New wig additions, Hakuouki style ~

I ordered two wigs some few weeks ago and yesterday I got them. Today I decided to try them on because I've been all cosplay hype-ish all day. xD I can't wait for summer con season to start ~

About the wigs.. both are for Hakuouki character cosplays I will do in a more or less close future because that series is so.. ghfjdskjf;afgh. <3 I swear I'm probably never gonna stop loving it.. xD

But now for le wig photos. Excuse me the messy background.. the only mirror currently in my apartment is in the bathroom so, yeah. Obviously this means my photos are mirrored. I have bought a fullbody mirror but it has yet to be put to its proper place.. Oh, and I'm wearing a yukata for the heck of it, didn't feel like wearing "normal clothes" today. Also I didn't bother with make-up except some rather sloppy eyeliner, pretty much. For some reason it looks way better on photos than in real life though. lol

Oh well, be prepared for some rasetsu (aka "fury") time this con summer autumn becaaaaaaause.. ~

le rasetsu!Hijikata wig

The ponytail is a clip-on so I can use the base wig alone for western!Hijikata's rasetsu version too. I just need to trim and layer the back a little and it'll be all good to go. Now to just buy some red contact lenses hohoho...

The next wig I might not use this year or I might ehehe ~ but the temptation was too great to resist anyway because the character is one of my absolute top favorites ever.. if not my favorite.

Okitaaaaaa ~

I seriously love this wig.. so fluffy. <3 It's extra awesome because it can be used for both of Okita's hairstyles! I didn't take any pictures with the hairknot thingy because "my" *coughborrowedfromschoolcough* wighead isn't here and it would be quite a challenge to fix it with the wig on my own head.. oh well, I'll take photos of that variant later.
Oh, and if anyone wonders I do have a wig for Okita already (I cosplayed him at Desucon in Finland last year) and it's all cool and all but I couldn't resist buying this one because it was so cheap and works for both his hairstyles. This new wig also is a bit bigger by cap size so it fits me better.. I guess I have a sort of big head... OTL

Not so much more to say than that. I'm eating Easter marshmallows (candies) and I swear to God the green one tastes just like fish oil, what the fuck man. xD See ya!

New wig and more shinsengumi for the summer

Went to town after school today and picked up a new wig from the post office, heheh. I have planned to cosplay Souji Okita from Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi this summer and I'm one of those persons who tend to buy the wig almost first so, yeah. It took me quite a long time to settle on what to get because his hair is this color that seems to vary from silver to light gray-blue to white-ish blue and ahkfdsjk. Don't we all just love inconsistent references so much? lolnope

Okita from Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi

I found a few (Japanese) cosplayers who had cosplayed him and it seemed the majority had used a light blue wig.. but I personally wanted to have some white/silver in it too. I then found on eBay this rather cheap blue-white mix wig that made me go "close enough" and I went with it because hey, the cheaper the better, heh. I don't even need to cut it or anything and I finally got a reason to buy a two-color wig, hehehe ~

I really like this wig's color and it's not too thin either.. I was afraid it wouldn't have so much fibers because it was on the cheaper side. Only not-so-cool thing was that it shedded a bunch of fibers when I touched it at first so I got a bit worried. Oh well, it stopped doing that after a while of hand-combing so it's pretty okay now.

Later at home I just had to do a very quick try-on. Excuse me the yellow bathroom light. ._. I didn't bother with make-up either. I'll take better photos later when I've made the armor and stuff.

The red collar is temporary and ghetto; I just took a wide sash I had lying around, folded it in half and wrapped it around my neck and the excess I tied around my lower chest... it was uncomfortable so I'll either make a juban or a fake kimono collar later.

Oh well, I'll reveal what con I will cosplay this portrayal of Okita at later. I'll also work on him more around June or so; I need to finish Masamune Date first.

Kazuma wig test

Got my wig for Kazuma yesterday. I'm at Jäätynyt Enkeli's place right now and I will stay here the whole weekend but I took with me the kimono items needed for Kazuma so that I could do a quick wig test preview while here. Oh, and this is pretty much a closet cosplay for me.. I happened to have all the clothing items for this already thanks to my kimono hobby. xD I just bought the haori and the wig.. not like he always wears a haori but it doesn't hurt to have it ~

I barely bothered with make-up and I'm not sure if I should trim the bangs on this wig a bit or not because on the manga Kazuma's hair length varies; sometimes it covers most of his eyes and sometimes it doesn't. ._. But I think I might shorten the bangs slightly because it might look better on me.

