So I'm a bit of a narcissist~

Lately, I've been on "pause" mode a bit, style-wise. Sure, I've gotten some new clothes here and there, however mostly just casual clothes. Between my job, volunteer work, after school activities and school itself I haven't had much time to scour the egl comm sales in search of the cheapest jumperskirt, or to finally figure out how to use that confangled Mbok thing.

However, what I have been doing this year that's bee highly beneficial appearance-wise is getting up early, giving me more time to do my makeup. Last year I only wore it now and then, but this year I've worn it pretty much every day- I've actually gotten pretty decent at applying it!

With my recent makeup fascination, I've often tried to take more detailed makeup shots, but I just can't accept the fact that my camera is awful and will never be good at that sort of thing so I always end up with like 100 grainy photos of my right eye and a few "vanity shots," if you will. The result is that if you look at picture folder I will look like the biggest narcissist ever due to having 100+ of these sorts of shots of myself, and I regret nothing.

Because secretly I actually am a narcissist, here's a few of my favourite shots of myself~

 This was the first time I wore circle lenses in a "casual" (ie not a costume) outfit. I thought the makeup looked almost gal, except without the contouring and falsies (so maybe not at all really) :P

 My unicorn costume for Halloween! I could NOT get a decent shot with my horn in it, unfortunately >.> It's too bad too; I love that horn!

 I don't even know what I was trying to accomplish with this shot, but I kind of like it either way.

 For a while, this was my default pic EVERYWHERE. I still kind of like it; I usually suck horribly at taking profile pics of myself (I always try to take some so I can make one of those Victorian silhouette pictures but it always comes out horribly and ends in frustration, especially when I resign myself to asking a family member and they think it's the most hilarious thing ever that I'm not smiling for the picture)

For some reason I don't have a text-free version of this picture on my PC, so here's my crappy Gaia-banner version, complete with advertisements for this blog that's brought in a grand total of maybe seven visitors.

ALSO, I changed the name of this blog AGAIN. This time, it's Unicorn Doll, for reasons that I'll hopefully get to discuss in the next post I have planned (don't get too excited; it's nothing that interesting). I didn't change the address this time though, since the old address still had something to do with unicorns and it'd be a pain in the butt to have to go to all the places I have links to my "personal site" on and change everything.

So, that's really about it... a horribly lackluster post, I know. I just wanted something so I don't end up like the last couple of months and only post like one thing per month >.>

That was pretty bad.

On Confidence

Recently, I've had a couple of friends who have expressed legitimate interest in Lolita. Most of them are okay financially, they just need help style-wise and learning where to buy. However, there has been one huge obstacle that I've noticed people getting into Lolita- or alternative fashion in general- have to face...
"I love the look and I think it's REALLY cute, but I don't think I'd feel comfortable enough with myself to wear it..." I hear many people say, quite unfortunately.
I can't stand it to hear somebody express an interest in an alternative fashion (and quite often somebody that could pull it off very well), only to hear them say they can't wear it because they don't have the confidence. I really do hate that.
Unfortunately, it does take a huge amount of confidence to wear Lolita, especially outside of conventions and places where Lolitas are more common and accepted- wear it to the mall, and you WILL get stared at and you WILL get comments, not all of which are good. Some people can't take it, or don't want to deal with it. Often when I've spoken to girls like this on the subject, they say they just can't understand how Lolitas deal with all the attention.
I'm not going to lie- building true confidence takes a lot of time and effort. It takes a sense of comfortableness with your body and personality, will and determination, the ability to ignore hurtful negativity (the keyword here being "hurtful..." while it is good to ignore senseless insults, well thought-out critique helps you improve your work and takes the person who wrote it time and effort, and thus it should be accepted gratefully and taken into consideration!). Believe me, I know how difficult it is- I used to have the self-esteem of a smelly armpit and those were not fun times.
Building confidence is different for everyone, just like everyone is different, but nonetheless here are some tips I found helped me when I was still learning to be a bit more confident:


1.) Try your best to perceive yourself positively
This one's a biggie, and certainly probably one of the most difficult. When you look in a mirror, it's easy to be tempted to stare at your huge nose, or those god-awful bitten nails of yours, or your thunder thighs. If you want to feel comfortable with yourself, you have to learn to look past all that for a while! You have to look at yourself in the mirror and think "I have really nice hair," or "my skin looks clear today."
Try looking at your "negative" aspects more positively, too! Your nails may be bitten, but they're attached to long, slender fingers. Your nose isn't "huge," it's "defined." You may not have the "ideal" body type, but you know, those gorgeous women in the old Renaissance paintings were a bit on the heavy side, and they weren't exactly what you would call "ugly." If there's a certain part of yourself you just really don't feel comfortable with that can easily be changed, like nail length or hair colour, just change it! If you can't afford it, or it's something you really just can't change... learn to love it. There's really beauty in everything, even if the mainstream isn't in love with it.
They say that if you tell yourself something enough, even if it's something you don't believe in to begin with, over time you convince yourself that it's true. Just keep telling yourself you're beautiful, and even if you don't think you are in the beginning (which you are, trust me), you'll eventually start to perceive yourself as prettier without "lying to yourself," as I felt I was doing when I first started doing it.


