Lens review: Kimchi Milky Gold

Hello folks!

It's time for the first circle lens review of the year and this year's gonna be a golden year! Yaassss, I'm gonna review my first golden pair right now! o/ It's the Kimchi Milky Gold, let's go!

Lens to the left shows the considerably lighter "wrong" side.

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16 mm

Water content: 55%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

OMG my first golden pair that I open and try out! *_ * I've been itching to use a golden lens for years now and finally it's time to break my golden lens virginity, LOL. For those that do not know I want to mention that circle lenses with a gold color are fairly rare to come by – there aren't that many different ones out there in the end, especially if you compare to the common colors like blue and brown. I know most of the currently available gold lenses (what you mean I'm a lens guru, lol) and I do own more golden lenses than just this pair, but those I'll review in the future so keep an eye on my blog if you're interested in more golden goodness! ;) 

One lens in.

Okay, so these lenses are actually gold/yellow in color when worn, which already is a huge plus! The shade is a bit darker so it appears as a more "natural gold" instead of a really bright gold that would ambush you from miles away. These lenses also show up in most lights although, in some cases, it can be a bit hard to tell from a distance, on first glance, what color it's supposed to be. Also, in some poorer indoor lights (especially in real life, aka non-camera) the lenses might appear like some undefined grayish shade because they just seem to mix and disappear with my real eye color; my real color is a blue-gray with an occasional greenish tint, by the way.
Regarding the design I must point out that it blends surprisingly well for being an unnatural color and for having such a black-speckled print. The lens design is lovely and I'd say that it's one of these multi-usable ones that works for cosplay as well as for some semi-natural daily looks.

Lens photos ahead!

All photos taken by me during a cold-as-shit January morning (around 10:30 with close to -30 °C outside) with a clear sky and a very reddish-orange sun that's low down in the horizon line; it won't rise much higher up since we still experience polar night in the north. The sky is a soft multi-pastel color, as is typical on winter mornings here.
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.

Facing the window in my apartment. Sunlight. (sun side)

Apartment room light, standing next to a yellow lamp.

Bathroom light, standing very close to the lamp.

Flash photo indoors.

Facing the window in the corridor. (not sun side)

White corridor light.

Yellow corridor light.

A warm orange-yellow light in the staircase.

Outdoors, facing the light. (sun is too low in the horizon, it's blocked by trees)

Outdoors, back against light.

Indoors on third floor*, facing sun through a window. (sunset-like light)

Indoors on third floor*, facing sun through a window. Crazy bright!

* = my apartment is on the third floor and this makes it possible for me to face the sunlight,
even though it's otherwise (aka if I was ground-level) too low in the horizon.

Facing window in my apartment, blue light.

Regarding the enlargement I want to mention that these lenses have the exact same stats (diameter, water content etc) as the Kimchi Flora Green lenses which I reviewed last year. Fun part is that these golden lenses feel a lot smaller when compared to the Kimchi Flora pair, which felt bigger than life, lol. I haven't compared the lenses to see if they truly are of a different size but it could also just be an illusion of the design, since the Flora Greens are so dark and thus give a notable black dolly eye appearance; the Kimchi Golds just don't give the same effect at all.

As for comfort these seem to be pretty dang good! I could wear these for 8 hours before they felt dry enough that I wanted to take them off, except that I got a random bout of dryness around the 1,5 hour mark – it uttered itself as me "pulling faces" with my eyes and rubbing/pulling the eyelids and doing slow blinkings. It went away though and for a while I didn't really pay attention to that I was wearing contact lenses; the first hours I felt that I had lenses on, although it was really minor and didn't bring me any discomfort. After around 3 hours passed the lenses were suddenly really comfortable and I didn't feel them after that; I went out in town with them and had no issues whatsoever! 
I honestly thought, based on first impressions, that I couldn't wear these for more than 5 hours but nope, 7,5 hours went by no problem! :D My eyes got used to them!

The Kimchi Milky Gold lenses seem to be on the thinner side too, in the sense that they flop and fold themselves quite easily when I handle them. I didn't have problems inserting them though.

Distance photoooooo!

Okay so, what can I say? I dig these lenses, I really do – they exceeded my expectations. They're great for cosplayers who needs some gold lenses that are a bit on the discreet side; these lenses ain't gonna jump at most people and that's why they're great if you cosplay a character who has a more toned-down or dull golden shade to their pupils. The black color in these lenses is what I assume makes them look darker overall. Definitely recommended!

