First Levi makeup test & preview!

Salut!

Today I decided that it was about time that I did a first makeup test for Levi from Attack on Titan, aka Shingeki no Kyojin. Desucon Frostbite is stressing me up in the corner, SOOOOOOOOOOOON.
Levi is one of my favorites from the series (he's badass!) and one of the main reasons why I wanted to cosplay him was because of the makeup challenge. He has a very distinct look and I wanted to try my hands at achieving this, even though I knew it's not gonna be easy and that it's a challenging character look to achieve.

At first I kept screwing up the eye makeup and I had to redo it, from scratch, two times until I got it to look like something; half the time I had no idea what I was doing lol. Funny thing was that even on the third try I was thinking "ei tästä tuu helvettiäkään.." (lit. 'this won't even turn into hell' in Finnish) but I still kept on and well, when I put on the wig it suddenly looked okay. Dafuq!
It feels so weird to cosplay Levi though, I'm used to Jäätynyt Enkeli being Levi, ha ha ha...

But without much further talk, let's get to the pictures!

// EDIT: I am aware that I got a lot of shit for this makeup because it was posted in a godforsaken place on the internet. It is disgusting how humans can act towards one another as soon as they are granted anonymity. But whatever, I just wanted to say that I stress that it is a FIRST TRY for a reason and if you're so stuck-up on not seeing past the fact that everyone starts somewhere (and improves along the way) then please take your shit elsewhere and have a good day. Cosplay is a hobby for most of us and I do it for my own enjoyment, no more and no less. //

I was trying for a dark and almost gothic, surrealistic look instead of the more usual "natural" look that some Attack on Titan cosplayers seem to do. I like experimenting and doing things differently and even though it's not always a blasting success it is definitely always a learning experience – if we are too afraid to try new things then we don't learn. Doing makeup is not my strong point, but I won't learn unless I'm too afraid of trying.

I do know that it's still messy and all but I'm currently looking for new makeup brushes, more colors to shade with etc. I also have issues with finding light enough products/shades that go with my very pale skin. I'm not making excuses for myself but it is the truth that I am very unlucky with finding what I need (come and live in the middle of nowhere too with shitty internet connection and you'll understand my pain) and I really don't have spending money to throw on stuff that won't even necessarily work for me; last time I had an income was last year before summer vacation started. Beat that.

Regarding what makeup I used I mostly just used some brown for shadows and black gel eyeshadow and liquid eyeliner for the eye area. Yeah, most of the "eyeliner" is actually eyeshadow and it was applied with an angled brush, hence why it's not very clean-looking. I didn't even have primer at hand.
But all in all it was a fun to try to get the Levi look down – I had to keep my face as neutral/emotionless as possible. Levi just doesn't show a lot of different expressions so I better not be pulling faces either...

Oh, and I'm not wearing contact lenses this time; I didn't have any gray ones (I barely have gray ones to begin with, ffuu) that were good enough and since my natural eye color is blue-gray it was fine to go without. I'll probably add gray contacts later for this cosplay though..

I don't have much more to say... but I have extra material to share!

B-b-b-bonus pic!

"Heichou, you have a potato in your pocket... can I have it??"
– Sasha Blouse by Hasakitsuki.

Bye bye. Shiro Samurai out.

Towards the frost! – Desucon Frostbite 2015 cosplay plans!

Hello!

So it happens to be that I've gotten myself a ticket for Desucon Frostbite at least they didn't sell out in three minutes like Yukicon did and the train has been booked as well, wohooo!
Frostbite is held on 13-15 February in Lahti, in the same building as the usual summer Desucon. I haven't attended Frostbite since 2012 – aka since the very first one. It will be really interesting to see if it has changed! :D The thing with Frostbite though is that last year, as well as this year, there is an age limit – you need to be 18 years old or above to attend, heh. I assume that means that more people will do cosplays that reveal skin and/or are from not-exactly-child-friendly series..

But hey, this post was meant for me to reveal my cosplay plans! Here goes!

Friday

Series: Original

Character: Taregard Frir

Taregard was debuted at Kemi's manga day last year but he really needs a photoshoot *coughnopicscough* so what is better than photoshooting him on Frostbite's Friday? :'D Also a quick 'n easy cosplay to put on which is always appreciated on the first con day, especially considering that Friday is a short day that starts fairly late anyway.

Saturday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Hajime Saitou

Saitou is the violet-haired guy to the left.

Well, what do I say? Originally I had planned to do an OC for Saturday too but then –when it was almost too late to change cosplay plans– I got a horrible "oh gawd no, I want to have a totally different design!" dilemma in the middle of the night which ended up with me deciding on recycling an old cosplay instead because duh, Frostbite is way too soon for me to have time to order/make something new...
So yeah, I was thinking that I wanted something with some relation to snow – and so the idea to cosplay Saitou in his casual (aka swordless) form feat. snow bunny was born! :'D Yep, instead of doing the usual Saitou cosplay –which I tend to do– with the shinsengumi haori and the swords I'll do his "chilling at the headquarters" version with a snow bunny prop instead, as seen on his Sekkaroku OVA episode! I'll still bring with me the haori in case it gets cold...

