´･ω･`)?bThankfully, the rocking horse shoes were unharmed! Not a single scuff.
 

Since I broke my nails when I fell, and because I'm going to a wedding soon, I treated myself to gel nails! I had to keep my colours neutral to match with the wedding theme since I'm going to be a bridesmaid, but I still wanted to be a little extra. The thumb is about the length that my natural nails were (I need them to be short for work) but I went really long on the other fingers. Haven't had my nails this long since uni...I'm going to have to relearn how to type, haha. On my way out of the salon, I realized that a new bakery had opened across the street! I bought Hokkaido cream cheese cakes for me and my mom, and also treated myself to the first bubble tea I'd had in about a year. I always get taro milk tea with tapioca and 1/3 sugar (⭒•͈ 𓎺 •͈ )

My hand is still scraped up haha (´͈  ᵕ `͈ ）

Anyway, in my last post, I mentioned I was going to buy a cassette Walkman from Mercari, but now I'm thinking of getting a Discman or a cute CD player too! I used to have so many CDs lying around, but I don't know what happened to my collection. Most of it was regular stuff you could buy at HMV but I had some visual kei and jpop stuff, too. And of course tons of mix CDs that I burned myself. I remember having a bunch of (probably bootleg) Ayumi Hamasaki CDs in the early 2000s. I loved all of the remix CDs because I was really into techno and trance, but I liked the regular versions too. I watched the video for Rainbow so many times...the outfits, nails, and makeup were so pretty! It's still my favourite Ayu song.

 

The cover art for the Rainbow album is so pretty, too. I love that blue colour and glass/plastic look that was everywhere in early-2000s album cover art haha. The interlude track "Neverending Dream" on this album really brings me back in time...it really sounds like something from Phantasy Star Online, right? It reminds me of chilling in the PSO game lobby with my internet friends in 2005 (❁´◡`❁) so many good memories!

Back to the CD player...I went looking around for nostalgia's sake and I found the cutest little mini hi-fi setup! Panasonic SA-PM50MD. The glass front panel is motorized so that when you press the CD button, it glides up to reveal the CD tray. It looks pretty slick for a late-90s hi-fi - I love the silver/orange/green colour scheme. It comes in an all-white version, but the orange is really charming. The buttons are all backlit, too. It's a little bit expensive, even though it's an older machine, so I'm not sure if I'm going to pull the trigger just yet, but...soon. I need a new record player first. I would love to find a record player that's as cute as this hi-fi!

[Current Music: Drab Majesty - Dot in the Sky]

Goodbye Coordinate: Moi-même-Moitié Chandelier JSK

I decided to wear my white Moi-même-Moitié Chandelier JSK before I listed it for sale, but there's a story behind this dress! I bought it from Closet Child many years ago when a friend sent the listing to me. The listing stated that it was lightly stained and the price reflected that, but the photos didn't look too bad, so I went for it. I think it was my first white (well, ivory) Moitié piece and I was just very excited to try shiro lolita for the first time so I didn't care if it was stained - cheap Moitié! You can probably see where this is going...

The dress arrived with some interesting stains. There were rusty orange discolourations on the inner lining of the bodice and armpits - maybe the first wearer had worn it without a blouse and it was just oxidized body lotion or deodorant or something...? But the really spooky stains were the brownish-red spray and splatters down the front of the bodice and skirt, and on the back too. It was even in the lining. Initially I thought it was just some kind of sauce, but after looking more closely at the stains I'm 99% certain it was blood. Σ(°△°|||)︴I tossed it in the washing machine with some sanitizer and predictably the bloodstains didn't really come out, so it just became the mysteriously cursed dress that I only wore on Halloween. It only seemed fitting.

 

Halloween party coordinate from...I can't even remember what year this was...

Anyway, I hadn't thought about this dress in a long time, and I was doing a big wardrobe purge a little while back. I'm not a fan of ivory and I don't have much that matches with it. On top of that, the dress doesn't fit me very well in the bust and tends to just slip down over the course of the day. I don't have that problem with some of Moitié's other bustier-style dresses, but something about the shape of this one just doesn't work on my body shape. It's a beautiful piece, but it's not right for me. So it had to go.

 

I decided to give cleaning another go. My mom swears by this weird all-purpose cleaner for removing stains - it's neon yellow, and it looks and smells radioactive. I figured the dress wasn't worth much in its current condition so I had nothing to lose if the cleaner melted the fabric or something. To my surprise, it cleaned the stains extremely well! After two rounds of spot treating and some more washes, it was pretty much good as new.

 

JSK: Moi-même-Moitié Chandelier JSK

Blouse: Moi-même-Moitié Rose Flare Sleeve Cutsew

Belt: Moi-même-Moitié Candelabra Lace Obi Belt

Headdress: Moi-même-Moitié Rose Cross Lace Head Bow

Choker:  Moi-même-Moitié Dot Tulle Choker

Necklace: Moi-même-Moitié Candelabra Pearl Necklace

Bag: La Luice Lace Rabbit Pochette

Socks:  Moi-même-Moitié Thorny OTKs

Shoes: Metamorphose Heel Strap Platform Shoes

This dress really is pretty, but you can see that the bodice doesn't fit me lol. It's a little too long and the bust is too big. I still really like it but...yeah. I'm sure someone else can do it justice!

This is also my first time wearing this headdress (Moi-même-Moitié's Rose Cross Lace Head Bow). I paid way too much for it because I got into a bidding war, but I've literally been looking for this specific colourway for several years, and I never got my hands on it, so I didn't mind splurging a little. Isn't it pretty? It has cute picot ribbons and a rhinestone cross decoration. The size is perfect, too. Moitié headdresses are so good. I've sold a lot of mine because I'm running out of space and I don't really need that many frilly rose headdresses...but they're just so cute ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

Oh, and of course I had to make a silly edit picture!

[Current Music: MDFMK - Witch Hunt]