Lens review: Vassen Natural Sparkling Red

Good day people!

Today I will review a quite different circle lens, namely the Vassen Natural Sparkling Red! Despite the lens name implying that it will be red it's actually not the case – it's a big transparent lens with the only thing being red is the inner arrows pointing towards the pupil. But what these lack in color they make up for in effect!

Let's get to the review!

Base curve: 8.6 mm

Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 42%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

A majority of the body of the lens is colorless, meaning that the final outcome is highly dependent on what your natural eye color is. The design features a thick black limbal ring, some gray "shadows" at the edges that have some lines running towards the center, as well as the characteristic small red arrows. The arrows themselves aren't all that noticeable, to be honest – they just give a tinge of red to your eyes, like a thin ring running around your pupil. It's nothing that will be noticed unless the viewer is very close to you, but it's a fun little detail nonetheless.

One lens in. Notice enlargement effect.

As you can see I have light blue-gray eyes and to me it looks like these lenses pronounce the grayness of my eyes when worn. Depending on what your real eye color is these lenses will come out looking very different from wearer to wearer, but one thing is sure – there will always be a really pretty and noticeable halo effect! The halo effect is pretty much guaranteed thanks to the transparency and the size, which is bigger than a natural iris.

These lenses are generous in size and it's definitely the most noticeable trait, together with the halo effect, of course. In a way I like the lack of color because this is a lens meant to enhance your eyes rather than do any dramatical changes, save for the size boost and the prominent limbal ring.

Lens photos ahead!

All photos taken by me during a May 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.

Natural room light in my apartment.

Bathroom light.

Facing a window in the corridor.

Flash photo.

White light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the staircase.

Indoors storage room. Natural light.

Basement floor. Poor natural light.

Outdoors, facing the sun while being under the shadows.

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

Outdoors, facing sun.

When it comes to comfort these lenses felt a tiny bit scratchy at first but my eyes got used to them in a matter of minutes. They are quite comfy otherwise – no stinging feeling, red or teary eyes etc. I do notice though that these do blur my vision occasionally, not by much but it's enough to be noticeable.
I guess I could say that comfort is above average for me; I have sensitive and/or dry eyes and I could wear these for around 4 hours with no problems, likely a couple hours more. Most lenses I've had lately dries out for me in about 2 hours, so 4 hours is pretty good in comparison.

This is definitely not a lens that you buy for the sake of color – you buy it for the lack of color. ;) It's a cool and unique lens, something quite different from what's commonly available in the market. If you want to try something that stands out in its own way then the Vassen Natural Sparkling series is something to check out!

And lastly, a couple distance photos!

Short summary:

Color: 1/10
I can't grade it for color because there's barely any color, lol. x) The little red there is hardly does anything for the overall look and the gray is just for effect shadowing.
Design: 8/10
It's different, it's something out of the ordinary. Really simple yet pretty translucent lens with a thick limbal ring and some tiny red arrows for detailing.
Opacity: 1/10 
These lenses are colorless and thus the point is that your real eye color will be there!
Enlargement: 8/10
Really big!
Comfort: 6/10 
Quite decent, actually. Felt a bit scratchy at first but it went away quickly. Blurs my vision occasionally but doesn't dry out too fast; I can easily wear these for 4 hours with no issues.
Naturalness: 5/10

If we ignore the size –and the fantastic halo effect– what we have at hand is a quite natural circle lens.

Thanks for reading my circle lens reviews! ^.^

Shiro Samurai says baibai ~

Lens review: GEO Xtra Aster Blue

Yo beauties!

It's time for a circle lens review. ^.^ Today's review will be about the GEO Xtra Aster Blue from the Flower series, which can also be identified by the code number thingy on their lids, aka WT-C12. It's a pretty pale blue lens with a sort of 'burst' inspired flower-ish print that seems to twist towards the center.

Let's do this!

Base curve: 8.7 mm
Diameter: 15 mm

Water content: 42%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

As with any legit GEO lenses these come with authenticity stickers on so that you can scratch and check them up online, to prove that they're safe to wear. And if anyone wonders why the heck my stickers look blue on the photos it's because they've been sun faded by time (I've had these lenses unopened for years close to a window) and were originally green, like they should be.

My natural eye color is a light blue-gray and these lenses actually have a soft light blue color – it seems like a lens that is meant to enhance your natural eye color more than change it, but of course the final effect will depend on what your own eye color is. On my eyes these lenses show up as a mild blue shade, it's quite sophisticated.

