Touken Ranbu uchiban cosplays, bits & pieces!

Hi there!

I've slowly started gathering stuff for some Touken Ranbu cosplays! Yes, I'm seriously in love with this online game (even though I haven't actually played it yet; blame shitty internet and a crashy laptop for that) and all the gorgeous character designs! There's way too many cool characters that I want to cosplay and so many are totally the style that I tend to gravitate towards when choosing cosplays anyway, agjhdfsjhahkj! ;w; I just... can't... stop... having horrible cosplay cravings towards Touken Ranbu, hnng!

Okay so, I've gone ahead and bought fabric for Mikazuki Munechika's uchiban (casual) outfit, namely for the yellow headband thingy. I've also bought fabric for the tasuki sleeve cord that both Kashuu Kiyomitsu and Yamato no Kami Yasusada have on their uchiban outfits as well. If anyone wonders what a tasuki is for it's to tie up the kimono sleeves so that they aren't in the way.

Fabrics!

I started making the sleeve tying.. well, tie, first. I took no progress photos because it's simple as hell.

I had bought like 26 cm of a 150 cm wide fabric and I cut it in half so that I got two 150 cm long strips. I then just zigzaged the edges, sewed one end of each piece together to get one 3 m long piece. Then I just folded it in half, ironed and sew the whole shebang closed. When done I ironed the whole shit once more so that it wouldn't twist itself like a retarded sausage, which it did before ironing.

The annoying thing was that even though this was a super simple thing to do I had ridiculous problems with the sewing machine I was using in school. I was using the oldest one and well, last time I used it it was kind to me but now... lolnoep. I had the needle breaking once, the thread getting pulled and snapping off in the middle of sewing God knows how many times and that's not even all! When I put the new sewing needle in place it literally just fell off (even though I had screwed it in place) and IT FELL INSIDE THE GODDAMN SEWING MACHINE. Yep, right through that tiny little hole under the presser. I was like "are you kidding me? ._." but nope, there it went and there it stayed! I even tried to lift the whole sewing machine (with the metal part removed, so that all the dust inside stared at me) and shake it, upside down, but the only thing that came out was an older already broken needle. Fudge muffins.

Finished tasuki being worn.

Seen from the back. Mirror photo, it's reversed!

I did cut the tasuki shorter by one meter before I took the photos; I realized when doing a test-run that there was way too much length to it and I couldn't hide it nicely.
I know that on the official art neither Kashuu nor Yamato seems to have a visible knot in the front but hey, that's the only way I know how to tie the tasuki so that's how I rolled. So far I haven't found an official illustration showing what the back looks like so yeah, if the knot is actually in the back on either of them I'll figure out how it's tied and do it that way in the future. :)

Next I made Mikazuki's headband thingy.
Nothing special to say about this quick project either, except that I used fake leather for the emblem (that I stitched on) instead of fabric paint; the main reason for this because I had scrap pieces of fake leather lying around after making Kojirou's tekkou and well, I couldn't find the black fabric paint anywhere (if I even had any) and the school didn't have any either and well, I'm cheap.

Emblem leather cut-outs placed on the fabric, before being sewed on.
Enjoy the cellphone quality! :'D

Annoying thing was when I was done with the whole shit and held it up to look at it. Yep, that's totally when I saw that one damn loose thread was INSIDE THE FINISHED THING; I had somehow missed to brush it off like the rest. Hnggnhejgfdhjhd!!

You see that fucker? ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ

Yep, I had "inside problems" this turn around. OTL Sewing needle falling inside the sewing machine and loose thread inside my completed headband, geez...

Oh well, with the help of some mad ninja skills I managed to move the thread to the very edge of the headband so that it disappeared from view. Mad ninja skills include poking a needle through a spot before were I started stitching (to avoid having to undo the sewing) and moving the needle around repeatedly until the thread moved along with it. :'D enjoymyclumsyexplanations.com

Tried it on my head. Excuse my face, I have zero makeup on...

Yep, that's my Mikazuki wig which recently arrived; I just took it straight out of the bag and put it on my head. I will need to style it later – this is just a quickie to see how it fit with the headband.
At one point I was seriously worried that the headband would be too short to actually be possible to tie, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Even with the wig on it's still okay!

