Ikasucon 2013

            Ikasucon 2013 has passed and I've been able to showcase my Beelzemon cosplay, winning a judge's award at the Ikasucon Masquerade. There were quite a few mishaps at Ikasucon right before the pre-judging that caused me to break into tears. Two of the fingertips to the gauntlets popped off then a shoulder piece came off as well – on top of that I was sweating to beat hell from having to book it down there from our hotel room only to find the judging was running a little behind. MY SWEAT WAS IN VAIN! Some very kind cosplayers let Taka and me go ahead of them so I could get out of my costume more quickly, but when we got in there I began to cry even harder and told the judges about how poopy I felt about everything. They were so nice and let me leave to get a new judging time and come back later when everything was put back together and I was calm. After about an hour of cooling off and fixing myself and my costume up, we scurried back and I felt extremely better about it all – it felt even better to have won something in the end through all my frustrations and tears! 

                 

 the beginnings of the helmet - looks like a basket lol

 just derping around with the tape while working on the helmet UoU

            

          

The Friday and Sunday of Ikasucon, I was Ion Fortuna from Trinity Blood – the Iblis Desert outfit. I didn't use a wig, though I will if I ever reprise it. I was originally not going to make Ion's outfit at all until I found out there was a Seth Knightlord cosplayer going who was told that I would be Ion. I didn't want to disappoint her and I'm so thankful I didn't because she looked beautiful and we are now friends because of it.

I'm extremely proud of this costume as it's my first Trinity Blood costume – I've been wanting to create different outfits from this series for a long time and, despite wanting to tweak this outfit and add/fix some small details, I can say I'm thoroughly pleased with myself! I've received wonderful compliments as well which just inspires me to continue to work harder and learn even more.

    

    

Cosplayer Nation was there and my friends and I were stopped by them for photos a few times and Emily, my friend cosplaying Seth, was even featured in a video! I happened to be there by chance when she was and had some video time with her haha. Taka and I went to one of the Cosplayer Nation panels right before the masquerade – we had wanted to give an interview since it had been offered to the panel goers, but we ran out of time (~UoU)~

On the subject of panels, Taka and I hosted a jrock panel the Friday night with what I feel was great success! A bit of mayhem happened – the presentation malfunctioned a bit, her laptop died and we forgot her charger (a friend ran up to the room to retrieve it), and we were set right next to a karaoke panel where they were, for lack of anything nice to say, loud. Through all this, the panel goers stayed with us, seemed to have fun and a few even befriended us! We learned that we should definitely have an 18+ panel simply because language is a hard thing to control – most people who go to a convention, no matter how young, use “bad words” but it's still something you have to watch when you're at a panel that isn't 18 and over. All in all, the panel inspired me to come up with more ideas for different panels and that's something I'm surprising myself with as it's not something I ever saw myself getting into.

There's so much more that went on, so many people that I've met and had a great time with. I'm more than excited for next year's Ikasucon even though it's so far away! At least there are upcoming events to keep my preoccupied lol

See Ya Later Space Cowboy
Hachi

Videos, Tutorials and Cosplay

     Yeah about those videos.... :/

     I have videos recorded regarding FOAF's upcoming plans and a tutorial/watch me do this makeup video for my own personal YouTube. I would have them posted already, but my phone, being the only source of high speed internet, says the files are too big and cannot be posted without wifi. I don't have wifi...thus my dilemma.
     For this blog, I'll probably do step by step in photos with pictures of my products which honestly will probably work out better for those interested than the video of me doing it. It took me about 6 and a half minutes and there wasn't much in the way of actually tutoring any of you. I sped it up to about 3 and a half minutes, gave it a little music track - I was pretty proud of it lol
   Anywayyyy ~ for the step by step photos, I'll be sure to take my time. I couldn't tell you why I rushed through it - I can speed it up so the video is shorter etc etc; I suppose it's just my own habit as I'm usually speeding to get ready as to not keep anyone waiting. The video I recorded may still be posted on my personal YouTube, but a nicer, more "professional"(lolwut) video will probably be done at a later date as well as more of my tutorial ideas being posted here photo by photo.

     As for FOAF (Freaks Of A Feather), as much as we want people to help make it a bigger group, it really has been just me and Taka (I guess that works out for Trinity Moon Commissions - our little duo work set up). We have had a decent amount of friends becoming interested in commissioning us and joining in on current and future plans which is great! Now if only they would give us a definite yes or no so we don't get too excited and too ahead of ourselves!
     Ohayocon 2013 is closing in and within the coming weeks, I will be purchasing fabric to begin work on Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou (along with Taka's fabric as she's a bit short right now; she'll be paying me back later). One of our friends has commissioned Remilia Scarlet and Taka will be taking that up while I talk to one of her co-eds about a Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop) cosplay for Whittcon in March. QUITE A WAYS I KNOW! But best to plan much too soon than much too late, right?

