Hope you're all having a wonderful start of summer!
I want to make a quick review of these makeup brushes from Zaful.com
As you might have realized by now, I'm a huge makeup nerd. I have brushes and tools of a million shapes and sizes, so when I saw these wonderful ombre brushes from Zaful I just had to try them out!
As you might have guessed, what drawed my attention to them was the look of them. They are made in a metallic, glossy ombre color, with faceted handles. The shape of the handles makes it easy to grip the brushes and hold a steady grip. The brushes come in various different sizes, ranging from small detail brushes to larger powder brushes, all in all there are 10 of them.
I made a makeup tutorial (link below) to show how the brushes work in applying makeup, and I must say I'm pleasantly surprised! Often when you buy brushes only because they look pretty they seldom actually work good, but these did! I love how thick they are, but still soft enough to easily follow my facial shape.
These brushes costs $12.99 if you get them now, and I would absolutely recommend them! You'll find the brushes here!
I made a simple makeup video tutorial to show how the brushes work, you'll find it here below. The tutorial teaches you how to apply discreet, simple makeup routines to cosplay characters that might have less to no makeup at all, all beginner friendly :)
We premiered our Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines group for Comic Con, finally!
This is one of the best games I've ever played, but since it's not exactly new I never imagined we could have an entire cosplay group from it, but we actually did. We had so much fun with this group (#vampirefam<3) and I can't wait to make this gorup happen again. We have gained a lot of characters just these past few days, and will have an even larger group next time!
We had a couple of photoshoots with this group, which means a lot of photos. I will post these photos in sets, to make it easier to give each photo its spotlight. So this will be Photo set #1 out of several :)
Before Halloween I got the opportunity to make a Halloween transformation video for Pinkyparadise.com, using any of their contact lenses. Since I'm always a sucker for crazy and odd lenses, the choice wasn't difficult!
Since I am still stuck in my Steven Universe-phase, I wanted to combine my Halloween look with one of the characters form this amazing tv-show. Which is why I decided to do my own take on Lapis Lazuli, in her cracked gem form!
My idea was basically that it would have been really cool if her physical form reflected her cracked gem (or even her mirror form??).
As always, I made a video tutorial on this look and you can find it here;
Info about the contacts;
Name: Princess Pinky Cosplay White Mesh (With Prescription)
The contacts are super comfortable and fits me well. Since they have a mesh layer, my vision is slightly blurry while I'm wearing them. This is nothing that can be avoided with contacts like these though. I'm super satisfied with my contacts and highly recommend you to get them if you want a similar look!
Hello again friends!
Autumn is here and con season is pretty much over for this year. Even though it might feel sad, I still think it's nice because it gives you the opportunity to cozy up in your home and sketch out new ideas for new costumes <3 Since I had no difficult deadlines this autumn, I decided to finally make a dream costume of mine come true; my own version of Scarlet Witch. For this costume I used a lovely dress sponsored by ZAFUL, and I will be reviewing this lovely dress in this post!
(The rest of the costume (headdress, shoes, wig, belt and cape) are either made by or bought by me and are not part of the ZAFUL offer. Only the dress will be reviewed in this post!)
Summary and sizes
The dress is called "Voile Spliced Long Sleeve Maxi Dress" and is a beautiful gown-like dream. It's made out of two layers; one red base layer in polyester, and one black top layer of a soft organza-like mesh fabric, which is slightly textured in a dot pattern. The arms are made only out of the black fabric. The "belt" is attached to the dress and is actually a black elastic band.
It comes in three colors; wine red, purple and white. The dress I chose was obviously the wine red one, it was for Scarlet Witch after all :)
The dress is available in sizes S, M, L, XL, 2XL. I chose this dress in L even though I'm usually a pretty standard M, because I wanted to make sure it was long enough. I'm a very tall person at my 1.77cm which makes dress shopping difficult sometimes :P
The dress is absolutely lovely and fits as well formal wear as more casual, depending on which accessories you use (and also works for cosplay, apparently^^). The dress doesn't have a zipper or button, but is a simple pullover dress. Since the elastic belt in the waist is stretchy the dress is easy to pull on and off. It's very lightweight and wearing-friendly, and the lack of zippers and buttons makes it very comfortable. The two fabric layers are not sewn together in the bottom hem, which makes the skirt very flowy and floozy!
