I used to love acrylic nails. I always felt really feminine whenever I would get mine done, but I stopped after realizing how weak the process was making my nails. Plus I used to be the type to get my design changed every week or if it chipped off, so it goes without saying how much money I saved after “quitting” . Yet even still, I love the look of acrylic nails, especially when they’re done in unique colors and designs.

I know that now, lots of nail art enthusiasts can choose from any kind of design from jewels to 3D flowers, but some of the prettiest nail art I’ve seen has been the simplest. My favorites are always soft pastel colors or white, with a bit of sparkle^^. It’s just so cute, and I’m often tempted to go in a nail salon and get some tips put on, but I have to remind myself that the damage to my fingers and wallet just aren’t worth it. So instead I visit Nails Magazine, an online user submitted gallery of all kinds of designs from funky to foxy. Check it out: CLICKY!

What do you girls think? Are you die hard nail art fans, or is it just not your thing?

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It’s here!! Come celebrate the official launch of GirlyBubble at our Fashion Shoot Party. We’ll be at the gorgeous gorgeous Plumm (pictured here) 9:30pm tonight and judging the Model Showdown in which guys and girls will have the chance to compete for top model prizes. It is shaping up to be a night of much glamor, craziness, and trendsetting!

All the latest details can be found in the description of our event page so make sure you check it out before you come. The most important addition is information for models and photographers. We need all of you who are interested to identify yourself as a model or photographer upon arrival. Models - come dressed! Each model will have a limited amount of time on stage for photographers to shoot during Model Showdown. Photographers - please limit your equipment (no large set ups or lighting sets). Photographers are asked to share any digital photos with SCENEPR/Girlybubble and will be admitted on a first come first serve basis.

For everyone else, please remember than an RSVP, 21+ ID and fashionable clothing are required ;) I’m SO pumped it’s hard to control myself (which is quite bad when you’re sitting in multiple large and boring morning lecture classes). See all you pretty party people soon! xoxo

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I gave Mingy my Sephora cherry the other day (first time ever being in a Sephora). Every chance I got before to go, I had to turn down but I guess it was all fate. We visited the one of the smaller Sephoras in NY in the Upper West Side. It was still fun nonetheless as Mingy indulged me in the products which I have reviews for. Note they’re all Sephora branded. More »

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One thing I learned from looking at other girl’s rooms is that there really is no winner! That’s so cheesy, but really I think the best kinds of rooms are the ones that reflect the personality and needs of the inhabitant, so there is no way to determine which is the “best” (although I also suppose that goes for all kinds of design and yet the most popular reality shows are all about picking the “best”).

With that in mind, I decided against picking rooms that have amazing pillow arrangements or incredible artsy wall decorations in favor of someone who made the most out of a really interesting interior design problem - the rooms in her dorm don’t have right angles! It’s a modern building that poses tricky furniture layout situations for its inhabitants. As if that’s not bad enough, she’s not allowed to paint or leave any kind of markings on the bare white walls and sullen dark wood/stone. For anyone who goes to Yale, you know which dorm I’m talking about (not the one with the Lipstick if you’re wondering if it’s Stiles or Morse). More »

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Yep, that’s right, I spend countless hours at my computer squinting and tinting so that these puppies come out just right. I started dolling about hmmm, say 3 years ago after randomly browsing around some doll sites and it started out just as a curiosity of “dressup dolls” which are kinda like digital paper dolls: they start out in their undies and you get to mix and match their outfit however you want.

I used to make my own paper dolls when I was little,and I think what drew me to the dressup dolls were the memories of it all. Now of course they’ve got super advanced dress-up doll sites like Roiworld and I-dress Up where you can do everything to the doll, down to her makeup. But what I like most about “Cartoon Dolling” is that even tho you start out with a base, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll end with the same finished product as another doller, unlike the Dress-up Dolls that have only so many options. More »

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Cocoro Books (DH Publishing, Inc.) has recently published a photo book containing various Visual Kei bands and their fashion. The book is said to contain various photos from all sorts of bands with little or no similarities to each other so you don’t have to worry about seeing the same thing over and over again. Talk about useful and insightful. Music in Japan has definitely reached a whole new level as they’ve become more influential in pop culture and their listeners.

However, this isn’t the only photo book that Cocoro has released on fashion. They’ve released multitudes of other photo books on all the different types of Japanese fashions for a great price and in full color. It’s like they understand what people want.

You can buy your photo book from Amazon.

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Welcome to our three-part series covering NYC Fashion Week! We are pleased to bring you a firsthand look at the Spring 2009 collection of not one, not two, but THREE talented young Asian female fashion designers over the course of this week.

