Shu Uemura x Takashi Murakami Job

Hey guys, there's been some changes in my life that's happened during the past couple of weeks, hence the lack of posts. Firstly, I attended Steph's birthday party, and it was a small but cozy affair with lots of chatting, drinks and eventually winding up at a karaoke place. 

The next week, I did a one-day job stint with Shu Uemura to promote their new Christmas/ Takashi Murakami special. I had to dress in Lolita and Cosplay for the job, and most of the time I abhor these kinds of jobs as I personally find it insulting to use Cosplayers and Lolitas as cheap gimmicks to promote products. However, I did it as a favour for an old friend and ex-colleague from my Shu Uemura days and the products are related since the new collection is very anime based.

 Picture of the huge Light box mural at the store counter. It's actually one model but she looks so amazingly different with the contrasting makeup styles.

  

 The display stand. The makeup palettes are missing as the counter staff was using it on a product demonstration as I was snapping this picture.

Me, on my way to the job location and waiting for the train to arrive. It was actually my first time wearing Sweet Lolita as I used to wear Gothic but never sweet, though I've always admired the style from afar. Everything was generously loaned to me from my friend, Jean.

The rest of the Lolita girls for the day, from left, Kairi, me, Daphne (she cosplayed as Tinkerbell in my Disney Princess team) and Jean (my fellow team member of my Claymore group)

Outfit shot with Jean! Really really grateful to her for loaning me the entire outfit, she wanted to loan me stockings and shoes too but I rejected because I didn't want to dirty or scuff the shoes and stockings are really fragile.

Ribbon Headband: Baby The Stars Shine Bright

Dress: Angelic Pretty

Necklace: Angelic Pretty

Stockings (my own): Grimoire Verum

Shoes (my own): Taobao

Wig: Taobao

Unfortunately, Jean had to leave for Church service so I switched out to my Persona 4, Rise Kujikawa costume instead. One shopkeeper said I looked really cute XD 

With sweet Jean, she looks different as a Lolita, cosplayer and in casual wear. Different but all good in their own way.

With Kairi, who's also a cosplayer. It was my first time meeting her as we had never crossed paths during events before, so it was fun chatting and getting to know her

 

Changed out after a grueling 5 hours standing in our costumes and dresses, facing the terrible heat and humidity and some unwarranted comments from the general public (seriously, it's just clothes, chill  out!). I knew my hair would be a terrible mess if I took off my wig, so I decided to just head home whilst wearing it.

Lace top: This Fashion

Lace shorts: Lowry's farm

 

By the end of the day the promotional song for the collection was stuck in my head. No surprises since it's quite catachy and sung by Hatsune Miku. I also found out that it is actually a legitimate anime directed by Takashi Murakami called, 6 Heart Princesses. The group of us were challenging each other to watch the anime and actually cosplay the costumes shown in the video after we found out.

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, some changes have occured in my life. For one, I've found a new job for a Japanese hair products company. The job scope is fairly different from my earlier jobs so I'll be learning quite alot of things, it's also my first foray into the world of media advertising. I'm also now working with best friend and sister from another mother, Steph. Yup! We're in the same company and driving each other nuts on a daily basis, though it has its own set of challenges. I'm looking forward to learning new things and getting to annoy Steph everyday, so till next time!

P.S. My new header and background are all thanks to Steph's ingenious creativity and willingness to slave away for me muahahahah! Thanks alot. 

Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2013 Aftermath

Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2013 came and went extremely fast but I had a blast those 2 days though I was crazily trying to finish my day 1 cosplay stuff 2 weeks prior to the event. It was a lot of rushing and late nights but it was all worth it in the end.

I cosplayed from the Claymore series and to be exact, as the character Helen from the 7 Ghosts of the North arc. It happens after the anime ends so you only see their outfits in the manga.

Instagram pic of me before leaving Jo's house (she's our team leader) after preparations.

