Tattoos. Artists I love & tips.

Hello internet world.

Its been a while since I made a post and I've just come to accept that I basically blog once a year. Oh well!

Today's topic I want to talk about is tattoos, specifically tattoo artists that I love, that I want to get tattooed by, and tips on how to book appointments with really popular artists. I am no expert by any means but these are just my personal experiences and things that I do that have helped me in the past.

Let's start with the artists! These are literally just artists I follow on Instagram that I love. A little background about that styles that I like- I really love cute, fun tattoos that have "cute" subject matter with aspects of traditional tattooing. This concept will become clear once you've gone through my list but basically what I mean is cute, fun tattoos that have traditional elements such as thick lines, bold color, etc. However I also love another style some people call "neo-traditional" which is also traditional tattoo elements with fun subject matter, but the way I describe this style would be a victorian style twist on traditional tattoos. I know that these styles of tattooing (especially the first one I mentioned) aren't exactly super popular or well known yet, but I know a lot of people love this style just as much as I do, so I hope this list is helpful to you! Sorry if the locations aren't correct, I know a lot of artists move around but hopefully you can get an idea of where everyone is located. I don't have  people from every part of the world but for some reason the artists I love are located in these areas of the world, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, so I have categorized them as so.

Anyways... let's get to it! (sorry but not sorry if this post is long)

Personal Day #1

Hello again! And so soon?

So let’s get real right now. One of my biggest personal issues is that I almost never take time for myself and do things that I enjoy. During the week I’m at work for 10 hours a day and when I come home I’m dead tired. During the weekends, I’m usually so lazy that I just stay in bed all day and laze around. I’m even too lazy to get food- I order delivery almost EVERY weekend. It’s so unhealthy and wasteful!

Another big part of the problem is- and this is where it gets really real- I cannot be alone without my boyfriend. Let’s face it. I’m one of those people who are attached to people. I can’t stand to be alone, it scares me and it is super uncomfortable. We have been spending weekends apart and at first, I was NOT having it. I would always freak out about the time apart and I wouldn’t know why. I mean, it was only for two days, maximum. And if I’m not with him, I’m with some other friends.  I literally have the hardest time being alone, ever.

This got me thinking, what are the things that I do enjoy to do by myself? I had to lay down at night and figure out how I was going to calm down and remember all of the things I used to do by myself that I enjoyed. Last night I went to bed promising myself that tomorrow, I will have a great, productive day where I will get dressed up, go out and spend some quality time with myself!'

And that’s exactly what I did.

Immediately when I woke up I watched some YouTube. Just some of my favorite channels to get some inspiration. I find that doing something immediately after you wake up will help you wake up even more because you are telling your mind “hey, it’s time to get up now!” instead of just hitting the snooze button over and over again and trying to grab the last few minutes of sleep. I ended up watching a cool video by @krissygrotez where she is doing a bunch of cute hairstyles and that’s when I really got motivated to get up and get dressed.

Anyways, let’s get started  ♡

Fall is back and so am I.

So I'm back. For now.

Here to bring you my latest fashion favorites! This season, I'm all about the deep red/maroon/burgundy/wine color, it's everywhere lately and I just can't get enough. So of course I went and bought everything I could find in that color, from scarves to dresses to cardigans and more! The best part is that I'm also super into the dark lip and guess what color I've been wearing... the same deep red one of course! I literally just can't get enough. Here is one of the many coordinates I've been loving, featuring this awesome fall color.

Shirt, cardigan, ring and necklace from Forever 21

Lipstick: Wet and Wild Cherry Bomb

I've been wearing this ring and necklace with almost everything. They're so simple, yet I think they are great pieces to spark up an outfit a little bit. The gold color also goes great with the red!

Hope you enjoyed this outfit. Stay tuned for more!

Tattoos??

My first entry back is going to be about one of my current obsessions.... TATTOOS!

Why? Because I've been thinking about them a lot and more importantly, getting them very frequently lately and there are just some things that need to be said about tattoos.

I get some because they have a special meaning to me, but a lot just because I just really like the way they look! Most of my friends and family are always like, "don't you think you're going to regret getting so many??" and really, all I think is that I love my body and what I've chosen to do to it and I don't think that will ever change. (PLUS if  do regret some of them there are people who do really nice cover ups, and laser removal has gotten really good nowadays haha).

