Cosplaying Junko Enoshima

Ever since the increasingly popular Dangan Ronpa made it's way into international attention it's become somewhat cool to cosplay the infamous Junko Enoshima, a super gyaru model, especially amongst those who consider themselves gyaru. I've cosplayed her, someone you know has probably cosplayed her and your pet cat has also probably cosplayed her. At every convention it's not unusual to see at least a handful of this super endearing character.

But the thing that grinds my gears about people who cosplay her the most is that people who mess up on her make-up. For someone who doesn't know that she's supposed to be gyaru that's okay but for those people who do and don't make an attempt on the make-up? Oh dear.

I'm going to cover the most common make-up mistakes I see for Junko.


1. Circle Lenses

These aren't optional unless there's some sort of medical reason why you're unable to wear these. Junko has blue eyes - implied to be natural - but as Junko is gyaru we're wanting to go for the full look. Try and obtain a pair which have a dark limbal ring for that dramatic effect such as G & G Max Pure Blue or Super Pinky Blue. The main purpose of this is to prep your eyes for the dramatic gyaru make-up Junko would wear and to give your eyes her colour.

2. Eyelashes

In order to stand out in photos, I recommend rokku or agejo styled make-up as this shows up on camera better and considering Junko's personality I feel like she'd opt for one of these styles. The main focus is going to be your eyelashes. The best brands to go with for this are Japanese lashes that are intended for gyaru such as Diamond Lash or Jewerich, especially in their bolder and more dramatic styles. Dolly Wink doesn't work for Junko as the lashes aren't dramatic enough for her.

For her upper lashes you're looking at one of the bolder styles as opposed to a half lash. It's best to get the 'spiky' kind of lashes as opposed to fanned out lashes as these look more dramatic and more 'old school gyaru' which is what we're going for with Junko. Diamond Wink has plenty of lashes in their Series 1 and Series 2 collections which are suited for this!

For her lower lashes you're looking at something that you're going to be able to use to extend your lashline. Personally, I think it's a good idea to make a good investment in these as I think the eBay lashes are a bit harder to make look nice. I once again recommend Diamond Lash as I've never had a problem with their lower lashes.

3. Cheeks

Pink blush. Lots of it. Do it.

Gyaru are famed for their pink cheeks so it's important to apply this to Junko. It's even more important if you want the blush to show up on camera. It's an infamous cosplay secret to do your make-up to drag queen levels so it shows up on camera and it shows. It can look a little ridiculous in real life but on photos I guarantee it'll show up.

4. Lips

"Oh, she's a fashion model who wears lots of make-up. I'll give her a red lip!"

If that fits your line of thinking stop right there. As we've put a lot of emphasis on her eyes with the circle lenses, false lashes, eyeliner and all of the other important make-up we don't want to be having red lipstick for Junko. The best thing to do in this case is to use a neutral lipstick or a light pink shade to let Junko's eyes do the talking.

After all, she is crazy. Better let it show.

5. Nails

Most girls do her nails false and red which is completely correct, but my favourite thing in the whole wide world is when girls gyaru-fy Junko's nails. We're talking about accents, beads, nailart, sparkles, claw shaped nails... whatever suits. It's not necessary and the standard red nails will work, but adding that extra detail just goes the extra mile for Junko's personality.


That's it. Those are the 5 things about Junko Enoshima that bother me the most when people cosplay her. Of course, there's the outfit but I always tend to harshly judge people by their make-up when I see cosplays of her. Even though I've cosplayed her three times myself I'm still unhappy about my own rendition of the character.

It never ends.

Stay sweet! ♥

Eyes

5 Things I Learnt about Gyaru through Cosplay

Cosplay is mainstream. Cosplay is popular. Long ago those who consumed and enjoyed Japanese media were labelled as 'otaku' (not a good thing, I promise) or even worse; a weeaboo. Nobody wants to be tarnished with that brush or have that insult hanging above their head. Nowadays the hobby has started sneaking into mainstream media and gyaru are beginning to open up and admit that they actually enjoy this sort of activity.

For example, take Pikarin. She's cosplayed characters such as Madoka Kaname, from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Miku Hatsune and even Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. Ageha (RIP) had a feature on titan make-up from Shingeki no Kyojin as well as other subjects.

Although I've learnt a lot from following gyaru that aids cosplay (usually make-up), I've also learnt a lot of skills from cosplay that can be used in gyaru.