Actually my Yamato no Kami Yasusada wig arrived together with the Mikazuki wig and yep, this is totally why I'm actually wearing Yamato's outfit on the Mikazuki headband pic and the other pics. ;)
I did a super quick outfit test (aka zero makeup) to see what it would look like; I already had everything needed for his uchiban outfit now that the wig showed up, woop!

Sorry about my weird expression and that it's a mirror photo, I
was home alone. Enjoy the Wario cap in the background.

I took the wig straight out of the bag and put it on.
The white hair ribbon I have yet to add...

I guess this would count as some kind of closet cosplay because I had the hakama already from earlier cosplays (Kenshin & Hakuouki's Hijikata) and the kimono is from my vintage collection, aka my kimono kitsuke hobby. x) The scarf I stole borrowed from Hasakitsuki. Only the wig I needed to order and well, the tasuki I made. No shit, Sherlock.

Psst, I have a wig for Kashuu as well that arrived recently! I just might need to cut and style it a bit and, of course, add the white hair tie. But I'll save that for another post!

That's all for this time! Bub-bai ~

Hakuouki's Souji Okita makeup test!

Chu chuuu ~

I know I know, I've already cosplayed Okita several times so why am I doing a makeup test now? You see, that's because during the last month or so I've been trying to change and improve my cosplay makeup a bit; I came to the conclusion –along the way– that I wanted to update and try on the new makeup first for my Hakuouki character cosplays, mainly because they have really beautiful eyes that require more makeup than some of my other cosplays. For most of the Hakuouki guys I do the same eye makeup (with possible slight differences) but since I had thrown away all my circle lenses (they expired) that I had been using for all the characters except for the green lenses that I use for Okita... well, guess? :'D

I still don't have his usual Japanese style outfit, so I just took my asanoha pattern yukata (that I'll use for the cosplay) and rolled with it for now. The lenses I'm using are the I.Fairy Ash Green and after taking these photos I threw them away. :'( I've had them since last summer and I never wear circle lenses for 1 year anymore – max 6-7 months, just to be on the safe side.

Actually, when I was taking the selfies (yeah, had no photographer around...) I got surprisingly many decent ones and well, I just couldn't decide which ones to upload because they were all good so, err, prepare for seeing my face a lot... xD I hope you don't get sick of the photo spam ahead!

But I'll stop babbling now and let you see the updated makeup test results.
Sorry about the unfitting background, I didn't have much choice because the lights were kinda bad in the house and so I had to go stand next to the windows...

It was soooo hard to blink like that lol. OTL

I actually have more pictures than this but I think I'll stop here...

How do you like the new makeup look? o/ 

Personally I do kinda like it, but I really need to buy some more precise makeup tools because it felt like I didn't have the right equipment for this kind of shit. Some lines could have been thinner/cleaner/less bold *coughlineundertheeyecough* but I blame my lacking makeup brush arsenal and my lack of knowledge of said brushes for that. I also should invest in different color shades for, well, shading, as well as blending equipment etc. I don't have enough makeup and I also need to learn more. Makeup is not my strong point when it comes to cosplay.
I will do changes to this makeup style and improve it along the way; this was just a first try to try it out and see how it looks. Needs more practice ~

Not really anything else to say, sayonara!
Shiro Samurai out.

Eren Yeager makeup test!

Hello titans humans! :'D

I'm now one of those in the growing list who have gone and fallen into the Attack on Titan –aka Shingeki no Kyojin– fandom wave. I can't go and call myself a mega fan or anything but I must admit that the anime was very good and I'm looking forward to the second season! The soundtracks, oh my god. <3 

I took a quick liking to Eren Yeager –our hotheaded main character– even though he's not the usual character type that I tend to gravitate towards; I don't know, something in his character just really caught my interest and so the cosplay antennas started tingling! 

Eren's face in the anime.

