Lens review: Beaucon Jewels Brown

Hello hello ~

I'm gonna throw in a circle lens review here before Kitacon bombs in! ^o^ Truth is that I had originally planned to use these lenses for when I cosplay Japan from Hetalia at said con but, err, I think I'll have to use another pair. ._. Read on and you'll know why!

Notice the authenticity stickers! Beaucon has started doing that too!

As far as I've seen Beaucon lenses can only be found at HoneyColor's site so yeah, that's where I bought mine, in case anyone is curious. ^^ So yeah, these have a pretty much identical pattern to all those very popular EOS Sugar Candy and Vassen Sakura Candy lenses. Those lenses go under some different names but yeah, they're often called something with 'Candy' in the name and there's several different manufacturers making the same design – you probably know which ones I mean.
But yeah, the reason I'm mentioning this is because even though the Beaucon Jewels have the same design as those aforementioned there is one big difference – and that's the size. You see, if you ever wished those Candy lenses came with a smaller diameter then the Beaucon Jewels series are the answer to your prayers! o/

Taken outdoors in sunlight.

Taken indoors, bathroom light.

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm

Water content: 45%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

As you can see on the photos above, the similarity to those super well-known 'Candy' lenses is striking. The Beaucon Jewels series are a great choice if you like this kind of design but would rather have lenses with a smaller enlargement effect ~

So yeah, I took the lenses out of their bottles and put them to soak the night before. I had problems inserting them because they would constantly go out of my eye (with the eyelid movement when I blink) before setting properly.
As soon as I got the first lens in (my right eye) it felt really uncomfortable and kept stinging. I took the lens out, cleaned it and put it back in again. I constantly still felt that there was something on my eye at all times (in an annoying way) and if I moved my gaze it would do this kind of scratchy feeling. My eye watered but I told myself to keep it on at least until I get all photos taken.
For some reason the left lens felt normal and I think I know why – the right lens was from a production batch that was to expire next month, if I didn't open them. Yes, that's December 2015!! D: So yeah, I'm pretty sure this is why the right lens kept feeling bad.
Note to self: open lenses in good time before they expire, to avoid nasty surprises. Then again, this particular pair was ordered for maximum 2 months ago so I'm not to blame, really...

One lens in.

Notice how they aren't enlarging my eyes much; I think this is a nice enlargement as it's still discreet enough to not look too dolly/unnatural but it makes your eyes stand out.
These lenses have a very simple but appealing design – a single color and a thick dark limbal ring. I think that the limbal ring is not a true black but more or a really dark black-brown. It doesn't jump at you as much as some of the circle lenses with bolder limbal rings. 

Lens photos ahead!
All photos are taken by me during a November morning with a cloudy sky. There was a lot of fog (and frost on the ground) so yeah, the quality isn't as good as it could be, because of a lack of sunlight. Oh, and 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.

Indoors in my apartment, facing the window.

Apartment room light, lamps on.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

White light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the staircase.

Storage room indoors, natural light coming from the window.

Outdoors facing the direction of the light.

Outdoors with my back against the light. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the corner of the building.

I apologize for my eyeliner being derpy – my previous one that I had used for years finally called it quits and R.I.P:ed on me. While the new one has a more precise applicator than my previous eyeliner it also seems like it peels off easier.

The color of the lenses is a light brown – it makes me think of toffee or something, yum! These lenses mix nicely with my real eye color which, by the way, is a light blue-gray with a greenish tint and a golden ring next to the pupil. I have chameleon eyes that adjust to their surroundings lol.
The lenses do show up as brown in all lights that I tried, so I'd say that the color opacity is alright. Oh, and in terms of naturalness they aren't too shabby, haha. But yeah, the thick limbal ring still make these look quite obviously like colored contact lenses...

Distance photos!