1. Wearing high heels for a long period of time.

I won't lie. I have naturally weak ankles which tend to collapse if I so much take a step once the colder weather stepped in and if it hadn't of been for cosplay I wouldn't have even dared to wear high heels in this weather. However, for the sake of cosplay I was forced to and I found out that I could wear heels as well as have comfy feet all day long.

We've all had that incident where you have to whip your heels off and wonder why you're subjecting your poor tootsies to something so painful. Thanks to cosplay I can avoid that for the most part. Mostly. I still have times where my feet scream, "WHY," at me.

2. Eyelashes make a difference.

I thought a pair of false eyelashes is just that; a pair of false eyelashes. I never imagined the difference the style of them would make to my eyes! I was the type of girl who used to bulk buy off eBay and then settled for my oh-so-gyaru Dolly Wink lashes that would make me look like an Ageha model (spoiler: they didn't). It was when I bought a pair of Jewerich lashes for my Junko Enoshima cosplay that I realised that there was a difference to be made here.

Your false eyelashes can change the way your eyes look. Whether it's a cute himekaji look or whether you're going for a rokku look, the eyelashes make a world of difference. I can't imagine Dolly Wink lashes being dramatic enough to be rokku in any way, shape or form. Maybe if you wore 3 pairs of them simultaneously, maybe.

3. Styling wigs. And halfwigs.

For years wigs have been part of gyaru, whether you wear them or not. Hairpieces, too. There's no way that a girl with thin hair is going to be able to have a huge sujimori style without some assistance and there's not a chance in hell that you're going to have blonde hair one day and red the next without wrecking your hair. With cosplay the importance of wigs is stressed and unless you're a pro at cutting hair, you have to learn how to do things the hard way. Styling wigs isn't like styling hair as unless you're working with a heat resistant wig, I'd be wary of sticking the hairdryer on close to the plastic fibres. Mmm, plastic gloopy mess. Just what I wanted.

By being a cosplayer I learnt how to both style and care for wigs before I moved onto my pricey half-wigs and billion hair pieces. I've been known to wear 5 - 6 wig pieces at once which I don't think I'd be able to deal with if I didn't have some sort of experience.

Thank you cosplay gods.

4. Wearing your make-up like a drag queen.

I'm sure that all gyaru want their make-up to show up in their photos. Heck, if I've made an effort I want some of it to show up instead of looking like I'm going au-naturale. If I've done my make-up especially for photos I've learnt from photos that I want it to look heavy; like a drag queen. That way it's gonna show up.

Same applies with gyaru make-up. At present I'm not happy with how may own make-up shows up on camera so I have to make it heavier. Bah. I don't need the natural look at all.

5. Fixing accessories.

Raise your hand if you've been guilty of breaking an accessory over time. I am. I remember how I watched on in horror as I watched the clasp of my brand new MA*RS necklace go flying across the room as I tipsily tried to pull the thing over my head. I was pretty devastated. Thanks to some jewellery pliers I had laying around it was easy enough to attach a new clasp to my precious brand. If I hadn't of had those pliers laying around from the time I made some earrings for a cosplay I would've probably still been scratching my head.

I'm terrible at creative things. Doing this was easy peasy.




If you guys have any tips I'd love it if you left them in the comments.

Stay sweet! ♥

May MCM Expo 2014

Last month I attended London MCM Expo. It's the first time in four years that I've attended the May edition as I usually overheat and get tired and grumpy and I wanted to avoid that. It's no different this time.

Unfortunately I didn't have an overly good time due to some personal circumstances. But that's no reason to stop the fun, right?

F R I D A Y
I didn't cosplay on the Friday as I was travelling all the way from Newcastle which is approximately three hours. After dragging a case down I wasn't in the mood to cosplay for one or two hours so I decided to wander around in normal clothes.


I'm actually really silly and forgot to take an outfit shot waaah. The shirt I was wearing was a gift from a friend and the skirt was the white skirt I'd bought from YesStyle recently.

I had a lot of fun being able to browse in peace but it was so weird to not be cosplaying. I felt invisible! Although it was a lot less stressful to get everywhere. I kinda wish I'd taken more photos of the inside of the con centre as... someone decided to hold exams.

During a convention. I know. Scandalous right?

