Lens review: I-Codi Colors of the Wind Lime

 Yo!

 

Let's continue with a new circle lens review today, I will show you all the I-Codi Colors of the Wind Lime lenses so let's do this~

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm

Water content: 38%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

Can we like take a moment to talk about how gorgeous these are? It's a very feisty green with a lovely yellow inner circle and already in the vials you can see how the color really pops! They look so fresh and full of life! I know I'm rambling but like seriously, I love green lenses but it's always a hit-or-miss with greens as sometimes they just look like shit and especially if you have gray-blue eyes like I do.

One lens in.

Fuck yeah, The color payout delivers! This is a medium darkish green and somewhat true to its name if you think of the lime peel and not the color of the fruit flesh lol. These blend surprisingly nicely with my real eye color although I assume I can attribute some of that success to that little golden ring I have closest to the pupil that, in turn, helps the yellow parts of the lens merge more seamlessly into my eyes.

The design is semi-realistic, like on the other Colors of the Wind lenses. There's a sizeable enlargement effect but due to the lack of a thick black limbal ring it doesn't provide the typical dolly eye look that more conventionally styled circle lenses tend to do. Sometimes a slight 'halo effect' appears but it's not so pronounced due to the darker pigmentation of the lens.

Lens photos below!

All photos taken by yours truly during a March afternoon with a mostly clear sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

 

Natural room light indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Unlit corridor, weak distant natural light only.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

Same show here as on previous reviews – I can't grade comfort properly for these as they had expired (in their unopened vials) by the time I refound them. The story goes that I had purchased a bunch of circle lenses years ago that I had then put away in a box and forgotten about.. for way too long. So what I'm doing since I found them again is these quick reviews; I'd rather help the community at least instead of just throwing it all away. Please don't wear expired lenses though! I'm only wearing these long enough to get all the necessary review photos taken (which takes approx. 10-20 minutes) and then I immediately discard them. Into the bin. Gone.
But what little I can say of the comfort for these is that they felt thin and overall comfortable. They were basically invisible to wear, although the left lens was slightly itchy upon insertion although that leveled out rather quick. Could possibly wear them for 3-5 hours if they had been fresh, which is pretty good considering my eyes are naturally dry as all hell. :D

All in all this is a solid green lens, great if you want color and size but without looking like a moe moe doll. The print of the lens mimics a real iris, to some degree, so these look moderately realistic too. I could see these being used for cosplay and costuming as well, assuming you want a somewhat toned down look but without sacrificing too much color vibrancy. They look green in pretty much all light conditions I tried so the color coverage definitely holds up. I would recommend these personally if the color and style is close to what you're looking for.

 

Distance photo below!

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
A medium to dark, powerful green with a yellow inner circle. Fresh and impactful.
Design: 8/10
Mimics a real iris yet keeps a magical touch. Small black rim frames your eyes.

Opacity: 7/10 

Great coverage for being a green lens, doesn't turn muddy on blue-based eyes!
Enlargement: 4/10
There's a moderate size enlargement but it's not particularly dolly.

Comfort: 7/10 

Feels thin and comfy, invisible to wear. Possibly 3-5 hours of wear on super dry eyes.
Naturalness: 6/10

Too big in my opinion to pass as natural but otherwise semi-realistic. Kinda.

Eey thankies for reading my blog~

Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: I-Codi Colors of the Wind Melon

 Hello folks!

I'm gonna do a circle lens review today for the I-Codi Colors of the Wind Melon lenses! Last time I did a contact lens review on my blog was back in November, that's probably a personal record since I started posting reviews actively. xD But without further ramblings let's dive straight in!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm

Water content: 38%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

So out of all the green Colors of the Wind lenses I've tried so far, these are by far the weirdest color. I don't even know how to describe it, it's like this super pale shade exactly between blue and green? One thing's for sure, it doesn't make me think of melons lol. I don't dislike the color per se, it's actually rather pretty in the right light conditions but it's just, err, unique. I noticed also that the color would look really different depending on where the photo was taken!

One lens in.