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
A nice darkish gold that shows up well and doesn't turn into a muddy/mustard brown color once worn.

Design: 7/10

Pretty simple but really likable in my books. Works well for many different looks!

Opacity: 6/10

Pretty good, especially for being a gold/yellow lens that is not a crazy lens. Also blends nicely without sacrifing the color coverage.

Enlargement: 7/10

Even though these are a Kimchi lens I don't feel that they are exceptionally huge...?

Comfort: 8/10

Pretty good. I sometimes feel that I have lenses on, but it's slight so it doesn't bother me. I could wear these for like 7,5 hours before they started to feel dry.

Naturalness: 3/10

Surprisingly okay for being a super unnatural color with a thick limbal ring. I'm actually impressed.

Thanks for reading! I hope this review was helpful! o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o

Shiro Samurai out. 

Me VS. makeup – How cosplay made me face my long-time enemy

Hello there, people of all genders!

Now here comes a post that I've had on my mind for a while now. I thought that it could be a nice idea to write about makeup and, more exactly, how drastically my thoughts have changed around it. You see, I used to reaaaaaally dislike makeup back then, although it feels utterly weird to say it now, haha.

Without further babblings I'll get to the first post of the year! Let's go ~

You see, before I got into cosplay I had been cramming my head effectively with the idea that makeup equaled nothing more than paying obscene amounts of money to put grease on your face so that you'd look fake. Ouch!
I'm not too sure why, how and when I developed these thoughts but I assume at least partly it comes from earlier school times when suddenly all the girls started using makeup and, while most of them looked fine, others ended up looking exaggerated with their super dark "hooker bar" makeup and, well,  back then I thought it looked like shit. :)) Not like I'm the one to judge but yeah, as a kid I was really negative towards makeup.
I guess my dislike towards makeup was further inconsciously strenghtened because some of these "overly makeup'ed girls" were in reality some of the many people who bullied me in school for years. Not like the makeup in itself is the reason or that it really matters but yeah, it somehow just left an negative impact on me (probably because I remembered some specific people as "those with a lot of makeup"), even though both guys and girls were treating me like a pile of shit without human value. I hate a lot of people from my former school, lol.

But yeah, I had no idea that cheap makeup existed. I had no idea that makeup could look natural, invisible and non-fake. I had no idea that you could use makeup simply for yourself and because it's fun and not just to attract others or give off the image that you're playing sexy, popular or whatever. I had no idea that makeup could actually make you look better without looking like what society thinks the typical flamboyant gay looks like (if you're a man) or a vain and self-centered bitch. What you mean I was narrow-minded and had no check on reality?
I seriously had no idea about the actual diversity of makeup users! People who use makeup range from actors (yes, even men), alternative fashion fans to long-haired badass dudes in heavy metal bands and... cosplayers. Cosplayers. 

...

...

Wait a sec, I'm one of them!! ∑(⊙ᗩ⊙;;)

THE HORROR.
... and my peeps be like "lol chill dude".

I had been effectively avoiding makeup like the plague before I got into cosplay; it was that thing that was so foreign to me and I viewed it as little more than a waste of money. I remember even telling myself that I'd never touch that shit, lol. And now I'm knee-deep in love with said shit, oops. I'm extremely ashamed to admit it but as a young pre-teen I used to think that "the only people who use makeup are those who are too ugly without it" or, God forbid, that makeup users had poor self-confidence or were using makeup to compromise for having an ugly personality.  
Ugh, I was such a horrible, judgmental and misinformed kid. Using makeup is not a synonym nor a reason for bad self-confidence – bad self-confidence is often the result from many different factors. Sure that makeup can make you feel better about how you look (often does!) but don't ever assume that all makeup users have self-image issues. Makeup is an art form, a hobby, a passion and has nothing to do with a lack of inner beauty either. Anybody can possess wonderful inner qualities and whether your face is slathered in two kilos of makeup or not doesn't factor in – anybody can be a good person and liking/using makeup isn't detrimental. I've learned since then that makeup shaming is a huge no-no. Makeup is fun and using it doesn't mean that you lack other qualities or have personal problems. Period.

Truth is that I don't even remember when exactly my opinions began to change, but at some point I realized that makeup, for me, was a neccessary evil in Cosplaylandia™ and that I had to change my approach to it at least a little – especially if I wanted to look somewhat decent on photos or at least a bit more like the character I was trying to portray. But the call to change wasn't the hard part to chew in this, no no – it was the need to learn. From scratch.

