Skin Care

I've been thinking about posting about skin care for a while now, but I couldn't really figure out how to relate it to cosplay. I finally decided, you generally want to look good in your cosplay/at conventions/in photos, in addition to in general, and I definitely believe that it starts with good skin. So here goes.

(Please note that because of varying skin types and conditions, this advice may not work for everyone.)

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For the body
I lotion everything. Yes. Everything. However, I think the most important body parts to lotion are your face, chest, arms, and legs (see? everything). I'll address the face later though. I always try to lotion after shaving. Your skin is most vulnerable after you shave, because the razor scrapes off of a layer of skin. If you use chemical hair removers (Nair or Epil Stop), some don't damage skin as much, but you're still putting chemicals on your skin.

Tip: If you're using lotion or body cream without shaving, rub the lotion in the direction that you want the hair to grow/lay, so if you're using it on your legs, rub downward, toward you foot. It will take a few times doing this, but eventually the hairs will lay in the same direction.

Now, when I said lotion your chest, I did mean what you think I meant. I mean the collar bone area and the breasts, so the whole chest. It's important to moisturize the collar bone area, just as it is important to put sunblock on it, because it's prone to sun damage. The breasts, well, supposedly lotion helps prevent sagging. I have no information to confirm or deny this.

I've used a variety of body lotions, but I think my favorite so far has been Ulta's Berry Crush Hand and Body Cream (which of course I can't find online anywhere). I like the scent and consistency of it, and I got it at a really cheap price when it was on sale (I think it was $2 for a small tube that lasted a few months of weekly use).

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For the face
I have tried, and still use, so much stuff on my face, trying to find what's perfect for my skin type and particular issues. So, again, this may not work for everyone. The picture to the left is the best, most recent picture that I have that shows the skin on my face (click to enlarge). It's pretty smooth, and this is all of the stuff that I do to keep it that way.

At night before bed, I wash my face with Clean & Clear Daily Pore Cleanser©. I have major issues with my pores, they're huge! Like craters! So of course I'm bound to go for a pore scrub. It also of course helps with typical acne, but because it has micro-scrubbers, it can be rough on pimples, so if you're issue is more with pimples than pores, you'll definitely want to try something different. The micro-scrubbers also help smooth skin in general and get rid of any leftover dirt or makeup that regular showering or makeup cleansers leave behind.

Tip: Before using this wash, I wipe off makeup with Walgreens Make-Up Remover Cleansing Cloth Towlettes©. They work just as well as the (more expensive) Neutrogena ones and get off all of my makeup, including my water-proof eyeliner.

For my acne, I have a $5 tube of 5% benzoyl peroxide cream (Kaiser Permanente brand). I'm fairly confident that any brand of benzoyl peroxide will work just the same, though, and you can also get 10% by prescription. Whenever a particularly bad pimple shows up, I dab this on it, and it speeds up the healing process. I do not recommend using this on your whole face, as it will dry everything out horribly, even if you use moisturizer.

Twice a day, once before applying makeup and once after washing before bed, I use Clean & Clear Dual Action Moisturizer©. It moisturizes and (supposedly) fights acne. Since I haven't had any horrible bouts of acne in a long time since beginning using this, I'm fairly confident that it works, and it definitely makes my skin a lot softer.

I also have horrible under-eye bags and wrinkles. In an attempt to combat them, I use Garnier Skin-Renew Anti-Puff Eye Roller© two to three times a day. After using this product for about a year, I still can't come to a conclusion about it. The up-side is that one roller has lasted me this long, the down-side is that I still have under-eye bags and wrinkles. However, I'm also Vitamin D deficient, anemic, and an insomniac, all of which contribute to this issue. So, I believe that the eye-roller does help as much as it can, it just can't completely get rid of my under-eye bags.

Tip: For covering under-eye bags, try using a yellow-tinted concealer, the yellow contrasts the purple/blue. If your under-eye bags are puffy (like mine) use slightly more/thicker concealer in the lower creases, usually near the inner eye/nose.