Okay, so as with all other Colors of the Wind lenses these come with a moderate size enlargement. They don't have a bold limbal ring so there's no pronounced dolly effect like on some other more typical circle lenses. The patterning itself is what I would say semi-realistic but I've noticed that there is some variety between the exact design among different Colors of the Wind lenses, despite them all being the same series.
They blend rather nicely with my real eye color, which is a grayish blue. I noticed that in some lights you can get a 'halo effect' with these lenses on, which is always a treat! The pigmentation does its job in covering my eye color but it keeps it looking somewhat realistic too, there's no jarring edges or the like. All in all I would say that I like these lenses and well, for some reason this is one of those pairs that look better in real life than on camera.

Lens photos below!

All photos taken by yours truly during a March afternoon with a mostly clear sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

 

Natural room light indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Standing in a corridor, poor distant natural light.

Facing a window, not sun side. (backyard view)

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing the wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

And just as before I want to mention that I can't grade comfort properly for these as they had expired (in their unopened vials) by the time I refound them. The story is that I had purchased lots of circle lenses a long time ago that I had then put away somewhere and forgotten about.. d'oh! You can safely guess that everything had expired when I found them literal years later. :'D So instead of just throwing all of that already spent money away, I'm now trying to review every pair quickly to at least help the community. With that said, please don't wear expired lenses! I'm only wearing these long enough to get all necessary review photos taken (which takes like 10-20 minutes) and then I immediately discard them.
Oh yeah, the comfort. What little I can say is that during my very short time wearing these lenses they felt thin and overall comfortable. I did feel them very very slightly in my eyes (especially when I moved my gaze around) but that's very common. It's hard to tell but they might have been a tiny nudge dryish but that's more likely the fault of my eyes that are naturally really dry.

Anyways, these are some decently pretty lenses with an uncommon color. I can't honestly call them green but they're not really blue either – in some lights, especially yellow, they take on a gray tone! But if I'm certain on anything it's that these definitely don't make me think of melons in terms of color lol. I could recommend them if you like this kind of indeterminate whatever-the-fuck color as they're pretty fun and, to some extent, look rather alluring and otherwordly.

 

Distance photo!

 

Short summary:

Color: 6/10
A pale, blueish green lens (greenish blue??) lens. Quite uncommon shade, looks better IRL.
Design: 8/10
Mimics a real iris yet somehow retains a fairytale touch. Pretty in its simplicity.

Opacity: 6/10 

Considering the color being so pale on its own it's a commendable coverage!
Enlargement: 4/10
There's a moderate size enlargement but due to the lack of a thick black rim it doesn't stand out.

Comfort: 7/10 

Appears to be thin and comfy. Barely felt them much. Possibly 3-5 hours of wear on dry eyes.
Naturalness: 6/10

In terms of size these are already too big to pass but, uhh, could be worse?

Thanks for reading my blog~

Shiro Samurai out.

Genshin Impact potential future cosplans!

 Hello world!

It's been literal years since I last did any post on characters I'd want to cosplay in the future so I figured I might as well do one now, for a change of pace. Last time I did one such post appears to have been in 2016 so yeah, not exactly yesterday. xD 

 

But first I gotta admit that, just like everyone else, I'm deep inside the Genshin Impact hellhole currently and I've been playing daily since the later half of 2020 with no signs of franchise burnout. In fact my investment into the lore, characters etc keeps getting stronger! I'm not normally the person to play whatever is hyper popular at the moment but Genshin is different to me, it's just sooooo damn good in almost every possible way and the character designs are so aesthetically pleasing! I've always been a fan of anime-styled games and open-world exploration – Genshin's got pretty much everything I could ask for. I wouldn't be lying if I said that, out of all the games that I'm currently playing actively, that Genshin is my favorite game.

So yeah, I totally wanted to dedicate a whole post to all the currently released Genshin Impact characters that I've considered cosplaying more or less seriously. Obviously I can't guarantee that I will do all of these down the line but they are all currently on my list and yeah, it's fun to have plans~

Without further ado, let's get down to it!

*Minor spoiler warning ahead!*

Characters are in descending order.