I mean, imagine this: You've been believing in Grace for all your life because she told you that Lucifer's grill foods taste like musty toe nails. But then you start studying to become a chef and suddenly it gets shoved in your face that Lucifer is actually a nice guy and that you should go and learn from him – he's the number one man who can teach you how to do the best roasted barbeque feast ever. And then, even more suddenly, you find yourself unwillingly shaking hands with your former enemy, trying to tell yourself that it's gonna be okay and that you'll learn to accept him bit by bit from now on, until you finally become friends and he'll teach you his secret mouth-watering barbeque recipes...

Just change the barbeque recipes to the mystery of makeup and you should get the idea of what it felt like for me, lol. I seriously had to step into unknown waters – I had no idea where to even begin! Everything was so strange to me, intimidating and complicated. The huge world of makeup made my head spin like a tumble dryer and, to make it worse, I didn't have anyone to turn to for help and guidance. Mom is not an option, way too awkward.

Have some (spinning) Monster Hunter meat grilling – because I can.

Nowadays it's more than embarrassing to think back about it but for my first two cosplays I didn't wear anything on my face, except perhaps for a miniscule amount of powder – and that was because mom told me to wear some at the con (yes, she was with me on my first big con). Yes, only powder. I didn't even color my light eyebrows to match the black wig nor use anything to define my eyes at all! Blasphemy!
Hell, I didn't even try to hide my dark circles or other nasty crud on my naked face; I seriously cringe beyond words when I bump into old cosplay photos that are tucked away somewhere in the deep dark corners of my computer – they shall never see the light of day or, otherwise, more than my pair of eyes will rot away. I seriously looked horrible and totally washed out, not gonna lie. It's that kind of thing when the costume is good-looking and even more so for a first one, the wig is good quality (but unstyled) but then there's *le gasp* the face with close to zero makeup on and –to put it as nicely as possible– it just crashes and burns the whole thing into cinders that float in hell for eternity. There ain't no saving that shit.

My first cosplay makeup experiences consisted of the following procedure: powder > eyeliner > fill in eyebrows (if necessary) > pale down lips (if necessary).
Nothing else. A bit later I started doing some minor contouring and after that I tried my hand at using foundation before setting the powder which, by the way, was a disaster. You see, I had always known that my skin is pale (dad would pull jokes about it) but I still wasn't expecting it to be so damn pale that I would have a hard time even finding a light enough fucking foundation! So yeah, my first foundation purchases were waaaayyyyyyy off the mark and I was nooby enough not to notice it until much later and, oh boy, do I puke at those photos now. 
Reminiscing back to that one year when I went to Sweden's biggest con (at that time) and didn't realize I had a horrible, mismatched, unblended brownish-orange foundation streak on my otherwise pale-ass jawline, that stood out like a thousand burning suns.
Finding a light enough foundation is, by the way, still one of my biggest challenges when it comes to makeup purchases, but I think I might finally have found something good – after years of accidentally buying mismatched shit that I can't use and don't know what to do with. #foundationfrustrations

I'm not gonna show you guys any old photos of my either non-existant or crappy makeup back then but I'll tell you that it looked really plain and dull; my eyebags were dragging on the floor, my face looked tired and washed out etc – it was horrible, plain and simple. I did the same very basic pencil eyeliner for all characters and yeah, it made me look like... me, except with a wig on, no matter what character I was supposed to be, lol. I also shudder at the reality that I didn't give a jackshit about my eyebrows until 2014, which means that I did a whole 4 years of cosplaying with hideous untouched hairy caterpillars crowning and roaming wild on my forehead!! *vomits profusely*
I mean, my eyebrows were so bushy that some hairs were growing on my eyelids! Eew. Nowadays I take out my tweezers and go through my brows at least every third day – what you mean cosplay changed me? No but really, cosplay made me start to seriously pay attention to my looks and I mean this in a good way! I'm super thankful about it now.

