Saturday, May 31, 2014

FOTD: I Dyed My Hair Red...Sort Of


Hi guys! Long time no see! I have been such a terrible blogger >_<" I wish I could say I have been really busy, but I have actually been really uninspired lately. Also I have been binge watching Netflix and Crunchyroll! I have a few quick updates to share with you all. First of all, I dyed my hair red. Kind of. I lightened my hair a bit because I want to dye it blue when I go to Anime Expo (July 3-July 6), but I hated how it looked as a really light brown. So I decided to dye it red in the mean time. Why not just dye it blue right now? Well I can't have blue hair at work, but apparently red is acceptable xD

Next sort of update is that I will be having my regular Series Challenge for June! I skipped May because I was being lazy but I will be continuing that! Anyway here is my FOTD for today!



                                                                                      Products Used                                                                              
 
Eyes
- Wet n Wild 'Vanity' Palette (shimmery pale gold)
- Kat Von D liquid liner
L'oreal Voluminous Miss Manga mascara


Face & Lips 
- Wet n Wild CoverAll Foundatiin
- Revlon Matte Balm 'Standout'




Thank you for reading!
     






Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Road Warrior Miss Fortune (LoL) Cosplay Part 2: Pauldron

Greetings from the Dark Side ♥

If you are new to this cosplay series check this post out first:


After I had gathered all (or most) of the materials I needed for this cosplay, the pauldron was the very first item I worked on. A pauldron, if you do not know what it is, is basically a shoulder armor. From the concept art, you can see she has a pauldron on her left shoulder. But, this artwork does not show you if she has one on her right shoulder. From playing this character in-game and looking at other artwork, I know she only has one pauldron. This makes my job a lot easier! Instead of two armors, I only need to make one~ I wanted to make this version of her armor so I studied the artwork closely and determined what I wanted to do. I decided that 1) it was going to be a dark navy blue color, 2)I wanted to have three big spikes on it, and 3)I wanted to make it similar bulky shape to the pauldron on this concept art. So let's go step by step on how I created this pauldron!

Road Warrior Miss Fortune (LoL) Cosplay Part 1: Introduction

 Greetings from the Dark Side!

As many of you might know, I absolutely love video games, anime, and manga. This makes me partial to things like going to anime/gaming/comic conventions and to cosplaying. I have cosplayed a few times in the past, but I only started to make my own costumes last year. I attempted to make the Mercenary Katarina cosplay last year but I never completely finished it. I will definitely be finishing that cosplay for Anime Expo 2014 in July. However, I really wanted to do a new cosplay for Fanime 2014 in San Jose. Fanime is this upcoming weekend (May 23-26) so I am really working my ass off to finish this cosplay! I want to detail my progress for you all to see! So let's get right into this new cosplay!

For starters, I should say that this is a character from the online game League of Legends. This character's name is Miss Fortune. She has several costumes (or skins) and I choose this one called "Road Warrior". She looks totally badass in this skin! There are two concept arts for this skin (shown below). I personally like the first concept art the best and this is the look I will be making. However, the reference photo does not provide too many details so I used the other concept art (the second one below) to fill in the blanks.



Here are the steps I have taken to start off my project:
1. After looking and gathering reference pictures, break down the costume into different parts:
-Hair/wig
-Hat
-Goggles
-Weapons (two guns)
-1 Pauldron
-Tattered Cape
-1 Brown Shirt
-Pants
-Several Belts and belt accesories
-1 bag
-Motorcycle Gloves
-1 Knee Armor 
-Boots
-Boot Armor (not sure if I will end up making this one)

Making a list is really helpful to do this because you can check things off your list and know what materials you need to buy for each part. I noticed that many times you can forget things last minute, so for me making a list is a must!

2. Buying materials!
This part is always fun! Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to find and gather materials. I have been gathering materials for months now because I knew with 100% certainty that I would be making this cosplay for Fanime and Anime Expo. 
I bought all materials in various places. I bought my wig on eBay, the brown shirt and brown bag at Target, the fabric for the cape at JoAnn, the worbla for the pauldron online, the paint and misc. materials at Michaels, and so on and so forth. I will get more into detail about this in the posts to come. Anyway, I tried my best to spend as little as possible. I recommend going into thrift stores and looking for materials to use in cosplays. I found my gloves this way as well as some other things for other cosplay costumes I want to make! Thrift stores are fantastic!
3. Get started! 
I have been really lately, so it took me a long time to get started on my cosplay. But once you do get started you can just go all out and try to finish it quickly. I usually work on my cosplay and watch Netflix or CrunchyRoll at the same time :D

4. Try it Out
One reason I never was able to finish my Katarina cosplay was because I wore it to a convention and realized it needed a lot of work. I did not try it out before wearing it to a con, so I did not realize that I needed to fix a bunch of things. This experience taught me to always test drive costumes. Once you are all done, wear your full costume around your house and see how it holds up. This way you can catch anything that needs to be fixed!


Alright, guys! I will be posting separate posts for parts of this cosplay so keep an eye out :D I should have all the posts up before going to Fanime! :D

Part 2: Pauldron
Part 3: Guns

Thank you for reading!
     



Sunday, May 11, 2014

Weekly Favorites #4



1. Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm 'Standout'
When ever I have reached for a red lip product lately, I have reached for this red from Revlon. This week I used this matte balm various times and I am so in love with it! It is really pigmented, matte (but not drying), and it looks simply amazing on the lips. It is hands down one of my favorite red lip products!