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Character: Zhongli

 Geo daddy! Hands down my current favorite Genshin husbando by quite a long shot. I loved him from the second I saw his design and that love only got stronger the more I learned about his story and personality. Zhongli is a deeply interesting character to me, I don't want to go into spoilers why for those that haven't finished the Liyue main storyline yet but Zhongli is definitely the number one character that I currently want to cosplay from Genshin and also the one I for sure will do. I was over the moon when I managed to pull him the first time, he's currently C2 on my main team and my most used character hehe. I adore his color scheme, overall design, even his English voice. Heck, he could step on me any day and I'd pay him for it lmao.

Character: Kaedehara Kazuha

Who is surprised to see Kazuha on this list? Definitely not me. Everything about him screams that he's my type of character – he's a wandering samurai, he's a temporary member of Beidou's pirate crew, he's poetic and calm but carries a lot of burdens in his heart that he does not speak much about. He ticks all the boxes, he's basically me if I was in Genshin lol. I've always been drawn to white-haired characters and if they have red or golden eyes then that's a major bonus. :D Not to mention I love color schemes with red, black and white together along with traditional Japanese elements. Yup, I will definitely cosplay Kazuha at some point. Watch me!

 

Character: Diluc

Ah, Master Diluc. Probably the first character in Genshin that I took any affinity to. My youngest cousin Toni taught me to play Genshin when I first started and was very lost with how to upgrade etc and he mained Diluc at that time. I remember thinking that I definitely wanted that red-haired edgy guy in my team and I spent a long time trying to wish for him later. RNGesus blessed me eventually and Diluc is currently my main team's DPS unit. I do enjoy his design too and again we have the red, black and white combo that I'm particularly fond of. Diluc might appear to be that one rich bastard above everyone else, the anti-hero type with attitude problems yet he's so wholesome at the same time, single-handedly defeating evil and protecting Mondstadt when no one is looking. I will definitely cosplay the Darknight Hero at some point.

 

Character: Venti

 This little rascal is not the typical character type that I fall for. Usually this kind of character is more likely to get on my nerves lmao. But there's something with Venti that really speaks to me and I can't really put my finger on what exactly it is. I do like his design a lot (and the fact that he's androgynous to the point of being a genderfuck lolol) although wearing his costume is probably gonna put me a bit outside my comfort zone. He's a funny character, he's carefree and playful but at the same time clever and he says some stuff that really puts you thinking. Of course there's some spoiler reasons why I like him too but I'll refrain from mentioning those in case there's any new players reading this. I do consider cosplaying this prankster bard seriously but I'm not 100% whether it will happen. Probably will though.

Character: Xiao

Xiao is so precious. ;_; He's the distant and intimidating emo guy sitting at rooftops with a tragic past. He's not human, he's an adeptus (for those unknown about Genshin lore it's a kind of godlike being, basically) and more exactly one of the five major Yakshas. I don't want to spoil his background story but it did touch me on an emotional level and I can understand why he acts the way he does. And also why he's so popular with fans. I would really like to cosplay him eventually but he's not going to be among the first ones as tbh I'm super intimidated by how to tackle his tattoo lol. One day...

 

Character: Xingqiu

 Another precious boy. He's very chivalrous and has a great sense of justice. Xingqiu is a bookworm and a martial arts prodigy and although he's not the typical character that I'd be drawn towards I do like him a lot. He grew on me slowly and now he's a part of my team, whoops. He's so genuine and pure and his design is gorgeous, especially the sleeves! I really want to cosplay him at some point but the only thing holding me back is that I know I'm gonna feel so uncomfortable with those tiny shorts rip. But I want to do him anyway, sometimes you gotta challenge yourself.

 

Character: Gorou

 Gorou is in a weird spot for me. I don't know so much yet about his story but the moment I saw him I was like "fuck, I want him in one of my other teams!" but then I was so disappointed cuz you need to build a Geo team around him to get the most use out of his kit as he's a support unit. So I like him based on what I do know about him but especially because of his design, it's gorgeous. And I like characters with animal features so that's a plus! If I do cosplay him one day it's gonna take a while as I need to lose weight to feel comfortable doing a costume with a bare midriff; currently it's a big no-no as I'm extremely self-conscious about my body.

Character: Razor

One of my early favorite characters when I started playing Genshin back in the days. I like Razor's story quite a lot but that's somewhat dampened by the fact that I don't find him very fun to play, although he is a stupidly strong 4-star character. He has to be a main DPS or not be in your team at all cuz Razor's whole kit focuses only on buffing himself, which makes sense when you think about his story but it feels very limiting at the same time. I do toy with the idea of cosplaying the Wolf Boy at some point but I'm kinda hoping he would get another outfit that I'd like more than the current one. Maybe one day.

