New Wig Review

So I recently I bought a wig off a set called Uniqso and they are a company
out of Malaysia. So I had some doubts about sizing because my head is on the large side.

So it took about 2 ish weeks to arrive to me and when it finally did it arrived in a grey packaging. Inside was my wig in a plastic ziplock bag surrounded by the white cardboard type thing (which isn’t pictured). Then the wig is covered with a black netting.

Once I took it out the wig is in very nice shape there wasn’t any tangled mess or any large amounts of loose fibers (which a lot of wigs are known for).

I put it on without any styling done to it besides sweeping the bangs a bit. And I have to say if the wig cap in the inside was like 2-3 inches bigger this wig would be a perfect fit. (FYI Arda wigs fit really nicely on me). But for being an overseas wig the fit could have been much smaller (which I’ve had happen) so I’m really content with it. Only other thing is that its a little brighter than I thought it was gonna be but otherwise okay.

Here’s the link to the wig: http://www.uniqso.com/wig/blue-wig/cosplay-wig-clannad-ichinose-kotomi

So my overall score for the wig is gonna be 8.5/10

Oops...

I've been neglecting my blog...I always feel like I have nothing to contribute so I just never write anything. But a lot has happened since my last post which was quite a while ago.

I went to Katsucon, C2E2, and Anime Central and am now preparing for Colossalcon in a week.

This was my first Katsucon and minus the crazy snow storm that took over that weekend and jumping from bus to bus to train just to get there I made it and had such a blast. The convention area is so pretty and everyone is super nice and everyone brought their A game. To which now I feel like I have to bring something better than what I brought this year for next year. This year I had brought Princess Odette from The Swan Princess, Charlotte from Madoka, Yuuko from AKB0048, and episode 1 Ryuuko outfit from Kill la Kill. Next year I'm planning on doing Queen Esther from Trinity Blood but her dress will be based on an artwork, Bunnysuit Buttercup from Powerpuff Girls and a surprise cosplay, maybe another one too who knows.

C2E2 I ended up getting to late so I wore Ramona Flowers for like an hour and the next day wore Jubilee from the X-men Nation X vol 1 #2 cover. That was also fun and I had an enjoyable time.

Acen was crazy, my friend works staff so he had to be there by 8:30am so we had to leave our city at like 4am. Once we got there and finally checked in everyone who rode with us seriously took like a 3 hour nap before all the crazy started. I ended up wearing Bunnysuit Haruko from FLCL and kamui Ryuuko from KLK. I had brought Yuuko from AKB too but never ended up getting to wear it. So even though the weekend was crazy I only ended up wearing 2 cosplays the entire time. But I also still had a ton of fun hanging out with friends who I don't usually get to see and meeting new people as well.

Now on to Colossalcon...its like 6 days away and I'm basically all done with everything. I have like 3 bathing suit cosplays and 3 regular cosplays. I plan on bringing Ryuuko and beach queen Ryuuko from KLK, genderbent Sanji, Pool Party Ashe from LoL, bathing suit Sailor Neptune, and Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi. So I'm super excited because this is basically vacation con at a waterpark resort. I will totally be at the swim up bar, the lazy river, and just basically lounging the entire time and I can't wait to see more friends and just relax. And since this is my last con until the pretty much the end of the year when I hit up Midoricon and Youmacon I just wanna get as much con/me time as possible.

So hopefully I will be more active on here. I wanna do more review type things on here from other wig places I shop from that aren't Arda Wigs, and maybe other costume reviews or even helpful things I've learned along the way while I have cosplayed.

~안녕~ (✿◠‿◠)

what now?

So since Youmacon I have been working on a Jubilee from X-Men and Ashe from League of Legends. Ashe is the one taking the most time so I really haven't been able to work on anything else for the time being.

And yesterday was Thanksgiving and I spent it with a friend since my family doesn't really do anything and afterwards we went shopping where I bought an extra firm Calvin Klein pillow from Younkers for like 8 dollars and a 3DS, something I've been wanting for a while. Only thing though is that it wasn't a bundle so I have no games T-T...no biggie I guess.

