Desucon Frostbite 2015 – Excitement zero

Hello all.

So, Desucon Frostbite came and went this past weekend –aka on 13-15th February– and I attended the con. I don't really have so much to say about the event itself, I guess it was nice and all but yeah, for me it ended up in the "paska reissu mutta tulipa tehtyä" category. In other words Frostbite 2015 ended up being the first con for me on which I honestly had no excitement whatsoever – I just didn't enjoy it, which is a shame because when I originally bought the tickets some time back I was eagerly looking forward to it. Oh well, I'll tell more about that later...

This shouldn't turn out to be a very long con summary because I don't have so much to say... I guess.

Let's go then, shall we?

On Thursday night me, Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli left for the train station. As per usual it meant a loooong train journey and way too much luggage, which wasn't fun to drag around because it was heavy and, on top of it all, I ended up not even using half of it. Blörgh. If you wonder how come I'll just say this – my cosplay plans pooped.
The train journey wasn't pleasant and that's simply because I still can't get myself to fall asleep in a train. I was also feeling uneasy during the whole trip and I kept thinking about shitty things; most of all I just wanted to cancel the whole damn con and just stay home but alas, that wasn't possible. I just had no motivation to even attend Frostbite but I didn't want to lose my money either, seeing how the train tickets couldn't be refunded. What killed the con hype even more was that I was still a bit sick – yep, I caught some stomach derp just before the con, which made me very meh about eating anything because I started feeling sick if I ate. Happy day...
Leaving Kemi behind felt really bad too; I kept thinking that my maternal grandpa was in the hospital -he's been there for around a week now- and that he might even pass away during the con because his situation isn't exactly good...

So yeah, my interest for Frostbite was zero at best – more often than not it was below zero. But still I had to go, even though I didn't want to do anything more than just stay home.

Friday

Lahti was reached on Friday morning. I was shit tired and so were the rest of my company.
When we exited the train station I called Moonbeam for directions on how to get to her apartment – yes, we'd sleep over at her place just like during summer Desucon last year. It was a bit hard to make out at first where exactly we were supposed to go (thanks to fog and road reconstruction areas) but as soon as we could see the Mannerheim statue then it was a cakewalk.
We found our way to Moonbeam's and there we all just took a nap. I don't remember how long I slept but I sure do remember that sleeping on a bed felt like the best thing ever after the crappy night in the train.
At some point another person showed up who'd also sleep at Moonbeam's place over the con and so we were five occasionally six plus two cats. Needless to say it was quite crammed.

When there was only a couple of hours left, before the con would open its doors, some of us started to put on cosplays. I hadn't regained my con motivation so I went 'fuck this shit' and decided to go casual – why would I bother to put on a cosplay if I wouldn't even enjoy it? I also had forgotten my shoes for said cosplay anyway, because of the stress packing. So yeah, no cosplay for me but Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli cosplayed nonetheless. I was content with roaming my first con ever in my everyday gear under a secret identity and honestly, it felt like the best choice ever made. Funnily though, if you had asked me two months ago if I would ever go to a con without cosplay –or at least some fancy outfit– the answer would have been a solid 'no'. See what some twists and turns can do...

When we got to the con we saw a sight no one in our company had prepared for – a huge line to get inside.

I'll admit, I've never seen such a line outside for a Finnish con and so it caught me off-guard. Thing is that normally I would have been used to seeing this kind of shit; I mean, in the bigger Swedish cons (former Uppcon and Närcon pre-2014) it was commonplace to stand in line for 4+ hours. It was to be expected. Heck, you were even lucky if you only had to wait 3 hours to get inside. But then again, I've had the impression that in the Swedish con culture standing in line is part of the con experience. *shrugs*
Luckily with Frostbite though was that the line moved really fast and smoothly. When you got inside you traded your ticket paper for a con ticket that was fastened on your wrist. But before you got to do that some security guys at the entrance checked your ID to make sure that no one attending was below 18 years – yep, it was a con with an age restriction.

Oh, and this year the tickets were ihkupinkit.