The dress fit me okay, I think what was my problem was my weird length, haha. The dress was a bit short in the arms slightly shorter in the skirt length as well. The waistband was also a very rigid elastic, which made it sit very tight even though the dress itself fit me. This is probably due to my arms and legs being very long in general, but if I had ordered again I might have chose an even larger size just to get the length a bit better :)
I notice the color might seem a bit off in these photos, but I assure you that is because of the light fixing in post :) Since we shot these photos in the dark, the flash and post-eds might alter the color slightly to fit the photo better, but the original dress I recieved has the exact same color as in the original photo.
Quality
I have to say that I'm actually surprised that the quality held such a high standard! The reason for this was because when I noticed the dress was a pullover, I was afraid I'd break the somewhat fragile black fabric or at least rip a few seams, because I'm a very wavy and flexing person whenever I try on clothes, arms and limbs waving around everywhere xD But despite wrangling the dress over my head, all the seams and fabric have held really good! The seams in general are well made, thorough and without hastework.
Service
As always, ZAFUL has been nothing but helpful in this process. They have answered all my emails within a days notice, and always been patient with my inquiries and questions. They have also given me plenty of time to review the dress, arrange a photoshoot and rexieve photos, somethinig MUCH appreciated as a reviewer! The dress was shipped very fast, however it was delayed a bit on the way. This is on the local post office consciousness though, and had nothing to do with ZAFUL
The Company
Same as last time, I strongly advise you guys to pay ZAFUL a visit. Their website has a huge collection of clothes, shoes, accessories and everything else. Right now they have some special deals on their embroidered clothes, which is a personal favorite category of mine, I strongly suggest you to check it out :D
Contact
Check out ZAFUL at their website, or any of their social medias!
I actually don't read much manga, the only ones I still follow are Berserk, One Piece, DNAngel and Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji). The first time I read Black Butler I was mesmerized by the art style and the story, so it quickly became a favorite of mine. So when Cosplaysky UK contacted me and asked if I wanted to make a review of their Mey-Rin cosplay, I was extremely happy!
Just as with the other Cosplaysky branches, Cosplaysky UK allows you to either get the costume sewn by standard measurements, or by personal custom measurements. This is what I chose! Now I'm a tall girl (1.79cm) so I was a little worried that Mey-Rin wouldn't fit me since she's sorta tiny, but when the cosplay arrived and I tried it on it fit me very well! It was a liiiiiittle bit large, but nothing that I couldn't fix. The apron was a little too big over the shoulders, but a hidden safety pin in the back fixed that in two seconds.
The only thing that didn't really fit was the neck collar; when I buttoned the upper buttons the collar sat really tight against my neck, to a point where I had to unbutton the collar and flip the shirt to make it fit better (with the collar folded down). This could be fixed with a few cuts and seams from me, but I decided the collar was more comfortable folded down anyway, haha!
Photo by Erik Pettersson
These pieces are included when you buy the costume;
Dark blue dress
Apron
White shirt
Head piece
Photo by Christer Gustafsson
As always, the cosplay is extremely well made. The fabrics are mainly cotton and uniform cloth, and all separate pieces came neatly folded in a well packed bag.
The main dress is a wonderful shade of navy blue, and zips up with a hidden zipper in the back. It comes with white cuffs on each hand, with black button sewed on. The white under shirt buttons in the back (I had to flip it though, as I wrote above) and comes with buttons both in the back and in the front, as should be. Since the shirt buttons originally in the back you might need someone to help you button it! The apron crosses the shoulders and fastens with velcro in the back. The velcro strap is long so you can adjust the size as you see fit. Along with the apron comes a white ribbon that can be fastened to the apron with a safety pin. The head piece has some gorgeous ruffles and can be tied either under your chin or in the back of your neck.
Something I do need to point out is that this costume looks so much better when properly ironed! The costume arrived ironed, but I chose to give it an extra go with my iron just to be sure. A well ironed dress in this fabric makes it look very crisp and neat and completely raises the over all impression!
Photo by Christer Gustafsson
Time for some ratings!
Comfort: 5/5
Size: 3/5
Accuracy to original: 5/5
Movability: 4/5
Quality: 5/5
Photo by Christer Gustafsson
Comfort: 5/5
I can easily say this is one of my most comfortable costumes!
