Lens review: Super Pinky Bright Red

What's up bros? ;)

I bought these contacts already some months ago and wore them to Animecon for rasetsu!Hijikata but haven't done a review of them yet – I'm lazy, okay? OTL I thought I could do it now while I still needed to check if they looked okay for my coming Kureno Sohma cosplay.

Okay, so these lenses are the Super Pinky Bright Reds. They are my second pair of contact/circle lenses ever, my first pair being the same lenses but in violet, which I also made a review for back in February. There's quite a lot of red-eyed characters I want to cosplay in the future so buying red lenses was bound to happen!

Lenses in solution.

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.8 mm

Water content: 45%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

The first time I ever put these on –which was back at Animecon last month– they went on like a charm! No problems whatsoever and they were very comfortable all con day. But today when I put them on both of the lenses felt uncomfortable in the eyes and when it didn't ease after a while I took them out, cleaned them again and put them back in and then it was a-ok! I guess there was some dirt left in them or something...

I won't talk too much about these lenses but I have some photos to show – the photos are pretty crappy though, sorry about that. Excuse me but all photos, except the first one with the lenses in the lens case, are taken in the bathroom with my older camera (aka not the SLR) so not the best lighting and sharpness. Oh, and sorry for my eyes being red no not the lenses but as I mentioned earlier I had problems putting them on. ._.

With just one contact in.
(my natural eye color is a mix of blue-gray-green, depending on lighting)

With both lenses in.

These are quite enlarging but not enough to swallow your eyes, at least not according to me or on my eyes. If you have small/narrow eyes these might appear big but that, of course, depends on your eye shape as well.
I'm sorry if they look a bit orange-ish on the photos but I assure you that the color is indeed a true red, it's just the bathroom light being yellow and a troll. It's actually a pretty intense color and thus great for cosplay! The Super Pinky line of lenses also covers a lot of your iris, which means that the pupil hole is small and thus there's very little of your real eye color showing through in the middle. Unfortunately this also means that they might blur your vision in places with poorer light conditions.

I really like these because while red sure isn't a natural color they still don't look ultra-mega-demonically-unnatural but rather kinda if-red-was-natural-it-could-look-like-this – if that makes sense. :'D But maybe that's helped by the rather realistic pattern of the lenses...?

Oh, and here's a quick try-on with the Kureno wig and a random shirt.

From a distance. (bathroom light)

 

-- EDIT! 2014, mid-August! --

One year after I had opened these contacts I still had them lying around; I thought that I could take some additional review photos and upload them here before I throw the contacts away. Couldn't be bothered to do make-up, sorry. The previous photos were so poor (friggin' bathroom light!) so here's a new photo batch of the contacts going for their last wear, in different lights.
I must mention that I had huge problems keeping my eyes open because the contacts had turned so dry and uncomfortable; it felt like they were pulling my eyelids closed all the time. I constantly felt them in my eyes so I didn't wear them for more than 30 minutes maximum and when I took them out they were dry as hay. I threw them away after this – they had served me well.

All photos taken by me, as always.

There's no color filters or such and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible. I'm sorry that my eyes appear to be half-closed or something... I don't know what happened, lol.

Inside in natural room light, facing the window on a cloudy day.

Outside on a cloudy day, facing the (hidden) sun.

Outside, standing in the shadow.

Outside,  some weird bright light going on.

Outside, cloudy day.

Facing the sunlight. It friggin' hurt to keep my eyes open... xD

 

As you can see they are really red and show up well in most lights. They aren't completely opaque so some of your real eye color will show through close to the pupil hole. The hole is still smaller than on your average circle lens, which means that occasionally you can have red corners in your vision.

Psst, if you are curious about other colors of the Super Pinky line and how they look on light eyes then check out my other reviews here: Violet, Green, Wine Red, Black

Short summary:

Color: 9/10 
It's a really bright red that pops. Everyone will notice it!
Design: 5/10 
Looks pretty nice although not really unique. I wish the outer rim would be slightly darker.
Opacity: 8/10
Very good color coverage!
Enlargement: 8/10 
Notably enlarging. A bit borderline if you don't like big contacts and they might look freaky on people with smaller eyes.
Comfort: 7/10 
Comfort-wise okay but I tend to feel them in my eyes sometimes.
Naturalness: 2/10 
Not natural because of enlargement and color. You don't buy these to have people think it's your real eyes, lol.

Nothing else to say, ciao ciao!

Thanks for viewing ~ 

Kureno Sohma preview! + Tracon

Yesterday I picked up my wig for Kureno from town and today I did a super quick preview! (aka no cosplay make-up except coloring eyebrows)
Excuse me for the huge mess in the background and yeah, mirror photo.