I think that tattoos can be a sort of accessory, just ones that you can't take off. Even when I'm naked, I feel not so naked and its a really cool feeling! Every person who has tattoos is unique in their own way and why not support that? My mom always tells me, well what about when you have kids? What will you tell them about your tattoos? And I really don't understand this question because what is there to tell them anyways? Its just that some people have different skin than others, and mine has art on it. It is just because people are quick to judge that tattoos have still not lost their stigma, and its sad that people can be so harshly judged by just having some ink on their skin. I have to cover all of mine at work because my boss (aka my mother) thinks that I look like a delinquent or whatever, which I can understand but it still makes me sad to cover them up. I've heard of people who have jobs such as nursing and fire fighting who have to cover all of their tattoos so that none are even remotely visible, which really makes me sad because these are the people that children call "heroes" and are really good people, yet they have to cover what is on their bodies because society says that it makes them look bad? I get it, but it really makes me sad.

I love who I am and what I've put on my body!

Well that's it for my ramblings... and of course here are pictures of what I have so far ^^

Quote from Harry Potter: "death is but the next great adventure" said by Dumbledore in the first book when he and Harry are talking about Nicholas Flamel's sacrifice of eternal life.
Along with the deathly hallows symbol and some roses... cause I like roses

A skull and some pink roses on the inside of my forearm. Just cause I love the colors and the contrast with the skull.. I don't know I just wanted it!

This was my second tattoo ever that I got when I was 19! Its a crown ring and again I just really wanted it for some reason haha. Who knows.

Another TVXQ tattoo.. it's a lyric from 明日は来るから and it can be roughly translated to "no matter how dark the night is, tomorrow will definitely come" or something like that haha. I just love this song and I want so many TVXQ related tattoos. 

I got this most recently and it's on the inside of my right wrist. Honestly I don't know why I just really wanted a new one that day and its of a cute pink cherry blossom with a petal floating down. 

Another lyric! This is a shortened lyric of "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver (and most recently re-released by Birdy). This is one of my favorite songs of all time and it really helped me go through an emotional time in my life and there are some birds below it.. just because. Birds are cool I guess. 

This one is one my favorite tattoos because it went through a total long process to look this way. At first it only had 3 red flowers, and then it turned into the mess on the lefthand corner, and than I added some dark brown color and branches and I think it looks so much better this way! I wish that I had a clearer picture but unfortunately I've been too lazy to take a good one. It used to look like this!

Which I loved! But then I added more flowers and it looked like a catastrophic mess so then I got it redone and I love it again!

And lastly, the bow and the stars. The hello kitty bow was my very first tattoo and it wasn't colored in when I first got it, but then I went back later and added the red and the stars. The stars are the little stars on the corner of the pages of the Harry Potter books, because I love those books so much.

And yep that's it! Although knowing my addiction there are plenty more to come... I just need to come up with more money. :(

Okay thanks bye!

Hello, Internet.

Hello internet. It's been a little while. 

To say the least, my life has been really hectic but I'm finding that I need something else to do besides school and work. When I do get free time, it seems like all I do is lay around in pajamas, Tumble, and listen to sappy love songs and mope around... hahaha.

So then I got to thinking, what did I used to do to occupy my time when I was younger? The things that I could think of were things like writing music, playing guitar, makeup, etc. All the things that I don't really keep up with anymore. Then I remembered this little blog. Which brought me here. Tada!

I gave up on this blog because I was getting really upset that no one was reading it anymore, and I went from getting a bunch of views and comments to like nothing... which in turn, really discouraged me from writing in here. But then I thought about it and it's like, why do I even care? I started out writing in here just because I'm not creative enough to express myself through music anymore, and honestly it really helps me get my mind focused on myself and what I like. So who cares if no one reads it right? Right!

Right now I feel like my life is going up and down and up and down. I'm constantly moving and running a life long marathon. In the past month I quit my job of 3 and a half years and am working almost full time at my other job, which has proven to be more stressful than I ever wanted to be. But on the bright side, I only have one more semester before I graduate from uni! Yaaay go me!

So pretty much through this hectic time that I've been having, I've been dressing like a 5 year old homeless person, just because my go-to outfits always consist of big sweaters, paired with either a tutu type skirt or a pleated school girl looking one. No heels, no makeup, just crazy old me. But then my life changed after I went to see Selena Gomez in concert. Say whaat??

Yeah okay I know this sounds stupid but honestly I went to see her with a few friends, not even really a fan but when I saw her on that stage she just looked sooo pretty and it blew me away. I looked down at the plain old dress that I was wearing and was immediately inspired to pick myself back up and try and look nice again. Easier said than done however!

I honestly couldn't even put eyelashes on straight anymore at this point. What had my life come to.

So in case anyone wanted proof, here is why I'm obsessed with her right now.

She's so pretty I can't handle it!!! I want to be like her someday haha. Which is sad because she is younger than me but you know what who cares right?