Inside the con there were.. people. It was noisy and some parts of the building were always more or less crowded. I didn't feel well and I just wanted to go somewhere away from it all; good thing was that just when the con opened a movie would also start – Rakuen Tsuihou: Expelled from Paradise. This turned out to be some kind of saving grace even though pre-con I hadn't been so interested in the movie. I went to watch it with Hasakitsuki and yes, the movie was shown at the con and the "movie price" was included in the con ticket; you only had to go get a paper ticket for the movie so that you'd get a seat to sit on, basically. We got good seats even though we were some of the last ones to enter, hehe. About the movie I can say that it was very good, even though as soon as the plot twist passed it was predictable to the end. The anime was really well-made though and a pleasure to watch. :)
After the movie there was a talk-show with the Guest of Honors, aka Gen Urobuchi and Seiji Mizushima.

Artist's Alley

After the movie I don't think I did anything noteworthy. The Dealer's Hall wasn't open on Friday and so there was very little to do, except for walking around and trying to spot familiar faces. None of the panels interested me either and well, I certainly didn't feel like sitting down and listening to someone talking about whatever for two hours when my head was going around like a goddamn washing machine.
I did find Karri and some other awesome peeps that brightened my day and we ended up talking a bit and such, he's always so awesome to have around; he makes even a shitty day good.

Karri in all his awesomeness.

We didn't stay at the con especially long because our trio was still tired from the long journey. Resting and loading our batteries for Saturday sounded like a plan.

Saturday

I think we woke up around nine in the morning or something. I lagged a bit while my brain was processing the thought that it was the main con day today. I'm honestly not sure what my feelings were about it but I decided to cosplay this day. According to my cosplay plans I should have cosplayed Saitou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan but that just.. didn't interest me. I just didn't feel like I could be bothered with the hassle of wearing authentic kimonos so I took my Sunday cosplay for Saturday instead, which meant Souji Okita from PeaceMaker Kurogane. Only problem with this was that 1) I had no basic idea how to do the makeup, because I didn't have time to do a test-run before the con and 2) the contact lenses I was planning on wearing I hadn't tried either and so I had no idea if I would even stand to wear them for the con day or not. I still decided to go with Okita because reasons.

I think we arrived at the con around 11:00 or somewhere around that time. One of the first things we did was to go and check the Dealer's Hall and see if the Japanese candy guy was there. Lolnope, he wasn't. :C

Both the t-shirts that I would have wanted to buy were XL.. OTL

It didn't take too long before Olli called me and asked where I was holding house. I had promised to photoshoot his improved Bean Bandit cosplay and so we met up and had a shoot. It was fun to get to know him better and he kept me company while Jäätynyt Enkeli disappeared somewhere and Hasakitsuki attended a panel. We went into the cafeteria and talked about his cosplays and stuff until we separated at some point, I don't remember when. But I did find Hasakitsuki again, so it was okay.

I found Karri and Jäätynyt Enkeli again and we headed out to the nearby food store to buy something small to eat. We also met ShinigamiUchiha who tagged along with us, friends!
Me and Hasakitsuki ended up buying triangle sandwiches forever con food diet, dessert puddings and a can of Angry Birds Christmas lemonade that was 30% off only because it was a Christmas drink. Our whole group sat down on the bench in the food store and ate our sandwiches, it was comfy.

I have no words... xD

I don't remember if it was before or after the food trip but I photoshooted Jäätynyt Enkeli's cosplay and Hasakitsuki took some photos of my cosplay after that. We didn't try to do a proper photoshoot because I wasn't in the mood and Hasakitsuki was complaining about the cold. It wasn't exactly easy to try and portray a cheerful but battle-spirited character when, all along, I just wanted to run away from everything because I was feeling shit. I kept thinking the whole "what if mom calls me now and tells me that grandpa is gone?" and then I wondered how I would react – how do you even react to something like that? I wouldn't be able to hear those words, not now. It's not anything you want to ever hear; I kept fearing that I'd get the call. I was horribly distressed and just wanted to go home...

Pffrt, at least some proof that I was in cosplay...
Photo by Hasakitsuki.

After the photoshoots we went inside to warm up. I remember that we went to sit somewhere away from the crowdedness (if it isn't a word already then it is now) because I was feeling anxious amidst the hordes of people. At some point I wasn't far from getting some kind of panic attack so yeah... it wasn't pleasant. I don't know but it just felt like there were a lot of people all the time and everywhere and it was really loud too; I just couldn't handle it.
Me and Hasakitsuki tried to escape into a calmer place and after a while we went upstairs to the Dealer's Hall, which, luckily, wasn't as crowded as some other areas. We ended up buying the very last banana flavor Ramune and it helped to get me back into some slight con mood.