Yes, that's a plush bird and I'll totally carry it around!
I think it makes it easier to recognize the character ~

I actually thought I would look kind of silly because this shirt is too big for me but seriously, it's pretty much the perfect color and I found it at a second-hand store for like 1 € or something so.. I don't care! xD But with the cosplay on I figured it didn't look all that bad so okaydokay ~

Oh, and speaking of the shirt! There's barely any color pictures of Kureno -as far as I know- but as you know by now I went with the color on one of the manga's front covers showcasing him. But because in the manga he pretty much always has his shirt tucked into his pants I decided to wear it this way too.

Kureno to the left

I also plan to use my red contact lenses for Kureno (I just couldn't be bothered to wear them for the preview test..) because he has red-brown eyes and well, because my eyes aren't brown and I don't have brown contact lenses then I have to roll with red ~

Oh, hey hey also!

Tracon is closing in and I have bought myself a con ticket but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm still not 100% sure who I will cosplay on Sunday -so I won't make a cosplay plans post just yet- but I can say that Kureno will be my Saturday cosplay because there is going to be a Fruits Basket cosplay group that day!

Oulun Animeseminaari 2013 - Photoshoots and gaming

On 17-18 August, aka last weekend, was Oulun Animeseminaari (Oulu's anime seminar) in Oulu duh and of course I went there even though it's a small event.

Valve, aka the con building

I'll take it from the start hey! So me, Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli took the train from Kemi to Oulu on Friday evening. We were in Kemi like 1,5 hours before the train would leave so we went to Prisma with mom and got some provisions for the trip - Angry Birds candies and Moomin lemonade. Fuck yeah!
When the train finally arrived we took our stuff and went into the train to find the seats we had booked. The train trip only takes one hour so it was over rather quickly; I played Nintendo DS to pass the time. At Oulu we hauled our geeky asses to my aunt Leena's place in city and then we spread our stuff everywhere well, not really and played some New Super Mario Bros. Wii until it was time to sleep. I must say it was hilarious, barely any of us has played this game much if at all and so there was always someone who screwed up and died all the fucking time and it was just so bad that it was good. xD But yeah, because we couldn't pass the first castle in the 2nd world (sand world) after OVER NINETHOUSAAAND!!1 tries we gave up and went to sleep... and yeah, it was late too.

Saturday

Saturday morning came. The weather forecast had promised rain for most of the day so our trio decided to change our cosplay plans so that our Bleach day would be Saturday instead of Sunday because at least I don't want to wear Hakuouki cosplays when there's a super high risk of rain...
Okay, so Bleach day it was and for me it was time to dust off my Ukitake cosplay. I swear when I took my shinigami robes out and all and put them on they smelled exactly the same as they had always done. I felt nostalgic. :') Maybe I'm getting old. lol Luckily Captain TB Ukitake is one of these cosplays that's pretty quick to put on so I didn't take forever changing.
When we all were done we headed out for Oulu city with a map drawn by le aunt. We ended up going through city and I must say the best reaction we got was this middle-aged man who biked past us and when he saw us his face gradually went from neutral to super-smile. It was infectious! xD When we got to Kulttuuritalo Valve we went inside and pretty instantly found Sairu-chan, who cosplayed Retsu Unohana. With Sairu-chan at our side our Bleach group was complete! We checked the con building together and well, there really wasn't anything interesting going on so we decided it's better if we go photoshoot now before it starts raining cats and dogs.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Jushiro Ukitake), Hasakitsuki (Kiyone Kotetsu) & Sairu-chan (Retsu Unohana)
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

Sure I didn't have my shikai this time but I had... cute guys in blue - Sogyo no Kotowari twin plushies! They are made by LadyoftheSeireitei by the way.

   

But then Ukitake wanted a cyclop stingray and Unohana wanted hyperactive babies so.. ZANPAKUTO SPIRITS SWAP!

Oh, and don't you think that was all becaaaaaause... MAXIMUM DERP STORM APPROACHING FAST! TAKE COVERRRRR!

Fabulous hair part.1 - Antennas

Fabulous hair part.2 - Medusa

Lääkehuurut! :DD (high on pills)

I don't know, I had fun...

... and more fun. xD

Hold your laughter man! It didn't work..

MINAZUKIIIIIIIIII *scrunch scrunch*

IT'S SO SOFFFFFFFT

Unohana-taichou, how do you get this thing off your head?
*Unohana ignore*

After the photoshoot we went to stroll around the city and then when we got back to the con the clouds started to look höhöh-rain-soon-hi so we decided to go back to aunt's place before it started raining for realz. There really wasn't anything interesting going on at the con anyway so we left rather early.. and spent the rest of the day playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Nintendo Wii. It's awesome to have a gamer aunt. <3

Sunday

sghjdsahj early mornings.
Nothing to do but to wake up and put on Hakuouki cosplays, which meant Saitou for me. At least the weather forecast had promised better weather for Sunday so I wasn't too worried about wearing vintage kimono.
When we got to Valve again we met Sairu-chan again and hung around for a while. Soon enough it was time for Thaki's Mies & Cosplay panel (man & cosplay) which I had been looking forward to so me, Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli headed for the second floor to attend it.