Character: Aether (Male Traveler)

This one is a big maybe. The Traveler (and Paimon) are the faces of Genshin Impact, the most iconic characters. I do enjoy the story of the twins trying to find each other and I'm very curious about how it will continue. I like the designs of both the male and the female Traveler and I would consider cosplaying Aether if one of my friends did Lumine as there would be some fun photoshoot possibilities! And I do genuinely like Aether's design anyway, although this one has the same problem as Gorou does in terms of cosplaying lol. So yeah, not gonna happen in the nearest future at least.

 

Character: Dainsleif

This dude is a very intriguing character. There's not much information out about him yet, he's super mysterious and appears to have vast knowledge about the past. I doubt he's even human. It's hard to say how much I'd like to cosplay him at this point as so much about him is still shrouded in mystery but from what we do know, based on that one main story chapter, I can't wait to learn more about who he is! His design is super badass too, almost half his face is covered by an eyepatch that looks like a half mask and he has some weird veiny shit going on around parts of his body. I am tempted to cosplay him currently but time will tell.

 

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...

 And that's it for now. I'm probably gonna do another Genshin cosplay dream list along the way as new characters get added (I doubt we even have one third of all characters released yet). I still want to do some other cosplays too but ngl Genshin is my biggest fandom currently and I can't wait to cosplay from it!

Until next time, stay cool!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Monster Hunter World cosplay makeup test

Hello everyone!

I've been a huge MonHun fan for close to 10 years now and, while I plan to eventually cosplay some of the established characters like the Ace Commander from MH4U, the idea to cosplay my own character has been growing on me over the years. I'll get back to this soon but first I just wanna explain a bit about Monster Hunter if anyone is unfamiliar with this game franchise. Monster Hunter games are known for having a character creation process where you get to choose how the player character, also known as the protagonist or simply "hunter", looks.

Anyways, over the years I've played several installments of the series (sinking thousands of hours into the games) but I don't think anything had such a strong impact on me as the first time I started up MonHun World on PS4 back on 9th August 2018. One needs to know here that World was my first PS4 game and I did the jump directly from PS2 to PS4 so the upgrade in graphics etc was insanely noticeable. I remember the first time I saw my own character in the first cutscenes onboard that ship that gets wrecked by Zorah Magdaros emerging from the sea and later when you explore the Ancient Forest for the first time. I was floored, couldn't believe what I was seeing! I was absolutely blown away and I've been glued to my PS4 ever since.

Character creator view of my MHW hunter.

When I created my player character back in 2018 he was simply an avatar for me, yet another one of my handful of hunters on other MonHun games that all shared some traits between them, like silver-white long hair (thanks InuYasha for this childhood obsession lol). Sure I had put several hours into designing him to please my eyes because I'm one of those people who will quite literally spend five hours on any game with detailed character customization send help.
Oh well, it wasn't until sometime in 2021 that something happened. My player character on World, whom I had named Vindulf for no particular reason, suddenly became more than just a mute self-insert through which I experienced the game. I was coaxed into roleplaying one day with a friend online, I didn't think much of it (I enjoy roleplaying in general) at first. But that roleplay just kept growing and growing. As a result Vindulf slowly evolved to get a distinct personality, a deep background story that stretched outside the bounds of the established storyline in World and so on and so on...

This character ended up becoming so much more to me than just pixels in a game.

 

And that's when I realized that I really want to cosplay him one day. Maybe a few years from now on (yes, I'm early with this post) because truth be told I have not even decided yet on what armor or weapon I want to make for this cosplay, possibly a mixed set or one of those event layered armors.

The reason I'm doing this makeup test now is because I happened to have fitting colored lenses lying around and figured yolo! No but really, this is mostly just for fun and for overall practice and well, kind of to give myself a general idea on what I gotta work on more. It could be a lot better but I need to invest into nicer makeup brushes (I have some cheapo ones from eBay that lowkey suck lolol) etc as I've been using the same shit for years and I sometimes feel like it's time to expand and maybe invest more into quality brands... I've been holding off on doing it though cuz whenever I try to do research I get so overwhelmed. ;_;

Oh and yeah, I did the scars very hastily (just eyeshadow and eyeliner combo #lazyaf) although I know I have Rigid Collodion lying around somewhere unless it dried up after these 10 years but yeah, didn't really have time to go looking for it with the sun going down and all. 

