Kyary~...Pamyu Pamyu

Yesterday (it's now 3:35 am because we got back pretty late and I can't sleep, which is always the way when I have to get up for work tomorrow) I traveled to London once again to see Kyary live at the Islington 02 academy. As is often the case when we go to London - we being Cassie, Leon and I - we started the trip with a much needed Cuppacha and a chicken bun because we were hungry as hell. Those buns are meant to be like a whole lunch or something but when I got it I was just like

This is the second time that we've been to Cuppacha now, and I definitely recommend  it. I've had usual bubble tea before and I'll be honest, I'm not that keen on tapioca balls because let's face it...They feel like snot and have the consistency of that goop they used to stick Tesco club-cards to their leaflets with. The first time I had tapioca, the feel was such an unpleasant surprise that I pretty much projectile vomited into a bin. I do like it now though. 

Cuppacha has most of the usual teas and you can select the usual tapioca to accompany it (or you can skip the balls all together, whatever you like) but the thing I really like about Cuppacha that I haven't seen elsewhere is the popping balls and stars. I could just have missed them, but whatever. The first time around I selected a sort of grim concoction of caramel tea with mango popping pearls. On their own they were so good, but together... 

I made a bad choice.

 This time I had caramel tea with coffee popping pearls, which was substantially better in terms of not being so mismatched. They also have really cute tapioca stars (I'm not sure if they pop or what, but they were cute either way). Just don't pop all the balls into your drink at once. else it will be so sickly you will teeter on the edge of spewing on your fellow tube-goers. 

Image is from Food for thoughts - read their review here

Enough about that because it's sort of beside the point. The point here is Kyary and how, actually, I wasn't particularly impressed. From speaking to most of my friends who also attended the event, it seems I'm pretty much the only one who feels this way. Don't get me wrong, she performed it perfectly and she didn't mime for the best part (as much as I could tell), she smiled and was excessively happy etc etc, yet the entire performance just felt like a pre-packaged ordeal. I just felt like since she had a translator, she stuck to a script, which made the entire thing sanitary and pretty much as exciting as watching the song on Youtube. I sort of felt like I traveled about 5/6 hours to see what I could see from a laptop at home. There was little to no fan-service, although I am somewhat sympathetic to the fact that that's a little difficult when she clearly speaks minimal English - however some effort could have been made to include a little more friendly fan interaction (as opposed to stiff and proper interaction) into her script if that's the only way it would be possible. It made me feel a bit awkward how most of the time all she said was "Thank you". She's being polite obviously but the whole fan/singer/idol relationship is no fun when it's completely formal. Fans love banter! 

*Odg did I just say `banter` help*

I often turned around thinking that I couldn't be the only one having that little fun,  and from what I could see there was a rammed space with only about half the people really involving themselves in the music. Speaking of the music, I'm not exactly a massive Kyary fan - I love her music and I think she is an adorable person with a fantastic imagination, but I'm not that in love with her that I'm going to buy all her magazine articles etc etc - but I do know a fair few songs considering she hasn't exactly released a million albums as of yet.

Or so I thought.

I recognized none of the songs bar three or four. I have never heard people mention these songs or play these songs, and my friend couldn't put a name to them either so why they were played  I can't understand. I don't know if she released a new album that went totally under the radar of tlist and KLUE or what (KLUE is a facebook group where I keep tabs on what goes on with music -I keep out of it and just read, but let me tell you something - someone could eat a banana in the kpop/jpop world and KLUE would know about it in photographic detail with GIFS, fanarts and fics. It scares me). At the beginning with `Pon Pon Pon`, I was excited and ready to have a lot of fun, but after three or four songs I didn't have any clue about, I was totally lacking in excitement for the next song that I even knew. By the time the show was nearing a close, I had ceased joining in at all and I just wanted to leave. However, one of her male dancers and a movie short in the costume change brought a substantial amount of comic relief. The conclusion of this was that while she performed well, it was nothing outstanding. I still enjoy Kyary as a person and her music, but I wouldn't want to see her live again.

The final groan about this whole thing is the deal with photography. The venue forbade photography on the grounds that it ruined the view for the other fans. That is a reasonable reason to have that rule. I totally understand that it's annoying when people are waving things around when you're trying to see ,especially signs! Lord how I want to knock that crap out of people's hands when they're waving a massive bloody A3 piece of cardboard around in your peripheral and totally obscuring what you've paid to see. 

That shit just rude.

What isn't particularly reasonable however, is to forbid photography on those grounds

and then fill the barrier pit with press photographers.