I would really like these lenses a lot, if it wasn't for the highly disappointing comfort. :'( It's such a letdown. For some reason it seems like everyone, except me, finds these lenses to be comfortable?
I want to share a few more final words about the comfort: the right lens I took off as soon as I was done with the photos because I just couldn't stand it. The left one (which wouldn't have expired until 2017, had I left it unopened) was fine for like 1,5 hours and then suddenly it felt like it was so dry that it glued itself to my eye. D: I don't know why it suddenly felt so unbearably dry when it had been all nice and comfy during the photo taking. It was weird. :S Oh, and I got an "eye headache" that lasted for hours after having taken off the lenses...
So yeah, even if a part of me wants to grade a higher number for comfort (because I still want to love these lenses) I just can't justify it because I couldn't wear even the better lens for 2 hours. :/ I hope that my other Beaucon pairs will be more comfy than these – maybe this was just an unlucky pair combined with one lens expiring way too soon?
I guess I could stand wearing these for a photoshoot, but a whole convention day is out of the question...

Oh well, whatever the case I'd still want to say that these lenses are a good choice for cosplaying especially "adult-looking" male characters and for more serious/older female chars too – mainly because of the small size. These lenses do give the "anime eye" look, at least according to me. :)

Want to check out more reviews of the Beaucon Jewels series? :3

I have reviewed other colors too: Violet, Pink Brown, Green

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
Nice and pleasant light brown. The color is reminiscent of toffee.
Design: 8/10
Simple design but it's very likable. It works great for cosplaying male anime and video game characters.
Opacity: 7/10
Opacity is good because the lenses change my eye color notably. 
Enlargement: 3/10
It's small but it's there.
Comfort: 2/10
The right lens is almost unwearable (possibly because it would have expired next month had I not opened it) although the left one is comfy but dries reaaaaally fast. I can't wear these for more than 2 hours.
Naturalness: 3/10
The thick dark limbal ring easily gives them away as circle lenses, even though the size and color are okay.

Shiro Samurai says goodbye! Thanks for reading!

Kitacon 2015 plans – I'm gonna be so Japanese that I'm Japan

Hello guys!


It's finally time again for me to attend a convention! Last time I was at a con was back in August, can you believe it?? Well, I can – it's called the autumn-winter syndrome, aka the major lack of anime/cosplay events up here in the land(s) of the.... reindeers. lol


Ehrrm. Yeah.
But seriously, Kitacon's seventh return is coming up next – more exactly on 14th November. o/ Actually, at the beginning of this year there was a lot of uncertainty regarding if Kitacon would even make it this year; there had been some kind of money/funding issues and, well, when early spring rolled in and there hadn't been a word about Kitacon on their social media pages etc I wanted to contact them and ask what was going on. I don't remember the exact reply I got but it was basically them heavily implying that if they didn't get the cash to make the con happen (it's a free entrance event for all visitors) it would either be postponed until the later half of the year or there would, likely, be no Kitacon 2015 at all. But luckily, somehow, they got the money problems solved and –BOOM!– we get a Kitacon after all, even though it got reduced to a one-day event instead of the usual two days.
I'm happy that Kitacon is back after all these uncertainties and rumors going around that it wouldn't happen this year. Sure that it's a small con and all but it has its charm; it's cozy and a great way to go and be a colorful geek for a day and hang with friends. C:


But yeah, I'm obviously heading for Kemi, Finland, to take part of Kitacon. Just as always. Gotta support the local cons!
Regarding my cosplay plans.. or well, plan, I haven't written anything in stone just yet. Fairly recently me and Jäätynyt Enkeli watched all seasons of Hetalia, save for the newest one. While he had already seen them I hadn't.
See where this is going? ... Yeah.
So, while I didn't really get into it as much as he did it was still a mostly enjoyable way to kill off some time. I can't call myself a part of the fandom but I guess I'd be something like a, err, casual fan? I did like some of the episodes a lot better than others and well, I did get my fair share of laughs and facepalms lol. The thing is that because I didn't have any clue what to cosplay to Kitacon I started wondering if I could easily throw together a cosplay from Hetalia – partly because there's a lot of room for canon casual outfits and inventing your own designs and also because... I want something new but still simple.

Who can see it coming?

