I'm now on World Cosplay and Ask.fm ~

<~*-*~ Hello hello! ~*-*~>

Just giving a heads up and doing some shameless advertising that I've very recently created a profile over at World Cosplay, please go check it out and follow me if you like my cosplays! <3 I would be very happy if you did!

I know that my page at World Cosplay is currently a bit.. empty. But no worries! I'll fill it up with cosplay photos soon and fix a profile cover as well. Just hold on with the lack of fabulousness for now, I assure you it will look more appealing later!

Actually, I used to have a World Cosplay account back when the site was originally created (I was one of the first to join hahah) but I kinda didn't like how the site worked so I deleted my account. Also, most of my friends weren't there so that contributed to feeling lonely there too. But now I've noticed that a lot of people are there and World Cosplay is turning into this huge international cosplay site, so I decided to rejoin!

I also wanted to mention that I've joined the Ask.fm bandwagon as well! So all you lovely peeps can now ask me anything you like (nothing rude or in bad taste though, thanks!) over there and I'll try to answer!
You can find me here: http://ask.fm/ShiroSamurai >w<

That's all for this time! Ciao!

Lens review: EOS Dolly Eye Pink

Sup people!

It has been quite a while since I last did a circle lens review – actually, it feels like last time was forever ago. ;_; *despaaaaair* But hey, I'm finally back now with another lens review to share with you guys! This time it's the EOS Dolly Eye Pink lenses, a super popular lens.

Let's roll!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm

Water content: 38~42%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Lenses in vials, bright sunlight.

The lens on the right shows the "wrong" side. Natural room light.

 Yep. I admit I've been curious about trying pink contacts for a while. It's not my first choice that's green but I can't help being drawn to unnatural colors. I also knew I wanted opaque lenses and thus I picked the Dolly Eye ones. Yeah, just let me put my manliness aside while I do this review... :D Joke joke! I honestly of course don't have a problem with the color pink, it's just a color and tbh I've started to like it over the years.

Okay, so these lenses are originally manufactured by EOS but my pair has been rebranded under the TheDollyEye label. Fitting, heh. They look fairly small for being circle lenses and even smaller when you think that they have dolly in the name, which usually refers to big lenses; I can't exactly call 14.2 mm lenses big. It's on the smaller end of average when it comes to circle lenses, as far as I know. When worn they don't seem to enlarge much.

Lens on my finger, "wrong" side up.

You can tell already by looking at these lenses that they're gonna be very covering. They have a lot of color and the color pixels are tightly spaced. They should cover my eye color completely when I wear them, otherwise I'd be damn surprised and disappointed.
I must say though that the design seems fairly generic..? It's not the most wow-inducing I've ever seen. The pattern definitely looks unnatural and especially so when worn, that's for sure. In some weird way I still like it surprisingly much. Simple but cool I'd say.

But now, photos! A lot of them!
Of course are all photos in this post completely unedited in terms of color, this is to show how the contacts truly look. All photos taken by me. The same goes for all my earlier lens reviews. :)

One lens in, just to show enlargement.

Bathroom light.

Standing next to the window in my apartment. (sunset light)

Apartment room light.

Inside, taken in the corridor under white-ish light.

Inside, taken in the corridor under super yellow light.

Inside, in the staircase. (close to outside back door)

Outdoors, facing the sun. (bright sunset)

Flash photo, taken outside.

The first time I wore these the right one went on like a charm. The left one though, as soon as I had inserted it into my eye and closed my eyes it literally popped out of my eye when I opened it! That had never happened to me before. o_o I tried a second time and the same thing happened – as soon as I blinked for the first time it just came off. The third time it finally set though and all was fine.

I wore them for around 7 hours and I didn't feel them at all, it felt like I had no contacts on. The only annoying thing comfort-wise was that after I had put them in my vision was blurred and I saw pink corners. Then again the pupil hole is small on Dolly Eye lenses so the colored corners are to be expected. I think the blurred vision happened because I was in an apartment with insufficient light. I do admit though that the blur was really bothersome.

The blur happened the second time I wore them as well and same goes for the "contact almost popped out of my eye when I put it in" thing; it feels like it doesn't stick to the eye properly and kinda glides on the surface of the eye until I blink a few times, then it sets down. But yeah, it just seems to be that Dolly Eye contacts blur my vision, unless I'm in a well-lit room or outside in the sun – basically saying that indoors they are annoying to wear.

And now distance photos in various outside (sunset) lights!