I ended up purchasing some lower lashes from Dreamy Bows. Their stand was so cute and their staff were super lovely. I really do recommend them as they've been nothing but lovely and helpful. I'd left my lower lashes at home and I was panicking until I saw their stand. ♥ I also purchased a wig from them to replace the wig that I never received from Lockshop.

S A T U R D A Y
I cosplayed! I redid my Junko Enoshima from Dangan Ronpa just like I did back in October. There were some significant improvements on the make-up front and I didn't forget to wear my choker this time.


I had lots of fun being asked for photos but I was fairly tired. I lost a lot of contact with my friends who weren't working and spent most of the day by myself and hiding from the Dangan Ronpa fandom because I'm super shy! I did meet some lovely people who took photos of me or had impromptu shoots. ♥

Although I felt lonely I felt blessed that people would offer to help.

One of the things I love about the UK con scene is that everyone is so friendly and willing to help people out. I usually don't see that much at Expo but people who saw me sitting by myself came by for chats and I just feel so fortunate that I was in a position to be able to capitalise on those.

I'll be posting photos on my cosplay page.

I didn't buy anything because as anyone who has attended Expo knows, Saturday is horrifically hot and stuffy and difficult to move in.

S U N D A Y
Did I cosplay again? Of course I did! I recreated my Gemucon lineup by recosplaying Sonia Nevermind from Super Dangan Ronpa 2. I wanted to get photos of her that I could be proud of.

I didn't do that.


The costume was a total pain. My ankles kept twisting, my contacts were physically painful and the wig would not stay on my head. For the first time in forever my false eyelashes decided they didn't want to stay on my face. I felt like a fat frump and less like the Super Highschool Level Princess I should've been.

I purchased a Monomi plush to go along with my cosplay. I also purchased a Liz Lisa dress of... dubious authenticity and gave some money to a girl who was agonising over whether or not she could afford a bag.


Sure, this is authentic, right? Not. I like the dress enough to have not gonna storming back to the seller when I realised they'd charged me brand prices for something that was very not brand. It's no secret that MCM has become full of fakes recently but I'm disappointed that it'd be so obvious and in my face.

O V E R A L L
Expo was okay. It was Expo. I was lonely and bored most of the time and just wanted to hang out with people who weren't working. I kind of wish there was more to do but when it's like a cattle market there's not much that can be done. Kudos to them for expanding the space, although I missed the sitting area from October Expo a lot.

I'm not sure if I want to attend the next one.

Stay sweet! ♥

Kitacon V

Back in March I attended my favourite UK convention, Kitacon! Held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole I've been attending this convention for three years as it's one of my favourites. It was quite infamous this year as it sold out within a matter of days which meant a lot of people who had attended every single one were unable to make it.

Even so it was a great event!

Thursday

The Thursday was pretty uneventful. I just travelled down, changed hairstyle through the journey and met up with some friends.

I do have an outfit shot for the day however, courtesy of Dan Hardwick.


After getting food we all went to stand in a queue to pick up our badges. I suck and didn't take a photo but my badge name was Viola. As you can see, we're all very happy to be collecting our badges (as seen by the looks on all of our faces!).


After that I went to bed as I was tired from travelling all day. Hey, old age is certainly starting to get the best of me!

Friday

Friday was the first convention day! I wore Christa Renz from Shingeki no Kyojin with a group of friends. I actually forgot some parts of my costume at home so I felt really bad about it. I don't have any of the shots back so have some out takes and selfies with other people.






On the evening I just attended the party and went back to bed again. I'm not built for partying, I'm a girl who loves her sleep (despite constantly not getting enough of it). I'm also pretty sure I heard Space Jam coming from the party during the evening. Excellent.

Saturday

Despite feeling worse for wear I woke up and persevered. I wore Asami Sato from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. It's a really different look for me and some people didn't recognise me.


I actually showed my hair stylist one of the photos and she won't believe it's me.

It's 100% me.

I worked with Izzy from Solarillusion Photography for these shots and oh my goodness she is wonderful! She made me look so gorgeous!


I didn't meet too many other Korra fans sadly. I did run into a Tenzin and Korra at one point and I was really happy as I'm a huge Avatar fan! I cosplayed Ty Lee in the past.

Once again evening came around for the party. I forgot to take an outfit shot again but I eventually left worse for wear.


