Where have I been...?

 Ughhh! I'm so sorry I didn't get the post out about wigs. I've been sick, but now I'm starting to feel better. Just in time to run around and get everything ready for AnimeNext next weekend (yAy!).  I was going to the wig store nearby to pick up a wig to style for next Sunday. Buuuuut, I don't know if I am doing that cosplay now. Decisions, decisions. 

To make up for it, I'm gonna make a post about the best wig styling products that are out there as well as two great wig sites I use quite a lot. 

Thank you for reading and I will be talkin' to ya soon! Ja ne! <3

 

CLOVERCON 2013

REVIEW!

 Hello there! On May 19th, me, the kareshi, and my cousin Bridgette went to New Jersey for this one day only con. My friend Maya was going to come as Hirako Shinji, but she was invited to Chicago for another con....that's ok though...because I'll be cosplaying with her at AnimeNext in almost two weeks! Yay!

About a month ago I sent in a form to do a panel on Cosplay Everyday. I was contacted by the staff and was invited to share an hour time slot on cosplay with another person. I shared the time with Kris, who came as an Umbreon. Kawaii! She was so sweet! Our room was filled to capacity and the people really enjoyed themselves. They had awesome stories and tips to tell and great questions. 

CloverCon is held in a recreational building. It has two floors. The upstairs only had one room available and that was a small gaming room. When you walked in the front doors, to the left was the registration table. There was a short hallway past the registration table that led to small rooms there were used for the panels. If you walked straight ahead, you entered a gymnasium, which was the main room for food and the dealer's room. In the gym, there was a small catwalk (I liked that, good idea!) with a DJ playing gaming/anime music and I'd guess-timate (spelling?) about 15 dealer tables. In the very back there was a food stand that had pizza, hot dogs, drinks, chips, and other noms. 

I didn't get to to go to any other panels, as my cousin was dying to go into the dealer's room...I told her there would be cute stuffed animals galore...so we spent some time in there. She found a cute little cat plushie in there. The dealers ranged from having jewelry, manga, some dvds, plushies, key chains, etc. It was enough for that small con, anymore dealers would have made it very crowded.

The Cosplay Fashion show was so much fun! That is another great idea of CloverCon, especially with the mini catwalk. The three of us signed up for it and someone announced everyone's name as to where to get in line. My cousin was nervous and insisted to walk with me, and the announcer had no problem with that, which was very sweet of him. I convinced my cousin that she should walk by herself and then meet me down at the end of the catwalk. I told her she should do one of her gymnastics moves and have fun doing it! (I know I briefly touched on this on my previous post.) She agreed to do a walk over, which is basically putting your one hand down and then flipping the rest of your body while walking slowly. She hesitated about this at first, being nervous about her wig possibly falling off. The convo was pretty much this:

Bridgette: What if my wig falls off?

Me: OH NEVER! You have a wig cap on, and bobby pins...you'll be fine! Here, let me put some more bobby pins in!

Bridgette: ^_^ OK!

NOPE.I went down the catwalk first and did a spin to make the captain cloak flare out (Good Lord, that is a beautiful piece of cosplay) and pulled out my wakazashi sword at the end for my pose. I gestured for Bridgette and she smiles, so cutely, and performs the front walk over. And there goes her wig. Everyone was cheering for her, but I panicked and ran up to her and shoved the wig back on and pulled her offstage...the wrong exit of course. I did this because I figured she'd be embarrassed but she just laughed away. I had no reason to come flying at her like a whirling dervish. OH WELL. I didn't even get to see the kareshi walk down because I was preening over my cousin like a distraught mother hen. -___-

 Ugh, the picture turned out blurry. My apologies. But you can still see how fabulous this Hetalia trio is!!! Note to self: I need to invest in a better camera.

Bridgette was SO excited to see the Ice King from Adventure Time. She nearly had a 12 year old heart attack. This was her first anime convention, so this was all so new to her! She just thought it was Japanese shows...boy was she wrong, ha ha ha.

We spent about 7 hours at CloverCon...it was a Sunday and a school night for my cousin! This was a great little con and the staffers were wonderful. There were no screaming otaku or random people running at top speed through crowds, etc. However there was this one random otaku sitting singing to herself at the entrance of the con. OK, although strange, AND the kareshi and I are used to this, Bridgette wasn't. This was the first thing she saw. She gave me a quizzical look and I just told her some people feel comfortable doing these sort of things at cons and shared a few stories with her. I was more concerned with how my cousin would be at the con, since it was her first and I wanted her to have a good experience. Especially since I had her dressed in cosplay! Start 'em young! 

If you get the chance next year to go to CloverCon and you live in or around the New Jersey area, check it out! (It reminded me of a smaller version of Kotoricon, which is also in New Jersey and takes place in January) In my opinion, I like going to smaller cons to test out a new cosplay...kinda like a dress rehearsal. You can see how the cosplay feels on you and see if you may need any adjustments. I found that the arm gloves I wear as Soi Fon were a little baggy, so I ordered extra small ones for AnimeNext. 