Thanks to the layout of the venue, the photographers had to stand right in front of the crowd in front of the barrier. It wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't waving their goddamn cameras around. Their cameras 'aint even small and they're waving them around in the air. If the venue had raised seating, that's cool, snap away, but the point is, it didn't and so my friend and I spent most of the time trying to view Kyary over the top of some guys massive ass camera. And we were at the front - I pity people further back. My friend is short man, be fair. 

On a side note I'm also really bitter about the fact that they made me throw away my massive bottle of oasis because I love and cherish oasis just a little bit more than my own life. I thought about it a bit too much on the bus home and nearly cried, because I'm massively over emotional like that.

 

There we have it, I'm that desperate when it comes to Oasis (I shan't bring up the time I welled up over a curry or cried about - wat).

Anyway, as you can tell from above whinge, I have no pictures to share here. I did however get a chance to meet my inter-friend Ken, bump into SuMi again and spend the day with Cassie and Leon so it wasn't entirely dull.

Recent gets - Tony Moly review

My friend Honey recently tweeted a photo of this cleanser, and it was just so adorable I had to get one. It's a Tony Moly broccoli cleanser - little did I know I'd end up going Tony Moly Mad and buying a bunch of bits.

 The leaves are rubber and ping around. Super cute~ Approx £6-9 for 200ml

It contains blueberry, tomato, green tea, lavender and young broccoli sprouts, as well as AHA to remove dead skin cells etc etc (let's all pretend we know what AHA is...). All the usual. Most of the time, I really hate cleansers and much prefer wipes because cleansing with a liquid cleanser was always hard work and my face never really felt very clean after. I use this twice; once to get rid of major dirt, then again to remove traces. It's got good removing power and leaves your face feeling dewy and moisturized. Plus, when it's all run out, you can keep rings or something in the adorable little plant pot.

Next is this Tony Moly bunny gloss bar. They also have these in hideous neon yellow colors as far as I'm aware (although the gloss itself is likely clear). The packaging is, again, totally adorable. The only complaint is that the gloss doesn't wind back in without being pushed, which gets your hands all mucky. I thought maybe mine was just broken, but my friend's was the same.
£3-£5 each or £13-£20+ for a set.
Cassie got me the one third from the right - she said it looked like me...¬_¬  The color of the bar was good. Considering glosses are usually low color and high shine, this had both, without being too shiny. The only thing is has nil of is staying power. Put it on, lick your lips and say goodbye to it.

These eggs can be purchased individually to use on particular problem areas or as a set for an entire skincare system. The white egg is blackhead removing gel, which has a lemon scent and small exfoliating beads that, unlike other exfoliators, don't dissolve which theoretically makes it more capable of removing blackheads. The brown egg is a pore tightening mask to help tighten the skin and close up your pores are you grind the crap out of them with exfoliator. It's got a tan color and a thick consistency. I find that it sort of smells plasticy...I'm not even sure how to explain the smell. Maybe like eggshells (surprise surprise). The gold egg comes last, and contains a pore smoothing balm to fill in any last pores.
I actually adore the smell of the `pore out gel`, and despite having an oily consistency it doesn't feel  like it leaves the skin greasy. I do think however that, like most exfoliators, this product doesn't actually remove many blackheads - it just removes the top layer of dead skin and smooths your face out a little. I don't see any visible difference to the blackheads, but as I said, I think this is the case with most blackhead exfoliators.
The tightening mask is really good. It's got a thick resistant consistency that makes it easy to apply and you can really feel it contract your face when it dries. It leaves the skin feeling clean and fresh. The priming pore filler balm is another winner - I've tried only one other primer before and had extreme doubts about trying another because of the reaction it gave me. I tried Maybeline's anti age smoother for a while going back some time, and my face just went crazy and blistered.  It didn't react anywhere other than my face and I can think of no reason for this other than the polyfilla gelatin consistency of their primer. Tony Moly's primer is, however, just fine. It fills pores exceptionally well with no residue and no blistering. It also mildly evens out the skin tone on its own. The packaging is once again really cute, but these eggs are also dual purpose; once you finish them, you can tap the top out of the egg and plant a seed in it. I just love the way Tony Moly package everything they make, it's really cute and creative, perfect if you have to keep your skincare on display due to lack of storage.