Character: Japan (Kiku Honda)
Series: Hetalia

Yeah, I know. Of course – the obligatory kimono guy is the one I can pull off the easiest, who, in this case, is Japan himself. DUN DUN DUUUUN. He was my favorite in the show anyway, so why the heck not? :') I should have a black wig somewhere that should work just fine for him, huehuehue... ~

In case anyone noticed then yes, this is not the usual color version of the main kimono outfit he's most commonly wearing – the one with the blue-gray kimono and brown haori. I randomly saw this image of him and thought that the colors were nicer (less dull lol) and, yeah, I can totally closet cosplay this, thanks to my kimono collector/wearer hobby. xD
If I'm not mistaken it's official art from/for the fourth season, The Beautiful World. I can't remember this outfit actually being in the anime; I've only seen it on this one and only artwork so far so... yeah.



But yeah, I might be doing some quick costest before the con, just to check so that what I have in mind to use for him actually is passable (in terms of color) and, well, that the wig works for him too. :s I also reserve the right for any changes, which basically means that if it's raining of super wet outside on Kitacon day then I'm likely to not cosplay at all because duh, I don't want to risk ruining my vintage kimono...

That about wraps it all up nicely, see ya there!

[Sponsored] Lens review: EOS Bubble Blue

Hullo hullo ~

It's time for yet another lens review! This time immah be talking about an ultra bright blue pair called EOS Bubble Blue. ヽ(・ω・)ﾉ
Psst, these lenses can also be identified by their code number thingy, which is WM-101 for the EOS Bubble series.

I've been wanting to try these lenses for pretty long and then, one day, my lovely sponsor LensVillage gave me an opportunity to try 'em... and of course I was game on! o/

This review is all 100% my honest opinion, even though this pair of lenses was sponsored. I really value being honest to all my readers.

You can use my discount code "SAMURAI15" to get 15% OFF on your purchase from LensVillage!

Base curve: 8.8 mm
Diameter: 14.8 mm

Water content: 38%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Note: My lenses came in TheDollyEye's vials, but the manufacturer is still EOS. TheDollyEye is just a rebranding label. Some big circle lens producers like EOS, Vassen etc sometimes do this. It doesn't mean that you received the wrong lenses or fakes.

I had seen reviews of these lenses before I got them myself and yeah, I was aware that they'd be super vivid and that's totally why I wanted them!

So yeah, as per usual I put the lenses to soak for 8+ hours before wearing them and, heck, need I say that I was eager to try 'em on??

One lens in.
My real eye color is blue-gray (mostly blue) with a slight greenish tint.

I popped the lenses into my eyes no problem and once they were in I didn't even feel that I had contacts on! Eff yeah, I love comfy lenses!

They stayed super comfortable for the total 5 hours that I wore them, with only some minor feeling of dryness which occurred around the 1,5 hour mark.

Lens photos incoming!
All photos taken by me during an October afternoon with a semi-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.

Facing window. (not sun side)

Flash photo indoors.

Bathroom light.

Indoors, natural light.

Indoors, natural light.

Indoors, lamps on.

Indoors, back against the window.

Super bright light. I'm standing very close to a window indoors.

These lenses definitely give me the vibes that they're meant for more "out there" type of looks. The blue color is bright enough to deserve the "IN YOUR FACE" stamp, lol. Personally I really dig the effect it gives; I'm a fan of vibrant lenses – lenses that gives your eyes the look of some fantasy character. ♡

The only downside these lenses have (if you can call it that) is that the pupil hole is so big, which means that the majority of your real eye color will show in the middle. The EOS Bubble series basically just adds a rim of super vibrant color to the edges of your eyes. While I do like the effect some others don't find it as flattering, especially on light eyes because it gives a more "clashing" effect than what the same lenses would look like on dark eyes. (dark eyes would just make it look more "natural" because the pupil and the iris are closer in color)

All close-up photos below are taken outdoors while I'm standing on a balcony on the third floor, with the sun being hidden by clouds.

Facing the sun.

Same as above. Sideway glance.

Back against the sun.

Facing the sun, but with my head tilted up towards the sky/roof.

Half-way turned towards the sun.

Facing the sun. Cloudy.