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A while back, I posted about Almay Blemish Reducer. I have since stopped using it, but I can't fully figure out why. I still fully recommend it, I think that the powder just got annoying to put on or something, I also couldn't sleep with it on, so I couldn't use it at night like I can with the scrubbers and lotion that I use now. I've also expanded my daily makeup routine and had to cut a few things out that just didn't work with everything, and unfortunately, this was one of them. I still fully recommend it for how well it works, it just didn't fit into my daily skin-care routine.

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So that's about it, then. I'll either post again or come back and update this if/when I find new things. I also may or may not post about my varying makeup routines and recommendations. I'm really wanting to at least post about my basic cosplay makeup routine (with theatrical makeup).

Link Progress! (Days 552 - 556)

So I actually did make some progress, for once. I finally finished detailing the sides and bottom of my femme!Link dress. Anyone who says that I chose to genderbend to make it "easier" is dead wrong, that embroidery was hard. I also hemmed the sleeves, but I don't know if I like them hemmed. It made the edges too thick, so now they don't flow like they originally did, and I kind of liked the flow.

I began to detail the sleeves, at least I took out my old detailing, but I can't really decide on how to do it, and in my practice detailing, I kept messing up, so I decided to quit while I was ahead and will work on it some other time.

I'm still worried about getting flack for doing such an, erm, "extreme" genderbend, which is leading me to hesitate on some design choices. The original image (which I posted some time ago) has diamond cutouts on the chest (to show cleavage), but Link's actual tunic just has a cut straight down the middle of the chest (where you can see his chainmail). I'm still completely torn as to which design to go for. On the one hand, the diamonds would be a lot more modest, and potentially get me less flack, however, the straight cut is more accurate, which could earn me bonus points for accuracy (and less flack that way). I know that either way, I won't be able to please everyone, and that I should just choose whichever one I like, but I can't even decide which one I like. So, yeah, still completely stuck, and I have less than a week to decide and finish.

Days 516 - 521

I'm disappointed in myself that I can't come up with a title for this post. Ah well.

So here's the second part of my last post, about WonderCon and such.
Recap: My boyfriend's brother (aka "S") said he'd take us, but then was super flakey and wouldn't give us any details, so I finally decided that I just wouldn't go because "planning" (or lack of it) was getting too stressful.

So I totally called it. S was up and ready to leave at 9:30am on Sunday. My boyfriend woke up just as S was about to leave and asked him where he was going. S said, "I'm gong with [fiance] to WonderCon, you guys aren't coming?" No. No, we're not coming, because you are lousy at planning these things!

But, wait! There's more!

Later that day, I decided to hang out at my boyfriend's house because I was promised barbecue steak (they only had hotdogs, which I hate, just the cherry on the craptastic sundae). S and his fiance came home around 8 (they were at the con for a decent 8 hours at least), and S starts showing us his pictures and swag and talking about how awesome it was. I'm pretty sure he didn't realize how incredibly rude he was being, but it was really hard to listen to, I was half-way between yelling at him and breaking into tears out of jealousy. I just sat quietly, avoided eye contact, and said nothing.

Ohoho, this was beyond the best part though. In regards to cosplayers, he said, "Man, so many people were there in costume! It made me wish I had brought my Kung-Fu Panda costume, I would have been everyone's hero!" This warranted a double facepalm the likes of which you have never seen from me. Yes, he would have been well-loved (it's a full-body fursuit), and yes, he would have been stopped for pictures a lot, and he would have been a lot of people's favorite of the day, but really, he began acting like he would have been a God-among-men if he had worn it, and... No. Just no.

And it get's better! Later (after I had gone home), S told my boyfriend 'Yeah, I know me and [your sisters] make fun of you behind your back for your costume stuff, but I totally get it now.' Ouch. I mean, maybe that wasn't directed at me, but it feels like it was, and ouch. Uncool. Even if he "gets it" now, ouch.