2. Dior Creme de Rose 
I purchased this balm about two weeks ago and I have used it every day since then. It is a really pricey product (I think it was about $22), but I can say that this is worth the hype! My lips have felt more moisturized with this balm than with any other balm I have used in the past. It smells like roses and it makes my lips look so pretty! It does not have a visible color, but it leaves the lips looking a bit glossy with a touch of pink sheen. This stuff is absolutely wonderful. I think I will purchase another one to keep in my purse at all times!

3. Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser in the shade 'Neutralizer'
I'm sure I have already raved about this product more than enough, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it again. This is definitely my HG undereye concealer. I love it very much! It brightens up the eye area and it is amazing to clean up any eye look. I recommend the shade 'Neutralizer' over the other shades though (I have the shade 'Light' as well, but I don't like that one as much). 

4. Tarte Airbuki Brush
I bought this brush along side the Tarte Amazonian Clay Airbrush Foundation,  but I use it with other foundations as well. I find this is a great brush for BB creams because it really blends in the product into the skin. I have used this brush pretty much all week to apply my Lioele BB cream on my skin. Definitely worth the money!

5. Illamasqua Cream Pigment 'Androgen'
The only cheek product I wore this week was this cream pigment here. I am loving corals lately and this is a really fantastic coral multi-purpose product. It looks so great on the cheeks though. It gives the skin a refreshed and glowing appearance. I highly recommend the Illamasqua Cream Pigments!



6. Shiro Cosmetics Seven Kingdoms Collection
The only eyeshadows I really used this week (besides the ones from my last FOTD) are a few eyshadows from the Shiro Cosmetics collection inspired by Game of Thrones. I particularly love 'Mother of Dragons' (purple/mauve with silver) and 'Maiden Queen' (emerald green). I pressed all of these eyeshadows so I have them conveniently all in one palette.


Thank you for reading!
     


Friday, May 9, 2014

FOTD: Simple Bronze

Greetings from the Dark Side!

Today's look is really simple. I had to wake up early to go to work and I was really tired from moshing last night (I went to a concert for the band Chiodos). I just threw on two neutral colors and a purple-toned pink on my lips. And BAM! I was good to go for the day. I've been really lazy with my makeup lately but I will do my best to post more FOTDs for you guys :)



                                                                                      Products Used                                                                              
 
Eyes
- Pumkin & Poppy 'Precious' Cream Eyeshadow
- Essence Metal Glam 'Chocolate Jewellery' eyeshadow
L'oreal Voluminous mascara


Face & Lips 
- Lioele Super Gold Snail BB Cream
- MAC 'Eversun' Blush
- MAC 'Asian Flower' Creamsheen Lipstick





Thank you for reading!
     


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Weekly Favorites #3




1. Revlon 'Snow Peach' Lipstick
I bought this lipstick a few weeks ago and I have been using so much since I got it. It was part of the Revlon display for the vintage lip colors that were brought back. This was the only shade that really called out to me. It is a beautiful coral peach that is perfect for spring. I absolutely love it! It has been in my purse the whole week!

2. Micheal Kors Slim Runway Rose Gold Watch
Last week, I splurged on this Micheal Kors watch. I have been wanting a MK watch for a long time, but they are quite pricey. I settled for this rose gold beauty! You can't see it very well, but it is a really simple design. I have been wearing it every day this week!

3. ELF HD Undereye Setting Powder
I love my Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer, but sometimes I feel like I need a really good setting powder for it. I found this Undereye Setting Powder at Target and I immediately knew it was something I had to try. So far, I really like it! It gives the skin a really matte and soft finish. It doesn't really cover dark circles, but it helps to set concealer or to just slightly brighten up the eye area.

4. MAC 'Riri Woo' Lip Liner
I hate putting a limited edition item on here, but I have honestly been using this a lot this week too. I tend to use it with red lipstick, but I have also used it under Revlon's 'Snow Peach' to add a bit of a red undertone to the lipstick. This is such a great lip liner and a beautiful color!

5. RBL 'Kellie Gonzo' Nail Polish
Another limited edititon product I hate to mention, but this polish here has been on my toe nails this week. It matches the 'Snow Peach' lipstick too, and adds a bright pop of coral. It is perfect for spring. And regardless of it being spring, I love coral polishes/lipsticks!

6. NYC 'Sunny' Bronzer
I am starting to bust out this bronzer really often now that the weather is becoming warmer. This is a great bronzer. It is inexpensive, it does not pull orange, and it applies beautifully. I thought it would be too dark on my light skin tone, but it really is not. A great product for the money!


Thank you for reading!
     


Saturday, May 3, 2014

Review: Nayll Custom Polishes

Greetings from the Dark Side!

Tomorrow is March 4th, officially named Star Wars day! In celebration of Star Wars day, I wanted to share a few nail polishes that I customed made on Nayll. Nayll is a website that allows you custom make polishes and name them as well. It is a really cool concept and I had tons of fun creating for of my very own polishes. Three of the polishes were inspired by Star Wars and the fourth by Princess Peach from Mario! I will have swatches as well as the ingredient I used to create each polish~!

Vader
This color is inspired by Darth Vader, one of my favorite Star Wars characters. This polish has a black jelly base, ruby red holographic squares, black holographic hex, black diamonds, silver flakes, and silver holographic hex. This is basically a black base with lots and lots of silver, black, and red glitter!I absolutely love how it came out. The swatch is one coat of a plain black nail polish and one coat of Darth Vader.