The wig is borrowed and it's way off in both color and style (I definitely want a lacefront for the real thing) but it was the closest I could get my hands on, in a hurry, as I literally don't own a single wavy wig myself.

 

I obviously don't have the typical MonHun undies either so I just had to take something random from my wardrobe that is as inconspicuous as possible lol. I'm leaning towards making an Insect Glaive (already have a Hunting Horn made for another MonHun cosplay) but I'm not sure yet, it's either that or Dual Blades. Probably the bug stick. And yes, I still play this game periodically, including the Iceborne Expansion.

This is probably going to be one of those "half eternity" projects, that I'm gonna work on very slowly, so don't expect any proper updates or progress in at least a year as I'm hopefully gonna try to wrap up some unfinished projects out of the way first. But this one will happen, that's for sure.

 

And that's it for the first post of the year, thanks for reading!

Shiro Samurai out.

Year of cosplay 2021

Hello everyone!

Maybe some of us were hopeful and thought that covid would only plague 2020 and then just disappear. It didn't disappear. It has mutated and now we're dealing with the Decepticon Omicron variant but if there's anything noteworthy about the year 2021 it's that some few physical anime conventions were actually safely arranged. And this was such an invigorating breath of fresh air!

You see, having been completely con deprived for over two years gave me plenty of time to think about this whole hobby and how my feelings towards it has subtly changed over the years. During the pandemic I came to realize that I missed going to cons a lot more than I thought I would; I had been hovering near a "con burnout" for quite some time already (which materialized in many ways, for example that I would more easily opt out of cosplaying and just go casual) so this forced break gave me ample time to process my thoughts and feelings. I realized that I don't attend cons as much as an outlet for cosplaying as I used to do, but more so for the atmosphere and the feeling of community and belonging. My interests have shifted somewhat to favoring a private photoshoot at homegrounds over wearing a costume to a convention to bond with potential fans. It also became even more clear to me that I feel more comfortable at smaller cons as opposed to bigger cons and that's just a result from observation over the years combined with a more keen understanding on how my own body responds to my surroundings. I've become a lot more self-aware of my needs and limitations, to put it in another way.

And just when this year was coming to a close a tiny miracle happened. Me and my friends found out that Kummacon was being held in November and so we ended up going. This means that I've increased my con attendance 100% from last year lol.

Cons attended in 2021:

Kummacon - Oulu, Finland

And because Kummacon was the only con I visited this year it also means that it was the best con lol. I do genuinely enjoy Kummacon though and I hope it stays for many more years, especially now that it kinda seems like both Kitacon and Skecon are in their respective graves? The north needs more cons, not less!