My first makeup tries looked like this. #relatable

Before cosplaying I rarely gave two shits about if I looked presentable in public or not (I could as well have walked around in a potato sack) but ever since I started cosplaying I make sure to look as clean and nice as possible unless I have a lazy day. Cosplay also made me view beauty and makeup from a whole different angle and made it more human and less superficial, funnily enough – everyone was beautiful in their own way. Cosplay made me realize that even a little change could go a long way in improving how you looked in your finished costume. I mean, the difference between using, for example, liquid eyeliner instead of pencil eyeliner already does a huge difference on photos!
Also, one thing to note is that especially on photos a makeupless face tends to look washed out and "disappear" most of the time, especially with a really colorful costume on or in strong lights, like stage lights etc. So yeah, for photoshoots makeup is really recommended and I'm glad I realized the difference it can make.

My initial response to using cosplay makeup was "meh" and then it slowly but surely grew into a "not too bad", followed by a "it looks better with makeup so I'll bother this time" and finally to a fullblown and self-admitted "I CAN'T COSPLAY WITHOUT MAKEUP! I NEED THIS SHIT!"

This is so me celebrating a successful makeup job.

So yeah, cosplay totally turned my whole view of makeup upside down. From being that kid who'd not even look twice at the grocery store's makeup counter to being that young man who walks in there and actually buys stuff and walks home being all excited about trying it out! It is awkward though when there's other people around. xD I need to get over it.
Nowadays I have quite a lot of makeup and I even have a makeup bag for it, but still I occasionally feel like I'm missing something... :'D I want to point out though that my cosplay makeup got a notable upgrade once I realized the wonders or primer, concealers and liquid eyeliner. It seriously took me until last year to understand how important primers and concealers are! *shamecorner* How can I have lived so long without these godsends?

I'm far from confident with my makeup skills and I still mess up... a lot. I also feel like I have a looooooot to learn –makeup knowledge is like an universe that won't stop expanding for me– but at least now I can honestly say that I LOVE MAKEUP. ♥ I can't even imagine cosplaying without makeup anymore and I've started to enjoy the whole process so much that I occasionally paint up my face for non-cosplay purposes too! Especially for alternative fashion because then I get to experiment and be creative, yay! o/
So yeah, to sum it up: I used to hate makeup but I've come to really value it as an irreplaceable tool to complete my cosplays. I also want to state that I think that makeup is for everyone! It's a fun and a great way to express ourselves and, for those who think that guys can't or shouldn't use makeup, I can say only one thing: "I don't give a rat's ass about your outdated bigoted opinion, gtfo and have a nice day. :)"

Friendly reminder: Please understand that this is just my personal makeup story (and my opinions) and is in no way meant to be a type of "you must use makeup to cosplay" post. There are plenty of cosplayers out there who don't want to, can't nor feel a need to use makeup and that's perfectly okay. There is no need, nor right, to judge those who choose to cosplay differently. Cosplay is for everyone and makeup is not a requirement for a successful cosplay or whatever – not everyone strives to get to the same level and as long as the costumer has fun and puts in the amount of effort they feel comfortable/good with then that's all that matters. Makeup is a tool to enhance the hobby for those who want to take it, not a neccessity.

I'm not even sure anymore what was the original purpose of me writing this post but I guess I got said what I wanted to say. I'm sorry if it's messy and all over the place though. Thank you for reading! ^_^

~ Shiro Samurai out! 

Year of Cosplay 2015

Hello there ~

I seriously have no idea where this year went... but what I know though is that it's been one of my weaker cosplay years and that's by miles – I attended fewer events than what I've done since I started and yeah, I did very little cosplaying too; to a good lot of cons I didn't even cosplay and well, if I did it was for a very short time. I don't really know but I have something going on right now that I feel really uncomfortable, worried and self-conscious when cosplaying and it really drags down the mood and magic out of it. :/ It's making me sad that it has become like this when dressing up used to be my escape – something fun and relieving. It's like I still have the cravings and excitement to make cosplays (my cosplay list is ever-expanding!) but as soon as I'm dressed up I don't want to be seen by anyone, lol. I feel so conflicted about this and I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to enjoy cosplaying the same way I used to; there's too much shit going on in my head that I can't really control.