The Tony Moly appletox is a skin peel, but I had my doubts about its peeling power and whether it would just act like a cream. It looks just like a plain white moisturizing cream. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually makes the dead skin ball up while you massage it in. I was skeptical that the bobbles were actually just skin as opposed to congealment in the product, so I tried it again the next day - I thought if there were less bobbles, it must be because I had less dead skin and it was actually working. It appears it really does work because I had next to no bobbles appear the second time round. I use this before the blackhead out pore gel to make sure the pore openings are clear before I go scrubbing at them. Approx £6-8


Lastly, I sampled this Tony Moly lip tint. Since I've not tried a tint before, I can't comment on the staying power in comparison to other tints, but it definitely challenges most of my lipsticks for longevity, since it's a stain. The color fades from bright red to a muted blood red pretty fast, but then retains its color for a decent amount of time thereafter. For this reason, I use it as a base for lipsticks so that any fade in my lipstick isn't so noticeable. This is some of the more dull packaging. Also, because it's such a watery consistency, I found that it tended to leak a lot and stain things.


I really like Tony Moly as a brand so far. I think TM and Etude are two brands that sum up what I think is the essence of Korean cosmetics. They're fun, cute, quirky, pretty, functional and clever products, a far cry from ugly British cosmetics in their minimalistic plain black tubes etc etc. I mean look at this face powder from Etude - it looks like
 a wedding cake. It stinks of princess and I want it.

The science of being a zombie, bus wankers and Teen Top

Another thing that happened recently that I haven't been around to blog about (well, there are two, as you might gather) is the zombie science lab that happened at the science museum in London.

  Let me tell you,

Stagecoach are pricks.

 thanks to stage coach making Cassie late to Oxford to catch our bus with their stupid 20 minute driver swaps and random pausing everywhere, we had to fork out another £30 between us just to go. What should have been a 30-40 minute journey took them about an hour and ten minutes, and meanwhile I was freezing my tits off in the biting wind. This isn't even the first time it's happened to her. Not only that but we used their service on Friday and pretty much got abused by the driver just because she mistakenly walked on with McDonald's without a second thought.  Despite this she had been allowed by the driver to take hot foodstuffs on another coach, so it was a mega double standard, and despite having presented him with a reservation for three people - thanks to him not reading it, he then proceeded to snap at my friends whom followed me onto the bus and demanded to see their tickets even though they were inclusive on the reservation.  It wouldn't have been so annoying that we had to pay on the day, had we not already booked our coach tickets. It cost us about £50 just to go to London for three hours, so the day was already off to a bad start.

When we finally got to London, we made our way to South Kensington, and seriously....I've never encountered a more frustrating place. It is, as my friend calls it "The land of WTF". We spent an hour walking around looking for some kind of seat or a Macdonald's/subway where we could sit, eat and wait for our friend. The best we found was a subway.

With no bloody seats.

Seriously, where the hell do those people sit? Plus the place was a maze, it's awful if you're like us and spatially/directionally retarded because we took a massive detour when we could have just cut right through. We didn't exactly get the right impression either, because she asked some guy to borrow his lighter and he fished it out of his crotch. By the time it came to queue for the science museum, we were fairly angsty, cold and a bit hungry and somewhat disappointed to noticed that the queue went right round two sides of the building. 

Thankfully the queue died down quite quickly, but we soon realized we weren't going to achieve much - the entire place was rammed. I was sort of fascinated that a science event would be so popular, since if that kind of thing is held here, aint no fool going to that. After fighting our way through throngs of people, we spent about half an hour queuing for some screening or another before we got to the front to find it was full. This happened numerous times, so in the entire 2 and a bit hours we spent there, all we managed to do was become trapped in a silent disco (which was so awkward and peculiar, we ran in, felt appalled and then ran out hurhurr)  and watch one seminar. The seminar was pretty good actually - it was mainly focused on what constitutes as being conscious and how the science of consciousness and emotion can be related to zombies - and although it's not the aim, it did give us a moment to sit and stuff our faces with cream eggs. 

Interesting fact: the lady giving the seminar said that replicating emotions with the face makes the person more likely to empathize with the person they're copying (i.e wincing when someone gets hurt), and in congruence with this, studies have shown that people who have botox are less able to empathize after botox because they can't replicate emotional expression as well as they used to. 

After that seminar we had to leave, so that was the end of our pointless and expensive journey to the science museum.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Friday, we ventured to London yet again to see Teen Top live at the forum. Thankfully nobody missed the bus this time, which was lucky because I also was monitoring my friend (who is 13, so her mum was a bit horrified about the idea of her going to London with two 18 year olds) and I think  it would have made her mother lose her mind if we had... I totally didn't think about the fact it was Friday midday that we were using the tube, so we ended up being suffocated and getting split up. We then took opposite exits at Kings cross and spent the next 30 minutes calling each other repetitively before finding each other so we could check our friend into his hotel. It's becoming apparent what country folk we all are in comparison...