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I didn't cosplay this year either (I was close though!) so there's no cosplay compilation photo. So here's a dumb meme instead cuz no one reads a text without photos lolol.

~~~

2021 has been an improvement from 2020 and, while much didn't happen on the cosplay front, I've done some big leaps in other fields. I've got a new job at a charity secondhand and last autumn I was a deckhand onboard Ostindiefararen Götheborg (an 18th century "East Indiaman" replica ship) when she sailed from Stockholm to Gothenburg and I had an absolutely magical experience! Now I know a good photoshoot location for my upcoming Edward Kenway cosplay eiku...

Overall 2021 has been a pretty good year (the rescue of tall ship Falls of Clyde is finally coming along too, after struggling against the odds for years!) and I have a rekindled inspiration to work on cosplays again now that it looks likely that Närcon might happen next summer!

And before we leave this year behind (it's gone too fast I tell ya) I want to thank all my readers, lurkers, sponsors and friends who are still here – I hope y'all have a pleasant new year lined up for you. 

Oh and yeah, I still have a backlog of circle lens reviews to chew through so expect those to fill a big chunk of next year's blog content as well, although hopefully there will be more variation with some actual cosplay WIP posts thrown into the mix. :)

Bye bye & Happy New Year 2022!

Kummacon 2021 – First con in two years!

Hello peeps!

Guess what? :D Kummacon was held in Oulu this past weekend on 27-28 November and yes, I was there. It has literally been two years since I last visited an anime convention and everyone knows why – covid happened and fucked shit up on a global scale. All kinds of events and gatherings have been cancelled or strictly regulated since the virus broke out in early 2020 (for northern Europe) and cons were no exception. Things are still not back to normal but Kummacon got the green light to hold their event as they imposed regulations to keep all attendants as safe as possible.

...
But more about that later on, now let's start the summary from the beginning!

Kummacon building, aka Hiukkavaaratalo.

A few days before the con I bunked at my friend Sallukka's place to make the travel to Oulu and Kummacon as smooth and stress-free as possible, especially as I live in Sweden normally and crossing the border is a potential hassle. 

I had toggled between if I should bring a cosplay or not for over a month and the crisis was real until the very last day before I left home. I ultimately ended up going with as little luggage as possible (to give Firith, in turn, more room for his mountain of stuff) and that also meant no costume. I had considered doing a random jedi from Star Wars.

We had decided on driving down to Oulu the Friday before the con weekend and we split our group of four in two. Sallukka and her boyfriend went to an Airbnb while me and Firith raided my aunt. :D The car ride went mostly fine except for the fact that it was slippery as fuck and when we arrived in central Oulu there was a massive rush, for some reason, and the main road (running next to the railway station) was stuck with cars all over the place that couldn't get out and yeah, absolute chaos and road rage ensued...

Friday night we didn't do much. We ate some dinner and I helped my aunt with Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch. She was stuck in that one water room with E.M.M.I. in Ferenia. Or more like, she wasn't really stuck but more so that it was hard and chase sequences make her somewhat anxious so she hadn't played in a while and, as a result, forgot some of the buttons. I had never played a Metroid game before but she shoved her Switch Lite into my hands and I kept dying cuz the controls are too much for this noob lolol. We ended up teamwork powering through it, her playing and me focusing on the minimap and guiding her through it as well as I could. Later I beat the electric insect boss for her (after dying like thirty times xD) and then the twin soldiers (after dying another fifty times xD). She enjoys the exploration and "figuring things out" aspects a lot more than the fighting (especially hard fights she can struggle with for a long time) so I don't feel like I ruined her game experience in any way cuz she did ask me to beat them if possible.

Saturday morning me and Firith woke up.. err, somewhat early? *insert groggy eyes emoji here*
The plan was to shoot his Luka Megurine (Vocaloid) cosplay somewhere in Oulu and while he was changing into cosplay me and my aunt brainstormed photoshoot locations nearby. We decided on Nallikari beach first and then just take it from there. Eventually Firith was done cursing his eyelash glue and so we set off with my aunt driving us around town. It's convenient because she's an experienced photographer (although I took the cosplay pics, my aunt mostly did her own thing and occasionally couched us) so she pointed out the good spots when we looked for nice backgrounds, haha. We had a dastardly good time freezing our fingers off and got some pretty sweet photos I'd say.

Once we got back to the apartment Firith yeeted his costume and changed back into casual gear to warm up. Wearing a summer dress in winter isn't the brightest thing to do but every Finnish cosplayer out there knows the motto "cosplay without pain is pretending"... :)