Wanna see more Dolly Eye lens reviews?
I thought so, check these out: Green

Short summary:

Color: 10/10 
Amazing light pink that is very noticeable! Definitely a loud "WOW!" for the color.
Design: 7/10 
Unnatural but cool. I like it surprisingly much. Great for cosplay!
Opacity: 10/10 
You can't get much more opaque lenses than this! Especially not pink ones I'd say, haha.
Enlargement: 3/10 
Can't really say that there's much "dolly" in these. Slight enlargement.
Comfort: 7/10 
I could wear these around 7 hours the first few times before I started feeling them in my eyes, which is pretty dang good. Points off for pink corners in my vision and constant blurry sight in less illuminated areas, though.
Naturalness: 0/10 
No one will think these are your real eyes, especially not because they are pink. You might even scare someone, hah.

That'll be it for this time! Sayonara ~

Kemin mangapäivä 2014 -– I'm attending panels, ohmaiglab!

Hiya hello!

On 11th October I attended Kemin mangapäivä (lit. Kemi's manga day) and it's a local small event held yearly in Kemi. No shit Sherlock. This year –unlike previous years– it was held in the Sauvo-talo building, the same place where Kitacon 2014 was held as well. I guess the other location still has some reparation process going on, I dunno. I heard there had been a fire in there...

It says "Kemi's comic day" but there was almost
only anime/manga stuff so, yah...

Okay, so this year Kemin mangapäivä lasted 6 hours – from 10:00-16:00 local time. The night before the 11th me and Hasakitsuki stayed up way too late, talking about everything from jellyfishes to Lord of the Rings and shark attack videos on Youtube... -.- We went to sleep at 01:30 something Swedish time (-1 hour difference from Finnish time) and the following morning our alarms rang at 07:30, Swedish time again.

On the morning we just woke up, dressed in our everyday garb, ate breakfast and took our mini-size suitcase –in which we had packed our costumes– and walked over to Jäätynyt Enkeli's place. 

Wait, suitcase?

- Yeah, suitcase.

You see, on 10th October it had been raining and snowing all day and the air was moist as hell. We figured that it would be much more clever to put on our costumes and do our makeup at Jäätynyt Enkeli's place, because mom would pick us up from there and drive us to the event. And also, by the time you would have speed-walked to his apartment –and gone up all the stairs– your makeup would have gone all over the place thanks to sweat, possible rain/snow and the 100% humid weather. Yeah, better do the preparations there...

   When we got to his place I waited until my body got rid of the sweat wave wasn't all exhausted anymore from the fast-paced walk. Hasakitsuki started putting on her red circle lenses meanwhile. 

The clock was nearing 9:00 Swedish time (10:00 Finnish time, which meant the event had started!) when I started changing into Taregard Frir, my Original Character cosplay. I borrowed a gray shirt from Jäätynyt Enkeli because I had none of that color. But I must mention that I had done a slightly risky thing.. no, I don't mean the shirt, it fit me fine.
You see, a few days prior I had opened new contact lenses that I'd use for Taregard but the thing is that I didn't have an opportunity to try them out before the actual event. If you wonder "why not?" it's because one of the days I just didn't have time and the only other day my eyes were lolnope-ing all day. I mean, all day on the 10th it had felt like my eyes had dried out in my sockets or something; it was shit hard to even keep them open, it hurt to watch a screen etc and my eyes would randomly cry when I tried to focus on something. I don't know what was up with that but no way in hell did I want to pop in contacts that day. Dx So yeah, when I now –on the day of the event– were standing in the bathroom I hoped that my lenses would cooperate and not hurt. I popped in the right one first and it went on like a charm.. but when it was time for the left one it decided to troll. Basically, as soon as I inserted the lens and blinked once it came right off! That never happened to me before. o_o Yeah, I mean to say that it just popped out of my eye with the blink when I opened my eye again. But hey, I tried a second time and the exact same thing happened again. Dafuq? :S The third time I tried the lens finally got a hold off my eye ball and I could actually see/feel it set itself in properly. Felt a bit funny and weird at the same time lol.

With the contacts in I continued with the makeup and putting on the rest of the cosplay. Good thing with cosplaying a character who has almost half his face covered is that I can skip doing half the makeup. :'DD lazy me

   10:00 Swedish time we were done and this was also the time mom had said she'll be here. We took our con bags and headed downstairs, jumped into her car and drove off to Kemi. Around 15+ minutes later we reached the goal and entered Sauvo-talo. Yeah, in other words we had missed a bit more than half an hour of con time. Then again, couldn't have done it another way because mom had work and I'd rather have a free ride than take the bus.