2.) Walk like you mean it
It sounds strange, but changing my posture and the way I walk has IMMENSELY helped my confidence. I used to walk in this kind of hilarious slow shuffle; head down, occasionally bumping into people because I couldn't see where I was going. One day I realized, "wait, this is stupid. I can't see where I'm going," and looked up. It was odd at first, looking everybody in the eye as I passed them. It was even more odd when I started to try to improve my posture and suddenly I was two inches taller. Even worse was when I tried to walk in a stride rather than a shuffle and suddenly the world was moving so fast. But, in the end, it all really helped!
If you walk like you own the place, people will better be able to see your confidence (even if you don't really have it yet). If you're dressed strangely, they're more likely to leave you alone because you don't look like that shy, vulnerable girl shuffling around the mall staring at the floor. Plus, it just feels so nice to see the world as you walk through it and not the floor tiles, lovely as they may be.


3.) Love others, as well
It's definitely not a good thing to insult other people to feel better about yourself! It's probably the worst way, in fact- kicking somebody and ruining their own confidence just makes you a horrid person, not a nice, confident person that people are attracted to.
I've found that the opposite helps- thinking good things about other people, as well as yourself. Seeing people and thinking "oh, she looks very pretty" or "she seems so happy!" moves you into a more positive mindset, as well as potentially attracting other people to you if you're more vocal about it. If you're more optimistic about life, you tend to be more optimistic about yourself- thus, confidence!
But- and this is a big but- be very careful to never compare other people to yourself!! If you think things like "Her hair is so much nicer than mine," you'll just depreciate yourself, put yourself in a bad mood and suddenly you hate yourself and everybody, ESPECIALLY that bitch with the cool hair. Really, I don't think there's any comparing other people to yourself- I know you might hear it all the time, but really just let it sink in- everybody is their own unique person with their own strengths and faults. Really, think about it- that bitch might have cool hair, but your hair is your very own. You can do something completely new with it, and have hair that people and yourself will think is ten times cooler than the bitch's will ever be.


5.) Work on your flaws
Of course, I don't mean become anorexic so you can lose weight or blow all your money on makeup and make yourself miserable by slaving away to get ready every morning when you really don't feel like it- if anything, those things will just make you feel worse.
However, usually if people have low self-confidence, it's for a reason. Maybe they have poor grades, or maybe they are a bit overweight... there are a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, not all of these are legitimate reasons and are usually brought on by bullying. If that's the case, I'm obviously no expert on these situations but I think it would be wise to seek help and try your best to avoid/ignore the bullies.
However, if your self-esteem is low because of a flaw that you could obviously use some work on, by all means work on it! Study your hardest to get better grades. Follow a healthy diet and work-out schedule. Learn to properly apply makeup for your own benefit. Even if you don't get the best grades, or you don't lose much weight, or you don't become the prettiest girl in school the only thing that matters is that YOU feel good about yourself, and screw what other people think (though, as I always point out in these situations, to a healthy extent- don't scare off potential employers by wearing white face to an interview, etc etc). Trust me, I did all these things and while I may not be the the prettiest, or the thinnest, or the smartest kid in my class I have improved in all of these areas and I couldn't be happier with my progress.

Overall, the most important things to improve one confidence to remember are that you're your own person, everyone is beautiful and has skills and qualities to be admired in different areas, and no matter what people say you always try your hardest! So remember ladies, walk with your head held high and remember that no matter what people might yell at you from the sidewalk, and no matter what you may think of yourself now:
You are amazing in your own way <3

Salem!!

You may or may not have noticed the severe lack of posts for the last whole month (I think that's a new record or something...), and that's because, wouldn't you know, right after I announced that I wanted this to be a personal blog, I started having no life. Seriously, I've never been so busy in my life, between school, college applications/visits, and work... BUT, this weekend, I finally got a break and had a chance to go to Salem with my good friends Mae and Matti! Salem is one of my favourite places to go, ESPECIALLY toward Halloween. I especially like the shopping... they have this amazing curiosity shop, a super-awesome nerd shop with plenty of Hello Kitty merch, and a consignment shop with plenty of awesome vintage clothes all five minutes away from each other!