These lenses are supposed to have a big diameter (14,8 mm) but they just don't seem that big for me. Not like I mind because I like lenses both big and small. But I do think that the main factor for why these don't look as big as other lenses of the same diameter is because the EOS Bubble series completely lacks a dark limbal ring. This feature almost always gives the illusion of bigger and more beautiful eyes so yeah, lenses without it tend to not give the "big eyes illusion" as well.

Personally I do like the design of the Bubble Blue just as it is; it has charm in it's simplicity and I like how the simple design itself, combined with the super bright color, makes the lenses look unnatural but in a magical and appealing way. Sometimes less is more ~

Lastly I have a batch of distance photos!

B-B-BONUS PHOTO!

I had no idea that I could do this kind of
"crazy hat maker" face... o_o xD

Seriously, if you like your blue lenses super-duper blue then the EOS Bubble Blue just might be one of your best choices! ;) These are a good pick for cosplayers and anyone who isn't afraid of donning lenses that are sure to make you stand out!

Use my discount code "SAMURAI15" to get 15% OFF on your purchase from LensVillage!

Short summary:

Color: 10/10
Super bright and vivid cyan blue shade that really pops out! The color is awesome, period.

Design: 7/10

Very simple design with no dark limbal ring. The inner edges fade out towards the pupil, for a slight blending effect.

Opacity: 10/10

Disregarding the big pupil hole the blue color itself is as opaque as it gets.

Enlargement: 5/10

Even though an 14.8 mm diameter is considered bigger than average (at least for me) these don't look very enlarging. I think the lack of a limbal ring is a big factor for why these don't pull off the "big eye illusion" as well as lenses that have the dark rim do.

Comfort: 8/10

Surprisingly comfortable. As soon as I popped them in I didn't feel them. Before the 2-hour mark I felt some slight dryness but that went away. I wore the lenses for 5 hours with no issues.

Naturalness: 0/10

Realistic... where? :D It's a rad lens for rad people! Forget these if you want something natural.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this review helpful! ^_^

Thanks to my sponsor, LensVillage! ♡

Lens review: I.Fairy Hanabi Green

Hello peeps!

It's circle lens review time again! C:
Remember how I earlier this year reviewed the Hanabi Blue and fell in love with them? Yes – ever since then I've been wanting to have the green pair really bad! The cravings got even bigger after my awesome friend FankiKitsune bought and reviewed the Hanabi Green on his cosplay blog. *_* I had to try them myself too!
Yep, so this review is totally about the I.Fairy Hanabi Green lenses, occasionally also known as Vassen Hanabi Green! Let's go!

Yes, I received a different vial for each lens; I assume this is mainly because
one lens comes with prescription and the other is plano and thus of
different production batches. The expiry dates are years apart too, lol.

Always remember to check for the authenticity stickers – I.Fairy lenses
have those too!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16.2 mm

Water content: 55%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

The first time I wore these lenses they were super comfortable, just like the blue ones. I popped them in and for maybe one minute my eyes were a bit watery but after that the following 8+ hours I had no issues; these lenses didn't sting, blur my vision or anything – they were really comfortable all around. I wore them for a full day at an art/comic exhibition and had no issues with dryness, like I've had with a lot of my other lenses lately. The comfort really is top-notch, at least for me.

One lens in.

These lenses look pretty damn big, but they don't eat up my eyes to the point that it looks downright freaky. I still think that these could be wearable for more "daily looks", if that makes sense haha.

Lens photos incoming!
All photos taken by me during an October afternoon with a semi-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.

Indoors in the living room, standing close to the window.

Indoors, natural room light. (lamps off)

Indoors, room light. (lamps on)

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

The green color is really great; it still shows up nicely and definitely looks green, even from a shorter distance. Personally I really adore green circle lenses and these are definitely one of my favorite green pairs I've had so far! ♡ I think they would work great for cosplay and most likely some J-fashion styles too ~

All close-up photos below are taken outdoors while I'm standing on a balcony on the third floor, with a setting sun.

Facing the sun directly.

Mostly turned away from the sun.

Half-way turned away from the sun.

Turned away from the sun.

The design has this kind of swirl towards the pupil hole and the lenses sport a rather thick black limbal ring, which gives an illusion of bigger eyes and also looks anime.

