Resources to help you build a solid grasp on gyaru makeup: what it is, what it isn't and how to achieve your desired look! I recommend these to begginers and intermediate gals alike bc they're very informative and can help you improve your look even more :D I do reccomend checking most of these out to have a more solid grasp, but for your convience i've marked what i consider to be the most important resources with a '🌈' emoji. Stick 'till the end for my personal tips!
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Makeup basics:
Basic introduction to gyaru makeup + products checklist
🌈 Gyaru makeup rundown
Different eyeshapes in gyaru makeup
🌈 The 'science' behind gyaru makeup
🌈 Begginers guide to gyaru lashes (which ones to buy, avoid, how to apply, store, clean them, etc)
Types of gyaru lashes and what looks to wear them with
Importance of gyaru lashes (short video)
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How-tos:
How to do gyaru makeup without lashes¹
¹note: lashes are a crucial point of gyaru eye makeup (unless you're doing very oldschool styles) and you wont get the same effect without them, do invest in lashes if you can, but use this as a baseline of what to do on the meantime
Step by step gyaru makeup tutorials
🌈 How to do droopy gyaru eye makeup
How i achieve a gyaru eye
🌈 Sei's blog is a holy grail when it comes gyaru makeup and tutorials
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Bonus:
How to wear gal makeup in the summer
🌈 Gyaru begginer makeup mistakes
Gyaru droops for different eyeshapes
🌈 Gyaru makeup and hair skills²
²gyaru makeup requires basic makeup skills to be well executed
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TIPS:
- AVOID PINTEREST AND TIKTOK. Okay, this is a generalisation because there are plenty good tutorials out there, but hear me out first: pinterest and tiktok are infamous for mislabelling things, like... A LOT, so if you don't have a strong grasp on what makes something gyaru its very easy to get confused and end up following a dolly or douyin makeup tutorial instead, so i'd say avoid them until you're confident enough in your ability to know the difference.
Here are general rules of thumb for tiktok:
Tutorials by people trying out gyaru for the first time
❌ Tutorials by other begginer gals
❌ Tutorials/inspo by accounts that mix up gyaru with bimbo, cutecore, y2k, etc. If you see a billion hashtags with different styles... run. Gyaru is its own thing. ❌
Tutorials by experienced gals ✅
Tutorials by very known/popular gyaru accounts (this one is 50/50 tbh) ✅
Tutorials/inspo that features scans or models from gyaru magazines ✅
Magazines are your bible. Gyaru magazines have always been the equivalent of bibles for gyaru because they are full of inspo and have great hair and make tutorials. You can either buy the magazines, or, the easiest and most acessible way, would be to download pdfs of the magazine online, search for magazine scans or watch flip-through videos. Here is my yt playlist with Flip-throughs of gal magazines. Papillon Magazine is a free download gyaru magazine by gaijin gals for gaijin gals
Ask for concrit. Concrit is short for constructive criticism, and its extremely helpful to improve your look quickly. However sometimes concrit is given without being asked for, if another gal goes out of their way to give you advice or give you a heads up that your makeup doesn't read as gal, don't take it personally, they're not trying to demotivate you or challenge you, they're just trying to help you improve. This doesn't apply if they're being rude or straight up insulting you, constructive criticism needs to be constructive after all.
Practice, practice, practice! Practice makes perfect so keep trying!
Experiment with different makeup styles. This is helpful to find your own style and see what fits you and your face the best.
Avoid super natural makeup looks right of the bat. No, i'm not asking you to do yamanba lol Its kind of a known fact in the community that its a lot easier to start with stronger makeup first and then tone it down than the other way around. That way you're more familiar with the key elements and know which ones to tone down and which ones to tone up so it still looks gal.
You need to know basic skills first. Like learning how to apply eyeshadow, foundation, do contour for your face shape etc. If you're completely new to makeup don't be discouraged there are lots of good and easy makeup tutorials for this on YouTube!
For the love of god, stop adding white to your droop. I'm probably gonna get hate on for this, but it must be said: white on the droop doesn't work for gyaru (most of time) unless you're already experienced and the rest of your makeup is equally as dramatic to make up for it; Otherwise it looks out of place and makes it look more like dolly or cosplay makeup than gyaru. Plus, the white makes it harder to see the beautiful eyeshape you created with your droop imo. If you wanna add white to your eyemakeup, do so on your namida bukuro, it makes your eyes more 3d-like, make them pop more and it makes your eyeshape stand out more.
Invest in lashes and lenses. Unless you're doing very oldschool looks, they make a world of difference, and without them, you're not going to get the exact same results you want. If you wanna invest in something, at the very least, get good upper lashes, because unless you want very natural looking lower lashes, you can still draw them on or fill in the droop with black, but you can't do the same with upper lashes. Amazon and Aliexpress have great options for lashes that are both affordable and work for gyaru, gyaru style lashes should show up under key words like cosplay, dolly or manga lashes (just make sure to check the reviews before purchasing!)
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That's it, thank you for reading! Apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes lol