Banana Ramune!

The banana drink was surprisingly.. unique. It was good though and I regret not buying a pineapple Ramune while they still had them. While we were drinking our Ramune next to the stairs I spotted this one guy with a Whispered band hoodie walking down the stairs and I just had to strike a chat. Little did I know that talking to this guy would end up being the highlight of the con!

The conversation went something along the lines of this:
Me: That's the best hoodie ever! Love the band!
Guy: Thanks. How long have you been listening to Whispered?
Me: Very long, since the beginning pretty much. I have both CD's, it's one of my favorite bands!
Guy: We're actually recording new songs in the studio! Oh cool, so you were already a fan when we recorded Wrath of Heaven?
Me: *rambling and fanboying on but brain is processing what just happened*

That feeling when I realized that I wasn't talking to an ordinary fan – I WAS TALKING TO ONE OF THE BAND MEMBERS!!!! O___O This can't be?!?

I think I died and flew off my chair a thousand swords times. No way in hell, this is a joke? Riiiiiiiight?

But nope. It wasn't a joke.

Together with Jouni Valjakka from Whispered.

But seriously, if you like metal (you must 8C) and haven't heard of them yet – go listen to their songs, hear how epic they are, buy their CDs and support them! They are freakin' awesome! \m/

After this awesome encounter we headed back downstairs to go and check what they had to offer in the gaming room. As to be expected it was all crammed in there and all game consoles were taken. I did see two people playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate in the corner and hnng, I wish I had a NN3DS and the game! ;_; Buhuu still playing Freedom Unite on PSP #oldschool

We stayed a while in the con's main area and watched some people dance to the beat of some cute upbeat songs. Moonbeam and the others were watching the dance too but me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki were starting to get really tired along the way. Ever since the Dealer's Hall had closed we had gotten bored of the con and both of us just wanted to go to Moonbeam's apartment and sleep. The bed was honestly so much more tempting than staying at the con...

We did get a ride back and oh boy did it feel good to take off the cosplay for the day. But before I took off the cosplay I tried to get one of Moonbeam's cats, Luna, to come close but nope, she didn't want to. :c
You see, Luna is a black cat and well, Okita in PeaceMaker Kurogane (along with some other portrayals of Okita) has something to do with a black cat because well, historical myths...

Meow....

Sunday

The last con day – what a relief. Soon I can get back home.
Moonbeam woke us up around nine again and I immediately decided that I wouldn't cosplay today either. I just wasn't in the mood; I'd rather just photoshoot my friends and check for some cool cosplayers at the con instead of having to worry about all the extra worries you worry about while you're in cosplay lol. Oh well, I still borrowed Moonbeam's cat ears so that I wouldn't look completely "normal" either.
When we got to the con we headed for the Dealer's Hall again and there we spotted FankiKitsune talking with another Jack Frost cosplayer. I stopped just next to him to see if he'd react/recognize us but seemingly he was so busy talking that he didn't notice us lololol.
In the Dealer's Hall we saw Ichi, whose table Hasakitsuki had been eyeing all weekend. We took a look and of course Hasakitsuki ended up buying stuff – including a hairclip pair of black wings for me. They were really cool and I want to use them for some outfits coordinations in the future!

Ramune graveyard.

After some time a wild Itachi appeared – it was ShinigamiUchiha, whom I had promised to photoshoot outside. We went outside, froze our fingers off and took some photos. :'D
Back inside I found Hitsuwa, who was cosplaying as Aang. We struck a chat and I actually even laughed – incredible! Hitsuwa is such a fun guy, I really wish we would get to talk more often. Ah, the Närcon 2013 memories.. -w-

I don't remember when but at some point me and Hasakitsuki got hungry and we wanted some warm food. First we went to the nearby food store –together with Jäätynyt Enkeli and ShinigamiUchiha– but we didn't really find anything that was tempting enough to eat no triangle sandwiches again please. Thing is that just next to the food store is Kotipizza. Yep, the place where you buy your obligatory Desu-pizza. I went inside to check if there was an over 9000 meters long line inside but nope, it was almost empty! Hoolabalaa, what is this?? Normally this particular Kotipizza is crammed full of congoers but nopenope, there were only some people eating at the tables but no line. Suddenly the decision was so easy to make – let's eat pizza.