These lenses have a kinda big pupil hole, which means that your real eye color will show in the middle – personally I have no problems with this but I know that some people dislike the look it gives, especially if you have light eyes. I think it's good that the pupil hole isn't super narrow because it makes it so that you don't see colored corners when you move your gaze fast or that you get, err, a kind of "tunnel vision" sight. I prefer having my sight as unobstructed as possible so yeah, I say yay for roomy pupil holes on circle lenses – even if it means that my real eye color is visible in the center.

I do think though that some lenses with really big pupil holes usually look better on those with naturally dark brown eyes because, err, then it just looks like the brown iris blends with the black pupil and looks much more natural (aka you can't tell where one ends and the other begins) because there isn't a visible "color clash" as there is on light-eyed people, where the lens meets the iris. I'm sorry if my explanation is clumsy, I don't know how to explain it cleverly. OTL I hope it's understandable lol.

Lastly I have the distance photo! ~

If you're interested in checking out other colors of the Hanabi series I'd recommend you to take a look at my other reviews! ^.^ Reviews here: Blue, Gold

Bonus!
Comparison photo of Hanabi Blue (left) and Hanabi Green (right).

In short I'd just like to mention, once more, that these are a good choice for cosplayers looking to do some green-eyed characters! These lenses give the "anime eye" look, at least according to me – big eyes, defined black rim and with a color that pops! All my yes!

Short summary:

Color: 9/10
A very lovely medium-light green shade. It's vivid and definitely shows up as a true green, which is awesome.

Design: 8/10

Cool swirl design combined with a thick black limbal ring – yessssh!

Opacity: 9/10

Seems to be really covering, without looking overly fake/costume-y.

Enlargement: 8/10

These are big... but they don't feel huuuuge.

Comfort: 9/10

Really comfortable. I could wear them for 8+ hours with no discomfort.

Naturalness: 1/10

The print and color brightness is anything but natural. These are best for sizzlin' fabulousness!

That's all for this round! Ciao ~ ^u^
Shiro Samurai out.

Samurai Deeper Kyo's Hotaru cosplay progress part.1

What's up everyone?

I've started working on my next cosplay – Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo!
I've been wanting to cosplay him ever since I first read the manga back in mid-late 2012. He's just such an awesome character so that, even after all these years, my cosplay wants didn't fade a single bit. SDK is one of my favorite shounen mangas and I wish that more people knew and cosplayed from it...

Now that I'm back in school and I got to continue my sewing classes I decided that it was finally time to make this cosplay into reality!
To start I went to check what fabrics mom had available on the 5th September. I don't want to buy fabrics if mom has usable ones in the attic because hey, free fabrics! o/

This time I was lucky! I found all the fabrics I needed, save for white cotton for the main kimono's body. This means that the only fabric I will actually need to go buy is the white fabric – and probably some fabric paint. 

Most cosplayers that I see online cosplay Hotaru with red pants and red collars on his white kimono. Personally I always viewed these parts as some middle-ground between orange and red. I honestly think that it looks a bit boring/bland when it's all only red (even his inner shirt is red) – I wanted to have a bit more variation, aka color. Because of this I decided to use a flaming reddish orange fabric for his pants and collars and besides, on some official art these parts do have an orange touch to them.. so I don't think that I'm being horribly inaccurate either. Huhuhu ~

SDK Hotaru reference.

So yeah, I started out by making his headband. Super easy; I just took some red rib knit fabric, folded the width in half and sewed it together.

After that it was time for the inner shirt. I used red linen for it. Actually the whole cosplay I made in school, during my handicraft classes, because why the hell not?
I decided to make the shirt as a sleeveless very loose-fitting top. I wanted it to kinda "hang" in the front (because that's how I always imagined it) so we cut the front pattern's upper part into pieces and spread it out for extra width.

I apologize for the crummy cellphone-quality photos ahead; I didn't have my SLR camera with me in school during this project. Most photos show the colors reaaaaally wrong.

Shirt pattern making going on.