I can move freely in it, it's not too tight or too lose,
and even though I thought it would be very warm
it really wasn't, even though we had a shoot in full sunlight!
Size: 3/5
The size of the dress and apron fit well, however
since the neck was too tight I had to flip the shirt to be
able to make the costume look good on me. This could probably
be fixed however if you sent in measurement specifically
for the neck (which I didn't).
Accuracy to original: 5/5
This costume has the accuracy down to 100%.
Everything from the fabric colors, the cuffs and head piece
down to the exact right amount and look of all the buttons
is completely perfect compared to the original.
Movability: 4/5
I could move really well in this costume, proven when
we took photos with my guns where I got to climb around
the park benches we were shooting at, haha. However,
the apron kept sliding off my shoulders now and then, which came
off as slightly annoying, but could later be solved with a safety pin!
Quality: 5/5
The costume has an amazing quality, everything is well sewn
and the fabric choices fit the costume and the character.
The costume doesn't wrinkle all too easily, even
after a long day of photoshoots. Great quality!
I have also made a video review over at my YouTube channel if you'd like a closer look
on the separate pieces of the costume, as well as a short movement test!
In the end I'm so happy with this costume, it looks great and I really feel
like a clumsy maid while wearing it, haha! Comfortable and good looking cosplays are
so great! I would absolutely recommend this costume to anyone who wants to be a badass sniper maid <3
Huge thank you to Cosplaysky UK for giving me this opportunity!
Buggy the Clown and Mr 3 - One Piece (Impel Down Versions)
YOU HAVE NO IDEA FOR HOW LONG I'VE WANTED TO DO THIS DUO: Buggy is one of my absolute favorite characters from One Piece (I crushed so hard on him back when I was a wee lass lol). This is just a quick first makeup test with our wigs, as you can see we still need to fix the 3 on Rake Makes - Cosplay/SFX's wig and add some details, but it will be somewhat like this!
We will be weaaring these cosplays at MCM London in May, hopefully with Sedra Art & Cosplay as Bon Clay and E V E Cosplay as Luffy!
Just wanted to let you guys know that my boyfriend sells really gorgeous 3D-printed gems for Steven Universe!
They are super light-weight, can be painted and coated (if desired, they come in color when ordered) and are easily attached for cosplay. I've been using these myself for my SU-cosplays and I can highly recommend them ^^
Top photo is the 3D design and bottom photo are the matte printed versions!
I wanted to update my Steven Universe makeup master post since I added a few new ones! Working on tutorials for Pearl and maybe Jasper atm!
Please note that all of these (except for Malachite and Jasper) are only makeup tests and not full cosplays, which is why the wigs are not 100% correct since I only grabbed what I had at home (for instance, Ruby's and Sapphire's are a bit off), but it's what I had Smiley heart Jasper is collab between me and my bf!
So I just recieved my contacts, which means it's time for a new makeup test!
The contacts are 22mm Goblin scleras without prescription (meaning I'm blind as a bat wearing them) and I love them soo much! Sadly my eyes are a bit too large for them to cover the entire eye white, but I'll do some squinting and I'll be fine!
I'm pretty much done with everything now, save for actually acsting the prosthetics for the face. They're already sculpted and finished, but I'm a lazy butt and have postponed casting them for some reason. I'll try to get it finished tomorrow!
What I used for this makeup;
Fake blood (lots of it)
22mm sclera contacts
Scarecrow large fangs
Derma wax (to fasten the shards to my face)
Liquid latex (to fasten the wax)
Mirror shards (just regular silvery paper)
Liquid eyeliner (for the celshaded bits)
Aqua makeup (for her tattoos)
I can't really decide if I'm gonna celshade the mirror shards or not though? They look more realistic without, but it kinda takes the edge off the cartoony feeling, you know what I'm saying? What do you think?
We also did a fast makeup test for my boyfriend the other day!
Here you can see a better photo of my scleras, and the first makeup test for Bigby on my bf! The wig is just a substitute while we wait for his real wig to arrive :D There are still a lot of things to fix, but we'll get there!
Finishing off this post with some more idiotic lip-syncing, haha <3
I'm a huge Borderlands nerd, we all know that. No news here. And I have a gazillion badass bitches from this game that I want to cosplay. Mad Moxxi is one of them. However, her costume is very detailed, has a lot of hand painted work and maaaany accessories so I just never took the time needed to make it. Also this is not really the costume type I usually wear and I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to pull her off.