Regarding the blog itself though you all must have noticed by now that this year the amount of circle lens reviews has skyrocketed – and it's a staying addition to my blog. ;) So yeah, I hope you all don't mind the reviews too much because I decided to do to them on my cosplay blog instead of my Lifestyle blog, even though they would technically had fit in the latter just as well. My main reason for the blog choice is that many cosplayers, me included, use circle lenses first-hand for cosplay purposes and yes, that's why I started using them. While I do use lenses for fashion wear as well I thought that the cosplay blog would be a better choice – it has a lot more visibility and traffic than my personal blog etc. 
But hey, regarding the heightened amount of circle lens review during the years I want to tell you guys how big the change is! You see, on 2013, when I started using circle lenses, I only reviewed (and thus used) 3 pairs. On 2014 I reviewed 5 pairs – a slight increase. And now, on 2015, everything exploded and I reviewed a whopping 22 pairs!! Yes, the number almost five-doubled since last year! I've done at least one lens review per month during the whole year, except for December. :3 Oh and yeah, the number is likely to go up in future years too, as I have a shitlot of lenses waiting to be opened and reviewed... ~

Oh well, let's go back to what I typically post about on the cosplay year summary. Yes, it's the convention list ahead! (aka what cons I attended this year)

Desucon Frostbite - Lahti, Finland

Kemin Mangapäivä - Kemi, Finland

Kummacon - Oulu, Finland

Skecon - Skellefteå, Sweden

Närcon - Linköping, Sweden

Nerdcon - Umeå, Sweden
Kitacon - Kemi, Finland

Yeah, that's all. Only 7 events and of which three can be considered "local events"; I just didn't feel like traveling long distances because, well, even though I wanted to meet friends and all it didn't feel worth it to spend so much money when I wouldn't be enjoying myself enough. I've just been really self-conscious and kinda anxious this whole year and yeah, cosplay is sort of acting as a catalyst and makes it worse, when it used to help lift me up... *sob*
In some way I feel like I'm letting people and especially my friends down, even though I guess few would actually feel that way – it's most probably just in my head, lol. It's frustrating because I have like 9483289538989 cosplay plans and I'm always excited about coming up with new characters to cosplay but as soon as I'm in costume I look in the mirror and see a potato staring back at me. It's like I always tell myself that it's gonna be alright, when I'm in costume at an event, and then there's still always something eating away at me.

This is really tearing me down and it's the reason I've actually just gone to conventions, in my everyday clothes, and noticed that I feel better this way – sadly enough. :/ It's weirdly funny because, a few years back, I would never have done it because the main reason I went to conventions was to cosplay (and meet friends who live far away)...

I could even tell you guys about what cons I actually cosplayed at.
If we start in the right order: at Desucon Frostbite I only cosplayed Okita from PeaceMaker Kurogane on Saturday and I felt horrible all along; the other days (Friday and Sunday) I didn't dress up, unless wearing a horse mask counts. During Kemin Mangapäivä I didn't cosplay, mainly because I couldn't be bothered since it's such a small one-day event. At Kummacon, which is a one-day event, I cosplayed from Touken Ranbu and I was feeling sort-of-okay, actually. On Skecon I cosplayed Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan and Sasaki Kojirou from Iza, Shutsujin! Koi Ikusa on Friday and Saturday, respectively. On Sunday I didn't dress up but I felt surprisingly okay. When it comes to Närcon, which is a four-day con festival I only cosplayed on Thursday and Saturday, which says a lot because normally on said con I'd do my damnest to cosplay on every single day. I was Kenshin Himura on Thursday and I was feeling pretty awesome because I had good company, but on Saturday I was Falkner from Pokémon and I felt so shit that I changed out of cosplay after just a few hours. During Nerdcon I only did a quick photoshoot run as Ukitake from Bleach on Sunday and immediately changed back to casual after that; I didn't cosplay on Saturday at all. And finally, at one-day Kitacon, I didn't cosplay either.

It's, by the way, really hard to pick a favorite convention of the year since, err, I feel like my experiences have been a bit underwhelming compared to earlier years. This is most likely just because I haven't been feeling my best so yeah, the conventions themselves haven't gotten any worse. It's just me. But if I had to pick a favorite convention for 2015 it would probably be either Nerdcon or Närcon. Nerdcon mainly because I had so freakin' much fun with my friends and Närcon because, even though some things were crap, I still enjoyed the mood and just walking around and chilling was surprisingly upplifting...?

...
...
...

You probably figured by now but I don't have any cool(?) cosplay collage to show you guys because duh, I cosplayed so little that I don't even have much in the name of new photo proof. u_u Yeaaaaaah. I don't even know what to tell about those few cosplays that I did/wore so yeah, sorry – I just don't have much to say. ^^; My ratio of new cosplays versus recycling older ones to cons is about fifty-fifty. Next year I'll hopefully be more productive and attend some more events. I also hope that I'll get to work with some new materials and that I can get rid of the whole "I feel uncomfortable" part.