I've arrived, muthafuckas! >8D
(selfie in the cloakroom's mirror)

Inside we put our jackets to hang in the cloakroom and while doing so we bumped into Sairu-chan, who was cosplaying as Naho Saenoki from Corpse Party. We then went to check the merchandise and Artist's Alley, of which both were mixed in the main hall thingy. There were really few sellers and artists, so it didn't take long to check through them all.. and when you were done with that you were left with *drumroll* the bore. Yeah, needless to say 15 minutes in the event I regretted my earlier choice of not taking with me a handheld gaming console for killing time. OTL

Overview of the merchandise and Artist's Alley hall.

The jellyfishes... IT'S A SIIIIIIIIIIGN. D:

One of the two entrances to the merchandise hall.

Oh, and I quickly lost interest in the available merchandise because I noticed that a good majority seemed to be bootleg/counterfeit products, as far as I could tell on a quick glance that is. Eew. :<

   12:00 local time (aka Finnish, I will talk about Finnish time only from now on) it was time for the cosplay competition, but no one in our group were interested in watching it so we headed outside to photoshoot Sairu-chan's cosplay instead – she wanted a photoshoot anyway and I was quick to agree on standing behind the camera. After the photoshoot we went back inside and lagged around until the clock started nearing 13:00, which was the time that a panel I wanted to attend would start.

Schedule for the room with the most panels. Two of them were interesting for me.

I headed for the "Miksi pukeudumme Cosplay-asuihin?" panel together with Jäätynyt Enkeli, while Hasakitsuki and Sairu-chan went to do something else. The panel's name translates to "Why do we dress up in cosplay costumes?".

Panel start.

Short summary.

The panel was pretty okay and there was a lot of information, I'll give creds for that. It wasn't quite what I was expecting though and occasionally a bit, err, "puuduttava" (numbing?) with the heavy-ish facts as well as some repetition. I would have wished for more expressive talking –that's what makes panels fun and less tedious to sit through– because the whole 45 min panel was mostly in the same tone of voice. Also, maybe it's just me but it felt like most of the time the panelist was looking at her screen (reading notes?) and there wasn't much eye contact or interaction with the audience, except for the same two or so persons in the front left seats; they seemed to be friends. I'm sorry but I really don't mean to be all negative because it wasn't bad – I did have some laughs and so, it's just that I was expecting something more light-hearted and entertaining. D: Maybe I'm biased because all previous panels I've been to have been very funny, expressive and entertaining. But yeah, occasionally it felt like sitting in school listening to a lecture. :'<

After this panel it was... time for another panel. This time a panel about cosplay photoshoots. I was the only one of my company to attend this one. I must admit though that it was a bit blergh to go sit through two panels in succession, haha. But I really had nothing else to do and both panels had interesting enough topics, so why not? :)

"Cosplay photoshoot – Through the eyes of the photographer and the photographed"

Short summary.

This one was pretty cool; I learned a fair amount of stuff that I maybe wouldn't even have thought about first-hand when going for a more seriously planned photoshoot! I'm happy I attended it. :) The only issue I had with this panel was that it was damn hard –for me at least– to hear what the guy (aka the one who talked about the photographer's part) was saying. Yes, there were two panelists. Mostly because he spoke in a very silent/low voice, spoke fast and he was kind of jabbing words together quickly (talk without having noticeable breaks between the words, kind of) so it was hard to make out what he said without focusing greatly.. and focusing was hard in the panel room because the door was kept open and people were noisy outside, much to my chagrin. I don't know, maybe it's just his normal way of talking, but honestly, I probably missed 80% of what he said because I couldn't hear and/or make out the separate words in the sentences. ;_; What bothered me was that he had a microphone but pretty much at all times held it so far from his mouth that it was practically useless. *mini tableflip* I was so close to tell him to speak louder or keep the mic closer but I really didn't want to be the "USE THE MIC! :C" Annoying Audience Person™ twice in a row, hahah. :-D Too awkward. OTL Yeah, in the previous panel I told the panelist to please use the mic because it was hard to hear without. 

But yeah, I'm happy that this panel had at least these kind of short "one sentence summaries" of what they were talking about, so I could just read the text on screen and learn from that. :') Points for that, saved me some inner frustration. xD Then again, maybe my hearing was screwed because I had pointy ears and a part of the latex front flap thingy blocks my "ear hole" slightly. I dunno. *shrugs*

There was this one Artist's Alley seller who had
cute amigurumi dolls for sale!

So cool! *w*
(too bad I'm really broke so I couldn't buy anything :C)

When I came back out from the panel room I quickly located my company sitting at one of the tables at the beginning of the merchandise hall thingy. We agreed that everyone wanted something to chew on so we went out in town and raided a nearby Lidl! 8D Yes, the same one I always buy provisions from when I'm at Kemi's train station heading southwards to a con. Me and Hasakitsuki bought some tasty breads and cinnamon buns. I must say that people stared at us. I overheard a young boy asking his mom something and the mom said "there's an event in town". :'D Also when we had paid for our stuff we passed by this one grandma next to one of the game/coin machines and she just stood still there and stared at us. I feared her eyes would pop out of her sockets or something, that's how much she stared. xD I noticed too that she was shaking (her hand was outstretched a bit), I hope we didn't scare her. :S I mean, I had obviously pink eyes and pointy ears and Hasakitsuki had tears of blood on her face and red eyes. Hopefully we shouldn't have looked like Satan's followers lol...

