Gingacon 2024 cosplay plans!

 Hello woofers!

I've decided to cram in one more con trip into this year and that's going to be Gingacon in Tampere, Finland. This is an event especially aimed at fans of the 80s anime and manga series Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, also known as Silver Fang abroad and, for the Finnish public, Hopeanuoli (lit. 'silver arrow').
I've never been to Gingacon before myself but I'm always interested in checking out new experiences! While I might not be their primary target demographic as I only watched the original anime (uncut version) as an adult, and thus didn't grow up with it like most other fans my age, which means the series has no nostalgic value for me. I can nonetheless appreciate it for the phenomenon and pioneer status it has in Finland with shaping the anime culture and interest back in the days, not to mention the profound impact on the furry (aka 'turri') community. I'll admit I own a couple Ginga plushies hehe.

Gingacon will be held on 23rd November and I will be traveling with Firith. Our friend Gure will provide sleeping accommodation, which made the decision to attend a lot easier because traveling to Tampere from Kemi is not exactly cheap lol. *sadge*
I have also applied to volunteer a few hours to take care of the green room so yeah, I will be a part of the work force. This also means that I had to consider my cosplay choice carefully because I don't want to wear something that would be in the way – but still I'd want something that, at least somewhat, fits the canine theme.

(recolor by ExoticPoke)

Character: Mightyena (shiny)
Series: Pokémon

I started thinking and realized that I could rewear my old shiny Mightyena gijinka outfit from 2018 if I just reworked the ears because yeah, I've never been happy with them. It's basically a closet cosplay from things I already own but I plan to add a tail as a new addition! I've worn this costume once before at Okamicon ages ago, but basically no photos exist of it to this day. Rewearing Mightyena at Gingacon is a chance to bring the doggo back out again with some slight alterations to make it better. I don't know if there will be an opportunity for a photoshoot but at least I shouldn't be freezing my butt off since I will have layers to keep me warm; we're essentially in the winter months now so let's be smart this time with costume choices. Ennakoi, tiedät kyllä miksi~

That's it for this time, I will have a WIP post coming up before the con summary so if you're interested in the making of ears and a fluffy tail then stay tuned!
~ Shiro Samurai

Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee White Galaxy

 Good morning everyone! 

I'm back with another colored contact lens review and this time we're checking out the ColourVue Phantasee White Galaxy! Yes, these are very similar in style to the Pure Galaxy crazy lenses I reviewed earlier, it's basically just a different color variant. And just like with the previous review the White Galaxy lenses have also seemingly disappeared from the market so this is also a review I'm doing just to remember that these lenses once existed and to be able to compare them to similar designs I might try in the future.

Now let's-a-go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm
Water content: 45%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

As I briefly mentioned above these lenses are almost identical to the Pure Galaxy ones I reviewed just before this one, the only difference is that the swirl design is in black instead of yellow. But for the rest of the specifics it's essentially the same – there's a pure white main color and the lenses lack any kind of limbal ring, which makes them nudge towards the creepy side when compared to more traditional cosmetic contacts. They look quite intense when worn and I would rank them as crazy lenses because they're very unnatural-looking, bold and have full color coverage.

One lens in.

You can see on the photo above that these look quite striking when worn and the white main color is a really bright, pure white – it's so white it's whiter than my scleras, which adds to the intensity (and creepiness, if you'd like). It looks a bit unnerving but not quite as ominous as the Pure Galaxy lenses do, in my opinion. I do personally like both circle lenses and more costume-y lenses meant for Halloween and such, both have their appeals and uses! This type of lenses can fit right in with certain alternative fashion styles that are more bold and unapologetic in their visual expression – like punk, goth and other dark styles.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during an October noon with sunny weather, although the sun was hidden by a veil of clouds at the moment the photos were taken. All close-up photos are free from color filters etc and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow-ish room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, facing a window. (not sun side)

Unlit corridor, only natural light in the distance.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun. (obscured by a cloud veil)

