Hello angels, thank you for stopping by again. I really debated on whether or not I wanted to create this post but I figured it was better to do it and give lots of explanations instead of having to explain everything each time this question gets asked. So today we are going to tackle the tired question of: "how do I/can I do gyaru makeup without eyelashes or lenses?".Before you dive into this post, I highly recommend you read Ray's guide to gyaru eyemake first since we will be talking about a lot of the elements he discussed there. Please also check out my post on how I achieve my gyaru eye shape for additional tips. Reila has some tiktoks about this here and here. Lizzie has also created a post around this topic, but she also touches on other questions like being gyaru with glasses, being plus sized, etc, so please check that out here and here. Finally, Lynn has shared some "how to look gal" tips on her blog too.
I want to also reiterate that when I make these kinds of posts I am by no means insinuating that I am the reigning expert on things or that my word is gyaru law. These are just my thoughts and opinions that I have developed over my gyaru journey and the points listed in these posts are most often shared & supported by other vets in the community.
If you don't like or agree with this kind of content, that's just tough for you because we can only help you if you want to be helped. If you enjoy looking like a clown in the gyaru tags, please feel free but don't try to beef with us just because you don't agree with the standards we have for this jfashion we are all supposedly passionate about 😪
Whether you like it or not, gyaru is the whole package deal so while I don't want to encourage you to actively remove elements from the look, I hope that by offering some sort of guidance in a post like this, you can at least do it in a way that doesn't make the rest of the community look bad.
Main takeaway: You need all the elements of the look (makeup, hair, clothes, nails) to be gyaru. That's it. There's no arguing. If you try to remove one of those overall key elements, you are going to have a Bad Time. Tanning would be the only element I think is completely optional but I can't stress this enough: if you don't/can't wear makeup and/or you can't dress yourself, gyaru is not for you and no amount of these educational posts will help you until you can remedy that.
Goals of the Core Elements
Ray's post already addressed most of this so I will keep this section short and sweet.
The general goal of gyaru eye makeup is to create an open and uplifted look. It shares some similarities with dolly/kawaii/cosplay makeup but gyaru has distinct elements that make it stand out from those styles, such as the nose stripe contour and roach brows.
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Examples of cosplay/dolly eye makeup looks
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As you can see, the cosplay makeup in this picture shares a lot of elements with gyaru makeup such as the elongated eye shape & droop, top and bottom lashes, and colored contacts. Despite this, none of these looks read as undeniably gyaru. That is because they are not working towards the same goal as gyaru makeup, which again is to open and uplift.
A lot of these looks are creating a narrow, cat eye or boxy anime-like shape with fantasy colored contacts, so that's why they do not look gyaru at all even though they have a lot of similar elements at play.
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| Examples of gyaru makeup |
Looking at these gyaru eye shapes, you can see that they are vastly different from the cosplay ones above. The eyes here are rounder, more open, and the contacts are much more muted/natural looking in comparison.
That being said, you can still use vibrant shadows, unnatural colored contacts, and techniques like redrawing an eye crease, but you may need to adjust your application in order to achieve a recognizable gyaru eye.
Understanding the Core Elements
Now that we understand the goals of gyaru makeup, we can move on to understanding the elements and how to apply them.
The very first step to doing gyaru makeup (with or without lashes/lenses) is understanding the core elements of the full face look. I'm not going to go into insane detail on these because there are numerous resources online that you can search up but basically you have the following:- Eyebrows (I didn't categorize this because imo it's kind of up to you how you want to do these. Ideally you want it to suit your face and features and don't necessarily need to follow a strict ruleset for styling, however if you choose to do one of the shapes listed below it will likely increase the gyaru readability in your look, especially when you get to removing other core elements like lashes/lenses)
- Usually styled in a few different ways: thin and arched, straight and full, or thin and upwards & outwards (similar to visual kei styling)
- It is popular to shave the ends of the brows and keep the rest of the hairs very short so you can draw on the shape you want with ease
- These are often drawn on a bit lighter in color than your hair color and mostly using products in browns, blondes and greys.
- As with any makeup look, the goal of the eyebrows is to frame your face and fit the overall aesthetic of the look you are going for.
- Arched brows usually have a stronger vibe and can make your look edgier whereas straight brows usually read more soft and youthful.
- Unless you are comfortable with removing most of your brow, try to find a brow shape that works for your face shape.
- If you have thick natural brows, consider trimming and grooming them to fit one of the aforementioned shapes naturally
- You can buy tinkle razors from amazon/daiso/etc to help shave down excess brow hair
- If you don't want to adjust your natural brows you can always cover them with the glue stick method and draw new ones on
Then you have what I call the "absolute core elements" or ACE of the gyaru look because IMHO it is VERY difficult to pull off a gyaru look when you take one or multiple elements from this section away. Doubly so if you are not Asian or have Asian-centric features to work with.