Since it was so close to Halloween, I decided to dress up! I usually kind of dress up anyhow, but I decided to go the whole five miles this time with a unicorn horn and gratuitous amounts of glitter!! Here's what I wore:

My face looked really derpy all day, because despite it being the middle of October, it was SO hot! (over 80 degrees!). I had to sweep the wig bangs aside a couple of times, which looked quite derpy considering how dark my brows are >.>

I also tried to shop the pic to make it look more ~mystical~ but the cars in the background kind of ruined the effect xD

Here's Matti in her super-fab outfit! I think the shopping worked out more on this one due to the lack of cars xD

Mae, in a loopy thing. She had a very classy-looking on cardigan earlier but unfortunately she had to take it off due to the heat D: We still had a ton of fun though! I'd love to go when it's cooler, and closer to Halloween.

The buildings were all so pretty!! That's one of the things I love about more historical cities; the buildings are so gorgeous!!

Remember what I said about my wig looking derpy? Yeeeaaah I wasn't exaggerating. Either way, this book was adorable!! I didn't have enough money for it though, as I blew all my money on pullovers at F21 the day before D:

Obligatory "OMG look at what I ate you guys!" pic. It was actually Mae's but she generously shared some with us xD I know it doesn't look impressive, but it was REALLY good... but to be fair I was pretty hungry.

A giant ice cream at the place we bought ice cream from! I thought it was kind of cute.

This witch hat ended up looking more like a unicorn horn, so of course I forced Matti to try it on for pics :P These were kind of expensive, too, but the baskets selling them were completely full so apparently this tomfoolery isn't working.

I really wish I had more time to do things, but unfortunately my schedule for the next couple of weeks are pretty packed too >.> I WILL be going to NYC for college visits in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll get enough pics then. Other than that, consider this a semi-official hiatus announcement. I'll probably have more time to post around the end of November, though, since college applications will be done! Please look forward to that, and thanks for reading!!

Now here's a pointless Fluttershy gif because it's adorable:

On Being Yourself

I believe Parfait Doll did a post somewhat similar to this theme (that is, being yourself online), but this post is really meant to be more about my own experience. That being said, the Parfait Doll article had some nice points on how to be yourself online, but a couple I didn't entirely agree with. For example, using your real name? Might be okay for some people, myself included, but it's entirely understandable for people who wish to stay under an alias, and they're certainly not always just hiding! The internet isn't as full as pedophiles and stalkers as the internet seminars some of us were forced to attend in 4th grade might make it seem, but there are some sketchy people out there! Moving on...
Some of you may have noticed that my speaking pattern has changed a little bit since I decided this would be a more personal blog, and honestly that is somewhat intentional. Before, when I was trying to write articles for other people, somehow it got through my head that people wanted to hear from a sweeter, kinder person than me. Now, in real life I consider myself polite and generally nice to people, and online my typing pattern can be rather formal anyhow (though I exaggerated that oftentimes on this blog as well), but really there was a big part of myself I wasn't letting myself show on my blog, and that was my humour.
Sometimes, when typing an article out, I'd write in little quips, only to quickly delete them. At one point I just decided that I shouldn't try to be funny on a ~professional~ blog, and that people might not enjoy that. Oh God how wrong I was. I've been reading more blogs lately, and I've found that the ones I stick with most often are the ones with authors that actually have a personality. I love pretty pictures as much as the next person, but somehow I like to know the personality behind the pictures. If there is none, that's kind of lame.
Believe it or not, I'm kind of a class clown. I'm not one of those people who interrupts classes all the time or is an ass to people, but I do joke around a lot when it's appropriate and trust me, I make fun of myself plenty. I really feel like a lot of Lolitas might have a bit of a clown in them-- it's hard to take even yourself seriously when you're wearing a dress full of cupcakes and rainbows.
So, in the future I hope to actually let my personality shine through. I'm not going to subject you guys to my ~randomness~, but I cringe just as much as most of you when I read blogs like that, but I'm not going to erase little quips I make anymore and maybe if I have some funny stories I'll tell them to you guys :) (I tend to have a lot of them... my English teacher would actually get worried last year if I didn't come in with an interesting fact or funny story to tell ^^; )

Finally, I found this gif on Tumblr, though to be honest I'm not entirely sure from where D:
I'll let you guys know where I found it if I can find the source because this is like my new favourite gif! I love gifs that have huge landscapes or scenes even more than tiny cute pixel gifs :D

Thanks for reading!!