One lens in. Notice enlargement effect.

The lenses don't have a huge amount of pigment and it actually fades towards the center. In the center there's a black "sun-shaped ring" running around the pupil opening, drawing the gaze in. But despite the rather intricate design these lenses don't strike me as obviously unnatural – more like a semi-natural lens. I mean sure, it's big and has a notable black limbal ring with jagged edges but there's something about the soft coloring that makes them look rather natural. I like the look.

I would say that the lenses are big but not so big that you couldn't wear them for casual looks if you wanted. They would of course work in a heartbeat for stuff like lolita fashion and such but yeah, they are versatile and I'd say that that's a good thing; I only wore some minimal pencil eyeliner with these while I did this review and it doesn't look bad at all, but of course how the lenses will look also depends on your eye shape etc.

Lens photos ahead!

All photos taken by me during a May afternoon with a 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.

Apartment room light, only natural light.

Bathroom light.

Facing a window in the corridor.

Flash photo.

White light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the staircase.

Indoors storage room. Only natural light.

Basement floor. Poor natural light.

Outdoors, facing the sun while being in the shadows.

Outdoors, back against sun.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

Regarding comfort I'm not impressed. It appears like the right lens was defective; I tried to clean and reinsert it three times and every time it scratched my eye in the exact same way. Thankfully the left lens was fine and so I could grade comfort with it. I would say that it's decent but it starts to dry my sensitive eyes early on – I managed to wear these for approximately 2,5 hours before I felt like I wanted to take them off. I could have worn them longer, if I wanted, but I'm careful about my eyes and don't want to take unnecessary risks if I don't feel like the lenses are comfortable enough. Of course eye drops would solve the problem but I prefer to grade comfort without using any kind of aids.

So yeah, it's a pretty semi-natural lens with a subdued blue color. In a way I'd say that it's almost mesmerizing because of the swirling pattern. In some light conditions the blue shows up livelier but most times it's soft and pleasant. It's overall a nice lens but the comfort is sub-par for me.

Distance photo ~

Short summary:

Color: 6/10
Nice soft light blue color.

Design: 7/10

Pretty flower-ish 'burst' effect with a slight spin towards the center. Nice jagged edges!

Opacity: 5/10

Seems like the color is perhaps more intended to enhance your eyes than change the color completely. Still appears as blue though, a natural shade.

Enlargement: 7/10

Sort of big but not overkill either.

Comfort: 4/10

I can feel them slightly in my eyes and they dry fast. Approximately 2,5 hours of wear.

Naturalness: 4/10

Decent. Ignore the size and the intricate print and we have a semi-natural lens!

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this review helpful!
Shiro Samurai out ~ 

Mushucon 2017 – Fedora bros and a sausage dog

 Yo peeps!

I went to my first Mushucon this past weekend or, to be more exact, on 29th April 2017. ^^ If I'm not mistaken this was the second Mushucon in history and, to be honest, last year I didn't have a clue that there even existed a con in Rovaniemi (Santa Claus land Finland) until I saw a cosplay blog somewhere that wrote about it afterwards. I actually find it weird that I managed to completely miss it last year because yeah, when you live in the north –aka where it's rare that things happen– there's always that one friend, who also lives somewhere else in the north, who tells you if there's some events coming up in any of the cities within a 100 km radius, lol. Yes, that distance is considered local in my book. :-D No but seriously, I guess Mushucon last year either didn't invest in advertising or it was just so small that no one ever heard about it outside of Rovaniemi, lol. Then again, I've known about Rovaniemi's manga day for some years now so... dafuq.

Oh well, let's forget about missing the first Mushucon and I'll tell you what the second Mushucon was like! Let's roll!

Me and Joni doing the fedora tip, m'lady. #fedorafaggots

Our con group consisted of me, Sacchan, Sacchan's little brother Joni and our friend Piia. Before the con we were very unsure if we could even get there because we had no ride, but luckily Sacchan's (and Joni's) cool dad agreed to do a day trip to Rovaniemi with his camper. Yes, we totally drove to Mushucon in a camper. It was goals. #swag
Me and Joni decided to be fedora fags, for shits and giggles, while Sacchan took the hip kid route and sported a cap together with a multicolor wig. And, as you can see from the photo above, I didn't cosplay and that's also the reason why there was no "Mushucon plans" post prior to the con – there would have been no point because I didn't cosplay nor work at the event; I just went as a casual visitor with my homies.