Honestly, the last few days I've had a horrible itch to do some cosplay makeup experimenting and what isn't better than practicing the looks for some future cosplays? I've also been aware of the fact that one of my unopened circle lens pairs will expire after two months unless I open the vials and hey, said contacts could totally work for Eren so why the hell not? :D That's totally also why I today decided to do a makeup test to try to Eren-ify myself! o/

But first, some close-ups of Eren's big blue-green eyes!

Rage mode activated.

Okay so.. Eren has surprisingly big/round eyes for a guy, which also made me think that even notably enlarging lenses would be fine for him, haha. The lenses I decided to wear for this costest are called Vassen Dori Green.

I borrowed Jäätynyt Enkeli's trainee squad uniform jacket because my cosplay isn't ready, did the makeup and took some photos! In the end I'm a bit surprised; I didn't quite think that I would fit Eren if I'm honest, haha. I barely recognize myself. Oh well, it's a challenge to do something different once in a while too!

But now, Ernu Eren time!

So, whatcha think? Eren enough for the titans you?

I tried to snap photos in angles that would make me look more childlike instead of manly because I think Eren looks young; he doesn't exactly have defined features and his face is a bit round anyway, especially if you compare to some other male characters in the cast, hah. So yeah, I kinda tried to make myself look boy-ish but it was very hard – on most pics I ended up looking like Jean Kirstein with Eren's eyes lol. xD Goddammit face!

The wig I also cut some days ago. I didn't put any products in it just yet because I might not cosplay Eren at a con until summer and I don't want to style my wig half a year in advance and have it turn poop on me when the con is finally approaching, now that would be a bummer...

Wig before cutting.

Sorry about the wig being slightly inaccurate on the test pics, especially the side pieces are a bit too long but I do have a reason for this – I plan to use the same wig for Heisuke Toudou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan because the hairstyle and color are fairly similar; if I had cut the side bangs any shorter it would be too short for Heisuke and I tend to think that longer sides frame my face better and look more flattering. 

That's all for today, bye!

Kemin mangapäivä 2014 – Hurry up man! Cosplay plans!

 Yo peeps!

As some of us polar bears might or might not know Kemin mangapäivä, aka Kemi's manga day, is just around the corner – and by corner I mean 11th October. Yeah, it's very soon. We don't have to hibernate just yet. höhö :-DD
Said event is a small local one for me –duration 6 hours this year– and I attend it mostly to meet friends and have some geeky remoistening for the oh-so-dry late autumn's early winter's lack of anime events. I mean, I'm totally not the type to say 'no' to some quality time with my trusty pals in a free-entrance event that *le gasp* isn't even far away! ;) Whooooouu..

Okay so, mumbo jumbos aside, what will I cosplay there?

*suspense*

 ...

......

Umm, let's take it from the beginning, shall we?

So, I've fairly recently bought a wig (from another cosplayer) to use for my soon-to-be-revealed Kemin mangapäivä cosplay. Gotta love cheap second-hand wigs!

But first, I had to cut it...

It's thick, fo sho!

Yeah, look at that hair curtain. OTL Too much hair in the front; I don't see shit. My wonderful hair-baby needed to be trimmed down. I took out my scissors on 3rd October and trimmed it into a better shape.

Starting point – wig before cutting.

So yeah, I cut and shortened the bangs to look more flattering and also thinned them down slightly. Easy peasy. I've noticed though that my scissors don't cut as well anymore; maybe should start consider replacing them.. then again, they were dirt cheap so I wasn't expecting quality either.

With the wig fixed I headed for town on 8th October. My mission was to find a toy gun at a second-hand store for cheap and then modify it. I ended up finding one but it's still unfinished COSSI EI OLE VIELÄKÄÄN VALMIS so I'll just do a post about it afterwards. Hang on, hang on!
What I did do today though was a quick test to get an idea of what my cosplay will look like when worn. Yeah, finally it's time!

Supah editing skillz! selfie

Some small details are missing on the picture: pointy ears, pink contact lenses and the gun. I just won't have time for a proper preview, so this will have to do for now. Yeah, so the character I will cosplay at Kemin mangapäivä is an Original Character named Taregard Frir. I won't bore you with a character description now and I'm too tired for that but I might write one later when I do a photoshoot post. Hopefully.

