I wanna model for Zipper / The Science of Hairdye

So I got my little brother to take these shots (his first time ever using an SLR - didn't he do a good job?! He's a natural!) the afternoon that I got home from my overnight, overseas flight, and I am pretty surprised that I don't look entirely exhausted - Japanese concealer/foundation does WONDERS. I spent the afternoon in bed reading the many Zipper magazines I bought, blubbering over the fact that I wasn't still in Japan, so for my own sanity I had to dress up in a Zipper-inspired outfit and pretend I was back there. I actually think I was scratching my nose in this shot but it also looks like I'm crying so let's pretend this is me being distraught about no longer being in Japan, haha. A fantasy plan that I've concocted over the last few days is that I'm going to go back and live there for a year, in a few years time, and model for Zipper magazine as my job. It's totally  do-able!(...) wearing sweater - c/o Romwe skirt - ICE mint green tights - Tutuanna climbing man tights - Ebay socks - Tutuanna shoes - Bodyline necklace - Claire's Remember when I had real pastel pink hair? I realised that I never learnt exactly how bleaching and dying changes your hair colour. Today I came across a cool experiment for kids that teaches you how hair dye and bleaching works, and I decided to do a little research ;) Firstly, important in hair dying are two types of (dead) cells in the hair: cortical cells and cuticle cells. When you bleach your hair, you're permanently changing the melanin in the cortical cells. Melanin is a protein in the cortical cells that exists in two types - Eumelanin in darker hair and Pheomelanin in lighter hair. Melanins vary in the ability to reflect or absorb light, which affects the colour you see when you look at someone's hair. Bleach (H202) oxidises melanin - which doesn't remove it from the hair, but makes it colourless. That annoying, lingering yellow-tinge when you bleach your hair is due to the keratin (structural proteins) in the cortical cells, which are yellow in colour. Semi-permanent hair colour tends to just coat the outer layers of the hair with acidic dyes, rather than going inside the hair to the cortical cells. However when you dye your hair permanently, the hair dye first "opens up" the cuticle cells (often by using ammonia, a basic solution). In permanent dyes, bleach is often used to remove colour from natural melanin, before dyes (there are various numbers of these, made in various ways, depending on the colour that you want) are deposited. The dyes bond with the cortical cells. Conditioners are acidic, and you use it after bleaching or dying to replace the lipids that you destroyed opening up the cuticle cells. This also "seals in" the deposited dyes. And that's a quick crash-course in how hair colour works. Now I want to experiment on my own hair again, which I know is probably most likely a very bad idea... but... for science! Right? Much love!

Yokohama / Plaid Love / Molecular Circus

*Sigh* I'm now officially back in Australia. Leaving, I felt like I was five years old as I couldn't keep from dissolving into tears every time I looked around at my surroundings and thought about how much I would miss it. More than any place I've ever been, I feel like I really belong in Osaka and Tokyo. For one, I never feel like a weirdo walking down the street in whatever outfit I've chosen to wear that day, plus everyone is just so so nice. My Japanese improved a great amount just being there for a month, and I now feel like moving there one day, for a year or so, is a plausible option for my future. Anyway, enough of that - this is an incredible vintage dress that I bought from Shimokitazawa (the best suburb in Tokyo - please visit if you're ever there) for $10, and these pictures were taken in Yokohama, which is just outside of Tokyo - and a billion thanks to Ron from Dresses on a Clothesline for being our virtual guide to Yokohama city! wearing dress - Vintage tights - c/o My Tights clips - DIY (handmade from epoxy resin) shoes - Rubi shoes I am going to be doing loads of posts over the next few days! (I still have a number of outfits from Japan that I have yet to blog about!) Thanks for being patient with my less-than-frequent posts whilst I was travelling. I'm still pretty tired from the aeroplane so I'm just going to leave you with an awesome link as my science post today. After being featured on the Scientific American's Incubator blog (which was really, really exciting), I discovered a blog called The Molecular Circus, a science blog whose posts include The Chemistry of Cake, How Alcohol Gets You Drunk and a regular feature called "Entropy Kitchen" which gives you a recipe and explains what's happening to your food on a molecular level while you make something delicious! I hope that you're all super dooper well and happy!

Denim Overalls & Universal Studios

For our two-year anniversary date, Luciano and I went to Universal Studios in Osaka. The whole place is full of different themed, amazingly detailed towns and cities including New York, San Francisco and Hollywood, with replica sets from movies lining the streets of each one. I basically feel like I've gone to America now. It was snowing basically all day (and windy), and the really scary roller coaster was closed for maintenance :( but I got to ride in a Delorean so that made up for everything! wearing overalls - Vintage from WEGO sweater - c/o Sheinside headband & necklace - 315 yen store in Harajuku/Namba boots - Asos I can't believe that I have to leave this amazing country in just three days time. Hope you're all very very well,