Just like with a majority of lenses I've been reviewing lately this pair was also a part of that infamous cardboard box, which I had stashed away so well that I literally forgot about it for years. Oops. By the time I found it all the unused lenses inside had expired and so I began my mission to review them; it was the least I could do to make the purchases not completely wasted. I mean, if I can turn my misfortune into at least something positive I'd gladly do it. Obviously I don't recommend wearing expired lenses and I'm only wearing these lenses for the sake of getting the necessary review photos taken, after that I immediately discard them.
This, unfortunately, means that I can't properly grade comfort and that my comfort grading is based on quite literal first (and only) impressions. But what I can say about these lenses is that, during my brief time wearing them, I didn't notice anything dramatically bad. They were a bit difficult to insert and by that I mean that the lens would not latch onto my eye properly but like "float" on top, which made them pop out when I blinked. I had to redo the insertion once per eye. It might not be their fault because this happens every now and then when putting in contact lenses, especially if your finger holding the lens is more moist than your eyeball and so your lens prefers to stay on the finger lol. But anyways, once I got the lenses in they settled normally and felt quite thin and okay to wear, save for some slight itchiness around the edges (possibly due to either expired status or perhaps got some debris between that didn't completely clean off before reinsertion). My eyes are naturally dry and sensitive so I'm not the best to judge comfort averages but yeah, if these had been non-expired I guess they would have been okay to wear for maybe 2-4 hours or something like that?
Oh, one thing that should maybe be noted is that these lenses, just like many other crazy lenses, have a somewhat narrower central opening than that of your typical circle lens, which means that in poorer light conditions when your pupils dilate to let in more light, you might experience slight blur or colored corners at the far edges of your vision field. In this case the intruding color would be perceived as white-ish due to the main body of the lenses being white. This is something that I'm used to, as a long-time colored lens user, and it's totally normal so it's nothing to freak out over. :)

All in all this is a fun, vibrant lens that could be cool for both alt fashion and costuming. It does draw my thoughts to fantasy and sci-fi realms but not necessarily to the bad guys – maybe more akin to morally gray nomads and rogues with superpowers, that kind of characters? But yeah, sadly these exact lenses have gone 'poof' from the market and we'll just have to wait along for a replacement.

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Pure white lens with a black spin print. Surprisingly fascinating and crisp-looking.

Design: 8/10 

Simple swirl design but powerful effect once worn. Not quite as creepy as one might expect.

Opacity: 10/10

Full coverage, my real eye color is completely blocked out by how opaque the pigmentation is.

Enlargement: 2/10 

Negligible enlargement, it's hardly noticeable on my eyes at least.

Comfort: 5/10 

Appears to be average comfort. Had some slight difficulties with insertion, followed by itchiness around the edges but I can't be sure if that was a one-time occurence or not. Thin and okay otherwise.

Naturalness: 1/10 

No chance, these are far from natural in any sense of the word.

Thanks for your time, there will be more reviews coming in a bit!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee Pure Galaxy

Hello folks!

It's time for another colored contact lens review, woop! I'm going to review the cool but sadly discontinued ColourVue Phantasee Pure Galaxy lenses. I bought these ages ago on a blowout sale – maybe they were already leaving the market back then? I can't know that, but what I do know is that I've been unable to locate these lenses since then; it appears that the Phantasee series, as I remember it, has been almost completely redone. It sucks that these lenses are gone but, regardless, I wanted to review them for posterity.

Let's go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm
Water content: 45%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

You just need one look at these lenses to be able to tell that they will be quite intense-looking when worn. I mean, they're pure white with no black limbal ring – that's already enough to know that these will be at least moderately freaky. But if you intentionally buy crazy lenses that's a look you're okay with, right?
Aside from the opaque white color there are these blocky swirl prints in a medium yellow tone. Overall the design is simplistic, it's literally just two colors, but it has a really strong effect on your appearance. As is expected from crazy lenses these lenses are very bold in style and have a flawless color coverage – my real eye color, a grayish blue, doesn't show through at all. The pupil hole is also a bit on the narrow side so that helps in not letting a lot of your eye color show through in the middle. The drawback to this though is that sometimes you might see colored corners at the edges of your vision or have a slight blur, especially in poorer light conditions when your pupils dilate to let in more light.

One lens in.

There's a very slight enlargement effect but honestly, for me at least, it's negligible. These lenses look quite rad to be honest, they give me sci-fi vibes and I'm very much digging it! Due to the white being the main color these can easily look creepy though, similar to how unnerving those "white zombie" lenses can look. Some people like this kind of style but it can be scary for others (when I was taking photos outside I made sure that my elderly neighbor didn't see me lol) so yeah, it doesn't hurt to be a bit extra considerate of people around you.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a sunny October noon. All close-up photos are free from color filters etc and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light. 

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, facing window. Not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. Facing the wall.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

Since I already said at the beginning of this review that I bought these lenses a long time ago, well, some of you who've been reading my blog lately might already have guessed that these were also a part of "the box". Yes, that one doomed box that I accidentally forgot about which contained a lot of expired, unused lenses. I've been going through the contents of said box, doing one review at a time, for a while now and the Pure Galaxy lenses were a part of it.
I don't wear expired lenses longer than necessary to get the photos taken and that also means that I can't try out the comfort properly because I immediately discard the lenses afterwards. Please do not wear expired lenses to events and parties etc even if they seem comfortable and normal, like they very well might do. My comfort impressions of these lenses were that they seemed overall to be decent to wear and I didn't feel them much at all, except for the left lens being a bit itchy upon insertion before it settled. I'd wager that they'd be acceptable in terms of comfort, had they been fresh. Maybe 2-4 hours of wear on dry-ass eyes such as mine.