Desu-pizza. You can't avoid it.

Filled with pizza we went back to the con. FankiKitsune has messaged me and asked where I was and so I barely had time to warm up inside before I had to go outside to photoshoot his Jack Frost cosplay. Not like I minded though, it was surprisingly fun save for rolling in the snow because camera angles and we even had some funny moments with the throwing of the green blanket back and forth as a feet-warmer. In the end my fingers were all red and I didn't even feel the cold anymore but I'm not too sure if I should feel happy about that or not...
Oh and one thing, before we headed for the photoshoot location FankiKitsune and I walked to the parking lot. There was a car parked that was selling sushi – it was his classmates. I don't know but I found that the whole thing looked funny, selling sushi from the car's trunk. Not suspicious business at all, no no.. But the sushi was good!

le sushi car.

At the con I spent the last moments hanging around with FankiKitsune and Hasakitsuki; the two even went to play those dance rhythm game thingies while I was watching over our stuff.
After the con ended I bid Karri farewell because I happened to pass him by just when we were about to leave; after that I went with my original company and Moonbeam to the food store to buy provisions for the train trip back. Ugh, I certainly wasn't looking forward to the train but it went okay in the end, save for that the train was still weirdly filled even when we reached Kemi... Dafuq everyone's going to Kemijärvi?

Oh and before I end this post I want to mention that for the first time in years I actually bought something from the Artist's Alley, success! Normally I just don't find anything that makes me go like "I need that. Now." but this time it was a different story. I think the last time I bought something was on Tracon 2012...
I don't remember who was selling the awesome derpy Arceus necklace but the keychain is from Biffe.

My Artist's Alley purchases.

All in all Frostbite ended up being one of my shittiest con experiences so far. It's not the con's fault though because the con itself was all good, nothing really to complain about. It's all just that I was left with a pretty foul taste in my mouth because I simply wasn't in the right mood; I also had too many things spinning in my head and thus ruining the experience. It happened to be that the con had to fall between all these unlucky events...

I still want to give a big thank you to all my friends who kept me company and saved this experience from being utter crap, you know who you are. It really means a lot.

And in the end, as per usual, I put together a quick and poopy photo collection video of all the cosplayers/cool people I photographed during the con. If you see yourself in the video and want the pic just send me a mail.

Bye bye for now.

Sudden change of my Frostbite Sunday cosplay!

Hello again.

I realized earlier today that I can't cosplay Levi (Attack on Titan) after all at Frostbite because of problems with the clothing... yeah, it wasn't a funny realization to make this late lol. I did the preview without the full costume on earlier, hence why I didn't notice this issue already back then. So yeah, I won't have time (nor money) to fix this problem because of school and shit so, eh, I had to come up with a back-up cosplay and quickly.
Me and Hasakitsuki brainstormed ideas on the evening and then she came up with the perfect cosplay that we –with combined closets efforts– could put together for me!

Yep, so on Desucon Frostbite's Sunday I will instead of Levi do...

*drumroll*

Souji Okita from PeaceMaker Kurogane!

Hasakitsuki already had the hakama and the wig for Souji and well, the rest I could easily put together from previous cosplays, perf! 8D I'll be doing a slight hybrid version though, because I don't have everything for the full battle outfit, hahaha.

PeaceMaker Kurogane is a nice anime and I wanted to cosplay from it anyway so yeah, it just happened to be earlier than expected. 

Nothing else to say for now; I might do a quick cosplay test before the con.. if I have time.

See ya!

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.

Lens review: TheDollyEye BarbieDoll 400 Blue

Hallo!

This time I will review a circle lens that goes under many different names, but mine are labeled under TheDollyEye – it's the BarbieDoll 400 Blue lenses! I had to sacrifice my man card because I just couldn't resist the pretty design, despite the Barbie name. Sometimes the name of these lenses is shortened to simply just BD400 Blue. I have seen these lenses under completely different names too as well, like Dueba Windy Blue and Dueba Candy Roller Blue; I guess Dueba is the original manufacturer for these but I'm really not sure, so don't quote me on that. ^^" Oh well, let's get on with this review before I find out what more names these lenses go under, lol...