Style update- Sugar hime!!

Since this outfit uses a lot of the same pieces as my sugar rock outfit (okay, so maybe just like two :P) but has a significantly more hime feel to it, I decided to call it Sugar Hime!

Rundown:

Jsk/bow: DoL (AP replica)

Tights/necklace/flats: Offbrand

Cardigan: Forever 21

Wig: Cosplaywigsusa

First of all, UGH, horrid picture quality is horrible >.< I promise that soon enough I will get a new camera and then I will be able to take outfit shots so high quality you'll feel like your eyeballs just exploded! (not really, but you'll actually be able to see what I'm wearing)

Second of all, I'm TOTALLY in love with this wig I got from Cosplaywigsusa!! It's SO soft and such a nice colour (though admittedly I feel like I'd look a lot better in it personally when I get my "winter tan" back; aka pale as the snow on the ground), and I'm finding the falls to be very versatile already :P (In addition to being pigtails, I've arranged them into a hime style as seen here and plan to make them into horse tails for my unicorn costume on Halloween!). I especially love how big it is; when I wear it I actually look kind of petite <3 (as usual the effect can't really be seen in the pic though >.> ) The only complaint I have is how the bangs are so thin; I'm actually going to have to get a pink wig cap since the nude-colour mesh one I have right now shows right through >.>

Because I have a butt-ton of stuff going on school and work-wise, I probably won't have time to do stuff/dress up and, ergo, not enough material to write about here. I MIGHT start putting up some short stories here (but don't worry; I'll try to keep those to a minimum so as not to bore those of you who read blogs for pictures :P ), but other than that if there's any content for the next month or so it's going to be pretty dry. A couple weeks around Halloween and after Thanksgiving, though, I should be done applying to colleges and have more time to write things, and after that senior activities start going down so expect a bunch of prom-related posts!! <3 (I've already dreamt up several prom looks!)

Thanks for reading!!

Face lift!!

Some of you may have noticed the recent changes to my blog. The name change, the profile/pic change, the layout change... it's all very different from before. That is because I've finally come to terms with the fact that I will never have a large readership and I will never be ~e-famous~ (whatever that could even mean).

Don't get me wrong, I love writing for other people, however I do that ALL the time at school. Nowadays especially with recreational writing I want more and more to write for myself. I'm not going to lie, when I started this blog, I hoped to gain a large readership and get my opinions out there, and yes, I was kind of hoping that with that there was the possibility of "e-fame."

I don't want any of that anymore. I want something that I can enjoy writing, that I can vent on if I feel like it, and maybe, should people actually find me interesting, they can follow me. I don't want the large readership anymore; I'm fine with whatever the number may be.

The name change is probably the most significant of all changes. I got rid of the "ritzy" part because I've strayed away from more classical styles (no matter how much I admire them from afar) because it sounds so old-fashioned, and I've done away with the "feminist" part because, while I am still a riveting feminist and do enjoy sharing my opinions, I don't want to feel obligated to do so unless I really want to. Besides, I hardly wrote any feminist-related things before. I've changed the name to "Unicorns and Sparkles" for no significant reason other than that I love unicorns and I love sparkles.

 With these changes, I hope to give myself the freedom to write more about myself, and my life, effectively making this more of an online journal than an "informative" blog. Don't worry though; my life isn't entirely dull, especially now that I actually have money to do things. Unfortunately, pictures will be lacking until I get a decent camera. Me being myself, though, I do have a lot of opinions, so most likely not everything will be a personal post! I'll keep the angry teenage rants off this blog, though :P

Well, that's the reason for the changes. Nothing too major, considering I wasn't doing too many posts beforehand anyhow (I'm legitimately busy right now, I swear! I'm actually cashiering and being a productive citizen in addition to school and college searching!), so there probably won't be too much of a difference other than that I'm trying to make everything cuter. Thanks for reading!!

Pastel Rain Drops giveaway!!

So I recently ("recently" being about ten minutes ago :P ) found out about an awesome blog through the lovely Serepuff of Millions of Bows, called Pastel Rain Drops! I've read through a few posts, and it's super awesome! I can't believe I didn't find out about it before, especially since I've been looking for more fairy-kei blogs to read lately ^^;
I found this blog at the right time, though, as there is a giveaway going on at the moment! I'll just leave you guys with a picture of the awesome prizes up for grabs and say that you definitely should check out the blog, because it's pretty sweet, especially for fairy-kei enthusiasts such as myself :P
Thanks for reading!!