Sallukka eventually called and, after scouring through the nearby video game stores to find our two missing links, we were all gathered and could start our drive to Kummacon. This time the road was not as slippery (the brakes actually worked) but the con building was located a 7 or so kilometers away from central Oulu. I don't remember who of us actually said it but while we were driving closer we all must have been thinking the same thing, until someone exclaimed "minne vitun takapajuun me jouduttiin?" (lit. "what fucking backwater place did we end up in?"). :'D It looked like nowhere and apparently nowhere in Oulu is called Hiukkavaara lol.

One of the two entrances. Sign says "prepare to show covid certificate".

It was like -17 degrees outside and as soon as I exited the orange car I quickly noped my way inside the building. At Kummacon's entrance there were workers checking that everyone who entered the building had a valid EU covid certificate to show. Wearing a face mask was not mandatory but strongly recommended and thankfully a big majority did wear masks at all times. In some rooms masks were mandatory (karaoke room and some others) as well.

Another thing that stood out in Kummacon was this most peculiar rule about no shoes. Wadd de fugg?? :-DD It was not a rule set by Kummacon but rather imposed by Hiukkavaaratalo itself (I think?) which is a school and multipurpose building. So you either walked with just your socks on or you emblazoned your feet in those sexy blue shoe covers. Or you had separate indoor shoes but honestly, who bothers with such nonsense? I was #teamsocks and well, at least I get to air out my feet lol.

These gnomes were judging your shoed feet...

This is the first time the con was held in Hiukkavaaratalo and, when I stop to think about it, Kummacon is probably the con that has changed host buildings the most: Valve, Pohjankartano, Oulu International School, Kastellin monitoimitalo and now Hiukkavaaratalo. Yikes that's a lot!

But anygays, if you passed through the main entrance you were immediately met by the info table. There was always someone scanning the QR code on your covid certificate as well here. No vaccination = no entrance.
Personally I think this is very good as it allows a small public event to be organized while still making visitors feel as safe as possible from risk of infection. The call that an official EU covid certificate would be needed to enter came very late though; it was informed on Kummacon's social media channels only a week before the event. I learned that Kummacon itself had no control over how late they got this information from the higher-ups, but despite some panic (due to Sweden being slower than Finland to take the covid certificate into use) things turned out smoothly for me in the end and I could visit the con.

Entrance information table.

One thing that I noticed upon entering the building was the absence of cosplayers. There were a few from Genshin Impact and a handful of others that I didn't recognize but most visitors seemed to be in casual gear or alternative fashion. That or I didn't realize that it was a cosplay. ^^" But then again, small cons in the north usually don't have a lot of people in cosplay in general (totally guilty of this myself, I don't feel like it's worth the effort to dress up) as there's more of "chill with friends" vibes dominating the mood.

View from the entrance towards the main area.

Urumi's shop near the stairs in main area.

Asian snacks are a hot commodity.

Bard & Jester store, they're cool af.

I must admit that there were more visitors than I initially expected. It's possible that there was an influx of eager congoers as there hasn't been a physical anime convention in ages (as far as I know) and on top of Kummacon actually happening it's also free entrance. Kummacon has never had an entrance fee and I think it's great as it makes the con a low-threshold event to attend for anyone even remotely curious (like parents of an interested child) or new to the scene. 

Someone selling retro stuff near the entrance. Always a delight!

The first thing I did once I dumped my winter shoes at the entrance was to go find the cloakroom that was surprisingly far away from the entrance. I crammed my jacket into a shelf (no free hangars/hooks) and then I waited near the entrance for Firith to come inside (he stayed behind outside for a smoke). Oh and yeah, the cloakroom functioned in a self-service way, it wasn't behind a desk or with designated con workers like big cons usually have. Having no one watching of course means an increased risk of shit going missing but I didn't really feel concerned of theft at all.

Random chill circle I guess? To the top right are the toilets.

Oh and yeah, Hiukkavaaratalo is a two-floor building as visible on one of the photos above. Most of the con was located on the ground floor but the Artist's Alley and the secondhand shop were both on the upper floor. There might have been something else on the top floor as well but I don't think there was? I should maybe have taken one of those con leaflets because yeah, I did walk through the building but I am not sure if I've missed anything. Like was there even a video game room as I did not come across one?

Stairs leading up to the top floor.

 

My number one thing that I do when I get to cons nowadays is to go straight for the Artist's Alley. Maybe I'm getting old but I'm not as interested in typical anime merch anymore (I have way too much and can't be arsed to sell off what I don't need/want lol) and I'd rather buy actually useful stuff like magnets to put on my fridge, jewelry and such from independent artists and support them.
Most of the artists were familiar from previous cons but there were a few new faces too, I think? I bought a magnet to give as a small thank-you present for my aunt for letting us stay at her place over the weekend.

