Adventures at Yorkshire Cosplay Con and Sunnycon

Thought I'd make a quick blog post on the two conventions I attended recently, Yorkshire Cosplay Con and Sunnycon. Although I made a small video for YCC, I didn't actually manage to film anything at Sunnycon because I was run down with a cold and just didn't feel like filming xD I have filmed a haul video of what I bought at both conventions though, and I'll upload that soon.

I didn't take as many photos of cosplayers at YCC as I would have liked, but here are the ones I did take

Met and hung out with some awesome people too, Sparkles* of Area 11

 The lovely Beckii Cruel

 Another photo with Sparkles* coz I needed one for instagram ahaha

 The gorgeous MiyuukiHime

 The amazing Kelsey (KimonoTime)

 The adorable Fetsu-chan

 And a lovely subscriber and her friend who kept me company and filmed part of my YCC vlog haha~

Overall I had an amazing time at YCC, it was great to cosplay and have people recognise my character as well ;o; Here's my video of the day:

Although I didn't take any photos at Sunnycon, I had a few taken of me! Here are a couple of the best, kindly borrowed from Astrogoate on tumblr:

It was my first time cosplaying Ryuko in public so I was pretty self concious about my midriff haha, but everyone was so nice and took photos of me so it made me feel awesome~ What was also awesome is that there were 3 Ryukos there, but we were all different variations of her so we didn't clash xD

I made some awesome friends at Sunnycon, so even though I went on my own I didn't feel lonely :3

Writing this has given me a case of the con blues now, I hope to be able to go to more conventions soon!

Ryuko Matoi Makeup Tutorial & Cosplay Update

I'm not the best at makeup, but I wanted to show you how I did my makeup for my Ryuko from Kill La Kill cosplay. It's mostly down to the eye liner, and I used pictures of her eyes for reference when doing this.

I started out with the Neo Sunflower blue lenses from my previous review.

I then did a base of concealer and foundation, topping off with a translucent powder to set it. I use powder mineral foundation from Bare Minerals and Collection pressed powder, but you can use your favourite products. Like I said, it's mostly to do with the eyeliner to achieve the look.

 I mostly used this picture of Ryuko I found on Google images, and paid special attention to the gaps in her lower eyelid where the 2 little lines for her eyelashes are. She also has angular lines at the top and a single line for an eyelash, so I included that too.

I roughly drew in photoshop what you should be aiming for, as my photos aren't the clearest.

As you can see I also darkened my eyebrows (probably a bit too much) with some eyeshadow. This is optional, but if you have light or no eyebrows you can draw them on paying attention to Ryuko's eyebrows. They're pretty thin, and should be drawn to make you look angry. My eyebrows are too thick and dark to do this accurately, but it still works.

 You can see the little wing I did for the eyelash. It's not the neatest, but still looks decent from a distance and in photos.

 I did the other eye, and lined my bottom eyelids inside the eyeliner with a white kohl pencil. This makes your eyes bigger and more anime like.

 I circled in red what you can do next to define the eyes, a line in the crease of your eyelid makes your eyes more cartoony and can also add to the 'angry' look.

It does look strange without the rest of my cosplay, as this isn't what you would call a daily look haha!

 I actually forgot to use mascara for this, but it still looks okay to me. Mascara would work really well, but I probably wouldn't suggest false eyelashes, as Ryuko doesn't have that much in the way of visible lashes.

 Here it is with my wig on!

 And then I decided to have a little photoshoot haha~

 I can't decide whether I prefer to pose goofy or serious when cosplaying her ;o;

 don't lose your waaaaaaaaaaaay!