In other news, I've been using italics a lot. I think I'm mad. Anyway, my boyfriend and his family are going to Mexico for 5 days for a wedding, and to kill time, I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish my femme!Link dress, because I've decided that I like it again, haha. There's not a ton left to do on it, it's just a bunch of detailing and fixing some seams that keep ripping, it just feels like a lot because the details are very meticulous and take forever.

ARG! (Days 511 - 515)

So, yeah, most likely not going to WonderCon. And by "most likely", I mean, there's like a 5% chance. So here's the story. (I asked people not to ask, but at the same time, I need to vent it, so here we go.)

Originally, my boyfriend's brother (we'll call him S, for anonymity's sake) was the one planning the trip. He invited my boyfriend and I to go with him and his fiance. Originally, this meant he would drive us there, pay for our entry, and pay for our lunch. Best deal ever, I should have known it was too good to be true.

Then, suddenly, he stopped talking about going. When he was asked, S would just say "Oh, yeah, that" and nothing else. It turned out that he didn't know which day we were going because of his fiance's work schedule. She usually works Saturdays, but we had originally planned to go on Saturday. Also, he wanted to go on the same day that the creators of the Dunny series were going, and for some reason couldn't figure out which day that was.

A few weeks later, when he was asked again, S said that he was worried about being able to pay for everybody to go. I said that I would pay for my ticket, as long as I was told which day we were going so that I could register online (I don't even know if this information was relayed to S). I also offered to pay for my own lunch. After waiting about another week or so, I changed my offer to $20 cash for my ticket (plus my lunch), because if S had been on top of things, I would have been able to pre-register, and $20 would have been the most I would pay.

At this point (probably about a week or so ago from today), I was mad. I can't stand the lack of communication, the constant changing of stories and plans, and the general confusion of the entire thing. This is exactly why I plan convention trips for myself and my boyfriend, and when anyone else wants to join us, they go through me, because I feel like if I don't do it, it won't get done right, and we'll end up sleeping in the convention hallway with one ticket between four people, three energy bars, and no water. It's instances like this nonsense that makes me think this way!

Anyway, about a week before the con starts, I'm told that S's Fiance is going to dictate the entire trip. That if she goes, we'll leave super early, stay at the convention for two hours, shop for four hours, go out to dinner on a "super-special double-date" (or something like that), and then go home. I'm sorry, but I'm not spending $20 just to go to a convention early in the morning, when most of the events are in the afternoon/night, and only stay for two hours. While I would love to go to dinner with S and his fiance on a double-date, that was not the point of this trip, and I'm insulted and offended at the possibility that she's commandeering this whole thing. Again, this is why I plan con trips.

Then, two days before the convention starts (today), I finally said to my boyfriend, "So we're not going to WonderCon, are we?" He gave me his wishy-washy answer of "probably not", trying to let me down easy, but really just making me mad at the thought of false hope.

Because of the way things have been panning out, I expect either Saturday or Sunday morning to go something like this:
S will wake up at about six in the morning, randomly with enough energy to get up. He'll get showered and ready in an hour, call his fiance, and leave. They'll go to the convention for all of an hour, leaving my boyfriend and I behind, then they'll spend the day shopping in SF and get back around midnight. When my boyfriend asks him where he's been, and why he left us, he'll say "lol You were sleeping, and I didn't want to wake you up." Not even out of spite, not even to make us mad or jealous, just because this is something he would just do. He would just not think about the fact that we (I) really wanted to go, and he'll just go. Ugh.

So, yeah, I'm mad. Never letting someone else plan a convention trip ever again. Even if they're my only possibility of going, I'm just going to say "no thanks" because this is too much stress.

And since I'm not going, I'm not going to be cosplaying Terra (Teen Titans) either. I wasn't overly excited about that cosplay anyway, but I am a little disappointed nonetheless. However, in it's place, I will now be cosplaying the lovely gem pictured right. It's a Koffing (Pokemon) gijinka. Unfortunately, I don't know the artist, but I would love to just because I love this design so much. It made me think of Koffing in a whole new light, and I love the subtle "Selfdestruct" reference that sets the tone for the entire design. Admittedly, I've never used Koffing in any of the games, and I was never fond of them in the anime, but I do have a special place for Poison-types in my heart, that's for sure. It's a newfound love, actually, starting from when I played HeartGold and really learned how to use bug types as strategic fighters. I branched out from there to love strategic-fighting Pokemon in general.