Artist's Alley view when entering the top floor.

More artist booths.

On the top floor the Artist's Alley was located on the right side of the split while the secondhand was located on the left side. I did do a quick trip to the secondhand side but there wasn't anything interesting there. It did look a bit like people want to get rid of their Harry Potter merchandise though now that it has come to everyone's attention that the author is a really gross TERF and yeah, tons of fans want to distance themselves from her work and understandably so.

 

I do like Hiukkavaaratalo as a con location for a small-sized event. Sure it's quite far from city (which means that unless you have your own car it might be ass to get here) but it felt cozy, clean, well lit and rather easy to navigate in as there's not a lot of corridors or narrow spaces and rooms. It felt populated but not crowded; I never felt like there were too many people in the same spot and keeping reasonable corona distances wasn't too hard either.

 

View of the ground floor from above.

It appeared like most people came here to socialize and have a jolly good time. I had not planned to participate in any scheduled activities myself, I mostly just came to check out how a covid-safe con could be implemented and to hang with my friends. And I'm perfectly content with there not being tons of things to see and do.
One thing I did pay attention to was that there were plenty of chairs and tables scattered around; I always saw free chairs somewhere so if you needed to sit down and rest your legs you always had that option and weren't forced to sit on the floor. I remember all those years ago in big cons when you just want to sit down before your lower back or legs descend to hell but you can't as every fucking chair and bench are taken. U_U

A group of people playing a card game together.

 

It's nice to see that con folks are respectful and thoughtful of others in these trying times – I did not experience anyone standing so close that they were breathing down my neck or anything of the sort; the only places where it could get a bit crammed was near shops and the cloakroom. There were no "free hugs" signs either which was to be expected as physical contact among strangers should be kept to a minimum.

I do feel like Kummacon took the whole corona thing seriously; there were hand sanitizer stations and signs spread around the con (mostly taped to the pillars) reminding visitors to use hand sanitizers and to keep the face mask on. I did not personally see anyone trying to sneak or forcibly get past the entrance  check either and overall there appeared to be no drama or proof of bad organizing. When I think about it Kummacon has always been surprisingly polished and well organized in fact, especially for being a free con.

 

 

I did not stay very long on Saturday. I mostly just checked through all the stores, did a raid on Pokémon Go, vibed in my oversized (and borrowed) Sabaton hoodie for a while and then we were off. I would probably have hung around longer normally but I didn't really feel a need to make myself any more susceptible for infection, even though the risks were minimized. It's just that you can never be sure that you're 100% safe and this little nugget of worry sits at the back of my head.

But before we left for the night I browsed the table of Veli-Matti Ural, a local comic artist and the con's guest of honor more or less. He was selling comics portraying war times (one of the comics accurately portrays the adventures of a soldier who he is related to) and I ended up striking a chat with him. Really passionate guy, I purchased a book from him that I will give as a present to a family member. I got it signed too! In hindsight I'm very happy that I bought the book on Saturday as Veli-Matti wasn't there on Sunday at all, one less Christmas present to panic about. xD

Water drinking station.

We returned for a quick visit on Sunday, mainly to grab some more stuff from Artist's Alley that wasn't available yesterday. I picked up my acrylic cutesy octopus magnet (it had sold out yesterday but the artist made more for Sunday after I asked for one) and Sallukka picked up something else.
There was some talk that Firith wanted to go to the karaoke room to sing with Sallukka but it fell through cuz awkward potato mode I guess. Me and Firith did another raid on Pokémon Go (no shiny Miltanks boo :<), I bought some discounted ramune and then we left Kummacon for Kemi.

Couldn't pass up on 1 € ramune!

All in all Kummacon was a worthwhile trip and it paves the way for future cons to be organized safely despite covid still raging, showing that it can be done. I enjoyed my time, albeit short. It was so nice to feel the "con feeling" again and be surrounded by colorful people who likes the same things your nerdy butt also likes. I feel a little bit more alive now, more hopeful for con season 2022 definitely! It also feels a bit funny to realize it but the last con I visited before le pandemic happened was actually Kummacon in 2019. xD
I'm quite fond of this lil' northern con and I hope there will be many more; it's a casual, leisurely small event where everything seems to function and where the fruits of labor are visible in the overall quality and accessibility. Free entrance and constant swaps of host buildings in this case doesn't mean that it's an unpolished mess, it means that they take what opportunities they get and make it work.

Showing off the con loot. :D (the book will be a present)

Hoping to visit more cons next year, thanks for reading!

~ Shiro Samurai out.