But there we go for this time, see ya!

Saitou gets an update for the better!

Hello peeps!

On 19th March I decided it was about time that I cut my Saitou wig a little. Sure that it has always been fine but for the past few months it started bothering me slightly that the bangs are kinda long – mostly because they block out my right eye and this doesn't always look good on photos. So yeah, cutting time!

Before cutting to the left, after on right.

Also on the next day I went to a fabric store in town and bought some fabric for the scarf. Yeah, I do have a scarf already but, as some of you might know, it loves itself some strangling antics and it's just heavy and annoying to wear after a while; I've wanted a thinner and more flowy scarf and so I decided to make another one. The fabric that I bought was unusually wide –around 2,4 meters– so I only had to buy a small strip of it. I didn't purchase more than 30 cm, although afterwards I realized it wouldn't have been bad with a bit more. I tend to always buy too much fabric for bigger projects and not enough for smaller projects, lol. Not like it was bad though, the scarf turned out okay anyway.
I didn't really take any progress pictures because it's so simple to sew a scarf – just zigzag the edges, fold in the edges, fold the whole thing in half and sew it shut with a straight stitch.

Started sewing the scarf shut.

With the scarf done I was ready to go take a few photos – and so I did on 25th March, aka today.
Me and Hasakitsuki (photographer) went outside the apartment and had a quick shooting to show off the costume updates; it's nothing mind-boggling but still something fresh!

The scarf seen from the back. (yeah I know, should have ironed it...)

This fucker even blows in the wind! 8D (if you're lucky)

I'm still a bit meh because I would have wanted the scarf a bit wider (yeah, it still bugs me) than what it is but oh well, at least there's no way in hell this thing could attempt strangling techniques on me anymore, unlike its predecessor. It's very lightweight and comfortable and cost me 4 € to make.

Enough of the scarf. Next up is a photo that shows the wig's makeover better:

Oh the joy when the wig doesn't completely block out my right eye anymore! I still frequently have to move hairs away from my eye –especially when it's windy– before a photo is taken but at least it looks better and hey, it's never bad to be able to see properly in cosplay. xD
Lastly here's a cropped close-up of the contact lenses that I will wear for Saitou from now on. Yeah, it's totally the reason I opened my Beaucon Vibrant Match Blue lenses. Surprise motherfucker!

Sure that his eyes are violet-ish in the anime but in the game they are blue and well, the game came first so I consider it the official/original. Blue-eyed Saitou it is, deal with it ~

That's it, new cosplay previews for this year's con season will follow!
Valkoinen Samurai says bye!

Experimenting with blood capsules!

 Hello neh ~

So this weekend I'm spending at mom's place together with Hasakitsuki. Mom and stepdad are currently in Thailand so the house is empty and we thought quickly that it would be awesome to go there and have some cosplay experimenting with no risk of anyone seeing us and getting scared shitless and well, just chill around in a house that is big enough to live in... for a change. So, while there on the Saturday 15th February, aka today, we decided to put on our Hakuouki cosplays and have me –as Okita– trying out something bloody...

Eeyup, I'm gonna use these things. See where this is going?

Blood capsules, yep. They are not mine but Hasakitsuki's but she kindly let me use some. The ones in the plastic round box are powder edition and the ones in the blisters are liquid edition. The powder capsules say on the packaging –in German– that they stain and you can't wash it off clothing and that it might take several tries to get it off your skin. We'll see...

I went outside far enough into the woods in the big yard so that when mom returns she won't immediately see some suspicious alarming red spots in the snow. Good thing we had already the day before walked in the snow and thus made safe "feet holes" to walk in without sinking through the snow all over again; I wouldn't have been all that happy getting at the very least ankle-deep and at best, knee-deep in the snow in cosplay. Okay, so when I got far enough into the woods which was, not that far I just put one capsule in my mouth –the liquid one– and put on my acting cap and let's go!