I had the pleasure of attending the Bryant Park debut show of our first feature, Thuy Diep, a fast-rising star of the designer women’s ready-to-wear market.  Lan and I arrived at the Salon at Bryant Park about 10 minutes before the show was scheduled to start (9pm). After all was said and done with navigating the masses and waiting on lines, we finally got into the show at 9:30pm and of course the lights didn’t dim until 9:40pm. This, I assume, is not an uncommon way to run things in the fashion world and the explanation for the term “fashionably late.” More »

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The Square Enix official online store has just came out with new merchandise from the popular game, Kingdom Hearts. The new merchandises are a charm bracelet featuring various iconic symbols from the game and key chains in the shape of the famous weapon, the key blade. They’re both online exclusive so you won’t be able to find them in any local store. However, the key chains are available now for $19.00 a piece while the charm bracelet won’t debut till later this month on September 13. I love key chains (I have a million of them), but I actually have my eye on the charm bracelet. I’ve always wanted one but I could never find charms I actually liked.

The new merchandise is great stuff but I’m actually more curious about the third addition to the KH series. If you’ve beaten the 2nd KH (Chain of Memories), you’ll see a trailer which is suppose to be a quick sneak peak into the 3rd addition (The Keyblade Wars); however, there’s been no word on its release. It depressed me so much that they would tease me like that. More »

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There’s something really magnetic about Japanese Reggae singer lecca that I can’t quite put my finger on… aside from her uber catchy songs, of course. She’s so mysterious: it’s really hard to find info on her; except for the basic stuff record labels usually  have for their artists. However, it’s not really important because I feel that lecca’s music gives you a good sense of who she is.

With a powerful voice to match the infectious beats of her discography, lecca proves that girl power did not die with the Spice Girls. And with lyrics pounding to the beat of songs like What A Girl Can Do, Shopping, and Let’s Begin help to show her listeners that while it’s all good and fun to let loose and shake that thang, its even more fun to do it to songs with substance.

More »

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There’s a saying, “I want to be Barbie. That b**** has everything.” When compared to Hello Kitty; however, Barbie looks like some bum on the streets.

The pale cat is at it again and this time it’s not Sanrio but her fans. People love her so much, they’re more than happy to tattoo her face to their bodies. How crazy do you have to be to get something like that? Yeah, yeah there’s surgery but it’s a pain and a waste if you’re not going to commit. Also, these people have gotten it in places where it’s blatantly visible for people to poke fun at. I admire their bravery.

Source: Xorsyst via Hello Kitty Hell

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As we gear up for our launch party during Fashion Week we’d like to share with you some juicy details about what we have planned for the night.

We will be featuring a stage area for models (male AND female!) to strut their stuff for the chance to win some fabulous prizes! Photographers will be able to shoot front and center within the VIP section, giving them the opportunity to expand their portfolios and showcase their skills as well (with the best being featured on GirlyBubble afterwards).

The goal is to bring together all kinds of stylish, fun, fashion-loving people together for a night of mingling and partying, but with the added twist of a Model Showdown, so everyone should be looking extra fly that night! We have lots of great gifts in the works from sponsors such as the Bacardi, Rubin Museum of Art, Lee’s Rehab, Viva Salsa Dance Studio, and more… I’m already trying to think of ways to sabotage my own party so I can win these goodies for myself heh ;) More »

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Looking back I was never a big makeup girl because my mom would go crazy if she saw the slightest hint of makeup including lip gloss. So naturally, I grew up knowing very little until I started using one product, mascara.

My first mascara ever was a little sample tube from Elizabeth Arden that I got (or stole) from my mom. I instantly felt more confident with it on even though you couldn’t really tell I was wearing it. I gradually started using it more frequently which brought me to my addiction. I don’t like to leave the house without it especially since I met the eyelash curler and the lash comb. I absolutely love mascara and I’m more than happy to buy a couple tubes to get that confidence I get when I swap on some. While I know that beauty is only skin deep, I love what it does for my eyes. More »

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The Enormous Tiny Art Show had their opening reception today. Unfortunately they’re all the way in Portsmouth, NH so I didn’t go, but check out the collection they have on display at their website (it is, after all, TINY art and very easy to display on a computer screen). There’s a long list of artists who are showcasing and selling their pieces, and in order to qualify as tiny art the pieces have to be under 10″x10″. The set pictured here are by Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday.

I love these kinds of shows because they represent collections of art pieces that are like small hidden gems - difficult to find and not as likely to command the majesty of the Queen’s crown jewel, but a treasure and a great find all the same that has added beauty because of its nonchalant smallness. This is why I love poetry and short stories and vignettes. A real artist doesn’t have to be a master who executes epic, large-scale classics. It takes just as much craft and skill to find something out of nothing, to hone in on the little pieces of life and present it in such a way that it self-magnifies.