And starting December 1st I'm going to open an Etsy store with Kandi cuffs, deco stuff, cosplay pieces, and a lot of random stuff. Check it out if you can. :D Etsy Store

Pictures...

I think the worst thing about photoshoots is waiting for the pictures :( I hate waiting...but I guess some previews are better than nothing.

They're all taken by Elleontheradio, the first 2 are my AKB0048 group and the last 2 are from Shakugan no Shana.

Youmacon Review!

So its Sunday (technically monday morning) night and I am so tired but home and I can be on the internet again.

Thursday:
I went to Youmacon this weekend and it was so much fun. On Thursday I had class in the morning and then I went home and continued packing my last remaining things. I waited for my ride to get there and they were about 2 hours later than they wanted to be because one of our friend missed her train. Then they got stuck in traffic and finally they made it and picked me up. After that we went and picked up one other friend from her college and after some food shopping and gas we finally left the city and headed out to Detroit! And a few hours later we were finally there and we grabbed all our stuff and went to check in. We did check in and found our room (which wasn't that high up at all) and we settled in. We changed into cosplay (I was hipster Ariel) and we walked around and ended up at the food court at like 12-1 in the morning and had BK. Eventually we decided to have an early night because we had to get our badges in the morning.

Friday:
I woke up super early because I had a FLCL shoot with CT Graphy in my Haruko cosplay and since there was no room in the car I couldn't bring my guitar, but oh well. After that I caught up to my friends and we went to COBO and got our badges and sat around for a little bit before walking back to the hotel. We lounged in the room for a bit and then all of us decided to get into AKB0048 cosplay for the rest of the night. We wandered around the area, met up with some friends, ate, and just dicked around. I got separated from the group at one point because I found someone I hadn't seen in a long time so we chilled and talked for a bit. I then had to go to the Mackinaw Ballroom I believe and help out with YoumaIdol where I was judging. After that I hung out with one of the other judges and we wandered and got some food before her ride got there. Then I went up to the room to take a shower while everyone else was at the SPG concert. I then got into my kigu and met up with another friend and we chilled and chatted before we both went our separate ways and to bed. Also we got another roommate at this point: Patrick BubblePop!

Saturday:
Once again I got up super early for another shoot this time with Elleontheradio in my Shana from Shakugan no Shana cosplay. After that I ran back to my room and changed into Spike from Tinkerbell: Secret of the Wings. Then I rushed down to meet KoriStarfire and xanimekingdomx for our pixie shoot. We were gonna have more but we lost our Gliss, Tinkerbell, and Silvermist to one thing or another. So we shot some pictures with Scott Souvannasane all over the hotel area before Kori had to go practice her skit for the masquerade (which by the way she got best in show!) After that I went back to the room to change into Yuuko Ooshima from AKB again. I found my Acchan and we walked around at the dealer's room at COBO and just wandered until it was time for our AKB meetup at the winter gardens. There was actually quite a bit of people there wanting pictures, also other AKB-ers. After that we all got food together and then we wandered a little bit more before our shoot with Elleontheradio. We did that for a couple hours and finally we went up to the room and changed out of them and packed a bit. Some of us got into rave gear/kigus/regular clothes. And I hung out with a friend in her suite for a bit and then headed back to my room where I crashed for the rest of the night because there were blisters on my blisters and my feet were just dying. So I turned on some Adult Swim and just hung out in the room eating chips. Eventually people came in and we went to bed.

I almost forgot, I got to meet missfirestarter/jadeb0t/failmacaw today in their FLIPPING FANTABULOUS CHRONO CRUSADE COSPLAYS! Sorry, I love Chrono Crusade and I want to cosplay Rosette so bad!  >.<!!!
And now back to normal talking.

Sunday:
We got up super early and grabbed our stuff and headed to the car before the rush of congoers even processed getting out of bed. We then went back up to the room and lounged about until basically check out. Which then we did check out and some of us grabbed food and some went to the dealer's room. Then the ones who ate (me included) went to COBO and looked at more stuff and then power walked back to the car and a few hours later we were home!