But seriously, I'm sorry about this being such an.. empty and BLEÄÄRGH final summary post of the year. OTL I'll finish by just leaving this here because it sums up this year so well...

Bye bye & Happy New Year 2016!

Samurai Deeper Kyo's Hotaru cosplay progress part.3

Hi guys!

This here is the third part of my SDK Hotaru progress posts – for the previous parts click here for the first one and here for the second!

Okay so, after I had painted and set the design on the sleeves it was time to actually start sewing the pieces of the white kimono. I zigzaged around all the edges at school and then, for once, I took my project with me during a visit to mom's and I of course took the opportunity to sew while there because, eff yeah, high-tech sewing machine and not some old crap!

I again started by sewing the backseam and then attaching the sleeves. Before sewing on the sleeves though I decided to pre-hem a bit of the end that would be the arm opening, for a nicer finished look. I ironed approximately 27 cm on each side from the center fold of the sleeves and then just straight stitched it down and ironed it again.

I apologize for the crummy cellphone-quality photos ahead; I didn't have my SLR camera with me in school/at mom's during most of this project. Most photos show the colors inaccurately.

Sleeve with the arm hole opening already hemmed. Notice
how the lower half is still raw. (full length of the sleeve is not visible)

After that I sewed the rest of the sleeves and finished them up. Of course when I closed in on the armpit junction I felt the rage coming. In case you've somehow missed it... I HATE SEWING ARMPITS, ESPECIALLY ON KIMONO. The reason for this is because it always ends up looking ugly as fuck, no matter how careful I am. I guess that's what you get from having straight pieces...? Oh well, whatever the reason for why it always ends up bumpy this time it was no different...

I hate you. All of you. 8C

Oh well, I was frustrated so I just started ripping up the armpit and meanwhile I was doing just that the solution suddenly came to me – why don't you leave some centimeters of the back of the sleeves open? That way you'd get a neat appearance, without sacrificing how the final thing will look when worn, because the very top of the sleeves (aka closest to the armpit) will rarely be seen anyway; it's not the end of the world if there's a small "airhole" there.

So I tried that and lo' and behold, it worked wonders! I then just hand-sewed the folds/hems in place (those 7 centimeters of the opening) so that they wouldn't flop around once the ironing "press" effect wears off. 

Oh well, I went to iron all the seams open and then I tried to get rid off some wrinkles that had accumulated over the weeks. This seemed like a good and nothing-can-go-wrong idea at first but nope, of course not. Why can't anything go without problems with this cosplay? ;_; I swear I've been having horrible luck with this cosplay from the start – even things that are simple to sew fuck up for one reason or another; it's really irritating. But yeah, guess what?

...

So I'm just ironing my Hotaru kimono and it's going nicely (for once), until I accidentally iron the front, while the backside fabric is wrinkled right under it and –BOOM!– the back gets some super pronounced wrinkles because I ironed over it! All because I didn't double-check that the back was straight, ugh. ._. Oh well, I thought "no probs, I can just straighten it out" and then I turned the kimono body around, the wrinkles of the backside now facing me, and started to iron... AND THE IRON DECIDES TO BE A DICK AND LEAVES SOME NASTY YELLOW DISCOLORATIONS ON MY PURE WHITE FABRIC FFFFFFUUUUU-- (╬⓪益⓪)

Okay... so I'm definitely not happy at this point because seriously, when it was for once going okay something that is out of my control (aka the iron) screws up my cosplay... and of course when the fabric is a pure white out of all possible colors. (҂⌣̀_⌣́) The worst part is that the yellow discoloration got on those now-very-pronounced wrinkle folds on the back, near the sleeve's lower attachment point...

Fuck everything.

I'm almost panicking but at the same time I'm trying to tell myself "nah, it's okay, it won't happen again" so yeah, I continue in the hopes that it was just a case of one-time-only trolling. WROOOOOOOONG~~ :DD Surprise? No?

The iron poops again and this time on a wide area on the upper half of the right front panel. URRRRGHHH!! I just wanted to ragequit for the day, but I continued so that I would at least finish hand-sewing the other sleeve's backside openings. After neating up the backside openings me and mom went on a quick drive trip to a store to buy some stain remover because holy crud, if this thanks-to-the-iron shit doesn't go I guess I can call my cosplay some sort of ruined... or at least miscolored. But hey! Thankfully the following day I returned to mom's and tried the stain remover and guess what? It did work and my hope on this cosplay was thus restored!