Then one day everything changed when CosplaySky offered me a Moxxi cosplay, as part of a sponsorship deal. Heck yeah, I said! Let's do this!
NOTE: This is an updated review with extra notes on the wearability and comfort of the costume, scroll down to read it!
You can also get her red outfit, but I think the purple one is prettier. If you order from CosplaySky you can either get a costume with premade measurements, or you can fill in your own measurements and have it all tailored to fit you exactly. That's what I did and the costume fit like a glove! It was a little big around the waist, but I believe that to be because I lost some weight since I filled in the measurements, and it was easily fixed!
The entire cosplay took about two weeks to make and one week (!) to be delievered. As you know I'm really picky about waiting for mail for a long period of time, haha, so I was super happy and surprised!
The parts included with the costume are as follows;
Coat
Hat
Gloves
Waist bag
Two belts
Striped stocking
Said and done, I threw together a quick test (with a substitute wig and no shoe covers) and I absolutely love it! I never thought I was gonna be able to pull this cosplay off, but I think I can actually do this!!
The entire coat is fully lined and everything from the fabric, seams and lining to the buttons, prints and details are just perfect and so carefully attached. No hot-glue buttons here! Even the hat is lined, which is a big deal for me haha <3 They even added Moxxi's off button which is larger than the others, and they look great together.
Something else that I really love is that all the decorations, swirls, patches and logos are actually printed onto the fabric! It looks very realistic and professional.
The belts, gloves and bag are all made out of pleather and are attached with velcro. The striped sock is made out of knitted fabric and stretches up top.
Although there are several buttons visible on the costume, the entire coat opens and closes with invisible snap-buttons. This is nice because the outside buttons never lose their shape and symmetry, and the snap buttons works perfectly fine on their own!
Time for some ratings!
Comfort: 4/5
Size: 5/5
Accuracy to original: 5/5
Movability: 3/5
Quality: 5/5
After wearing this cosplay for an entire photoshoot, I can add some text about comfort! The costume itself is very easy to move in - the stockings are a good quality that doesn't slide down, which is something that usually bothers me haha <3 I also like the fact that the hat was very lightweight, making it easy for me to pin it onto my wig, and even though it was very windy outside the hat stayed put during the entire shoot!
The coat is very comfortable to wear and has a really nice fit due to it being tailored to fit me. The gloves are made in stretch fabric and I'd think they would fit most hands! Belts also comes with long straps of velcro, making it easy to adjust them depending in your size. I love the small details like the chest-part of the coat being big enough to allow me to use a push up bra hahaha <3 The only thing uncomfortable with the costume are the ridicilously high heels, haha! All in all I'm super satisfied with my cosplay <3 It looks exactly as the original Moxxi costume from the game does, all the details are included and the quality is amazing. I really recommend CosplaySky if you ever want to order a costume yourself!!
I've made a video review of the cosplay as well, check it out down below!
Okay so! The last weeks I've really gotten into Steven Universe. Like really. And of course there has been some makeup sessions. All in all we (me and my boyfriend) have done three SU-makeups; Malachite, Jasper and Opal, and I was thinking of dedicating this post to going through them step by step, starting with Malachite.
Malachite
Malachite - Makeup by me
Malachite was actually my all time favorite fusion, even more so than Opal. There's just something about her crazy face and laugh, it's such a shame you only get to see her for roughly two minutes, haha. I've been comforting myself with the huuuge amount of fanart she has on tumblr lol!
I love Malachite because you get to make all these crazy faces and expressions, haha. I'm just tired of cosplaying pretty princesses I think!
What I used for this makeup;
Green circle lenses (forgot the name, but they're from Honeycolor)
ScareCrow Fangs
Grimas Aqua makeup in green
Grimas semi-transparent white fix-powder
150 color eyeshadow palette from eBay
Black liquid eyeliner
Black eyeliner pen
White eyeliner pen/marker pen
Brown eyeliner pen
Mascara
Pros-aide glue
Cardboard nose (tutorial below)
White wig (I sacrificed an old Griffith wig for this, when I do it for real I'll use a lace front!)