   When we came back to the event there was maybe 30 minutes remaining. Just before we went inside we passed by this one guy who was trying to photograph himself next to a wall. He called us over, asking if either me or Sairu-chan could take a pic of him with his camera. I agreed and it was quickly over. Back inside I went into the bathroom and bumped into him when I was done. I told him that if he wanted more photos I could offer a quick photoshoot – I had nothing else to do anyway, except for eating the stuff we had bought. So yeah, I went out to shoot him quickly and then back inside to rejoin my friends. We spent the last 15 minutes eating our Lidl foods and then stepdad had come to pick us up; the clock had struck 16:00 and Kemin mangapäivä was over.

I don't really have much to say about the event itself because, well, Kemin mangapäivä is Kemin mangapäivä. ._. There's nothing to do unless you have good company and/or attend panels. Also it felt like it was fairly.. empty? Didn't feel like there was a lot of attendants. Then again I'm sure many left earlier because of sheer boredom. But it's still nice to have these kind of small local events to brighten up "normal life" a moment.

That's it, ciao!


...
...
......
Oh hell to the no! ~
I have a bonus pic, bitches! >8D

But first, a short background story:
A little bit before the first panel started our group was hungry and so we sat down in the cloakroom to eat our provisions, which we had taken with us from home. I'm pretty sure we all were pretty damn hungry like titans, or at least me and Hasakitsuki, because the last thing we had eaten was breakfast at 08:40 Finnish time and now the clock was a bit before 13:00.

So, are you ready...?

3
2
1
RUN!!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD...
Ei helvetti, that crazy face.

No comment... xD I'm outta here!
Shiro Samurai out.

Kemin mangapäivä 2014 – Hurry up man! Cosplay plans!

 Yo peeps!

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

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

*suspense*

 ...

......

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

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

But first, I had to cut it...

It's thick, fo sho!

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

Starting point – wig before cutting.

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

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

Supah editing skillz! selfie

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

But there we go for this time, see ya!

Tracon 2014 – Ryunosuke Ibuki photoshoot!

 Chu chu everyone!

I know, I should have posted this already earlier but I got a bad case of con flu (still do) and so I've been resting and honestly, I couldn't even be bothered to think about editing photos...

But I must mention one thing! During the actual photoshoot at Tracon there was a slight problem.  

You see, my photographer choices weren't the best ever this time – the candidates were snot!Levi and I-can't-see-shit!Hinata. Way to go. :-DD Yeah, Jäätynyt Enkeli had a horrible runny nose and Hasakitsuki had contacts that hindered her vision. Hasakitsuki ended up taking all the photos that I decided to use in the end; snot!Levi quit pretty fast because every time he lowered his head something not-so-yummy was about to gain new lands on my camera. xD

But now, photo spam!

Cosplayer & photo editor: Shiro Samurai (Ryunosuke Ibuki)
Photographer: Hasakitsuki

I noticed after I returned home from Tracon that all day I had the string ends on the wrong spot, they should be on the opposite side. >_> I had no references easily available when I dressed on the con's Sunday morning so yeah, small mistakes... *smacks self*

I had the sword (borrowed from Ri-kun, by the way) at first on my right side too, which I didn't even notice until after someone took a photo and I noticed I was drawing it with my left arm. OTL Problems of cosplaying Saitou the previous day – you get used to having the swords on the "wrong" side. lol

Oh, and if anyone wonders I'm bending my upper body forward a fair amount on many photos because otherwise there would have been a lot of leaves all over my face.. or I'd headshot a branch. Yeah, it was very limited where I had to stand to even be seen from amidst all the greens. xD Great hiding place.. lol

One thing's for sure though, I plan to modify this cosplay a bit for the next time I wear it out. At Tracon I noticed that the top kimono coat thingy is way too big; I should take it in a bit so that I don't have wrinkles and fabric bulging out all over the place. Also one of the feet cover things had a seam rip at the con too so I need to fix that as well. I'd like to replace that blue string with a more accurate one as well, if I can find it.

...

But hey, guess what?

Yeah, just that!!

Bonus pic!

Möyp.

Nothing else to say. Shiro Samurai out!
Rurouni Kenshin pre-Tracon photoshoot pictures will still take a while to show up...