Anyway, so now its time for the final reveal. What do I look like now?! Drum roll....

Surprise! I look exactly the freakin' same as I did before haha.

Except there are more filters on my photos because if I didn't have them, I would look terrible. 

Anyways, that's all I have for now but I have so many ideas for posts that are coming up! First off, I have an extremely impressive (well at least I think so) dress collection that I really want to share and I ordered some new contacts that I want to do a review of. So yeah! I' should be writing again here shortly and getting my life more together!

Bye for now :)

Saki

Class for the working class...(plus 'the Avengers' nails)

Okay I don't really know what "class" has to do with anything here, but it's a catchy title right??

Anyways, I've been back at work for 2 weeks now and as a manager I can finally wear something other than that ugly uniform. To go with my work-casual look, I also want my makeup to look perfect and fresh everyday! I don't have a full body mirror at my mom's house so I can't show you pictures of what my work-casual outfits look like, but as always I can share my makeup :)

This is how it looks like. I tried to go for a natural, bright look which contrasts how I feel when I'm actually at work. I didn't used to do my full makeup everyday but ever since I did, people have been commenting that I look "happier" and "brighter" so I'm going to say its because of the extra time I've been spending in the morning to get ready. I wake up around 7am and finish in about half an hour which gives me time to make coffee and then head to work!

These are the products I use: (** products are ones that are unique to this look)

Face:
-KMA foundation powder
-MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Gold Deposit
-E.L.F Studio Cool Bronzer
-Sheercover Duo Concealer
-Canmake Shading Powder #01

Eyes:
** -Pop Beauty Goddess Clutch Day to Play 
-Mary Kay mascara
-NYX felt tip pen eyeliner
-NYX jumbo pencil in cottage cheese
-Urban Decay Naked Palette- Buck (for eyebrows)
-Dolly Wink eyelashes No.1
-Princess Mimi Sesame grey circle lenses

This is the color that I used for my eyeshadow from the Pop Beauty Goddess Clutch: Day to Play palette

(image from Dermstore.com)

Its a shimmery bronze/copper kind of color and I absolutely love it it gives my eyes like a certain glow to them. I put it on the bottom of my eyes and on my eyelids.

I've also started using the E.L.F Studio cool bronzer because I ran out of the Bare Minerals one that I used to use. I SUPER love this bronzer though and it was only $3 USD! So cheap and I think the quality is alright. It lasts like all day. It looks like this:

There are 4 colors but for this look I only used the right half of the palette. I like the darker shade to contour and then I use my mineralize MAC bronzer for the apples of my cheeks for a nice glow! And here is a swatch of all the colors in this bronzer:

They are pretty pigmented and like I said it lasts like all day! I highly recommend this product if you are looking for a cheap bronzer that really works. There are more shades to choose from as well and you can check that all out on eyeslipsface.com :)

Here are more pictures of my look:

Close up of the eyes

Cute but not too much right? This is how I've been wearing it everyday and I really like it ^^

***

BONUS.

I did my nails "The Avengers" style (the movie). It took me like an hour :)

 The top one is the left hand and the bottom is the right hand. The right hand was so hard omg because my left hand is retarded and cannot be controlled. But I think it turned out rather nice! Unfortunately my nails are all weak and flimsy from using acrylics all the time so these nails only lasted like 2 days QQ but I'm glad I got pictures of them at least lol.

Okay that's all! :)

***

As always, if you want to, follow my twitter and instagram, both @xsakisaki and my tumblr is xsakisaki.tumblr.com

Let's Practice Japanese!

I've decided that I really need to start blogging at LEAST once as week as it gives me something to do and something to focus on other than work and school. Plus, I love blogging- it's very fun and relaxing ^^

Today's topic is Practicing Japanese because school is starting up for me real soon and I've realized I've gone the whole entire summer without even having spoken one Japanese word. (Which is terrible because I'm going to be thrown right into advanced Japanese classes this coming semester! >_<) So I've been gathering up all my resources and coming up with ways to enjoy practicing and reviewing Japanese! Let's start!

***

So what I find most difficult about this language learning process is practicing and applying things that I have learned in class to things in real life context. What I mean by this is, for example, I can study a grammar point until I think I've mastered it, but then I still feel unfamiliar with it when I hear it being spoken out loud in a different context or when I'm not expecting it. Which is how the real world works right? To help with this I recommend 2 things- anime and youtube videos!