I've been obsessed with the KLK soundtrack over the past couple of days, I'm so sad the series has ended now D:

Anyway, I hope you liked this tutorial/cosplay update, I might do a video tutorial, but last time I tried makeup on my youtube channel people didn't seem to like it LOL

My Cosplays So Far~

I've been watching so much anime recently, and been wanting to cosplay so many characters I thought I'd make a blog post about my cosplays now, so it's not such a ridiculously long post in the future! Then after this all I have to post is cosplay updates hehe~ 

I've only done two cosplays so far, Azusa Nakano from K-On and Mirai Kuriyama from Kyoukai no Kanata. I'm not great at sewing, and I don't have a sewing machine, so my cosplays are all bought, mostly from ebay - that includes wigs too. I generally try to find shoes in local shops, since I prefer to be able to try them on than buy expensive cosplay shoes that might not fit, at least if a costume doesn't fit properly I can alter it. I just spend some time searching through ebay listings for the perfect wig and nice looking cosplay for a good price! My Mirai cosplay was the most expensive so far, but it was custom made and has a lot of parts to it (uniform, skirt, cardigan, glasses) I got the ring for her from TopShop, it was a midi ring that I got in the largest size so it would fit my pinky finger, since finding pinky rings is pretty hard! My Mirai cosplay isn't quite complete yet, I'm still waiting on my coloured lenses (which I buy from Honeycolor) and I need to get some sort of white fabric to make a bandage for her hand. I also need to re-style the wig a bit xD

More photos of my cosplays, and characters who I plan to cosplay under the cut!

Anime I've Been Watching

I've been watching a lot of anime recently, so I thought I'd share some of my favourites so far, and what I plan to watch in the future!

Kyoukai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary)

Kyoukai no Kanata is a kind of supernatural/fantasy anime with slice of life elements and a lot of cool fight scenes. The story follows Akhito Kanbara, who has a thing for girls in glasses, and Mirai Kuriyama, who has the ability to manipulate her blood and use it to fight in the form of a sword. There's demons, sword fights, humour and even an idol episode xD 

I really enjoyed this anime, it's only 12 episodes long, which makes it fairly easy to watch. I often feel discouraged starting a new anime if there's 50+ episodes already out, so I prefer shorter series' like this! I also really loved the characters in this anime too, often I find myself drawn to one or two characters in an anime and end up disliking others, but I love the personalities of everyone in KnK, although Mirai will always be my favourite!

I also have nearly all the parts I need to cosplay Mirai, I just need the coloured contacts I ordered to arrive, and some sort of white bandage for her hand. I want to do a more detailed post about my cosplays, so look out for that!

Black Rock Shooter (TV)

This is the 8 episode series of Black Rock Shooter, which was dubbed the TV version, as there is also a Black Rock Shooter OVA which is kind of like a movie. The TV series' story is fairly similar to the OVA, if you've seen it. It's another fantasy/fighting girls anime (I'm really into those atm for some reason) following two girls, Mato and Yomi, who become friends due to similar interests in a children's book.

It's a rather confusing anime, a little hard to keep up with if you're not paying attention. But again, it's a short series that's easy to get through, and it's a real tear-jerker in the later episodes (although I cry at anything, really) Again, the characters are likeable, and the character designs are gorgeous.

As much as I'd love to, I don't think I'll be cosplaying Black Rock Shooter though!

Kill La Kill

An anime I've only just started watching, Kill La Kill is a more shounen (aimed at boys) than the other two animes that I've been watching, and isn't normally the sort of thing I'd watch. Again, it's a fighting girl anime, but it's a lot more comedic and nuts than anything I've watched in a while! It follows Ryuko Matoi, who is trying to find out who killed her father, and the other half of her giant scissor blade. The story is set in a school where students possess uniforms that give them various powers and abilities, and Ryuko has to fight through them to reach the student council president to find out the truth.

I've only watched 5 episodes so far, but what I've seen I've really enjoyed! At the time of writing there are currently 14 episodes of the series, and it is still ongoing, so I'm not sure how many there will be. If you're interested in getting into this series before the amount of episodes gets out of hand then go for it! Or you never know, it might end at episode 20 or something xD

Ryuko is another character I want to cosplay, I'll  be waiting until February before starting to gather items for it though, but I plan to cosplay her and Mirai in the summer!

I plan to start watching Mirai Nikki next, and I did start Another, so I'm hoping to finish that too!

I watch all my anime online at http://www.animeseason.com/ if anyone is wondering!

I hope you enjoyed reading, let me know if you'd like more posts on anime!