Review time ~

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm 
Water content: 38%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Diameter is 14.5 mm, according to the vials, and the base curve is the usual 8.6 mm. I try to stick to 8.6 mm lenses as much as possible because that's the base curve I got told by an optician that I have, or more like, that I have a base curve somewhere around 8.6-ish; I didn't get an exact estimate lol.

Lenses in vials, cloudy (snowstorm) daytime light.

Same as above but taken with flash.

One of the main reasons I bought these lenses were because of the unique swirling hurricane design. It's eye-catching yet somehow delicate. I really love the design; it gives a magical touch to your eyes. I just had to try it!
So yeah, I popped the lenses in and it went fine. I did feel them slightly in my eyes for at least 30 minutes though, but it wasn't bothersome enough for me to really care about it. Just the usual "oh I have a lens in my eye" feeling. They don't hinder my vision in any way – I don't experience any blur, colored corners etc.

I'm so so sorry about my asymmetrical and messy eye makeup; I was in a hurry and I did all of it with eyeshadow because I couldn't find my eyeliner... #fml

One lens in, just to show enlargement.

My first words when I had the lenses on were "wow, these look pretty!". They looked exactly as I had imagined they would and I wasn't disappointed with the color coverage either. I feared a bit that the blue color might not show up too clearly because the lens design has a fair amount of black in it but nope, that fear was for nothing because these babies are clearly blue in most lights! :'D
The color is so pretty; it's somewhere between natural and costume-y and works for cosplay just as well as for a fashion lens I'd say. They are surprisingly opaque too, at least on my light eyes.

Enlargement I think is good too – the lenses aren't huge but not tiny either. I assume these would be fine for most people and shouldn't look too much like aliens just took over your eyes.

Now I don't remember exactly in what lights all photos are taken but, anyway, they're all taken outdoors during sunset on a semi-clear winter day. No color filters.
All photos taken by me.

Outside, in the shadows I assume.

Facing the sun, it was horribly hard to get a pic on which
I wasn't squinting my eyes... ._. and it hurt

Outside, half-turned to face the light.

Indoors facing the window.

Indoors, facing the living room's window.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo indoors.

As far as comfort goes I think these are slightly on the better end of average. While I did feel that I had contacts in for the first 30 minutes to 1 hour the feeling completely disappeared when I went outside to do some business – I completely forgot that I was wearing them!

I wore them for about 5 hours and 30 minutes before I took them off and that wasn't because I couldn't stand them anymore – I just took them off because I wanted to wash off my makeup lolololo.

And as per usual I have one from-a-distance selfie to show you!

What can I say? I'm definitely pleased with this pair and would very likely repurchase more of the BarbieDoll 400 series, but in different colors! I really like how they look on me and I don't think that they are too girly for guys to wear either – go for it fabulous circle lens loving lads, buy these! Don't be scared by the name, lol.

Want to see these lenses but in other colors? Check out my other review: Green

Short summary:

Color: 7/10 
Lovely blue shade that is somewhere between natural and costume-y, depending on light.
Design: 9/10 
Unique swirl design. Very pretty up close, almost gives a magical touch to the eyes!
Opacity: 7/10
The colored areas are surprisingly opaque on my eyes. Center blends nicely.
Enlargement: 6/10

Not huge but definitely not small either.  
Comfort: 7/10 
I felt that I had contacts on the first hour but after that my eyes got used to them.
Naturalness: 3/10 

Even though these are fancy I still think that they aren't too unnatural. No one stared at me when I walked through town and in school with these on, at least. The blue is too bright to look realistic though.

That'll be all for this time around, thanks for reading! Bye ~

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!

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.

Cosplay with circle lenses – Necessary or not?

Hi everyone!

I've thought about making this kind of post for a long time now and that's because, well, I have quite something to tell about this whole topic! :'D You see, I realized that almost exactly 2 years ago from this day I ordered my very first circle lenses. Wow, can you believe it?? o_o

Khrmm, yes, the post for today will basically be about my life as a cosplayer before and after I started using circle lenses, along with how drastically my opinions changed along the way! This whole post will be based on my experiences and opinions only, your mileage may vary.

So let's get to the chase, shall we? ;)

*drops the bomb*

First off, I've been a cosplayer since late 2009 and the first time I wore a cosplay out for the world to see was on summer 2010. I remember being aware of cosplayers using colored contact lenses pretty early on in the hobby, but for several years I was strictly of the opinion that "it was not for me". Maybe it was out of fear of trying, maybe not. I don't know. We'll never knoooooooow...