In progress Hotaru's main kimono hanging to dry
in my apartment, after stain removal.

The next time I worked on this cosplay was in school. I cut out the pieces for the okumi panel (yeah, I had left it on purpose so that I could check some measures before) and then, before sewing them onto the main kimono body, I cut the bottom hem straight. For some reason, no matter how identical I cut the pieces and how carefully I measure them, they're never perfectly aligned once they're sewn together. ._. It's kinda annoying that I always end up having to trim them all into the same length (the shortest piece deciding) and thus my final product always ends up a few centimeters shorter than intended. Bleh.

Before straightening the bottom hem.

After that was done I sewed on the okumi panels, after having zigzaged them, of course. I don't enjoy fraying cosplays lol.
I finished this white kimono at mom's on Saturday, 12th December. I cut out a reverse drop-shaped half on each front panel's top (before the okumi starts) to make place for the orange collar, which I then sewed on; I of course ironed on some interfacing fabric, for stiffness, on the inside of the collars before I folded it in half and sewed it on. I finished the bottom hem by folding it twice. I also ironed out some wrinkles and steam pressed the sleeves so that they wouldn't bunch around.

Collars pinned in place, ready to be sewn on.

If anyone remembers on the second progress post I mentioned that the under kimono might have too short collars and well, I tried it on together with the white kimono on top and yes, it does. :( The collars would be okay if the kimono was worn "normally", but since Hotaru wears it rather open in the front (and so it shows his shoulders a bit) it really doesn't work; the collars of the chequered under kimono end before the overlap of the white kimono so, yeah, it just doesn't look okay because you can clearly see that the collars are too short; they just suddenly end way before the white kimono's collars do.
Oh well, the same fabric that I used for the obi was still selling for only 3 € per meter so I went and bought 3 meters of it. I'm not gonna go into detail on how I made it because it's basically the same as the white kimono, except no sleeve painting. -.- I'd feel like a broken record, heh. But I'll just say at least something and post a few photos of it because yeah, no progress proof is kinda boring, right?

Sleeve is done and I'm about to start sewing down the side seam.
Notice the small opening on the very top of the sleeve; it's to avoid
the issues I keep having with the armpits being all wrinkly.

As per usual I cut out all the pieces, zigzaged them (no one in school knows how to fix the overlock, not even the teachers so yeah, no nice overlock seams on this one... ._.) and started sewing the whole thing together. I realized after I had attached the sleeves and sewn them up that I had miscalculated the measures of the attachment point so yeah, I ended up with really narrow-fitting sleeves for a kimono; it feels more like wearing a dress shirt at the armpits than a kimono, lol. When I don't fuck up the collars I fuck up something else; I really have bad luck with this cosplay. OTL I really couldn't be bothered to redo it because I would have had to redo my pre-hems on the backside of the sleeves and, well, that'd be a lot of extra work and I honestly just wanted to get this thing done as fast as possible because yeah, I was sewing it together on 25th December, aka Christmas day. It's still wearable and won't show so yeah, whatever. (u_u)

Sleeves completely done and side seams sewn closed.
Behold my narrow sleeve attachment, ugh.

I ironed and steam pressed all the seams and the sleeves for a nice finish; I really dislike how bumpy big sleeves look after you've sewn them. It bothers me too much if I don't flatten them, lol.
One thing though – always check what ironing settings you need to use for your fabric! I namely thought that my fabric was 100% cotton but, before ironing, I had a scratching in my butt that I should double-check what the fabric care instruction note that came with the fabric says. Luckily I checked it because my fabric was in reality a cotton blend so yeah, ironing it on the three dots setting would have damaged it because the recommendation was two dots. Always be careful! Burning your precious fabric sucks...

Nicely ironed sleeve.

I attached the okumi panels, cut the neck area to round it off and attached the collar. I finished with hemming the bottom.

Sewing on the collar.

I sewed this thing together in a couple hours and it feels quite good because now I wouldn't miss the movie that I wanted to watch from television later, lol. xD With the under kimono completed I'm finally done with all the sewing work for Hotaru – now I just need to finish his sword (I've started it and there'll be a post when I'm done!) and make his tengu geta. I'll also do some kind of wig test and a preview post later, so stay tuned for those as well. ;)

Finished under kimono.

Thanks for reading and see you later!

Shiro Samurai out ~

Hetalia photoshoot: the Rising Sun – Japan!