~~Anime~~

Yes I know this is a common one, watch anime if you're learning Japanese which I would normally NOT agree with because they use such weird and obscure words sometimes, and I mean jeez what's up with those voices? BUT with reviewing I've come to learn that it sometimes is helpful to pick up an anime to watch.  I also have a short attention span and don't like watching something really long on my computer like a movie or drama, so I find this super refreshing since anime episodes are usually no more than 30 minutes long. I also try to find series that are uploaded without subtitles too sharpen my listening and see how much I can pick up!

**I recommend: Mamegoma anime because I think this one is great for listening practice. Its a story about children and their small seals (aka mamegoma) and their adventures! It's a kid's show and relatively normal so they use simple language and nothing too obscure! Plus its so cute I mean look:

---> Link to watch Mamegoma online for free without english subtitles!

~~Youtube Videos~~

Talk about real life, youtube is the perfect place to get great videos because there is such a huge variety of them and you can basically find anything you're looking for! I think it's easier to understand a scripted anime, but if you're looking for practice with the real thing, watch a youtube video with actual Japanese people talking in it.  You can practice listening to native speakers talk and see how much you understand! I have so many Japanese youtube channels that I love watching.

**I recommend: Popteen TV and Kawaii.i youtube channels. Of course I recommend these channels because of their awesome gyaru fashion >< I think they are helpful because you get to hear what language teens are using now in Japan and more specifically, gyaru teens! I've been able to pick up a few words and some useful things here and there. These may not be the best channels with reviewing since they don't talk as much as like vloggers do, but they are super interesting and entertaining!
--Popteen TV has short videos of the Popteen models doing their thing, hanging out and just being cute. I don't think many people know it exists, hell it took me a long time to find it but its so awesome and cute!
--Kawaii.i follows Jelly model Mana Honda as she explores Japans and tells foreigners about great places to visit and explores different kinds of Japanese fashion styles. Not only is it helpful and makes me want to go to Japan again SO bad, but it has a variety of cool things that you can learn about Japan and Japanese culture. The only downsides are they have stopped updating and there are subtitles (which could be an upside if you're not that comfortable with the language yet!) but there are plenty of existing episodes to watch so no worries there!

---> LINK for Popteen TV
---> LINK for Kawaii.i

***

For serious- get down to business- type reviewing, what helps me is to go through a few lessons, meaning, I focus on let's say one grammar point or set of vocabulary words. By doing this I feel like I am using the "divide and conquer" technique! I start building my way up one step at a time. I like to pick out lessons that on things that I know I've had trouble with in the past (such as keigo and kenjougo -shudder-) and go from there. Or even picking out random lessons is fun too! You can do this by picking a chapter in an old or current textbook, or if you are not learning Japanese in school, any book that you can find on learning Japanese from a local library or bookstore! ....OR you can enjoy listening to a 20-30 minute podcast which is what I love to do! Download one on your ipod or from online and listen anytime you want! I like to listen mostly before I go to sleep (I've heard that it helps stick hearing something right before you go to bed) or when I'm driving because driving is so boring and it keeps my brain on!

**I recommend: JapanesePod101.com These podcasts are AMAZING. They have different series that you can download that range from "absolute beginner", to advanced! You can pick whichever level podcasts you are comfortable with and start listening. Most of them are stand alone podcasts, meaning you don't have to listen to them in a specific order, but it is also good to follow them from the start because they structure their lessons super well.  They range from around 20-30 minutes but I've seen some that have been shorter. Perfect for my attention span hahahaha.
--If you have an ipod/iphone or whatever, you can just search "Learn Japanese" in iTunes on your computer and it will be the first podcast! Or if you want to download directly from the site just go to JapanesePod101.com and sign up for a free trial and download podcasts there! The only downsides are that if you want to use the website with the podcasts (which they will recommend to you over, and over, and over), you do have to pay to join but if you've never been before you can sign up for a 7 day trial and hurry up and use as many resources as you can! The ones on iTunes are always free though (to my knowledge) so that's a good bonus if you are only interested in the podcasts :)

---> LINK to JapanesePod101.com

Alright well that's all I have for tips! I realize this doesn't help if your focus is on reading or writing, but I struggle so much with listening practice so I thought I'd just share some of the things I like doing.  I hope this helps someone out :)

Until next time~~~~

(yes old picture but I just found this in photobooth lololol)

***

As always, if you want to, follow my twitter and instagram, both @xsakisaki and my tumblr is xsakisaki.tumblr.com

Purikura On The Go!

So since I've been doing absolutely nothing at home, I decided to check out some apps for my iPhone! And I have found two MUST haves for the purikura fans! If you don't know, purikura in Japan are sticker pictures that you can take in a photobooth, and they are fancy machines that look like this:

(image from google search)

I have seen these booths in malls and they are absolutely FUN. You take pictures with your friends and decorate them! Cool right? Well I'm sure 99% of you know what purikura pictures are so I'm going to stop, but here is what the pictures out of the machine look like.