     After Touhou - Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, we want to work on costumes FOR Whittcon - Taka's probably going to do a Sailor Gijinka group with the "Remilia" as Sailor Zapdos (I believe?) and another friend as Sailor Moltres while she's Articuno. I wasn't quite sure I could swing that many costumes in a year as we hope to attend Colossalcon for the first time and are definitely attending Ikasucon 2013, I decided that I would work on the costumes we intended to wear for Colossalcon from the series:

     (~*^*)~ digimon!! As of late, Taka has been extremely excited to begin work on Sakuyamon from the Digimon Series. I was stumped for a while before deciding on Wizardmon (just this past weekend actually). The character has been portrayed with varying shades of hair colour so I was thinking of purchasing a burnt orange wig to be later used for Fujimoto from Ponyo. If I work on Wizardmon for March AND June, I'll be saving myself personal work AND money as I'll be eliminating one costume - an idea that has been increasingly appealing to Taka aside from the fact she's unsure she'll have the money to work on Sakuyamon around Whittcon time.

 

      I think the most difficult part for Wizardmon will be getting the small details like that of the inside of the coat and the zippers etc etc along with getting the hat to stand just so and have the cape cover my face in a certain way. I'm most worried about the designs on the lining, but that's to be thought upon on a later date ~
     I hope to be better with progress photos and fabric shots with Patchouli and maybe even Jet since I'm excited to work on him and will be asking around for help with the boots and arm, but until I get the fabric, I won't really be sure! Until then, I'll just keep telling myself to photograph progress so I can continue writing and hopefully review some wigs, fabric and maybe even contacts soon *^*

Spyro the Dragon: Cynder

     I was a humanoid adaption of Cynder the dragon from the Spyro the Dragon video games for Halloween while my friend was a humanoid adaption of Spyro. This was the first time either of us had done wings - she had her father's help while I did them myself and had his help later on. Her dad heated the PVC and bent the wings into shape while I cut the PVC into pieces and connected them with elbows. My downfall was not having the glue - while they stayed together at home, fast movement and the wind conditions on "release day" proved that they weren't sturdy enough without it. Before beggars night in my friend's town, her dad screwed the pieces to the elbows to give it a little more sturdiness

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                              (sorry for the image quality; most of these photos were taken from my phone)




     The horns gave me issues as well - the first set was made of Softee Dough and the next with Crayola Model Magic. They were glued to a headband at the base; the larger horns had a floral foam base while the smaller horns were baseless. They lasted through the evening on both accounts, I just know for next time to use model magic and definitely have a sturdy/sturdier base for all horns. My friend used Crayola air dry clay with a foam and wood base and screws were drilled through the headband and wood to keep them in place.
     The flesh of the wings and the tail were made of black felt and the lining of the wings was red costume satin - my friend had wire for the fingers while I went wireless just for ease of sewing and lack of supplies. I used a shirt I already had but made the coat and skirt - the base of the skirt was black broadcloth as was the outer part of the coat. The lining of the coat was more red costume satin and the mesh pieces of the skirt were black and red netting.

     Thank you to the photographers at the Ikasucon 2012 Rave - a few others took our picture, but these were the only two posted. This was the first time I had done the makeup for Cynder (and you can tell the claws on the wings weren't sturdy yet either; my friend's dad added wires to them for me later so they actually stood up). On beggars night, I tried something new and was much happier with it, but I wasn't able to get any shots that night either. I also had a black tank top for beggars night which made me feel much more comfortable along with red fishnet tights after being unable to find them for the rave.
     The wig I wore to the rave and for beggars night was a wig I received from a friend - I haven't a clue where she got it or for how much, but it came in handy to me despite how shiny it looks in some photos.

     Overall, I'm very pleased with the results - this was our first time doing something like this and it turned out rather well for a first attempt. My friend wants to remake most of her outfit - it turned out nicely, but some mishaps took place and rips kept appearing at the seams (costume satin is cheap and it really shows but on a tight budget it suffices).

Pantene ProV Breakage to Strength Product Review

     I've been using Pantene Pro-V Breakage to Strength for a few months and I'm quite surprised with how well it's treated my hair. In the months that I've used the shampoo/conditioner combo, I've coloured my hair, thermal styled, backcombed, and have generally just been rough with my hair lol
     I'm beginning to run low, both bottles nearly empty, and I would definitely recommend this to someone. This past month, I've been able to get away with just shampooing my hair and towel drying my hair to find that it is soft even without conditioner or any leave-in treatments.
     This set isn't really needed for those with healthy hair; you'd probably just end up weighing your hair down with the extra nutrients then be lacking the volume most people desire from their hair. It is definitely for those who need a revival from a breaking state. Don't go thinking this will work overnight; I used this Pantene product for at least 5 months (though started to really feel results around the end of the first month, further into month two) - just to note, I go through shampoo and conditioner pretty slowly lol it takes forever for me to run out.

At about $4-$5 per bottle, the price is pretty good on the wallet - there are cheaper products out there and sometimes you gotta do whatcha gotta do, but it's best to steer clear of the $1 VO5 and White Rain, especially if you're looking into this product to save your hair.It also smells great, in my opinion. I was walking outside today and the breeze wafted my shampoo smell into my face. I was pretty pleased with how clean I smelled hahaha

All in all, I'm happy with the product; I'm sure most of you have longer hair than myself and will probably get to the bottom of the bottle more quickly than me but definitely give it a few washes before making an opinion yourself.