Alrighty, enough talk...here's some pics! ^_^

 

Absolutely loved the captain's cloak. Second Division represent! Cosplay from www.cosplaymagic.com

This was the main room/dealer's room/food vendor/DJ/Cosplay Catwalk area

First prize for our Bleach Trio~yatta!!!!

She really made a great Hiyori Sarugaki...I cosplayed as her before...but, Bridgette here is a young girl like her character she is portraying.

Watch out for Hiyori!

Nick as Urahara Kisuke. These little benches were perfect for photos. This is a great character shot of the both of them.

Oddest pairing ever, but funny! What would you call this? UraSoi? HA!

Urahara and Soi Fon are too close for comfort in this pic!

Where are you keeping Yoruichi-sama?!?

Good shadow from the hat for Urahara

Geez, I wish I could do this for cosplay pics!

Onmitsukidou

I tried to replicate a famous Soi Fon pose

Regular happy people!!!!

 Watch out Soi Fon, Urahara was in onmitsukidou too....!

END SCENE...thanks for reading! 

Next blog post will be on.....::drum roll::
 Finding the perfect cosplay wig at wig stores in your area!
In or around your neighborhood, you may see a wig shop...it usually will have signs in the window saying "Remy hair," which comes in hair pieces, extensions, or full wigs. Remy wigs can be expensive, but these wig stores have a GREAT selection of all types of wigs...synthetic, kankelon, etc besides Remy. When you see Remy Hair in the window, it just means it's a shining beacon for an awesome wig store! Going to pick out a wig tomorrow for AnimeNext, so I'll be taking pics and sharing tips! Then we will get to styling your perfect cosplay wig without spending a lot of $$$ *_* 
 

CLOVERCON 2013

Today I attended CloverCon, a small non-profit con in New Jersey. Unfortunately, my friend Maya couldn't attend as she was invited to a con in Chicago.The group was me, the kareshi, and my 12 year old cousin. It was her first ever con and cosplay. She LOVED it. My next blog post will be a review on CloverCon 2013.

My Cosplay Everyday panel went so well, and the room was filled to capacity! My friend Kris did one 1/2 hour and I finished off with the remaining time. 

   Our little Bleach trio (Left to Right: Kareshi as Urahara Kisuke, Myself as Captain Soi Fon, & my cousin as  Vizard Sarugaki Hiyori) won first prize in the Cosplay Catwalk!

My cousin is training to be a dancer (used to train in gymnastics first) and did a front walkover on the catwalk. She was wearing a wig cap under her wig and I bobby pinned it securely to her head. Well, uh, I must have missed a few places in the car (we had to get ready in the car and it was raining and miserable out, so it was kinda cramped. Gotta do what ya gotta do!) and as she did the walkover...which is a slow move...her wig fell off! I yelped and ran to her thinking she'd be upset but she was laughing away! The audience loved her. I was SO proud of her.

~*~That's it for this blog post, see you soon for the review and pictures~*~

Clovercon 2013

Announcement!!! On Sunday, May 19, 2013, I'm going to be sharing a panel all about cosplay! The location of this one day convention and information about it is located at http://www.clovercon.org/.

The Cosplay Everyday panel will take place in the blue room from 1:30-2:30pm. This little con should be a lot of fun and I hope if you live nearby you can come out and support it!

THE COSPLAYS...

Me as Captain Suì-Fēng, my friend Maya as Shinji Hirako, my cousin Bridgette as Hiyori Sarugaki & the kareshi as Kisuke Urahara. A Bleach Quartet! Should be a lot of fun! I will be posting pics and reviews from the con as well as a post about kids and cosplay, since my cousin is 12...and portraying a young cosplay. (YES, I know Hiyori is well over a hundred, but that's besides the fact ^_^)  Be sure to say hello to us!

 

NEW BANNER!!!

A HUUUGE thank you to ENVY Photography for making the wonderful banner of some of my favorite past cosplays! They are also helping me re-vamp the blog a little more, so I am excited to see what it will look like ^_^ and to share it with all of you!

Until next time!

The Wonderful World of 

Colored Eyebrows...

and how to do it!

Helllooo there! In my opinion, coloring eyebrows for a character is the finishing touch to a cosplay. Some cosplayers do it; others don't. I'm all for it. After all, eyebrows frame your face. (I fill in my brows on a regular basis...brown, not anime colors, lol...because my eyebrows are kinda thin. It frames the face well, and it looks nice too.) As I said before, if the character has blue hair...they're gonna have blue eyebrows. However, there are some animes that show the character having just regular eyebrows. Personally, I like to make my cosplays as realistic as possible, so I'm gonna match my eyebrows to the color of the character's hair. Except black hair. Sometimes. I will get it to that later. Now let's begin!!!

OK, here's me. Nothing on my eyebrows whatsoever. Be sure to do the rest of your make up  first and leave the brows (and lip color) for the end. 

OK, let's chat about Eyebrows 101 really quick. Use this little pic to help guide you when filling in your eyebrows with your color of choice. Use a pencil to do this. Pic One is where your eyebrow should begin. Line the pencil along the side of your nose, and make sure it matches up. (If you get your eyebrows groomed or waxed, it makes it easier to fill in the eyebrows.  I do it. But, just because I do, doesn't mean you have to) The left above pic is where your eyebrow should end/taper off. Put the the pencil on an angle as I did to see it for yourself. Third pic below left is where the natural arch of your eyebrow should be. Lay the pencil over the middle part of your eye; the pupil. Voila! The end. 