 There used to be a store with the machines where I live, but then it closed down T~~T SO I've had to find alternatives! I've already reviewed an app called the Princess Camera in this post HERE but I have two more apps that I think are absolutely PERFECT and wonderful that everyone with an iPhone and loves decorating pics should get :P

The first one is called Girls Camera and the second one is called Rakuga-Cute (楽画cute). I'm going to review Girls Camera first because it's my favorite!

This app is free so keep that in mind!

Okay so basically the app starts off with you can take a picture right then or you can choose to decorate a photo that you've already taken. I've chosen to do the latter. The main menu screen looks like this: 

Then after you've chosen your picture, you decorate it just like you would in the purikura machine! There are stamps, pens, frames and backgrounds that you can use to decorate your picture as cute as you want to ^^ here are some screen caps to show you how awesome it is.

AWESOME RIGHT? And here are a few pictures that I have decorated with this app :) 

What do you think? Isn't is so cute? And its completely FREE! Yes so go download it now iPhone lovers :)

The second app is Rakuga-Cute (楽画cute) and it's basically the same thing, but I had to pay $3.99 USD to unlock the decorations and pens. The actual app is free, but they only give you a few stamps and a few pen colors, etc. I really wanted to see the other things so I sucked it up and paid the 4 bucks to get more!

Its the same concept, where you either choose a pic or take one there and here is the menu screen:

What I love about this app in particular is that it looks like the program in the purikura machines! Like the font, the layout and the style. I'm just a sucker for presentation so because it's presented so well, I just love love it.  Here are some more screen caps that I took for y'all :)

As you can see its basically the same, but look at the layout! If you've been in a purikura machine, doesn't it look exactly the same?? I'm so happy with it and this is definitely an app I would recommend. Here is some pictures that I decorated:

Lol okay ignore my face in those I look horrible, but basically the decorating is so much fun with this app :P

Thats all I have, hope you guys enjoy checking those apps out! Download them if you have an iPhone ^^

And if you want to, follow my twitter and instagram, both @xsakisaki and my tumblr is xsakisaki.tumblr.com

Hello hello in summer reds!

What is the cutest print of the summer? Floral! I just love love floral print clothing and its what I've been rockin' all summer. I bought this shirt from Love Culture on sale for $3 USD. Isn't that a steal?! I love the pink and orange flowers blending together to great a perfect balance. Its bright and colorful which is perfect for summer! Its also a high rise so that I stay nice and cool in the heat :) Here's a preview of everything today!

To go along with my summer look I also decided to try out this new Victoria's Secret eyeshadow palette that I bought at the semi annual sale. It was about $10 USD when I got it and its so pretty. Its got a lot of vibrant colors along with some darker colors so that you can blend the two together. Its also SUPER pigmented like seriously, a little goes a long way. I love the quality and the packaging is also super cute. Win!

For this look I used the top two colors on the right (the deep red and the brown) to create this blend of colors that goes perfect with my shirt! I'm not very daring so I'm too afraid to use bright colors, but that's why I love this red so much its only like a tint. You can see it, but from far away it doesn't look so vibrant and gaudy.  

Here's a list of all the makeup I used for my look (and its seriously just copied and pasted from my earlier blog post because well, I use the same face makeup everyday! The only thing thats really different are the eyes and lips ^^; I starred the ones that are key!)

Face:
-KMA foundation powder
-MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Gold Deposit
-Bare Minerals bronzing mineral powder
-Sheercover Duo Concealer

Eyes:
** -Spring Shimmer Eye Kit by Victoria's Secret eyeshadow palette
-Mary Kay mascara
-NYX felt tip pen eyeliner
-Canmake Coloring Eyebrow in Honey Gold
-Dolly Wink eyelashes No.1
-Princess Mimi Sesame grey circle lenses

Lips:
**-NYX Black Label Matte Lipstick in Diva

And more pictures of my look:

 ... I'm totally pulling a Kotobuki Rui face in that first picture... doesn't she always take her pictures like that?? 

Anyways...Very cutesy style! Yes back to my comfort zone. But hey that doesn't mean I can't try a sexy pose with it too :P

 Yep lol I'm lame I only have one 'sexy' face. It looks like I'm about to cry or something. But anyways I hope you enjoyed reading this! Happy summertime ^^

OH and if you'd like, follow my instagram ans twitter! both @xsakisaki kk bye!

...and my tumblr is xsakisaki.tumblr.com k goodbye for real xD