This is the only at least semi-decent photo I got and it's taken with the help of a mirror too so yeah, I'm not actually dead. lol Oh, and it's the manga version.

derp
(oh, yes, the mirror is dirty..)

Not so much more to say, if I decide to trim the wig you'll get a proper preview later.

Masamune try-on, this is what I have so far!

Today I decided to put on everything I have ready, so far, of my Masamune cosplay.. just to see how it all fit together. All armor and weapons and some smaller details are missing.. like tabi socks. I haven't tried all the at-this-moment-ready parts on before so this was the first try! I'm surprised at how flattering this thing looks on me.. I was pretty sure I'd look horrid but glad to see I was proved wrong!

Here's some photos! Oh, and yeah, used a mirror for help so they're all mirrored.
Also I didn't find the eyepatch so excuse me Masamune regained his sight for a while lol.

Today I also started making the patterns for Masamune's leg armor and arm guards. But I noticed I don't have enough craft foam at home.. which I will need to make prototypes to check that the patterns are okay and maybe also use it for the actual armor. I will go to town tomorrow and buy some. More about the armormaking then! See you all!

Hijikata contact lens test feat. eyeliner

 Hello hello!

Last time I tried on my violet contact lenses for the first time. I didn't put on any makeup back then but today I decided to try using eyeliner and also try how it looked with the wig (excluding ponytail) on. I also got a new authentic dark purple kimono earlier this week and today on the morning I did some kimono kitsuke and, because this kimono is the same one I had planned to use for Hijikata (I keep on upgrading this cosplay!), I decided why the hell not go experimenting with the contacts when I still had the right kimono on? :D

Excuse me for bathroom shots, the lighting is a bit yellowish. Mom probably wondered what I did occupying the toilet for an hour or more. xD I tried to look Hijikata-ish but not sure if successful...

Close-up photo that shows contacts rather well

Tilting head...

.. and I ran out of pose ideas so have some KÄSIIIIIIIIIIIII
and borderline derp-smile. OTL

I don't know why but this time I had a lot more problems with getting the contacts in... but I managed, heh. Also my eyeliner is kinda sloppy, sorry about that. I'm not sure if I should have my eyebrows like that (aka naturally) or if I should cover my eyebrows and draw on new ones; I'm leaning towards the latter because it looks more anime-ish.

And here's a bonus black-&-white photo in which I edited the eyes:

I don't have so much more to say except that half-way during the photo taking I noticed the contacts didn't bother me as much – I guess my eyes got used to them because I didn't feel them as much as earlier. Yay!

Bye!

Espeon gijinka ears

 Meow!

I bought today some purple fleece for my gijinka Espeon ears while I was waiting for le stepdad to pick me up from town. When I got home I decided to start making them right away. I will write this in a kind of tutorial-ish way. Here goes ~

My chosen fabrics: purple fleece and err, I think it's black velvet..

The reference picture I used of Espeon

I took some pattern paper and drew the form of the ears, including the "eartail" things. I made them around 30 cm long.

Pattern for the ears drawn..

Folded the fleece fabric and pinned pattern in place..

After I had cut out a pair of ears.. 4 pieces of fabric in total. Remember seam allowance!

I made the inner ear pattern by putting the "outer ear" under the pattern paper and drew it..
(this is taken after I had cut out the inner ear pattern and put it on top of the outer ear to check that they fit together)

Inner ear pattern pinned in place on fabric...

Inner ear pieces cut out.. 2 in total, you don't need these at the back of the ears obviously.

I didn't do any seam allowance for the inner ear pieces because they are just sewed on top of the ears.. and the fabric doesn't fray, so no need to fold it in or anything.

I pinned the inner ear pieces..

.. and zigzaged them on. (you can do straight stitch if you want, I just used zigzag to avoid getting more of those "black fluffs" everywhere)

Turned the ears right sides against each other and sewed around it..

During the sewing I made some mistakes. Every time you have to change sewing direction you can't do a sharp angle... Like an "L" or something like that. It will look bad when you turn it right sides out.. trust me, I did this mistake on the first ear and it puckered and looked fugly so I had to unstitch all parts were there was a sharp angle. You have to do a soft curve and it also helps to do some cuts along the curve at the wrong side to "relax" the fabric.

Cuts at the curve to demonstrate what I mean...

When you have sewed both ears closed (except the root of the ears, which you obviously should leave open, if you want to have some stuffing inside them) carefully turn it back right sides out and use a pen or something to get those narrow pointy-ish shapes out fully.