We then trundled off to the venue just under an hour before they were meant to let everyone in. But of course they had to do bag searches (I don't actually even know why they bother because if you have a lot of stuff in your bag, they just get bored and only look through the top items) we didn't get in for ages and then the concert didn't start till an hour after, so I was already fretting about getting back in time to get our coach. Cassie always calls me "Umma" because I have to plan everything meticulously or I start going insane, especially when I feel like we might be late and I always get made responsible for tickets etc etc.

There was meant to be a special guest at the concert, but I assume they didn't come on because they were already so late to the stage.

Teen Top are not even my 3rd favorite group (I think I just like their music a lot, but I don't know a lot about them personally, so I don't know why I was so adamant to pay so much for such a small show) so I don't feel the concert was very emotional as it was with Big Bang and SHINee, but I feel actually that that's alright because it means you can leave all the insanity and overwhelming switches of emotions behind for one moment. The concert felt so casual because - not gonna lie - it was a small venue and it was still pretty empty. Because of this, it meant we were free to run between the stairs and the standing area and throw some really horrendous dance moves, generally go insane and just leave our stuff on the floor. Despite there being a fairly small crowd, I really feel that Teen Top gave a really good effort. We definitely had fun, and it appeared to me that they also had a great deal of fun. They interacted with the crowd a lot and they danced well. It takes a lot to bother and not be disheartened when you're faced with a small crowd, and I think they did themselves proud.

I'll be honest, I always thought Ricky looked like a little reptile in all the MVs I'd seen, but he was really cute in the flesh, and Chunji was just perfect.


 His solo song was really pretty - he covered Bruno Mars' "Count on me". At one point they covered Olly Murs...TT...no. I think their encore pleased a lot of people, as they all sang "All you need is love" as they gathered fan-signs from the crowd, waved and picked up incoming gift missiles off the stage. 

I didn't get many decent photos/videos, especially because my camera died after about 4 songs and I think I need to clean my lense, err...I did not prepare well this time....

Let's bring it back to Big Bang

Clearly I lied about posting more frequently, but what can I say; I have issues with commitment. 

Despite being about midway through February now, I'm going to rewind this all back to the Big Bang concert because it was in fact the most incredible experience in time.

I had to travel to the concert by myself because among my friends who actually enjoy Kpop and live in my area, I'm essentially the only YG stan and the only one who was willing to pay that kind of money to see Big Bang. Naturally I would have paid double that because they're my bias group and because T.O.P.

...even though it took me a month to pay off because stupid wage.

*goes mad*

T.O.P is my bias but to be honest, since the concert I've decided I love them all so much that  they all just kill me outright. Through the weeks leading up to the concert I had so many bad dreams that I had gone to London without my ticket or slept through the entire day (this is what they do to me. Lord help me).  Luckily I arrived in London - ticket in hand - and checked into the hotel with my friend Leon. I can't even remember the name of the hotel, but it was right next to the Wembly arena. We arrived on the Friday so that we could just chill and not have to worry about rushing about everywhere, so we had time to check out the venue beforehand, but, being the boneheads we were, we took the wrong path and ended up walking around the entire outside of Wembly football stadium and up and down the stairs in an attempt to get to the arena. Turns out, our hotel was just around the corner in the other direction. Huh, go figure...
When we finally found the venue, we sat outside for a bit (because lazy) and oh my GOD there were sooo many fans turning up about an hour+ late.
HOW CAN YOU DO THAT?!




It baffles me - how can one pay so much money for travel and tickets and such then just amble in an hour late (some of them just walked up to the door casually as though it was nothing), for Big Bang nonetheless. It pained me.
So much.
After about an hour of being lazy and just loitering outside and checking it out, we walked back to the hotel (the short way round this time...) which meant we walked past the side doors, and to be completely truthful I nearly peed because as we passed, you could hear Daesung belting out a high note. We did come back later as the concert was ending so that we could meet with our friends Emma and Kola - we also took the chance to purchase our light-sticks.

Fast forward to the next day, and after plenty of spazzing out and some minor alcohol consumption , we made our way to the venue again and began the painfully long queuing process; I act like we were there forever, but we only queued about four/five hours (we spent a few hours before that just hanging about and chatting to our friends that we met outside and visiting the Samsung marquee where they gave us free flashing Big Bang bangles and a badge with our photo on) - there were tons of people there before us, but we still got pretty close to the front once we were inside. It was just painfully cold out there, so I feel entitled to whinge about it.  It was still totally worth verging on frostbite for. When we got inside everyone in the standing area was sat on the floor. Big Bang MVs were playing on the big screens and the fans were all singing along, usual stuff. It was only then that it really hit me that I was about to see Big Bang and T.O.P - through the whole queue I kept asking Leon if it was really real.
It was really real and I thought I was going to be sick if I'm perfectly honest.