Brush your eyebrows with an eyebrow spoolie to comb them in place. You can get these at any beauty supply store. Some eyebrow pencils come as a duo, with the pencil on one end and the spoolie on the other. The spoolies are cheap and a great buy :)

Take a white eyeliner pencil and draw over your eyebrow like I am doing in the above picture. Follow the natural shape of your eyebrow. 

And yes, you will look crazy for a moment with your whitish looking eyebrows...I sure do! But...this is a must! The white eyeliner helps to mute out your eyebrow color. If you have light blonde eyebrows...you are lucky! You can either skip this step or use it anyway. People with medium to dark eyebrows need this step to lighten...and some blondies already have light brows :) Up to you, blondies! As for redheads, I'd do this step to mute the red.

You have a few choices as to what medium to use for coloring in your eyebrows. The palette on the left I bought from a Halloween store for $3.99. Party stores like Party City should have these or you can order online. Ben Nye sells a color palette like the one I have...better quality and ahem, more expensive (but so worth it...wanna get soon!). Some of these palettes can be found online. Colored eyeliner sometimes works very well too, but it all depends on the color. Using a colored eyeliner means you can skip the white eyeliner step above. This would work well for people with lighter eyebrows. SO, if you have light eyebrows, try the colored eyeliner. One of my best friends is African American. She was cosplaying as a character who has dark lovely purple hair. When I applied her make up, I decided on a whim to use a purple eyeliner on her dark eyebrows. And it looked ah-mazing! Didn't have to do the white eyeliner step...it was great. She has thin, perfectly groomed eyebrows though, so this must have had something to do with it. :)

In this little tutorial, I am using regular eyeshadow. I am just giving you other options/mediums to work with. Load up your little angled brush as shown in the picture on the right. An angled brush is your best bet for filling your eyebrows. The angle helps fill in the thicker part of the brow near the bridge of your nose and also makes a clean line where your eyebrow tapers off at the end. Angled brushes can be bought at any beauty supply store.

See how nicely the angled brush works in the picture? I cannot do my colored eyebrows without it. If you are desperate and you forgot your angle brush at home, then use a q tip. Don't use your finger. It will smudge and be messy. Moving on......!

Once you color in your brows, dip a q tip into a make up remover. A make up wipe would work too, but the q tip is more precise. Do not use water. It will be a bad scene. Trust me, lol. Take the q tip and clean around your brows to clean up any eyeshadow remnants that may have smudged, etc.

After cleaning up with the q tip dipped in make up remover, take a small concealer brush and put some concealer on it. Trace around your brows to make the skin even. This also makes the colored brow *POP*! This little concealer brush was purchased at Target for $3! It's by E.L.F. The make up brushes they make are just as good (if not better) than some of the more expensive brushes out there. 

Yatta! Finished! Purple brows for any purple haired character you are cosplaying as! I choose to do purple for the tutorial because it's my favorite color.

I was on a roll today coloring in my eyebrows, ha ha ha! Above is black, the left is blue, and the right is a cool minty green color. The above black eyebrow I did not use the white eyeliner step. Like I said, (I am sorry I keep repeating this) you don't always have to use the white eyeliner step. I swear by it when I am going to use purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, etc. It works really well. A good idea (I do this) is to do a dry run of your make up before the con. Then you will know what works and what doesn't work for your brows.

Let's talk about the deal with black haired characters. When I was going to cosplay as a black haired character, I went out to buy a black eyebrow pencil because, well, this is what I thought I was supposed to do at the time. Black hair, black eyebrows, ok!?! NOPE. I went to the MAC cosmetic counter (I love the people who work there. They become so psyched when you say you're going to an anime con. The MAC brand has amazing colors in their line and love dramatic make up, which is perfect for us otaku cosplayers! Hello, false eyelashes galore! A few times the make up artists recommended looks for me to try when I showed a picture of the character!) and spoke to the make up artist. I told her I needed a black eyebrow pencil. She looked confused and asked if it was for someone else, as I am a brunette. I explained that I was wearing a black wig and needed a black eyebrow pencil. The make up artist shook her head and told me to purchase an eyebrow pencil one shade darker than my natural brow color. Basically, a very dark brown. Come to find out, filled in black eyebrows look incredibly severe. It is different if you actually have naturally black eyebrows (so pretty!). Obviously, you will keep your black brows for your black haired character, you lucky duck. But....if you are a brunette, blonde, red head, etc try the darker brown. If you really wanna do black, use the eye shadow like I did in the above pic. The pencil is too harsh and the shadow will be softer and more natural looking. Some characters do need the black eyebrows, I know this....quite a few Hetalia characters have black eyebrows and it is very apparent and necessary to do so.

This concludes the tutorial on colored eyebrows for cosplay. I hope it helped you and maybe you will use it for your next con *^_^* Until next time...ja matta ne!

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