I must say the panel was very entertaining and interesting! More of these please! Normally I'm not the one to go to many panels for different reasons (cosplay is hard to sit in or too hot, panel topic doesn't catch my interest etc) but this one sure was awesome, according to me at least! 
After the panel was over we had 30 minutes spare time before the piano concert would start. During that time I photoshooted milli-e's Cai Wenji cosplay because Dynasty Warriors cosplays are <3. After that there was a line forming outside for the piano concert and so I went to stay in that line and soon enough we were sitting down again, this time in the Valve Hall.

Piano guy

He was pretty awesome. He played different game and anime themes like various Super Mario Bros. songs, Tetris theme, Morrowind aka Skyrim theme and the Bratja (Brother) song from FullMetal Alchemist etc. It's a shame that his concert only lasted 30 minutes. I hope he comes back next year and plays longer!
With the piano concert over we headed outside to photoshoot again.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (Hajime Saitou) & Hasakitsuki (Chizuru Yukimura)

Photographer: Sairu-chan

Bonus pic!

Sword geek mode activated.

After the photoshoot we decided to start heading back because there was only about 2 hours left until the train would depart. We bid Sairu-chan farewell and walked back to aunt's place. There we packed our stuff, played a little more Skyward Sword and then left for the train station. Of course we got in a hurry and of course I forgot my fucking Moomin lemonade in the fridge even though I had during the whole weekend planned to save it for the trip back and ahjfsgkjfsg, I even drank from it like 5 minutes before departure but I was an idiot and put it back in the fridge thinking it better stay in the cold as long as possible and well.. at the train I was then thirsty as hell the whole time and it was torture. I was so annoyed at myself because the bottle was almost full too because I had been saving it.. ;_; Fuck this shit, always happens to me aghjdfhsajh. Need I tell you that Moomin lemonade is like the best lemonade ever?

Oh well, we got back home to our apartment and me and Hasakitsuki spent the rest of the evening playing Super Mario Sunshine and yes, we were still in cosplay. Problem?

Black pants and belt bought

I went to Prisma today and bought a brown belt and black pants for SSL!Hijikata as well as Kureno Sohma and whatever future cosplays I might do that these could be useful to.

Now I just need to find a white shirt and a purple tie for Sweet School Life version of Hijikata and he will be done. For Kureno I now only need the wig, which I ordered yesterday by the way, so expect me to cosplay him this year.. err, screw that, expect me to cosplay both!

And in case anyone forgot what these two guys look like then here:

SSL Hijikata

Kureno Sohma

I'm going to continue searching second-hand stores for a white shirt for Hijikata and whenever Kureno's wig pops up in the mailbox I'll make a cosplay preview for him, stay tuned!

Dokuganryu, you have too many swords - pt.2

It's been a while since I last worked on Masamune's swords but today I biked to mom's place to make some progress and get free dinner. So since my last progress on the swords I now had to thicken the tsuka/handle before I could start doing the finer sanding work. I went to ask my stepdad if we had any thin wood that would work; I didn't want to make the tsuka much more wider than the sword blade already was because it would be troublesome to hold them Masamune-style otherwise. Luckily he found this super long 4-4,5 cm wide and approx. 4 mm thick plank. Hallelujah!

Super long plank and my pile of swords

I took my things outside -along with a pencil and ruler- and started measuring. I would need two cut-out pieces of the plank, one for each side of the sword's tsuka of course. Which means that in total I needed to measure and saw out 12 pieces.

Measured soon-to-be-tsuka-thickener pieces

And then I was sawing!

And when I had sawed everything..

There's a lot of 'em!

With all tsuka thickener pieces sawed out I went to search for glue. I didn't find the one I had originally planned to use so I had to roll with Pattex glue. Not like I mind because this glue is strong and can be used on pretty much anything.
With the glue in hand I went outside, got some of these pressure clamps and started gluing the pieces onto the tsuka. I put glue on both sides.

Two swords glued and with pressure clamps applied

It took some time to glue and fasten all the pieces but eventually I got it done.

Miekkojen liimausmaa! : DD (The gluing land of swords)

By now the clouds started to look grayish so to be on the safe side I moved all swords into the old storage house to dry. The glue needs to dry 24 hours for it to reach maximum hold so yeah, I can't progress further on these swords for now. Just going to wait and return to work on them some other day, hopefully soon!

Bye!