Overall I have to say this year was a lot better than last year's Youma for a number of reasons. They had the printing done beforehand so all the schedules were good to go (although I'm hearing some people still had some issues this year). And the lines for pre-reg went by relatively quickly, the dealer's room had a much better set-up, and I just had a better time.
But of course with good things there are bad things as well, I didn't like that there was no way to add your badge name on the badge itself. There was no point in asking for a badge name when we bought our badges online if they weren't even gonna be on there. Also they were charging $5 for a lanyard, I don't even know why that was necessary. I wanna say I had a little bit more to complain about but I'm drawing a blank so I guess badge name is all I can think of.

so last year I would have given the con like 2/5 stars this year its definitely 4/5. If they keep it up I will always come up.

Facebook page!

Hey, so I know there's like no one on this blog but just incase. I made a Facebook page would be great if you could add it.

http://facebook.com/kukiesiren

Accidents...

So I finally finished up Haruhara Haruko's Rickenbacker 4001 bass today. The neck to the body was very flimsy and kept breaking and so I decided to add dowels into the cardboard to make it sturdier. And I used a drill to bore the holes into the material and everything was going very well until I decided to test the dowels in the holes. So they fit all snug and nicely but then as I tried to get them out one of them was too tight and when I pulled it out I ended up pulling it into my chin. Still hurts 6 hours later and then I kept stabbing my fingers, it was not a pleasant night...

Well here is my finished guitar (minus logo because I haven't taken a picture of that) and my battle wound (which looks more like a puncture mark than anything else but omg did it hurt):

Youmacon 2013!

So with Youmacon coming up in just 3 days I wanted to let people know what my plans were.

For Thursday, not sure what time I will be there but I plan on being Hipster Ariel and just wearing that all day until I probably put my kigu on.

Friday, I will be in Haruko from FLCL with CT Graphy for a couple hours while I get a photoshoot done in her. After that I will change into Setsuka Heel from Skip Beat for a shoot. I'll hang out in that for a bit until I maybe change into Yuuko Ooshima the 9th possibly for YoumaIdol which I will be judging. And then probably kigu rest of the night if I don't head off to bed.

For Saturday, I will be Shana from Shakugan no Shana for a shoot with elleontheradio and then I'm changing into Spike from Tinkerbell: Secret of the Wings and I will have a Periwinkle (xanimekingdomx fb), and a Vidia (KoriStarfire fb) (I think there was a Silvermist too?). We'll do a shoot in out pixie gear and run around for a bit. Then I plan on changing into Yuuko Ooshima the 9th from AKB0048 with an Aachan (nuck-n-futs tumblr), a Takamina (dipshiit tumblr), a Sae and Mariko (White Noise Cosplay fb). Getting some shots of our AKB group with elleontheradio. I think there may be some dancing, I probably won't because I didn't memorize the dance. Then kigu the rest of the night.

And Sunday, I will be Hipster Ariel again because it's easy and fun. Or I'll be in kigu, I guess it depends on how lazy I am.

So that is my plan for Youmacon!

Attack On Titan Harness Review

So about the beginning of the month ish I bought some AoT harness from a seller (Redstar Cosplay) on Etsy instead of the ones on Ebay everyone else was basically telling me to get because they were gonna be over 100 and I spent under with these.

So they were just sitting at Chicago for a while and then they sent it south instead of North East and they finally got here (almost late). And I wanted to post some shots of the harness.