I had gone to Sacchan's place a day before the trip, to make things easier. We left for Mushucon on Saturday morning, around 9:00 local time, if I recall right. Sitting the four of us in a camper and laughing hard at Pokémon fusions was how we passed time; the one with Doduo and Voltorb fused together, including a hilarious comic, made us all howl with laughter. x'D Otherwise we just talked about video games and derped around. We even had a turriperse furry friend onboard – say hello to Piki, the 13-year-old dachshund mix breed! He's such a precious sausage gramps. ;A;

Piki chilling with Jonsk Joni.

Cutest nakkimakkara in the passenger seat. ♥

We arrived at Rovaniemi's kaupungintalo (lit. "city house") 4 minutes before Mushucon would open its doors. It was a nice semi-cloudy day with a chilly wind blowing. I remember that Joni was the first visitor to walk into the building and I was right after him. :'D First blood!
By the way, Mushucon had free entrance.

Mushucon's entrance.

What immediately struck me inside was that it seemed like Mushucon didn't use the whole building, just a few rooms for panels and the entrance hall for the main body of the convention – the shops, con tables, info desk etc. The unused parts of the building were either sealed off or just left empty. Because of the really limited space used on the first floor (aka where eveything moderately interesting was, imo) it was quite common that it got crammed, especially close to the merchandise sellers. The second floor was in use too (and it seemed bigger) but it was really empty compared to the first floor – there were only a couple TCG gaming tables (Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!, respectively) and some couches etc that one could sit on. I actually didn't even notice the stairs leading to the second floor until after a couple hours. I got a slight feeling of a case of wasted potential because the second floor was roomy, comfy and left to little attention.

Mushucon, seen from the entrance.

A view into the merchandise/main hall.

Again, merchandise/main hall. Info desk to the right.

Merch & main hall. In the far back was a separate cafeteria.

Mushucon was a small con, just like expected – few cosplayers, few panels, few merch sellers etc. The atmosphere was slow-paced and relaxed, similar to Kitacon, Matsucon and the like. ^^ I have no idea how many visitors there were but it felt like I kept seeing the same people over and over again, until they eventually disappeared and/or left.
No panels or programs really interested me (except for one, but I noticed it afterwards) so I spent my time just walking around to check what kind of stuff were for sale and chilling with my friends. There wasn't so much to do to kill time but I had low expectations anyway (as I often do for northern small cons, definitely not in a bad way thou!) and so I wasn't disappointed at all and just enjoyed my time; if anything it was a bit of a bummer that there was no video game room. ;_; Even Kitacon and Matsucon had one so yeah, I was kinda hoping that there would have been a gaming room somewhere.

That Tsunomon plush (Digimon) was the first thing I saw
when I looked into this plush blasket. I wondered if it
was fate because I was wearing a Gabumon themed t-shirt...

I was a bit surprised to see that even a big seller like Urumi had come to sell at Mushucon! I did chat with the store holder for a while and was relieved to hear that she too, as a fellow Pokémon fan, cared about the whole issue with fake Pokémon goods (especially plush dolls) and assured me that Urumi only sells genuine merch, often imported from either Japan or America. I asked specifically about Pokémon plushes and voiced my concern and I was happy to hear that she understood exactly what I was coming from! I told her that over the years I've accidentally bought several bootleg poké plushes (thinking they were legit ones, fakes are sometimes well-made nowadays) at cons and that, because of it, I've grown really wary and skeptical of any and all con sellers who have Pokémon merch, especially. It sucks to not be able to buy fan merch at cons, even if you want to, because of the fear of the sea of unchecked fake goods that cons unknowingly take in. Telling the fakes apart from the real deal can be really hard.

Ginga Densetsu Weed plushes for sale, all different types!

Figurines and keychains, rubber strap mascots,badges etc.

I even found some Monster Hunter merch! :D

I was so tempted to buy one of those Lycanroc Midday Form plushes...

In the back of Urumi's store there was a cardboard box with some sale plushes inside (not pictured). I was actually kind of surprised when the store holder just took some plushes from the metallic basket (pictured below) and threw them over to the sale box; I heard her say something that they were being sold cheaper because they had been lying around for quite some time now (aka being unsold after several conventions). I dug into the sale box because who doesn't love discounts? :D I didn't find anything that made me go "omg I need this!" but there was a cute Keldeo plush in the box and some other Pokémons, like Terrakion. I was hoping to find a treasure and yes, I love plush dolls too much.

These are the plushes that replaced the
ones that went into the sale box.