An empty ear turned right side out... it needs some...

... FLUFF! (pillow stuffing or whatever it's called)

After filling ears with stuffing...

I sewed the roots closed with a sewing machine.
You can handsew too if you prefer that..

Now I had a pair of Espeon gijinka ears. The method of attaching them to the wig is either by safety pinning the ears into the wig or you could sew them on if you'd like. I will just use safety pins for now myself because I don't know yet if I can use the wig for other cosplays...
I did the ears this way because it's easier to hide and looks more, err, "natural" than just having an obvious headband with ears on.

I decided to do a really quick Espeon gijinka try-on, just to see how the ears sit on the wig and if they weighted it down or something. They did not, very light-weight and comfortable to wear!

Here's few (mirror) photos:

Is it just me or does this wig suit me? xD
When I had it on I thought "Maybe I should really cosplay Gakupo.." (yes, I've planned that for quite some time but not 100% sure)

My gijinka ears "droop" as you can see on the last photo, but I can position them and have them hold the new pose as long as I do not move my head around. I'm not sure if I should keep them like this because in a way I kinda like them when they hang like that. xD Or should I safety pin them so that they point more outwards/stand up more? I think depending on how I pin them the shape they are in will be different... hmmm I'll have to experiment with it...

That kimono (and juban) is the one I'll be wearing but I have not yet decided on if I should use a black or wine red kaku obi.. and I'm thinking about adding some accessories.. if I can find what I have in mind ~
Also I need to get my hands on a red craft gem or rhinestone or whatever they are called.. with a flat back of course. I checked Tiimari and another store today but they didn't really have gems with the right form/size/color.. and if they had something half-way decent they were in a multi-pack and/or overpriced... and because I just need one and not like 30 in different sizes too OTL it feels a bit derp to pay 5 € or something to just use one of them lol. I think I'll go check Tex too before I turn to buying from eBay haha.

Bye bye for now!

Third time's the charm - Shinsengumi headband

Konnichiwa!

Finally decided to try and finish my shinsengumi headband. The last try didn't work and I learned from my mistakes.. aka do not use stretch fabric.
I went to the attic and looked at other fabric options; I found some semi-glossy black slightly sturdier non-stretch fabric.. I have no idea what it is but it seemed okay so I decided to use it. Not so much to say about the process because it's very basic, I'll let a few photos speak instead.

Fabric cut out (I cut extra for seam allowances)

Zigzaged around

Folded in all the sides and sewed

Sewing it in place on headband

I don't understand why it took me so many tries to get such a simple thing right... troll!headband. OTL Oh well, now it's done and I decided to do a very quick try-on in cosplay to see that it wasn't trolling even after being finished...

Excuse my lack of pretty much all make-up except eyeliner.. I couldn't be bothered. Also mostly mirror photos.

 

Just to show length of headband
(note: ponytail is under it on this)

It seems to be working all right, thank God for that. I was getting fed up with this project. I think I'll use the headband for Hijikata at Närcon Vinter, possibly the other shinsengumi guys in the future too.

Hmm, not so much more to say. I'm really looking forward to Närcon Vinter!

Sakabatou + Kenshin makeup test

Hello!

Today I got a sakabatou sword from one of my best friends. She had planned to use it for her own Kenshin cosplay originally but the sword is pretty... damaged, derp and I don't even... so she wants a new one and when I told her I will cosplay Kenshin this year and have everything else ready, except the sword, well, I got it. xD It doesn't have the same tsuba and stuff like Kenshin's sword but it is reverse bladed so it's okay. I've been trying to figure out if there is any way to fix the many errors it has but I'm drawing blanks. It seems to be constructed very weirdly (read: not like your usual katana) and it also seems there is no way of taking it apart to reassemble it and check where the faults are. *shrugs* Oh well, it looks decent half-way out of the sheath but if I draw it I will have to check so that it doesn't go major herpaderp.

le sword ~

Oh, and because I now have everything I need for Kenshin I decided to try on the wig for the first time and do some kind of very quick makeup test. Also did the scar but I didn't make it looks as deep as that scar test a few days ago; I didn't have patience enough to make it awesome just to take some test photos. I'll do the scar better for the con of course. This was also for experience and I must say it felt a little bit different having Rigid Collodion on your face compared to having it on your forearm. I was more aware of that it was there because I noticed that I couldn't smile too much and such or I'd risk screwing up my scar. Good to know before the con. Guess I'm gonna be a pretty serious Kenshin...