It's a bit of a bummer that these exact lenses don't seem to exist anymore but yeah, there might still be something similar out there if these swirly galaxy peepers tickle your fancy.

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Pure white lens with yellow spin detail. Despite being just two colors it's very visible and impactful.

Design: 8/10 

Simple in design but powerful in effect. Can even look frightening with the right accessories.

Opacity: 10/10

Perfect coverage, there's no risk of your real eye color shining through. The white is so bold!

Enlargement: 2/10 

Very minor enlargement, it's hardly noticeable on my eyes.

Comfort: 7/10 

Appears to be quite standard comfort, I didn't feel them much after they settled. Might affect vision slightly in low light conditions.

Naturalness: 1/10 

These are far from natural unless you think looking like a science fiction anti-hero counts as natural, lol.

Thanks for your interest, more reviews will be up soon!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee Autumn

 Hello hello!

It's been a while since I last did a colored contact lens review but I'm back now, for a while at least! Today I will be reviewing the ColourVue Phantasee Autumn lenses. I bought these lenses ages ago and it seems like they have since been discontinued, which is sad but yeah, it happens. I decided I still wanted to review these because they're cool and maybe someday something similar shows up that we can compare these lenses to. :)

Let's go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm

Water content: 45%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

I think it's kinda funny how, of all the seasons, autumn somehow is the bright green one? I mean you would be more inclined to think of summer or spring when you see green, right? xD But anyhows, this is the Phantasee Autumn and we just have to accept that autumn isn't brown, red or orange lol.

Just like the other season-themed lenses of the same series these have a spiky swirl design, a bright one-tone color and a notably large pupil opening so yeah, these don't completely change your natural eye color but rather give you intense colored borders at the edges of your eyes, which can be quite cool-looking if it's a look that you favor. I think that, generally speaking, this type of patterning style would likely look better on dark eyes as, on light eyes, it might end up looking like you have some crazy eye infection lol.

One lens in.

The size isn't much but the color pops quite well. I'm sorry but I can't think of any other way to describe the green shade except for saying it's like Shrek but slightly radioactive..? xD It is a a pretty intense color and one that is not commonly found even among crazy lenses. But as I said earlier it mostly just colors the edges of your iris so if you want all-encompassing evil eyes then these have too much transparency inbetween the printed design to really give you that look. Regardless it's a cool lens in its own right, especially for punk, cyberpop and other such colorful alt fashion styles where you want bright colors but don't necessarily want to look overly creepy or possessed lol.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a mostly sunny October noon. All close-up photos are free from color filters and such and that's so that the colors would appear as true to real life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, unlit corridor. Poor natural light in the distance only.

Indoors, facing window. Not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

As I already implied at earlier these lenses were also part of that one box that I accidentally forgot about for years. What I'm saying is that essentially all the lenses inside said doomed box were expired by the time I got around to reviewing them and that includes my review today. Because of this whoops-moment I can't grade comfort properly as I only wore these lenses for a very brief time – what I can say about the comfort though is that they were thin to the point I barely felt them and surprisingly comfortable. I would estimate, had they not been expired, I would have been able to wear these for 3-5 hours, which is my normal range for colored lenses because I have really dry eyes naturally.

Honestly I'm a bit bummed that these lenses, along with a majority of all the ColourVue crazy lenses I've reviewed prior, don't seem to exist anymore; it's like they nuked most of their unique designs and it kinda sucks. I mean, this might not have been my top pick or anything (originally bought them on a sale) but it's just depressing when you think about how many different lenses there used to exist that don't anymore – I mean everyone loves options, right? But anyways, I enjoyed reviewing these and I will be reviewing some other now-discontinued lenses in the coming months too so hey, let's reminiscence about what goodness we used to have~

Distance photo!

 

(even makeup can't hide my insomnia issues lmao rip)

Want to see the "season" series in another color?

Check this out: Summer, Winter

Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Nuclear Shrek vibes, what more can I say? xD It's very vibrant up close in good light conditions!

Design: 9/10 

Jagged swirly print that is both artsy and crude at the same time. Can be really cool with the right oufit.

Opacity: 9/10

Opacity for the colored parts themselves is really solid, the transparent parts of the design will obviously be transparent.

Enlargement: 2/10 

Really minor enlargement, it's not really noticeable on my eyes.

Comfort: 8/10 

Thin and pleasant to wear, I don't really notice that I have lenses on. These don't obstruct my vision thanks to the print being located away from the pupil.

Naturalness: 1/10 

No, I can't call these natural at all.

Thanks for reading my blog, stay tuned for more reviews!

~ Shiro Samurai out.