Lens review: RevoColour Twinkle Olive Green

Hello everyone!

It's time for another circle lens review and it's gonna be about the RevoColour Twinkle Olive Greens! This is the second RevoColour Twinkle series lens that I'm reviewing, I have a few more colors waiting in line as well.

But now let's get on with this one!

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm

Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 45%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

These lenses stand out a bit from contemporary designs as they look quite different. They have a thick limbal ring but it's not very intense due to the dotted nature of it and how it hinges more towards a dark brown, rather than a pure black, in tone. The green color is printed on in a very dotted manner, there's a lot of dots scattered around the lens which gives a somewhat sparkly and teary look when worn. 

 

One lens in.

As you can see the color is a rather soft green, it's very clearly green and the shade is pretty. It blends rather naturally into my gray-blue eyes too. The shade of green is on the lighter side, I'm not sure I would call it 'olive green' as in the name but regardless it is a nice color. The color coverage is better than I expected too, especially with all those clear gaps in the design and the overall transparency when viewed in their bottles; one could easily be fooled into thinking that these lenses won't show up that much.
There's some size increase in these, further enhanced by the somewhat prominent dark rim. It's not incredibly dolly or such but it does add a youthful, somewhat cutesy look I'd say.

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.

Unlit corridor, weak natural light in the distance.

Flash photo.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

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

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a roof's shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

Based on my very first (and only) time wearing these lenses I felt that the comfort appeared to be particularly good; I quite literally did not feel like I had lenses on. They were very thin and comfortable to wear! I can't grade comfort properly though as these lenses had expired (in their vials) by the time I got around to do this review due to me forgetting about their existence, oops. I only wore these for like 10 mins and I promptly discarded them immediately after I got all the review photos taken. I wouldn't be surprised if I could wear these for at least 4-5 hours if they had been a new fresh pair though. It might not sound like much for the average Joe but I have naturally really dry eyes so yeah, 4-5 hours is among the best I can do without eyedrops. 

I also want to mention that please do not wear expired lenses to conventions etc for the sake of saving money, it's just not worth the risk of messing up your vision. Just don't. 

All in all this is a pretty nice lens. The design is beautiful, unique and stands out without being all over your face. It looks bubbly and textured when worn, thanks to the varying transparency in the print. It's a cute lens with a nice green color that blends well while retaining an alluring look. I would recommend these, especially as a fashion lens – they might be okay for cosplay too but that's assuming that you want a toned-down look and mostly want to do close-up photos, as these aren't really vibrant enough to show from greater distances.

Distance photo below!

Want to see more Twinkle lenses? 

I have some other colors reviewed here: Violet, Pink, Blue

Short summary:

Color: 7/10  
A medium light and soft green. Not sure how 'olive' it is but it retains its color well and looks great.

Design: 7/10
A cute and youthful design with a dark rim. Gives a rather magical touch to your eyes.
Opacity: 6/10
I'm surprised by how covering these are! Green lenses can be really hit-or-miss on light blue eyes but these look clearly green in all lights despite their "transparent patches". Thumbs up!
Enlargement: 6/10
Somewhat big and dolly thanks to the dark limbal ring being prominent enough.
Comfort: 9/10
Appears to be exceptionally comfortable. I didn't feel them at all.
Naturalness: 5/10
Too big to fly and the design itself is somewhat too artsy. But it's definitely not screamingly unnatural either, a middle ground.

Thank you for reading my reviews~

Shiro Samurai says bye.

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.