So I hope you enjoy looking through these - a whole treasure trove of small hidden gems!

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Ah, I love to dance. It’s such a fun way to stay in (or in my case, get in) shape that I don’t really notice I’m exercising! I also love youtube. What does youtube and dancing have to do with each other? Well, in this post, EVERYTHING!

If you read my last post, you may have noticed that I listen to a lot of Asian pop music. And well, since I don’t live in Asia, Youtube is usually how I get my dosage of Asian entertainment. My favorite thing to youtube are the dance steps to gasoo’s music vids/performances. It’s so cool, because you’d hardly ever see an American artist allowing “how-to” videos of their choreography to be made for fans. *cough*stingy*cough*

Anyway, so far, I’ve learned Boa’s My Name dance, parts of Se7en’s 열정(Passion) dance, and now, I’m focusing on learning Lee Hyori’s U-Go Girl! WOOT! haha I was sooooo delighted when I saw they finally had UGG uploaded. You have no idea how this song has been stuck in my head. It’s FEEEEIIIIRRRCCCEEE! More »

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I love music and can’t work without it. It really helps me get into my groove especially when I’m dead tired and want to choke someone. As such, I have ten songs that I love and always make me feel better when I’m feeling down, angry or just lifeless.

They’re in order from my most favorite to my least, most favorite. I choose all of them based on the lyrics (including the ones in Japanese/Korean) in addition to the melody. More »

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I am a big google user. I use their various search engines, email, reader, calendar, documents, maps, groups, and pretty much everything they have under the google umbrella. I have an iGoogle homepage that is personalized with a Viva La Vida header and New Haven weather.

So it is no surprise that I downloaded Google Chrome as soon as it came out. I’ve been a loyal Firefox user until now and nothing - Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer - could shake that loyalty until I tried Google Chrome and like almost every other Google created application I’ve tried, it didn’t disappoint. More »

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Asahi Beer has taken their beer and pink to a whole new level. They’ve made a pink colored light beer that they’re calling “Be”. Of course, it’s aimed at women but I really don’t see any appeal in the beer aspect of it also, targeting women to drink more sounds fishy. However, I am curious as to how it tastes and whether it’ll actually turn your tongue the same color.

It’s only featured in Japan but I’m sure you could probably pop into a Japan town super market and get your hands on a can. More »

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Yep, I’m freaking out. I can’t find any of my lip stuffs, and it’s really weird considering I have a lot. I think they should come up with a “lip gloss locator button” kinda like the beeping thing you can buy for your keys. I would save people like me at least 15 minutes of spaz time.

Anywho, last night while cleaning my room I came across a note a friend and I wrote back in highschool. It was about the movie “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and it was completely incoherent other than the fact that we kept going “Dammit Janet!” LOL, it brought back all the memories of sleepovers with my girls and all of us watching RHPS which in turn reminded me that I had made a Polyvore set based on the movie! I tell you, this is probably one of my favorite movies because it’s so campy, and in a weird twisted way, girly! HAHA I mean, with the amount of lipstick and body glitter in this movie, there’s no way it can’t be! More »

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Mini laptops are the cutest things ever and quite handy when you don’t want to carry around an actual laptop. However, none have actually been worth sporting except when it came to this one.

Computer titan Fujitsu and adorable Tokidoki have joined forces to create the ultimate mini laptop that is not only cute, but earth friendly. With green has becoming the new pink, the laptop is built to be ultra lightweight in addition to using less power making it energy efficient. As far as cuteness goes, the laptop flaunts the kawaii Tokidoki characters that’ll make any little girl squeal (including myself).

Unfortunately it’s a limited edition and only available in Japan but there’s been a lot of buzz for it in the US and Europe which brings in a little ray of hope.

Via Shiny Shiny

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Is it just me or is the weather getting hotter? Where’s the New England autumn coolness that will deliver me from suffocating in my non-air conditioned dorm room?

Well regardless of outside temperature I know one thing’s for sure - we’re warming up for NYC Fashion Week! Our launch party is less than a week away o_O Here’s a very cute promotional video that has been created for your viewing pleasure, and don’t forget to RSVP while there’s still room (yes there is limited capacity and you will want to get you and your friends’ names on the guest list because this is not something to be missed!).

In the meantime, to warm you up for Fashion Week as well I give you a brief visual introduction to two up-and-coming young female Asian designers who will be showcasing their Spring 2009 collections this coming week in NYC. I picked  these two out because… well… you’ll see. Just remember to check back here in a week ;) More »

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