I'm not sure if I suit him though; it was hard to do happy/cute Kenshin-like expressions, I kept looking like I was about to kill someone maybe I should just settle for Hitokiri Battousai LOL and when I tried to look happy I looked way too derp. When I tried to look cool I ended up doing expressions Sanosuke would do rather than Kenshin, dafuq man. OTL

Oh well, here's my first try!  

I was lazy doing the base makeup... mostly just focused on eyeliner and the scar.

Eye close-up

Scar close-up

My wig doesn't have a thick ponytail currently. I think I might add some volume to it later; I don't really have time to do it right now (and I need to save money haha... ha...) so this cosplay will be upgraded sometime after its debut.

Also before I put the cosplay on I noticed I had nothing at hand that I could use to make my eyebrows orange. But then I remembered that back when I started cosplaying and did Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, who also has orange hair in about the same shade, that I didn't color my eyebrows either, lol. Well, back then I didn't even know you could do that and it looked surprisingly okay. I'm not sure if I should still opt to color them though... any opinions?

Oh, and before I say goodbye for today I must share with you this..

... BONUS PHOTO!

KAORU-DONO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That's all for today.

Stay tuned for a possible Kenshin preview photoshoot during the next few weekends!

Special effects: Scar testing

 Hello!

Just a warning beforehand, if you are very sensitive to scars (even if not real) you might not want to scroll down.

Okay, I bought some Rigid Collodion almost two weeks ago and it was in the mailbox today after I got home from school. I've been waiting anxiously for it to turn up so I could get to experiment with it! Mom also left so I got to scar myself alone without getting the weird looks or asked why I'm locked in the toilet for an hour. lol

If you don't know what Rigid Collodion is it's a scarring liquid widely used in movies and stuff to simulate shapes of wounds and scars.

I've never used this stuff before but I've been digging information, so I had some ideas what to try creating with it. Okay, I obviously didn't want to put it on my face for practice because... well... it's kinda hard to hide your face without getting very suspicious looks in case I would make an error. So I decided to put it on my right forearm. (note: I'm left-handed, so it's easier for me to practice on my right hand)
I didn't put any base make-up on prior to testing so I can't know for sure how well Rigid Collodion will stick to that. But what I've seen it seems to work just as well.

I tried at first to draw the shape of the scar that I wanted (just a short slightly curved line) in a dark brown eyeliner pencil. I just drew lightly, don't use pressure or it will look unnatural. After that I just started by putting a layer of Rigid Collodion on where I had drawn the "scar". I let the stuff dry between the layers; it dries really fast, probably in under one minute. I must say that the feeling when it started drying was... interesting... xD It felt like something was nibbling and pulling my skin. It didn't hurt or anything but it would occasionally itch for a split-second.
I think I did around 3-4 layers on my first try and it looked like this:

Not really that good but it was a half-decent first try. To remove it you need to peel it off. If you have sensitive skin you can use spirit gum remover. I decided to try using spirit gum remover but when I opened the bottle it had this white cork patch thingy.. which I thought was one of those that you can't take off so you would have to turn the bottle upside down to get it to moisten the patch and then roll it against your skin.. so I turned the bottle and at the first second nothing happened so I thought "meh, weird.." but the following blink of an eye the goddamn patch flew its merry way and almost half of the (unused) spirit gum remover was everywhere in the bathroom. Fucking great. I tried to clean it as best I could but I think it left this weird coating to all the surfaces it hit.. oh boy...
Oh well, I then just decided to pinch my skin together to get one of the scar sides to peel and then just rip it off. It left a red mark but it's very logical seeing that the Rigid Collodion was pulling at my skin.

I decided to try the same technique again but this time with a dark red eyeliner pencil as a base. It came out too cartoony. But during the second try I realized I could use some light powder between every three or so layers to get it to shine a bit less.

And so on the third and final try I decided to blend dark red and brown eyeliner together for the scar base, dust some light powder over it and then start applying layers. This time I put a lot of layers.. I think maybe 10 or so and well, it made a world of difference comparing to the first try! Now I actually think I managed to make what looked like an old deep scar... 3D too. What's good is that it doesn't hurt (I've been "wearing" it for over an hour now I think and I barely even feel that it's there) and it seem to hold really well, unless you move the scar area around too much because then you risk having it peeling and thus ruining the effect of it looking real.

But now. Photos.

I think I love this stuff now, it's awesome. I'm very impressed...
Next time I think I'll definitely try it with my Kenshin cosplay! Ohmaigerd I can't wait to take preview photos! <3

That's all for this time, see ya!