- Eyeshape (this includes eyeliner, eye shadow & under-eye makeup - aka namida bukuro or aegyosal)
- Under-eye makeup is used to create a more plump and youthful feel to the eyes and is popular in a lot of Asian makeup styles
- The goal is to outline the aegyo sal area with a brown or grey then fill in the aegyo sal with a shimmer or pearl color
- For eyeliner, I would stay away from winged liner if you don't have a solid grasp on gyaru makeup
- A lot of people tend to do a normal wing then try to match the lower lash makeup to that wing instead of creating a new shape
- This is why puppy dog style (downwards) liner is easier to apply in gal make than a wing though it is possible to do gyaru makeup with a wing if you are experienced enough and understand the end goal
- I enjoy doing a wing liner a lot so I'll post some examples of my makeup:
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As you can see with the wing liner, you want the shape
to be continuous from the bottom lashline which requires
the makeup there to be more down and out rather than up.
You can see this in the middle picture and top right the best. |
- Lenses
- Natural colors like brown or grey are commonly used but some gals rock bolder colors like blue or green
- Try to keep the design on the natural side (ex: you don't want a lot of drawings or intricate details on the lens itself)
- Enlarging lenses are popular with Japanese gals but can be difficult to style if you're a foreigner with already big eyes so I would opt for lenses that don't have giant limbal rings to avoid looking to cosplay/dolly-like
- Lashes
- Stay away from natural or fluffy styles, these are stupid difficult to make them work for gyaru
- Try to stick to spikey style lashes
Finally you have the finishing touches. These are good to have in your look and don't need to be overly complicated. As long as they are present and well executed, you won't get scrutinized too hard:
- Contour
- Nose contour > face contour in the world of gyaru.
- Most of the time people will either praise or concrit this element of your makeup so it's good to get a basic understanding of this and have it as a staple step in your base makeup routine
- The goal is to create a thin and pointed/lifted looking nose since a lot of Asians have flat or bulbous nose tips
- This also creates contrast on your face when you do bolder styles
- Blush
- Never hurts to have a wash of color on your face but some gals op to skip this step (especially if they are really tanned)
- Lips
- Any pink or nude will work. Very rarely will you see red or other bold colors being sported because the star of the makeup is the eyes and a bold lip color will detract from that and possibly throw the whole look off balance
You can see how all the elements come into play in the tutorial above. So what do I mean when I say "understanding the core elements"? This means more than just knowing what they are, you have to know what each element contributes to the overall makeup look.
Remember that the goal of the final look is for a uplifted and open look so each of these elements is contributing to that in some way. When you take away one of those elements, like lashes or contacts, everything else remaining needs to be exaggerated and even more on point to account for the loss of an ACE.
How do I do Gyaru Makeup with an ACE?
Ok so we're finally at the meat and potatoes of this post. If all of these elements are so important, how can we still achieve a similar final look if we take some of these core elements away?
Well the answer is simple. You gotta put in work. Like I said above, when you take 1 thing away, you gotta make everything else remaining that much more gal.
There are tons of Japanese gyaru that don't sport bottom lashes (and sometimes even top lashes) but still look undeniably gyaru because everything else on them is very on point, from their nails, to hair, to contour, etc.
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| @Renattci |
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| Erika/@iametann |
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| Parupochi |
Notably here, a lot of modern gals have toned down their makeup a lot and so the new generation of gyaru has a lot more wearable styles. A majority of them opt out of lashes because they get lash extensions now.
Again though, this is super hard to pull off if you're a foreigner without Asian-centric features so I wouldn't use them as your ultimate makeup reference:
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| Mana - Ex AV gal, now leans more alternative/modern gal |
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| Manya |
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| Mahiru |
So, remembering that our overall goal is to get an open/enlarging & uplifted look, the remaining elements really have to play towards this. You'll notice that to get away with no bottom lashes, often times you will see a LOT of mascara on the lower lashes and/or a very dramatic droop (as seen with Rena & Erika above).
In most of these cases you can take the contact lenses away but everything else will need to be thicker/bolder/more dramatic to account for your eyes being smaller. The trick is to maintain the same balance and proportions in the overall look when you take elements away.
Eventually though, if you take too much away it can be very hard to look gyaru (example, bottom right photos). Even in my own attempts, I feel like at the very least you still need lashes and eyeliner.
The key point here is to make the droop/bottom eye makeup, eyeliner, and contour just as if not more dramatic and people won't notice you're not wearing contacts or a set of bottom lashes. If you're trying to get away with taking more elements out, it's gonna be really difficult and I can't advise you in detail on how to do that. You'll have to experiment and see what works for you!
I drew some diagrams to help you visualize the eye shape a bit better. Whether you're doing a winged liner or puppy dog/downward liner, you never want to follow the natural curve of your lower lash line because this will end up closing your eye shape. You want to draw your droop down and out to match/connect with your top liner. The lines don't necessarily need to touch but they should look like they complete each other if you leave a gap.
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Here you can see how drawing your droop (purple)
this way causes your eye to look closed off and smaller |
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Here the droop line (purple) continues from
the inner corner and seamlessly joins to the
end of the liner |
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Similarly if you draw the droop (purple) following
the natural lash line to meet with the wing, it's even
more closed off than the puppy dog liner above |
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Again, you want to start the droop (purple) in
a way that connects your inner corner to the
outer bit of your upper liner seamlessly |
The liner I drew in these diagrams don't connect and that's sometimes a preferred look but the idea is that those lines would meet an connect regardless of if you physically do so. I hope that makes sense!
Completing a gyaru look without one of the ACE's is difficult and requires a lot of work so don't underestimate what something like a pair of eyelashes or contacts brings to the overall look.
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