Now, I'm not gonna go through the entire process because I already made a video tutorial for this one, but roughly it takes about 40 minutes to finish maybe? The cardboard nose and wig are just temporary and they work fine for tests, but when I do this costume for real I'll cast the nose in resin and use a lace front wig instead.
Here's the tutorial for Malachite; it's a timelapse with written instructions :) For this video I used a different kind of light flare for the eyes though, I personally like the first one better!
The nose in these photos is just made simply out of cardboard. When I make this cosplay for real I'll cast it in resin, but cardboard works for a test!
Here's a quick tutorial on how I made the nose;
I will actually try to make a full Malachite costume for NärCon this summer. My boyfriend has some experience building quadrapods so I'll work the legs out with him! I have some good ideas which I will try out as soon as I can <3 My boyfriend will do Jasper and a friend of ours will make Lapis, so we're super excited!
Jasper
Jasper - Makeup by Rake Makes
My boyfriend wanted to cosplay from SU as well but found it hard to pick a characters out of the myriad existing ones. Until he saw Jail Break, haha. Jasper has a very muscular and large frame, which is perfect for my boyfriend who has a very masculine build. And Gems are genderless anyways so what the heck. He has very sharp facial features that can be enhanced with makeup to look more like Jaspers, so I think he'll make a great cheeto puff <3
BF is a very skilled makeup artist and of course did all of his makeup for Jasper himself. For this once he mixed two shades of yellow and orange for her signature skin color. The stripe is drawn on with red eyeshadow. The yellow lenses are actually his Nuada (Hellboy) lenses, but since they are semi-scleras they give a very alien and scary impression. His nose is made using the same method as the tutorial on Malachite's nose above!
The makeup itself took roughly an hour to finish, mostly because it has a lot of contouring and shadows!
Things used in this makeup;
Yellow aqua makeup
Orange aqua makeup
Yellow, red and orange eyeshadow (for contouring)
Black eyeliner pen
Mascara
Liquid eyeliner (for eyebrows)
Orange lip liner
Pros-aide glue
Fake nose
Yellow semi-scleras (from 9mmsfx.com)
White wig with bangs
The wig in this picture is another one of my Griffith wigs (yes, I have a thousand), just poofed and tousled to resemble Jasper's messy do. Just as with my Malachite, he will get a "real" wig for the finished cosplay this summer!
Opal was my first Gem makeup ever and for that I love her, haha. No but really, I do love her design which I think is the most beautiful and prettiest color-wise out of all the fusions so far. I love her clean look with the white hair and lavender skin. I really want to cosplay her in the future! I had planned at first to do her for the summer, but then I stumbled upon Malachite and realised how much I needed to make a costume with four legs.
For Opal's arms I was thinking of making a silicone cast of my own arms, and wire them with a skeleton to be able to pose them. I'd build them into a harness and attach them to my own arms using a thin wire. It's a fun project that I'm eager to start with maybe after the summer!
I don't have a tutorial for this, but the makeup base is pretty simple. It's white creme makeup with a lilac powder on top. I gave her some turqouise eyeshadow because it compliments the lavender skin. I love coming up with makeup designs for cartoony characters with simple designs, haha.
For this test I used the same wig as for my Malachite test and I quickly shaped two gems out of worbla (molded in spoons lol) and painted them with some nail polish. I know one of them is supposed to be faceted but this was just a test!
I experimented a bit with her lips since she obviously doesn't wear lipstick but still has very defined, rounded lips. I tried using both grey and purple eyeshadow, but in the end I opted for contouring the lips with a grey shadow to define them without having to color them.
The makeup took about 30 minutes to make!
Products used;
White creme makeup
Lavender eyeshadow powder
Turquoise eyeshadow
Light grey eyeshadow (contouring)
Regular, non circle lenses
Dark grey eyeliner pen (eyebrows)
Mascara
Liquid eyeliner
White wig
Two worbla "stones"
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For the summer we have actually several friends who will join us as Lapis, I'll make sure to add their names as soon as I have some photos and info to give <3
Another friend of us - Panztar Cosplay - will most likely cosplay as Garnet this summer, and we look forward to having a photoshoot with him fighting my BF as Jasper! <3
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So there we go, a short summary of each makeup done! If you have any questions regarding any of the processes, products or anything else, feel free to ask away in the comments <3