In any case, I really can't remember seeing any other Pokemon design as mentally stimulating and disturbing as this one. It's elegantly simple and so subtle, but once realization of it hit, it was impossible to get out of my head. Maybe I'm just messed up in the head like that.

On a side-note, if anybody could tell me what the blue gem on the necklace is supposed to be, that would be fantastic, because I can't for the live of me figure it out.

"Karin" (Days 505 - 510)

This is odd, updating in the middle of the day instead of at night. I know I've updated in the middle of the day before, but it's still weird.

Anyway! I've decided/been given permission/been encouraged to cosplay Karin, Kin-Yoobi Con's new female mascot (pictured left). I haven't been given much information on her, other than she's our old/current male mascot's girlfriend, and she clearly likes video games. Anyway, I originally just wanted to cosplay her at Kin-Yoobi and for a promotional photoshoot, but now I've decided to cosplay her at pretty much all of the GameZone Recreation events. Essentially, I'm hoping it'll be good promotion. Plus, it looks relatively comfortable, compared to most of my other cosplays (with the exception of Clyde).

All I really need for her are better socks and a red skirt. The rest I have, except I'm using a dress shirt instead of a polo, 'cause I honestly thought that she was supposed to be wearing a button-down, I don't know why, and I don't feel like going out and buying more than I need to for this. I already had to take in the shirt that I have, and that was a lot of work. Needs to be ironed more, but it is really hard to iron darts without a ham.

Anime Storm is tomorrow! A little event that GZR is hosting, so I'll be cosplaying Karin, but with a black skirt and thigh-high socks instead of knee-high, because that's what I have right now.

ABC Party (Days 496 - 504)

So the "Anything But Clothes" party was awesome. Here's a picture of my outfit, it's made entirely out of trash bags, newspaper bags, and tape! Yes, even the headband, but not the shoes and naval ring, 'cause, well, yeah, no.

It's a little, um, breezier than I had liked, but by the time I was finished with the skirt and had fought with a top for about three hours, I decided "screw it" and went with a tube top and capelet. Besides, what good is a naval piercing if I don't show it off once in a while?
But, yeah, party was a typical college party and lots of fun. =]

Nothing really on the cosplay front. Took a commission for the first time in my life. It's a jacket commission for a friend, I need to get a price estimate together like now because, as far as I'm concerned, nothing is finalized until money is agreed upon.

I also took up a hat commission, but those aren't really "real" commissions to me. It's for a Dragonite hat, and because the design is a little complex, they've agreed to pay $35, but they won't be getting it or paying until Fanime. Which, yeah, sucks a little, but at least I'll have spending money for Fanime!

Speaking of Fanime, "Magikarp: A History" was approved, or so the forums say. I never got an official e-mail. So hopefully I get one soon with further instructions as to how to get out badges and if there needs to be any tweaking of the panel or anything.

A New Challenger Appears! (Days 494 & 495)

So, this is only slightly cosplay-related, but it has to do with crafting and such, and I'm very excited! I've been invited to an "ABC Party", that's "Anything But Clothes". The theme of the party is to make something out of trash bags, duct tape, anything but cloth/regular clothes. I've always wanted to try something like this, but never had the reason to. I was invited a few days ago, but didn't realize until today that it's this Saturday, leaving me only a couple of days to make something.

Originally, I was going to piece together something out of caution tape, but I couldn't find most of my caution tape (only found pieces), so I decided on plastic bags. I'm making a dress. The front is the goodie bag from Yaoi-Con, since it's black and has a pretty design on the front. The sides are Caution tape, and the back is a garbage bag. My main issue is getting it to fit in a way that I can get in and out of it without having to tap it on every time. I'm not even sure if this is possible.

Anyway, this is a fun challenge, and an excellent use for my dress form! I'll post pictures when it's finished!