I saw lenses as some do-it-only-if-you-have-the-extra-cash-to-burn thing that wouldn't even pay off and be worth it – unless the character had obviously unnatural eyes like screaming red or something, then I thought that maybe it could be needed. Maybe. But even so it was low-priority and easy to forgive if you didn't have contacts.

This so illustrates me and my opinion towards circle lenses pre-2013. xD

I used to think that colored contacts were one of those "optional but kinda pointless" extras that you could add to your cosplay if you had nothing better to spend your money on, basically. I kept this point of view from 2010 to the end of 2012 something; in the early 2013 I started slowly loosening up and changing where on the line I was standing. Black had started moving towards white; now it was gray and in the middle.

"Maybe contacts weren't so unnecessary and pointless as I had thought. Maybe wearing lenses was actually a more noticeable thing and could even give your cosplay a whole new level of feeling complete."

I believe that one of the reasons I started slowly to realize that "hey, having circle lenses for cosplay actually looks good!" was because some of my cosplay friends were using lenses and *gasp* it was actually one of the things I noticed first as I talked with them! No way! I mean, how could I have missed to see the bigger-than-usual eyes with pretty patterns and vibrant colors?

Before I had seen circle lens users in real life I had always thought that "nah, it's just the eyes; it's such a small detail that no one will notice it unless they're basically standing so close that they can see your nose hairs moving". Oh boy, how wrong I was.

So yeah, on mid or late January 2013 I had a cosplay coming that had obviously violet eyes. I thought that now was the time to step into new waters – it was "now or never" and "you couldn't know unless you tried" and all of those. It was unfair to judge without at least trying so now I threw myself in there too...

"Even though I had done a lot of research on how to wear and care for circle lenses I had to admit – I was scared. Really scared of wearing them for the first time."

Seeing how much I love circle lenses today it's unreal to think that I used to be so bleh about them earlier. But even I, when I started, was more scared of putting something into my eye than I'd like to remember lol. I remember that the first time I ever put contacts in it felt SO WEIRD. It surely took me around 10 minutes to get both of them in and I remember my eyes turning very red and watery and oh gosh, it took forever before my eyes returned to normal and it was horrible. xD I also remember my eyelid blinking and twitching like hell when I approached my eyeball with the "foreign piece of plastic", pff. But yeah, never underestimate the importance of hygiene when handling your lenses and remember, some people just can't wear contact lenses for whatever reason. Personally I don't have any problems with poking my eyes and so for me it was no biggie to get the lenses in the first times and yeah, when they were in it felt like a big fat slap in the face of my former ignorant self – circle lenses made my eyes pop and look really anime!! OヮO Definitely improved the overall impression of my cosplay!

Suddenly I had moe moe desu kawaii bling eyes... or something like that.

Okay so, first I only bought lenses for cosplay characters that had eye colors that were notably different from my own – red, gold and violet for example. I tried to limit myself to unnatural colors only because I thought that these would be the most noticeable, but at some point I started feeling like something was missing if I wasn't wearing circle lenses – even for characters with natural eye colors! *double gasp*
I ended up widening my self-put restrictions to also allow purchasing brown and green lenses before long, but I thought that I wouldn't really need blue or gray lenses because my eyes were blue-grayish to begin with – "why would I spend money on an eye color I already had?". Well, that didn't last long because when I had lenses of all colors –except those closest to my natural eye color– then it felt like all cosplays had that extra "oomph", except those that I didn't wear contacts to... yet. Something was lacking. I wonder what?

By now I'm wearing circle lenses of all colors and yes – to all my cosplays. I can't even imagine cosplaying without lenses because, after all, the eyes on anime/manga characters are usually a very important and noticable part of their visuals. Human eyes with normal-sized pupils just aren't always flashy and eye-catching enough lol. I actually feel kinda naked without lenses on my cosplays and circle lenses look especially amazing on close-up photos etc.

"Before I noticed it my opinion had drastically changed. I had gone from 'contacts are an almost pointless addition' to 'I can't even cosplay anymore without circle lenses'!
What you mean I went from black to white just by giving it a try?"

I think that about sums it up – quite a difference, neh?

I hope you found the read not to be a complete waste of your time and psst, any comments are very welcome! ^_^ Ciao ~