Konnichiwa! ~

Today I had a photoshoot with Sacchan behind the camera! I decided to dress up as Japan (human name: Kiku Honda) from Hetalia and have a photoshoot outside – I've been wanting to photoshoot this new (and still undebuted) cosplay ever since I didn't get to cosplay him at Kitacon this year. I'm not a super-huge fan of Hetalia, if I may say so, but it was a show that I enjoyed nonetheless because of all the silliness, haha. My favorite character ended up being Japan, which is not a surprise at all.

I've been wanting to have a proper photoshoot this whole year and I've actually felt quite shit because of the lack of new cosplay photos. :/ But now I can finally leave this year behind me with a satisfied mind because hey, I got some fresh new shots!

But with all good things comes a bad thing – I was freezing my ass off during the whole shooting! It was like -3 °C outside, which is not much, but the thing is that there was a cold northern wind of like 5 meters per second so... yeah. I couldn't feel my toes and neither could I move my fingers after I had been standing outside for like 15 minutes or something – we had to go inside to take breaks and warm up! I also ended up having my legs shaking so damn much that it was out of my control and yeah, I was happy I was wearing a kimono because it didn't show at all, lol. Oh well, enduring the cold was worth it because the photos turned out fabulous! 

What won't we do for cosplay? xD

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (Japan)
Photographer: Sacchan
Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

Before anyone asks this is technically a closet cosplay for me and that's because all the pieces of clothing are authentic vintage kimono items from my collection, with the exception of the obi, which is borrowed from Jäätynyt Enkeli. The wig is from another cosplay and it was a perfect fit for Japan too. Generic Asian hairstyle lol.

I decided to take the sword as a prop because I seriously don't know how to pose without anything, lol. Besides, Japan does use a sword at least in one episode, so it's legit!

By the way, for anyone curious the circle lenses that I'm wearing are the I.Fairy Ruby Browns – just click on the name to get to my review, if interested. ^_^

On those photos above –with the sunlight– I was actually facing/watching the rising sun, literally. Fun part is that the clock was 10:00 in the morning... yeaaaaaah. ._. You see, I live very high up in northern Sweden; we have the darkest time of the year at this very moment and that's because of a thing called polar night, aka right now we only get 3 hours of sunlight per day – try to imagine that. Yep, that means that if we had extended the photoshoot for a few more hours I would have been watching the sunset as well. Go figure.

Only fullbody photo.

Oh and yes, I don't think that Japan wears a kimono outift in exactly these colors in the anime so yeah, consider this an original version. He does wear almost the same thing on a promotional artwork for the World Series though, except that I basically used the reverse colors – meaning that I used a plum colored haori instead of a blue one and a blue kimono instead of a plum one. 

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Why are you looking at me like that?【・ヘ・?】

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Ehrrm.

Actually... I honestly just forgot to check my reference picture when I dressed on the morning so yeah, I had somehow managed to swap the colors in my mind. xD Not like it's a big crime or anything; it's still something I can easily see him wearing – I mean, he's friggin' ~Japan~ himself after all, he should own plenty more than just two sets of kimonos... LOL.

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Eeheeeey, that's all for this round!

Shiro Samurai out! Thanks for viewing ~

MINI GIVEAWAY WINNER!!

Hellou everyone!

15th December has passed us by and today it's time for Star Wars and with that the Mini Giveaway has ended. What is left to do is to announce the lucky winner and that's exactly what this blog post is for! Let's go! ~

But first let me just give a big thank you to everyone who joined the giveaway (and even to those who commented without wanting an entry!) and I hope you are all looking forward to who won it all!

Thank you to everyone for your continued support, I love you all! ♥

Without more ramblings I'll get straight to the point – but first I just want to clarify how the winner was chosen! To pick the winner I used a random number generator online. The first number that I got on the generator was the winning one and I matched it up with who posted the comment of the same number on the giveaway entry post. There were 9 valid entries/comments out of 11 in total.

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*~* Here comes the results !!! *~*

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The winner is...

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FankiKitsune!! ＼(*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)／

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Congratulations!
I will contact you soon about the prize! :D
 

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That's it for this time. I hope you all enjoyed this mini giveaway and don't worry, there will be more giveaways in the future! ;) And yes, with different prizes.

Before I call it a day I just want to –once more– thank all my followers, both new and old ones! I hope you enjoy my writings and will stay around for a long time! ♥ Cheers!
~ Shiro Samurai