I must say the taste of this thing is not pleasant but it wasn't really bad either, at least according to me. Then again, who expected fake blood to taste strawberry cheesecake anyway? Not me for sure.
There's not all that much blood in one of these but still sufficient for a few coughs or whatever you want to do with it. Oh, and obviously because I was cosplaying Okita, who has tuberculosis, I was doing the coughing scheme but you can use these for other things as well.

In my case it's not all that hard to act like I'm sick but then again that miiiiiight just be because around this exact time 3 years ago I was hospitalized with a pretty bad case of pneumonia. *shivers* Sure that doing this, especially in February, gives me some rather unpleasant flashbacks of that time but oh well, what won't we do for cosplay and the love of a character?

Okay, so back on track about the liquid capsule. Except for the not-so-good taste it wasn't really hard to use – sure it needs some timing and acting skills if you want to make it look more realistic but it's not bad. Oh, and obviously you have to bite it whenever you want to use the capsule.

When I was done with the liquid one, which didn't take all that long, I decided to try the powder capsule right after. This thing requires that you use your saliva to get it to work because, well, it's blood powder. I didn't have any problem with this but what I did notice pretty instantly was that this thing tastes even stronger than the liquid one, if you ask me. Yep, still definitely not strawberry cheesecake for you...
Oh, and it's not really noticeable on the pictures but the powder one is a few shades darker as well. Actually, the blood ended up looking brighter on photos than IRL anyway, both of them.

I must say that personally I prefer the powder variant, mainly because it's a tad darker and also takes a lot more time to use up. I was actually pretty surprised how many times I could cough and still have a fair amount left in my mouth. To be honest even when I thought I was done I still kept getting more of it and it took quite a lot of spitting to get rid of the red afterwards. The only slightly hard thing with capsules is to not have it show on your face that you have it in your mouth because yeah, if you plan to scare the bejesus out of your friends they'd better not know you are up to something... ;)

I'm sorry about the photo quality but they are taken with my old camera, which is a lot lighter than my SLR to carry, and thus easier to take self-photos with.
Oh well, when I was done coughing blood I hurried back inside because staying around 20 minutes outside in a not-very-warm-at-all cosplay in 0 °C will eventually make you cold. Duh.

This is what the ground looked like when I was done...

Back inside I washed my bloody hand with warm water and yeah, the powder one seems to stain. It's not all that visible on this picture but IRL it's kind of easy to see. It seems to fade nicely after a few more washes though and all in all it's not bad staining at all if you ask me. I was prepared for worse.

Notice the stains.

Soon enough I was back in the cold again but this time for some quick pictures together with le Chizuru, aka Hasakitsuki. I was the one taking the photos and yeah, still with the old camera and it shows in lack of quality. Didn't really get any good photos because it had already gotten too dark but oh well...

Oh, and before I let you go I must tell you about a funny and rather awkward thing that happened. So when I had put on my cosplay I looked out of the living room windows (they're big) and saw a random man walking on the yard. I hurried to go hide in case it was this guy who mom had told to bring in the mail but......... it wasn't. So this unknown man rang the door bell once and I thought "let's pretend there's no one home" but then he rang a second time and some seconds later he was still waiting outside. I decided to go "fuck this shit" and went –in full cosplay– to open the door and guess? It was no other than this one old friend of stepdad who, more of less often, comes and asks if stepdad is home and I tell you, he does this whenever he pleases and yes, it has happened at least once in friggin' midnight! Another critical detail about this guy is that he is drunk 90% of the time and always asking for alcohol if you let him in. Love Finland. But yeah, I opened the door to this guy and told him stepdad is not here and frankly, he's far away in Thailand. I swear he was looking at me with a weirded out face and there was a moment of awkward silence before I just tried to get him to leave already. xD Yeah, awkward.

With that said Valkoinen Samurai is out!

Liquid eyeliner test

 Hi!

For quite some time now I've considered buying a liquid eyeliner for cosplay because some things you just can't do with a pencil one. Last week or so I figured it's time I get one and so I went to the makeup shelf of the store and felt awkward as always #guyproblems, pretty much took the first one and did a quick test stroke on my arm. It seemed good enough so I rolled with it.
Funny thing is that I had this test stroke still on my arm for the coming week and barely shit happened to it; it didn't flake or fade or anything... or wait, correction, veeeeery slight fading around the fourth day or so. But whatevs, yesterday I decided to do a quick test à la Okita edition (because Hakuouki characters are half the reason I wanted a liquid one lol) and well, for a first try it's not half bad I guess?