Another thing that I appreciate with Urumi is that they sell Ginga Densetsu Weed plushes with manufacturer faults for a cheaper penny! I didn't know about this until I saw it at Matsucon this year and it stuck to me as awesome. I mean, I'm not the one whose world will fall apart if my plush anime dog has a crooked leg or such (I barely pay attention to small faults like that, especially if it can still stand upright) so yeah, getting a good 5-15 € off the price for any kind of manufacturer errors sounds like a deal to me!
The price on the "disabled doge" depended on how grave the fault was – smaller faults were sold closer to the full price (35,90 €), often 30 €, and the more derpy the plush was the cheaper it got. Eye faults seemed to drop the price the most because yeah, not so many are okay with having their favorite Weed character plush with eyes so differently placed that the poor thing looks stoned 24/7. x)

"Herpy & Derpy Weed plushes" says the sign. :'D

I actually bought a herp derp Tesshin plush (the only Tesshin in the basket above) with a crooked foreleg and a backleg sticking out a little. Give the derpy dogs a home! ♥ The faults are rather minor (I checked before buying, the plush still stands up easily) so it was sold for 30 €. I didn't find any for 20 € in the basket but at least a couple were 25 € – with eye derps, of course.
I'll be sure to check out the herp derp Weed basket in future cons too, if it's there – I want to adopt more of them. ;U; They're cute in their own retarded way ~

Kummacon's table sold the obligatory sweets!

Second-hand manga for sale.

Second-hand shop selling manga, old videos, wigs etc.

At some point my whole company, except me, went out to go fetch some snacks etc and Piia also had to take out some money; I stayed at the con. Sacchan had been carrying my main bag (I had the camera bag) and I forgot to ask it back and so I was at the con for a long time without my friends, my money and my 3DS. Needless to say I got bored because I couldn't buy anything and I couldn't kill time by playing games either. xD So yeah, I just walked around repeatedly and looked at the merch and the Artist's Alley over and over again. And speaking of the Artist's Alley, it was kinda weirdly placed because one of the artists were together with the merch sellers when the rest were in their own corridor. I have no idea why but if it was planned then no biggie, it just confused me a little. Then again, based on the artist's homepage it's actually a company so I guess it makes sense!

Jasu's table, one of the Artist's Alley sellers (who wasn't in the alley with the rest xD)
Check out her page: jasuwonderworld.com

Amazing and absolutely breathtaking art!!

Once my friends finally returned I got a berliininmunkki (berlin's donut? idk :D) so I was happy. We sat close to the Artist's Alley and snacked meanwhile we all agreed on that we had seen enough of the convention that we could go back home; the trip back takes about 1,5 hours and at least I didn't want to make Sacchan's dad either annoyed or bored. We stayed at the con for about 4 or 5 hours out of 7 hours in total so yeah, we had plenty of time to experience the event.

Artist's Alley. It felt impossible to get a good shot
because of the narrow corridor, the random congoers blocking
the view and the sealed off area in the back. ^^"

Artist's Alley. Notice the huge handmade Gyarados plush!

I didn't know that there was a drawing room until like the last 15 minutes we were at the con. I saw that, according to the info leaflet, there should be one upstairs but I didn't find it on my first visit to the second floor – turns out it was in a separate room (I don't remember seeing any signs). In my opinion it was kinda hidden and honestly, none of my friends were aware of it either until I told them, even though they had also been upstairs but at a different time than me. I guess I could say that it would have been better had it been in a more visible spot; it seemed like before me there had only been a few people there. :/ Not many drawings on the table.

Drawing room or workshop or whatever you wanna call it.

I continued the tradition. Sacchan's Buttman shall never die...

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With that I've experienced my first Mushucon. I swear I kept accidentally saying Mutsicon several times during the day. xD It was pretty much as I expected, a comfy and simple little con in the north. ^.^ It's nothing amazing but it was generally enjoyable and besides, it was fun to visit Rovaniemi for the first time! There's room for improvement but it's off to a good start. Hosting Mushucon in Kaupungintalo felt decent overall yet a little restricted but, then again, I have no idea what else Rovaniemi has to offer. I would go there again if I can get a ride and if my friends are going – alone I would be bored fast... unless there's a gaming room in the next installment, haha.

And finally, here's my con loots:

Tesshin (GDW) plush and a Rockruff (Pokémon) plush from Urumi. ♥

Thanks for reading this summary! ^u^
Shiro Samurai out.