Sunday

Series: Attack on Titan

Character: Levi (suit version)

Yep, it's time to run after titans! or have titans run after me... D:
Levi is one of my favorites from the Attack on Titan world –aka Shingeki no Kyojin– and so of course I decided to cosplay him! But I really don't have time right now to do his usual soldier uniform so I'll roll with his casual suit version instead!
I will have a cosplay group with Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli because hey, the more the merries! Unless we're talking about titan stomach filling...


I guess that's it for this time. See you!

Levi's wig – Disasters and miracles!

 Back in line, dudes! Hello hello!

Fairly recently I decided that it was about time that I tackle my most challenging wig cutting mission so far – cutting my Levi wig. Yes, of course it's captain Levi from Attack on Titan, aka Shingeki no Kyojin. *badamtssh*

Levi levisi jo cossilistaani...

....

Oh god, where do I even start? 

I was so nervous, so scared of messing it up! The base wig was very different from what I was going for and I had never cut a wig this drastically before; it was a daunting task.

This is what the wig looked like before cutting:

It doesn't look anything like Levi's hair...

So, why did I even inflict this upon myself? 

Why didn't I just buy one of the zillions of Levi character wigs that are already out there?

The reason is that none of the Levi wigs were "right" for me – there was always something that bugged me on all of them, for one reason or another. Most times it was the color and if the color was what I wanted then the cut looked wrong or the wig looked obviously way too small (looked too short already on a tiny wig head OTL) etc. Oh and speaking of color – I didn't want a black wig. No no.
That's also the main reason why I settled on this one wig – it had the perfect color that I was looking for, aka a dark mix of brownish gray, almost black but still not black.

Yeah, so I decided to buy a non-Levi wig and make it into a Levi wig, with the help of my amateur wig cutting skills that are far from polished enough for this kind of shit. Yes, it was a brave act but oh so foolish. I was almost asking for disaster to crash down on me...
But with scissors in hand I didn't really have another choice except for giving it my all; it was a bit too late to give in give up my soldier's pride and just buy a character wig and have it arrive in time before Desucon Frostbite, which is already slowly knocking at the door. Yeah, you just got one of my Frostbite cosplays spoiled! :D

Show me your wefts bro!

I started by pinning up the layers that I shouldn't cut just yet so that it would reveal the wefts that were lower down and under. Then I just started cutting away, trimming the fibers short but not so short that the wefting would show. I felt like a wig murderer.

For some reason I completely forgot to take any more progress photos but I just kept cutting it shorter pretty much everywhere and only leaving some long pieces in the back because Levi has this taper cut thing going on.

At first the bangs were a freakin' hair curtain so I kept trying to thin them down and at some point I guess I entered barbarian mode without realizing and then, suddenly, the bangs were way too short. OnO;; AARGH! It's not the first time it happens that I cut something too short! *punches self in face*

At this point I was about to ragequit and just throw the whole thing in the trash bin and pretend that it never existed. It looked so bad.. or more like, the front was ruined but the back was successful – which was very frustrating because the back was much harder to do. OTL
But I didn't give up, even though my wig looked like an overrun squirrel at this point. It was so bad I could barely look at it, I swear. xD The wig had way too much fibers and just looked much poofier/fluffier than I wanted on the sides stupid mop! and this was driving me crazy – since when was a wig too thick anyway!? rofl my luck

I tried watering down the front of my wig and then it suddenly came back to life! ... or more like, it didn't look like a crow's nest anymore. At least.
Yeah, I mean to say that suddenly there was some light shining and the wig was whispering to me "psst, you can maybe still save me!". Oh boy, where are we going...
So I was fiddling with the too-short-and-looked-retarded bangs until I thought that "hey, if I get some wefts from another part of the wig and add them in the front it might look okay again!" and then I decided to give it a try, what did I have to lose anyway? Well, my wig.
Mind you, I had never worked with wefts before and neither had I planned to do it already now – yeah, I'm basically saying that I probably looked like this:

Because that's exactly how I felt when I was trying to undo a seam on a weft, so that I could get it out and reattach it somewhere else. This task proved to be horribly tedious and rage inducing...

Hey.

Something's missing...

(edits by me)

That's better.

Yeah, I entered rage mode very quickly because I couldn't even see where the weft seam was on the wig cap because both had the exact same goddamn color! 8C At some point I tableflipped and just cut out the few centimeters of the weft that I had managed to undo (the end of it was poking out) and rolled with it. I hand-sewed it in place and prayed that this little piece of hair would improve the looks of my wig and –as if by a miracle– it did. Omigosh yesss!!

You see, Levi has his bangs kinda more towards the sides because of the parting and I had been cutting my bangs to hell and back to not have the way-too-much-hair syndrome. As I said earlier I cut them too short at some point, which led me to cut the middle completely out of bangs in desperation and then by adding that one extra tiny weft piece –to the side with the shorter bangs– the front suddenly looked okay and actually sparse enough to work. I wasn't even believing in it anymore.

So, what did the wig look like in the end?
I'll show ya!

le Levi wig!

Despite all the horrors I faced while cutting this sucker I think it turned out kinda okay in the end. :') It looks a bit wonky on the wig head but it looks better when I actually wear it or so I hope. Oh and the back is cut very short on the lower half and the upper half is longer, it doesn't really show on the photos though. Also, I haven't put any styling products in it just yet but I might do that for the soon-to-follow Levi makeup test!

That'll be all for this time!
Shiro Samurai out.