Sorry for the slight blur.
Oh, and if you wonder the contacts are Volte Green.

I'll be practising some more before I attend my next con but it should be okay, I'll get the hang of this!

Oh, and about the eyeliner itself, well, have some photos:

Rimmel's  Exaggerate Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner

I must say I'm pretty fond of the tip; it's basically like a thin marker but you have to dip it like a paint brush – best of both worlds if you ask me! Yes, that's actually a big reason why I took this as well as the fact that it's waterproof (I tried) and wasn't all that expensive. I think it's pretty good, then again it's my first liquid eyeliner so I don't have anything to compare it with. But yeah, it's easy to use, fairly precise and holds nicely. I've noticed that sometimes after some hours it might flake a bit, especially at the corner of my eyes. Also it doesn't dry instantly so be careful when you apply it on your upper eyelid etc.

Oh, and before I leave you guys I must show you the newest addition to my bed space stealers plush collection. I just couldn't resist, okay? ;_;

Okita please <3

That's about it! See ya!

Chibicon 2013 cosplay plans + A wild Ibuki appears!

 Hi everyone!

Yes, I'm totally going to Chibicon in Oulu, Finland, held 9th November. How could I not when it's only about 100 kilometers away?

Oh well, first things first. For some time ago I bought an Ibuki cosplay from my friend Sebastian. I had planned to cosplay Ibuki at some point anyway but yeah, so much cosplays to do and so little time.. and money. xD So when I found out he was selling his Ibuki costume I jumped at the chance! I just had to order a wig and so I did back at late September. I ordered contact lenses as well but more about that later. The wig I ordered from China and it had been sailing around the globe for a little over one month and boy did I get worried that I wouldn't get it on time for Chibicon. I swear just when I started thinking "I probably won't get it in time.." well, guess what? It showed up!

With the wig in my hands I figured it's safe to announce my Chibicon cosplay plans now. I guess it's not a surprise for anyone anymore that it will be..

Ryunosuke Ibuki from Hakuouki

I'm not sure if I will have a sword with me or not.. my swords are still broken so unless I can borrow one from Jäätynyt Enkeli or so then I'm out of luck. Oh well, it's not like he used his sword in the anime much at all so...

Uhm also, today I did a quick Ibuki try-on or what to call it, basically just checking that the cosplay fits me and such. It's all okay except that I'm missing that little violet ornament he has hanging from that blue string. I'll eventually make it later, don't really have time now and I don't want to open/waste my package of clay on such a small piece.

Well well, now time for a few pictures!
Excuse the shitty lighting and that I'm wearing zero cosplay make-up, save for slight eyeliner and darkening of eyebrows. I just couldn't be bothered. It happens. Pretty often.

Photographer is Hasakitsuki

 Also have a more close-up'ish mirrror self-photo..

You might have noticed that I'm wearing waraji. Yes, I finally got me some.. or more like, Hasakitsuki's awesome mom made them, whopee! ~

And just because I feel like sharing the woven goodness, have some waraji pictures!

They are pretty fabulous if I do say so myself. Sure, after walking/standing around for a while the soles of my feet had gotten waraji weave prints carved on them and it wasn't painless. xD Oh well, it's not too bad and come on, as the Finns say - "cosplay ilman tuskaa on teeskentelyä". It translates to something like "cosplay without pain is pretending". It's true amirite? :-DD
I'm just not all that keen on walking outside with these in November.. I'm gonna freeze.. and curse perkele if there's snow in Oulu...

Oh oh oh, and one thing! One thing!

When I put the wig on I noticed it was a bit too long at the sides and bangs so guess what? Yeah, that.

Wig cutting if you hadn't figured. Ibufag

I'm outta here for now. Chibicon summary post next and Ibuki contact lens review coming up soon enough as well. Hopefully also an Ibuki & Kosuzu photoshoot!

Until then, see ya!