Sunday

Oh deary me. I slept in as my phone alarm hadn't gone off and I felt too queasy to get up so I didn't end up wearing Mirai Kuriyama. With the recent weather in the UK it's been too warm to wear her, sadly.

I ordered food. It was like, £20. Never again.

Afterwards I changed into my Luka Megurine from Sandplay Singing of the Dragon cosplay, made by the amazingly talented Felixize. I mean wtf look at this dress, it's so big. So big that I eventually ended up with bruises and welts on my hips and had to be rescued out of it by friends as I was struggling to walk and was generally in a lot of pain after 6 hours or so.


Once again I worked with Solarillusion Photography for photos.


I'm actually really pleased even if I didn't have my headpiece on for the first half of the day (oops!). At the ball I couldn't really dance because my dress was too big and I was starting to feel sore. I couldn't even get to the bar; my friends had to go for me as I couldn't get my dress through there!

Overall Kitacon was great as usual! I met lots of new people and despite wanting to drop out for personal reasons I'm so glad I went. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one!

Cosplay Preview: Mirai Kuriyama

In a few weeks it will be another convention down on my con schedule. Scary!

They're always so stressful to get ready for even if you're not cosplaying like I am. I'm currently running around like a headless chicken all, "I won't be ready in time! What do I do? I'm going to be left in trouble!"

Actually, this convention has had a lot of bad sides for me so far but I hope that just means the event itself is extra good.

One of the characters I'm cosplaying as is Mirai Kuriyama from Kyoukai no Kanata. I actually didn't like the series but by the end I was crying like a little baby. After some decision I decided that I too could be as cute as Mirai.

Have some teasers below!




Camwhoring is fun when you look cute~

The outfit is actually super warm and comfy, I think I might die from overheating! But it's better to be warm than cold.

The circle lenses I'm wearing for her are EOS New Adult Brown. Her eyes are more of a light brown than yellow so I wanted lenses which would reflect that and these do a pretty nice job of it! Even if I did put them in backwards originally!

Stay sweet! ♥

Becoming Friends with your Self Confidence

If there's one thing I've realised about myself recently, it's that my self confidence and I are beginning to become friends again. We've been squabbling at each other for the longest time. If I took a photo I'd think, "Ugh," and Photoshop myself silly and still be unsatisfied with the girl I've been portraying myself as or delete it. I can't count on two hands the amount of times I've sat in front of a mirror nitpicking at myself or nitpicking at my photos and thinking, "Why can't I be beautiful?"

I know what you're thinking.

Become more positive!

No, you're cute!

If you think like that then you won't have any friends!

But the reality is it can be hard to accept yourself. If one person puts you down it's like poison straight to how you perceive yourself and you begin to notice flaws about yourself that probably don't exist. I wonder why we're all mean about each other, huh? There's always comments like, "your make-up isn't good enough," or, "you're too fat to do this," and at the end of the day that's really harsh. There's only so much that beauty products can help and it's no wonder that nowadays you hear about poor girls suffering from all sorts of disorders.

Even back in 2011 I was wondering if I was too fat after seeing these girls back in Ageha at the time. Those kinds of girls are unfortunately still pushed as what is beautiful.

Anyway, back to the point.

For the first time in 21 years I have been able to look at myself and call myself beautiful. It's kinda funny actually. It took wigs, circle lens, false eyelashes, more make-up than I'd ever like to admit I was wearing and a filter for me to realise I was not as bad as my mind was mentally telling me I was.

I did a cosplay make-up test for Luka Megurine from Vocaloid yesterday and after I applied the filter I was so caught off guard at how nice I looked I actually started to cry!


I just looked really pretty and I was super happy. But then even the poisonous thoughts have come back to me saying, "you're not that pretty without that filter or angles," and, "you look cross eyed because of your contacts." Even so I'm pushing those thoughts away. I think if you think positive, beautiful thoughts you will become a positive, beautiful person.

Am I right? I hope so!

So lets not have any more faces like the one below:


Let's make 2014 the year of positivity and learning to become friends with your self confidence!

MCM Expo 2013

Happy 2014!

The last few months have been rough so updates slowed down dramatically. I've taken to reading blogs again and it reminded me about how much I used to love updating my own blog. Hopefully this means the passion I had for blogging is back, although I blog about silly things.