This is what it looked like online:

So it looks nice enough in the picture. But once I got it I noticed some differences. If you look at the belts you notice all the nice belt holes well mine didn't have any of that. It was one of those you put the leather through the belt clasp twice and slide it through. Which is okay, its fine until you get to the suspender part where there isn't even anywhere for me to attach the thing to the waist belt. And the elastic on the leg portion is too long for me so I will have to take that in. And the overall harness is a bit too big on me from the waist down and so it doesn't lay very well on my back (basically it doesn't lay flat on my body). The belt clasps have sharp corners so it hurts just to try and get the leather through them. Oh also the lower leg part where it kind of "X"s they're attached with velcro. I tried to be thrifty and look where that has gotten me T-T.  Here are some nice pictures of my harness:  

look how the back doesn't really lay flat.

elastics are too long, the knee part is too wide.

You can see how I had to put the belt clasp on the waist
belt and how much higher it had to go because
there was no way to attach it really. 

another back look.

Its already tearing after just trying on once.

once again too wide

the back of the harness and the leather ripped off the thing.

so overall I give this a 2/10 I give them a two because shipping was quick with some minor issues not really their fault. And because the top grey back part is nice. Probably about it. 

Shaming no-nos...

So I recently read an article about someone who was fat shamed for cosplaying characters she loved. And I would like to point out that it was a very good article about how she felt about people shaming her but she still continues cosplaying (you go!) and her cosplays are nicely done.

And I would like to say as a cosplayer, that it is completely okay to cosplay outside your race/gender/religion/skin tone/etc. I don't know why this is still an issue, we live in the 21st century!!! I don't care if the president himself came up to you and told you you can't do that character because the character is skinny/"white"/an alien for all I care you do what you want. Most anime characters are based off japanese people so in retrospect white people shouldn't be cosplaying either BUT no one cares when white people cosplay asian characters. So black/native american/Indian/whatever you may be should be given the same freedom to cosplay the characters they fell in love with.

When I first heard about cosplaying I was a young person, I can't say how old I was (maybe middle school age). But when I started looking at it, all I saw were these gorgeous Asian cosplayers and people would post the most "horrible, badly done" American ones and I was biased (being Asian) and thought Americans couldn't cosplay. I will fully admit it! Need I remind you I was young at the time and now that I have grown and cosplay myself, I take back my childish thoughts. It's a lot harder to cosplay than I probably thought when I was younger. And the fact that now that I'm older I know those Asian cosplayers' photos were manipulated and made to look cooler (not saying some of them aren't).

So whether you're overweight/black/have to wear a headpiece because of your religion I say you should be able to cosplay whatever you want. If you are overweight and want to cosplay a skimpier character than you normally would, more power to you! Or if you're overweight and you want to cosplay a skimpy character but modify their outfit to fit your body type better, I say go for it. Or if you have some sort of headpiece (the names of them elude me for some reason) and you want to incorporate that into your cosplay, do it!

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" those are wise words to live by. Because the minute you feel worthless about yourself because of what some douche-bag said about you or your cosplay that is the moment that you gave him the permission to hurt you. So if and when someone says something hurtful, don't let it (I know harder said than done), just walk away and be the bigger and better person that I know you are. That person will walk away from you knowing that their hurtful words couldn't penetrate your thick wall of self-confidence (even if you were pretending). Because I promise you the more you let hurtful things slide off your shoulders the more confident in yourself you will be (this is coming from experience).

And for instance, in the article if your friends are shaming you because you're "fat" or "black" or whatever and telling you that you shouldn't do something because of what other people may say (or what they will say) maybe you should reevaluate your friendships. I would never tell my friends that they shouldn't do something just because of superficial reasons. You will never get every single person to like what you've done. You could have spent a whole year and spent over $1000 and have the best looking thing and someone will hate it. There will always be a critic somewhere telling you you're not good enough. But FUCK THEM! As long as you (YOU!) are good enough for yourself no one should ever have the leverage to make you doubt yourself. It's all about you, it has always been about you. You don't cosplay for the masses and the douche-bags you cosplay for you and because YOU want to have fun.

And let me tell you something some of the most impressive stuff I've seen may not have been canon to people, but its still impressive to me. If you can spit out cosplay after cosplay (or even one a year) and still look amazing in it, honey you have my respect as a fellow cosplayer, a craftsperson, and a decent human being.

So sweetheart, cosplay on!