Being about two rows behind the barrier, we got a pretty good view as the opened up with a video short in which Big Bang fall to earth in their capsule things, and then they opened up, the curtain dropped and Big Bang themselves crossed onto the stage. I don't think I've ever heard so much noise, the room just exploded and lit up with all the yellow light-sticks. If you're a kpop fan, one of the more emotional things is when you look back on pictures of the concert and it's a yellow ocean, and being able to see images of that yellow ocean all over the world (yellow for Big Bang anyway).

For fear of making this post a million scrolls long, I shall shorten this to "Every single song was god damn amazing and my heart nearly burst in everyone's faces". Although I must say, one song that touched me in particular was Haru Haru (I'm sure that many people who attended would agree that the sentimentality of this song was incredible) - after the song intro, Taeyang invited the fans to join in - "Come on, you all know the words"- and the fans all joined in entirely with the acoustic version of the song. At one point they pretty much ceased singing while the fans carried the song and Taeyang made "oooh" sounds to get it out of his system. I could have cried an ocean. Actually, I did cry. The moment T.O.P ventured before me on stage I just exploded into tears *no shame*. He has that effect on me.
T.O.P ...



Seungri was the comic of the entire show, with his stereotypical renditions of an old English person.
"YOU ALRIGHT?!"
He also forgot what he was saying half way through...
"The best group... Oh, sorry".
It was pretty endearing how proud he looked of himself for making lame jokes. He did have everyone laughing their tits off though, so he can have that - he can also be happy about his solo performance of "strong baby". He just reeks of sex appeal, it's not even funny. Seungri and Taeyang definitely gave the best fan-service - they were having all the fun in the world being utter fools and it was great. GD and T.O.P got out their segways for "knockout", and Taeyang had to make do with a lame bicycle, but he clearly knew when he was outdone because he soon gave up. He made up for it though by doing a sexy hey performance of "Wedding dress", meanwhile tearing his shirt off and throwing himself into a back-flip. One thing I found completely hilarious is that...well, I've always known GD has a really nasally voice when he talks (I've waited so long to hear that peg nose and it was boss hurr hurr - I think it's one of his charms) but I didn't realize just how strong it was in person. The second thing was that Taeyang was exactly the same: In reality though, I don't know if it had something to do with the fact he was a bit ill and had a bloody nose rag jammed up his nostril the night before. Kudos to him for that though, really.

Throughout the concert, I felt that GD didn't do much in the way of  trying to make himself stand out, but he didn't even have to try - his stage presence is just something else. He could have been doing the smallest thing in the corner and all eyes are on him. He did speak to the crowd during one interval and the odd piece of banter, but nothing on the amount Seungri was throwing out - he also told everyone to move back, since it was rather riotous in the standing area (I only just sweated more than I cried, it was suffocating in there and rammed like a sardine tin) and he sounded either high or like he had prince syndrome, bless his cottons. Daesung's solo was an example of him in his forte - he sang his solo "Wings", and dear lord those high notes. How can such a small guy make so much sound? I don't even understand. I got the feeling somewhat that T.O.P was really tired and that he was struggling to show as much energy as the others, but that didn't stop it from being utterly amazing to see him perform, or him from performing flawlessly - we even got to see a little sample of  his chooming.  

Towards the end of the show, they went backstage and seriously, I must have been the only person who didn't think they were coming out again because I just slumped in shock and despair and an overwhelming sense of pure joy all at once thinking the show was completely over. I turned around to motion to Leon that it was time to leave. The fans were still chanting away, but I was just thought `they always do that, nothing's gonna happen` but then it did and dear god am I happy I didn't leave. Big Bang ran back out asking if we wanted some more. And thus with a final flourish and the biggest explosion of streamers and confetti I've ever seen (it was so thick, I was blinded by silver) they performed the encore and bade everyone farewell as they left the stage to the cacophony of  thousands of screaming fans. It actually felt like I'd woken up from the perfect dream - I was speechless and totally emotional.

I didn't get many photos because the light-sticks and shoving made it a little difficult, but my friend Gigi got some.

T.O.P r u sleppin?

Cheeky shiny head in the corner.

Anyway, that's all about Big Bang and I'm ending this here before it becomes a short novel about all the tears I can cry over them etc ect.

Oh, and happy lunar new year~!

Okay, my greetings are late but still....

Bye~