Lolita in Fukushima / Neuroscience

Determined to buy a lolita-style coat some time on my trip, I finally picked this one up from a Bodyline shop in Osaka for only $50! The shape of the coat is absolutely gorgeous, with its tie-up cape and how the bottom part of the skirt flounces out. This new wig is also from the same Bodyline store! I'm more than happy to be spending all my money in that shop, because no only do they provide wannabe Japanese lolitas with cheap lolita-style clothing, they also have some transgender employees, which is awesome because I think it can often be hard for transgendered people to find jobs, just because of who they are. I paired my beautiful new cape with these platform shoes from Tokyo, and as it was Valentines day, these "Je t'aime" tights sent to me by My Tights! wearing coat - Bodyline shoes - from Tokyo tights - c/o My Tights necklace - 315 yen store in Osaka headband - 315 yen store in Tokyo As my Japanese-related science factoid for today, I'm going to talk about Japanese neuroscientist/biophysicist Ichiji Tasaki - a scientist who I look up to - who made a massive breakthrough in the world of neuroscience: this guy discovered the purpose of myelin sheath. In our brains, we have special cells called neurons. The electrical signals passed between neurons is essentially the basis of all sensations, thoughts, movements and memories we experience. For example, a signal passed from the nerve cells of the hand to the brain along neurons is what tells the brain that your hand is touching a hot stove, and also helps move your hand away. Ichiji Tasaki discovered the myelin sheath, which is what wraps around each neuron's axon, acting like an insulator on an electric wire. Without it, the electrical signals that go around our brain would be much, much slower, and our brains wouldn't have the capabilities that they have. We'd also have very slow reaction times. The myelin is what is attacked and destroyed by the immune system in the autoimmune disease MS (multiple sclerosis). Ichiji Tasaki's discovery helped the world understand what was going on in MS, and also greatly advanced the field of neuroscience. More from me soon, p.s. Thanks so much for leaving such super dooper lovely comments on my Valentines day post, featuring the first-time appearance of my boyfriend Luciano! You made him super happy, and much more confident about his appearance!! Hopefully he will now be appearing on the blog more regularly, as he often wears really cool outfits I want to snap photos of! p.p.s. Fukushima probably sounds familiar because of the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake & tsunami. I'm not in that particular Fukushima in this photo, I'm in a ward called Fukushima in Osaka.

I want to spend all nine lives with you ♥

Introducing to my blog for the very first time... my boyfriend Luciano! Luci is normally quite camera shy (hence the reason you've never seen him on my blog before and probably all thought I had an imaginary boyfriend haha), but we had an agreement that if I got a really nice shot of him, he would allow me to share it with you all! And I totally did - just in time for Valentines day too! Isn't the above shot loooovely? (You have to all leave comments saying that it is, so I can encourage Luci to let me put him on my blog more often, heheh). Valentines day is pretty special to us both, because it was around this time 2 years ago that we shared our first kiss - in fact, the 16th of February is our two year anniversary! I couldn't ask for a better guy to share my life with - especially one who has not minded me basically going shopping every day we've been in Japan, as well as dutifully carrying around all my shopping bags for me! ;) Annika is wearing sweater - c/o Romwe shorts - c/o Wholesale tights, boots and headband - Japan Luciano is wearing coat - Young Look jeans - Cotton On shoes - Centrepoint Tower Westfield bag, scarf and earrings - Japan ♡♡♡ Happy Valentines day! ♡♡♡

Kobe, Meeting with Ashley Dy & Blogger Kei

A couple of days ago I had the great pleasure of meeting up with a blogger who I have admired from afar for about as long as I've been blogging - Ashley Dy of Candy Kawaii Lover! I was so happy when I spied Ashley also wearing platform shoes that were, while totally amazing, also a little impractical for spending the day walking around the city! From that point I knew we'd have a lot in common. My boyfriend Luci who also came along thought we were so scarily similar that we might as well be twins! You can definitely see from the photographs that our aesthetic is basically identical - we both decided to match browns, neutrals and pastel pinks with tights and platforms shoes without any collaboration on our outfits beforehand! Above is basically the only "serious" shot of the whole bunch - every other photo on my camera ended up more like this: But I still really like these shots because they're a nice reminder of how much fun we had! It was so nice to meet up with another person who understands the awkwardness and hilarity involved in taking photos of yourself with a tripod and timer while being watched by strangers who think you're either completely mad or a total narcissist, and how hard it is to explain to people what you "do" as a blogger! Neither of us have people in our daily lives who we can really talk to about this stuff, so it's really nice to meet up with someone who understands it! Ashley couldn't have been nicer and she showed us all around some amazing parts of Kobe, including a gorgeous spot up near the mountains full of old houses and beautiful Japanese flora, and is probably the most beautiful place I've visited in Japan thus far. And if you follow me on facebook, you may have already seen us being "hilarious" in this photo: Ashley luckily got a lot more serious shots of our outfits than this, haha (at least, I think she did...). If you want to see what I'm wearing, then head over to the awesome street-style shoot Ashley did of me here! And I totally forgot to ask Ashley where she got what she was wearing, although I do know that you can get those pretty pastel platforms from her store (click here!) I hope you're all having a lovely day! Make sure to visit Candy Kawaii Lover and say hi to Ashley as well!