病みかわいい Yami Kawaii Makeup — Instagram Filter Review

Published on Dec 3, 2019 | Filter name: "病みかわいい"

Filter creator: WOW! Filters (@wowfilterscom)

"病みかわいい" or "Yami Kawaii" in English, is an Instagram cosplay filter and makeup inspired by the Japanese Yami Kawaii subculture. It puts a virtual Yami Kawaii art style costume and makeup on the user's face using Spark AR Studio.

Yami Kawaii is a Japanese subculture that came out of Harajuku. It's a Japanese subculture of fashion and design that carries an important statement that breaks Japan's silence on suicide and other topics related to depression, social anxiety, and other mental illness issues.

I won't dive deep into the explanation, there are plenty of articles out there that described it very well, just search for "Yami Kawaii" or "Yamikawaii" and you'll find many articles that describe how this subculture evolved and what it represents.

Yami Kawaii means "sick-cute" or "sickly-cute". "Yami" means "sick" or "ill" and "Kawaii means "cute" in Japanese. Its aesthetics is a mixture of cute and ones related to illness, depression, and even death.

In my Instagram filter, I got inspired by the various makeup and cosplay costumes that I've seen of Japanese girls and men wearing it. I used the traditional kawaii culture pastelic colors and mixed them up with some red bruising face colors around the eyes, lips and slightly on the cheeks.

I've added various Yami Kawaii accessories that the user can switch between, including an eyepatch and a white nurse hat with a red cross sign. Tap on the screen to switch between the various accessories.

I also added a septum piercing, a bull ring nose piercing. It's actually an image not a 3D model, but it turned out to look really nice. I've seen quite a few 病みかわいい cosplay costumes of Japanese man and women wearing it and I thought it would be nice adding this one as well by default.

The fake bandages are something that I"ve seen a lot, especially on the nose area, so I've decided to use one as well. There is also pink blood but I've decided to not go to close to the "Kowa-kawaii" ("Scary Kawaii", scary cute) trend. The bandage has a cute panda bear figure. I've seen many use bandages with anime-style illustrations which look very cute as well.

This is my first try to create a 病みかわいい or やみかわいい (Yami Kawaii). A way to cuteify mental illness the way I've seen it represented in images and in real life after seeing Japanese girls wearing the 病みかわいい makeup in Japan (as of the time of writing, I am in Japan).

Some might see that type of Yamikawaii fashion style as one that has a close resemblance to the emo makeup, but obviously, it's less dark and involves in a brighter and cuter color scheme.

In Japan, there is also the 'Dark Cute' (闇かわいい) fashion that more resemble the emo look. From different posts that I've seen on Instagram, Japanese people tag 'Sick Cute' as 'Dark Cute' as well.

This culture movement has many followers and fan-art and it's amazing browsing through the different makeup ideas, Yami Kawaii store accessories, and makeup items and sees the various creative fashion and design ideas that people are creating with it.

This is something that I didn't see anywhere else and I wanted to have my own footprint and contribute to this movement. I have my own private story to tell, but that's not something I'll share it here.

I have to admit that the Japanese subculture excited me the most as a foreigner coming to Japan than all the other cultural aspects. I mean, I enjoy them all, but the way Japanese people express themselves using fashion, makeup and art is something extraordinary, at least for me watching it as a foreigner in Japan.

I might make a few more Yamikawaii Instagram face filters as I enjoy creating with that 病みかわいい theme involved. I wonder how this subculture will spread to the rest of the world. Japan is known for having an influence on the western world when it comes to technology, video games, anime/manga, food, music, etc.

I hope you enjoy using this Yami Kawaii ('Sick Cute') AR cosplay costume. If you do, please don't forget to share it with your friends and follow me on Instagram.

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