Moving on~

In October 2013 I went all the way down to London to MCM Expo. It was fairly stereotypical as far as Expos go and it's not an event I'd recommend to everyone but it was still fun enough. I barely took any photos because I was upset about something that was happening in my life and blah blah I have some photos I'd like to share with you all!

Friday

On the Friday I ended up cosplaying as Christa Renz from Attack on Titan, a series I think which needs no introduction judging by how popular it seemingly became! It was literally everywhere haha! I chose to do Christa because I think she was the only character I could pull off! My harness didn't fit properly though which was a downer; I'm too short for it so my boots cover most of it.

Shortie life is hard, yo!

I did this cosplay with a group of friends so we were all matching and stuff! We had Megan as Annie, Jason as Reiner, Chloe as Mikasa and Leayah was supposed to be Ymir but she went missing. When we found her she was in full costume in the bar. Really drunk. Somehow, I'm not surprised.


Photo by Martin Paterson
I had lots of fun and even briefly ended up in a cosplay music video again. That's my second one! I'm not in it too much because I hid towards the end out of shyness and couldn't hear the instructions most of the time. Nonetheless it was great to be in!


There's a lot of Attack on Titan cosplayers but Friday was the day there was the least amount of them. Ha ha... it's a super duper popular series!

I ended up leaving midway through the video shoot as my contacts were really hurting me and I ended up sitting in a dark hotel room on my own for two hours trying to soothe my eyes. I guess I'm not used to wearing them at all even though I had them in for four hours or so!

Saturday

I redid one of my older cosplays for Saturday but turned up the gyaru level. It's from this post if you feel like looking all of the way back to then. It's Junko Enoshima from Dangan Ronpa, aka my homegirl.


I actually ended up spending a lot of Saturday by myself because my friends were busy in their own shoots and I didn't want to interrupt. But those nails... Junko actually has red nails but I wanted to drive home the fact she's a gyaru. I commissioned the amazingly talented Lhouraii for the nails and she completely outdid herself with what little instructions I gave her. I'm so pleased.


I was putting the nails on in my hotel room by myself and when I realised I couldn't do them on my own I ended up grabbing a random man from the corridor to help me. Whoever you are, thank you! I couldn't have done it by myself.

I took some photos with people even though I only got like, one back. I wonder where the rest of them went! Hey, you! If you have them stop hoarding my beautiful face for yourself and lemme see, okay!


Pulled from this guys Instagram. ♥ Contrary to popular belief I do not have weird teeth which is why I don't smile showing them often, I just don't like my smile haha!

Aaaah, the rest of Saturday kinda sucked though. I went to find my friends and I within three minutes I was pulled over by a group of guys. One of them put his hand up my really short skirt. So rude! What makes people think that just because I'm wearing a short skirt that it's totally acceptable behaviour to do that?! NEWSFLASH: it's NOT and the law still applies to you.

I don't cosplay to be sexually harassed by morons.

A few minutes after that another group of guys asked for a photo. I was feeling upset but I agreed anyway and one of them picked me up. When I asked him to put me down because my underwear would be on show and I didn't want that he proceeded to call me an inbred.

Really? Really?

This sort of attitude towards people makes me not want to come back to this event. It's totally uncalled for and I think sometimes people forget cosplayers are real people who have feelings too. I didn't ask for this.

Shortly after I went and sat by myself away from the crowds for two or three hours until my friends were done and they came to meet up with me. I had lots of people ask if I was okay though which I'm completely grateful about.

I ended up meeting with the lovely Lucy after the event and we roomed together.

Sunday

I have no photos from this day. My cosplay fell apart so I sulked in the e-sports area where my friends were working and then went back to my hotel room to get changed hahaha.

I did good, as you can tell.

Monday

I was supposed to be travelling home today. Keyword being: supposed.

Instead there was a super storm in London so all trains were cancelled and I was stranded there. ;w; I ended up going to see some of the sights and getting lost haha.


I got lost at Canning Town because I couldn't figure out how to get to the platform I wanted to be on. Instead I took a photo.

I also had Bubble Tea for the first time ever. It was really nice~ I had green apple flavour and I didn't realise the pearls would come up the straw so I ended up having a huge surprise. Oopsie daisy. I suppose the face I made must have been hilarious!


Overall MCM was fun but the crowds of people and people's attitudes towards me ruined it slightly. I had lots of fun with my friends though and showing off the gorgeous nails I wore for Junko haha!