August 2026 – Luna By The Lake With Cake

When Something You Once Loved Becomes Clutter

It’s been slowly time for me to face the music, the majority of my Lolita dresses are now clutter. That is heartbreaking to realize. The hours of love and care and saving of money put into obtaining them just for them to sit in my closet for months on end at this point.

It’s not that I am “leaving lolita” or “quitting the fashion” as those sales on Lacemarket often exclaim when people are trying to sell large lots of items. It’s just that lolita fashion has slowly no longer become a central part of my life. I still love dressing up, but what fits me and who I am has changed as I have changed and it’s hard letting go. I mentioned in my last post that I have been really drawn to Gyaru lately, and I have been! I also haven’t really let myself collect pieces with the same fervor that I did when I got into egl.

Honestly, that’s probably a good thing. I have greatly refined my tastes and spending habits. I am much better with money than I was when I got into Lolita fashion. However, even if I were to fall in love with the fashion again head over heels the same way I did when I first discovered it the dresses in my closet no longer fit my style even within EGL. I now know that I prefer the way drop waists and A-line silhouettes land on my body, and that empire waists are a nightmare for me. This unfortunately eliminates 80% of the dresses I own!

I brace myself for selling 80% of the dresses I own. In some weird way this feels like a failure, even though I know it’s not. I’ve just grown, my tastes have changed. There is nothing wrong with that. Lolita Fashion in its own way often feels like a way to stop time. To give ourselves the girlhood we may have never had, to make up for something we missed. To become women who never gave up the privileges of girlhood or chose to take on the burden of the expectations of womanhood. Honestly, I think that’s part of the appeal.

Maybe once I sell what no longer fits who I am, I’ll discover that I’m not quite ready to move on in the way I think I am. But maybe I will, and that’s okay too.

If anyone has any tips for moving large amounts of items on Lacemarket, any comments are greatly appreciated.

lolita fashion

Unhinged Temporary Press on Nail Tutorial

First things first, this is absolutely not a technique that would be approved by a nail tech. But it works well for me, and my nails seem pretty okay. I take no responsibility for if you try this and it goes wrong.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, my personal style has been drifting a lot more towards gyaru than egl these days and it’s been a bit of a learning curve, as well as interesting to try to find my way back to this blog. Gyaru has been fitting my much more active lifestyle better in general, however there is one little problem with it. The nails! For my day job I work blue collar work, for hobbies I play the guitar and do martial arts, the iconic long nails just do not work for those moments in my life. I do still very much enjoy the look though! I like wearing nails for filming, taking photos, and going out, but I do kind of need a way for them to be secure for the duration of the activity, but then be able to be taken off. Here’s the method I have recently developed!

Putting the Nails On

1.) Gather your supplies, you’re going to need nail polish remover, brush on nail glue, a hydrating/protective base coat and possibly nail clippers and a nail file.

2.) Clean any nail polish or glue residue off your nails, cut and file if necessary

3.) Apply 2-3 layers of a hydrating/protective base coat. You want it thicker so it better protects your nails when you take them off later.

3.) After that use brush on nail glue to apply your nails, the kind I have dries surprisingly fast so I usually brush the glue then immediately press on the nails after each nail has had glue applied.

4.) Nails are applied!!

Removing the Nails

Honestly, removing the nails is very simple but can take some time, patience and good sense. These will not just “pop right off” which is sort of the point, I wanted temporary nails that could survive a night out. I did due to that forget to take pictures during this process.

Very basically we are going to gently slide a tool under the fake nail and gently separate it from our natural nail. Do not force or tear. You’ll do that until each nail is off. I personally reccommend using an ingrown toenail tool like this one and using it curve side down to gently separate.

Honestly there will be some glue and polish left on your nails, (which is kind of what we want since it means we didn’t get our actual nailbeds) if it bugs you just use some nail polish remover to clean off. Sometimes I honestly just paint over it since the glue can be a good “rough up” to grip it without having to buff into my actual nail.

So there we have it! A perhaps unadvised temporary nail tutorial, do this at your own risk, but it worked well for me!

lolita fashion

Like I Have Time

My mother never taught me

How to live

Like I have time

I know very well

How to live

Like I’m dying

The frantic pace

The ever stretching yawn

Time’s maw ready to eat you whole

I never learned how to let

The hours

Stretch

Lovingly into years

How to feel each day

And not be grateful for every dawn

I don’t know how to kiss the sky goodnight

And trust that in

The morning

Things very well may be alright

I might

Have one more day

To sort things.

I rush

Step

Tripping over myself

Spilling into the yard of my morrows

Strewing everything across my lawn

Had

I gone slow

I may not have

But I did

I went

And here I am.