I first did a mock-up prototype out of some scrap fabric to check if the shirt's front worked – it did. I then cut out the front and back piece out of the linen fabric. After I had cut out the pieces I used the school's overlock machine to sew around all the edges (same purpose as zigzaging) and well, after that you don't use the overlock anymore. This is seemingly the professional/right way to do it, according to my teacher who has studied sewing in some proper school...

All the edges "zigzaged" with overlock.

Gotta love this thing, everything looks so neat!

With that done I sewed the shoulder and side seams closed, easy peasy. After that I noticed that because I had used a non-matching thread for the overlock the beige threads would show in the arm openings so, err, I had to hide that somehow. if you wonder why I simply didn't change for red overlock threads then that's because school's thread color choices are super limited... 
So yeah, I made some extra curved pieces (from my very last scrap pieces – talk about no fabric waste!) to sew onto the arm openings to hide the overlock seams. I have no idea what the proper name is for these. OTL

Sewing on the... things... whatever-they're-called.

I used the iron to get them to stay in place, aka on the shirt's inside. I put a wet rag on top of the spot that I wanted to iron and I then pinned the "flap" in place so that the seam would, after being ironed, be set on the inside. The iron I set to max heat (because linen) and then I just pressed it on the fabric and let it be still until the sizzling sound of the water/steam faded. After that was done I sewed them down at the shoulder and side seams (nowhere else, only two attachment points) so that they wouldn't flop over on the showing side and look ugly. I sewed exactly on top of the existing seams (on the right side) so that the seams holding the "curved arm pieces" would be close to invisible.

Ironed.

With that done I only had left to finish the hem and the collar. Nothing weird here – I just folded the edges in twice and sewed a straight stitch all around and then it was done.

Next up were the pants. My teacher didn't even bother to use a pattern for it, so I just scribbled some measures down and then she drew directly on the fabric and just cut the shit out. I'm not too sure how good of an idea this was because later on a lot of things ended up being different lengths; too long, too short, too narrow, not aligned etc.
Once again I started by using the overlock machine and sewing all around the edges on all pieces. Then, naturally, I sewed the crotch/butt seams. Next I put the side seams together and that's when I tried the pants on for the first time – just to notice that they barely went past my ass. It still worked but it was way too tight for comfort... and the meh part was that I had zero leftover fabric!
The pant legs were way too long – they were full length when they were supposed to only reach slightly below my knees. D: So yeah, I cut off like 30 cm from both legs and then, to get more width to the waist, I had to use the scrap fabric I had just gotten from the too-long-legs.

Pant legs shortened. (one piece spread out and put to the top)

I just cut up the side seams I had just done, to save time. I then cut the scrap pieces from the legs into triangles and sewed them to the sides of the pants.
Next up was sewing the waist; I left a gap so that I could thread the elastic ribbon through when done but oh boy did I rage on this. I basically just folded the top and sewed a straight stitch all around, leaving a hole for the elastic. Little did I know that doing this super simple task proved to be the most frustrating part of the whole pants. xD The fabric seriously was alive; it twisted and turned and made ugly bumps and folds all over and I had to pick up the seam ripper and undo the whole thing. I cursed the pants to the depths of hell lol.

Turned severed pant legs into triangles for extra width...

I had to do tacking stitches and iron the waist to get the fabric to lay still and well, it still managed to move around when sewing. Fuck you, fabric. Oh well, at least it turned out better than on my first run so I didn't rip it up again; it's still rather not-so-pretty on the inside (luckily it doesn't show on the outside) but whatever, no one's gonna see it except me so lolol.

Tacking threads on waist fold...

I hemmed the pant legs no problem and then I just ironed the seams open and my pants were done. Oh, and I had to cut off like 5 cm from each leg earlier because the front and back sides of the legs totally didn't match. >_> It was either cut the legs shorter or have the butt and crotch seams being horrrrrrrribly mismatched. By some miracle the pant legs were still, even after that forced shortening, a suitable length for Hotaru. What the heck man.

I'm not all that super pleased with the pants; I might redo them one beautiful day... if I can be bothered. But they'll suffice for now.

On the next Hotaru costume progress post I'll make both the inner and the outer kimono, the obi and possibly some of the other small details, like his ear decorations. See ya!