Full team picture, we put alot of hardwork into our swords and armours, even roping in Jo's boyfriend, Rescend, and a couple other friends to help us. Without them, I doubt we would have finished everything on time.  

Credits of the photograph goes to William Tjhin

After all the chaos and hardwork of Day 1, I was glad to be able to cosplay something easier on Day 2. I cosplayed Junko Enoshima from the game/anime Dangan Ronpa. Sad thing was that there was a dozen other Junkos at the event (same with her twin, Mukuro) but I'm glad Mini suggested getting the crown to stand out from the Junko mass. She also gave me this packet of Monokuma sweets that she had gotten during her short trip to Japan. She also helped me to back comb my wig for that more crazy look

Some shots of me that day. Credit goes to Fox Foo for the pictures.

Camwhores with friends on both days. Unfortunately, I coudn't really use my phone on Day 1 due to my gloves and Day 2 my phone batt went flat and I forgot to bring an external charger so less pictures this time. The crowds were also insane, so I didn't get to see alot of friends through the day.

Was able to meet and take a picture with Reika again through sheer luck. Hooray!! Though I again got tongue-tied upon being up close with her. 

I also met a cosplayer from overseas called JayEm, you may have seen his pictures floating around the internet as Ace from One Piece and Gray from Fairy Tail. He's famous for...well.... that body! The AFA management were actually pretty awed by his cosplay as Eren Titan form that they allowed him to pose inside the barriers surrounding the blow up Colossal Titan head! He's the only cosplayer to have been given that privilege and of course hordes of screaming fangirls were surrounding him. 

I saw alot of wonderful cosplays those 2 days but I could only take a couple of pictures.

Fellow Claymore cosplayers!! That King Isley is really spectacular and he's the same cosplayer whom I met at a different event! My team is trying to get him to join us for our photoshoot. 

Can't leave an event without taking pictures of Cvy and Kanasai-san, some of the most amazing local cosplayers. I truly aspire to reach their standard of cosplay someday. They are cosplaying playing cards from the famous illustrator, Saikizo. Can you imagine that all the stripes and plaid were individually hand sewn? Singapore doesn't offer cloth printing services and I saw their work in progress pictures through Facebook detailing their laborious process of creating these amazing costumes and meticulously styling their wigs.

My Claymore team were also filmed by 2 different people through the event. It's really an honour to be able to be part of these event films. 

First video by Rescend. He wanted to capture my cosplay of Junko on Day 2 too, but by the time he found me, I had begun to remove my wig and accessories. Anyway, we did a little skit capturing our Claymore Characters' personalities. It was fun for me as Helen's crazy fun attitude allowed me to tease my team mate. 

This video is by Calvin How from Malaysia. He was really happy to video us as Claymore was part of his to-film list of titles. 

After Day 1's events, we also had a mini birthday celebration for Jo. This event is certainly one of my favourite events out of the many I've attended thus far. Now, I'm looking forward to attending Comic Fiesta in Kuala Lumpur next month. It's going to be my first event overseas! I'm still on the fence about attending End-of-year (EOY) event but I'll definitely keep you guys updated.    

Halloween Night 2013

Been a really bad blogger and haven't updated here for the longest time. Cosplay and laziness kinda got in the way, so apologies there. Gonna blog about my first ever Halloween party though I'm like 2 weeks over due but hey, it's my first time and that's what counts for me especially when my country celebrates Halloween in the most minimal way possible. It's more of an excuse to dress up and party or for kids of expatriate families to have fun, and considering I dress up pretty often as a cosplayer, it's bit of a meh sometimes.

Anyway, I didn't really want to spend much on my outfit for Halloween so I decided to do a Shironuri inspired style and pulling together stuff I already had. Steph and her other friend, Eileen popped by my house to get prepped since the bar we were heading to is walking distance from my place.

My makeup that night. Used white face paint and painted on a gazillion layers to get it this white! I also used red eyeshadow, black eyeliner, fake lashes, double eyelid tape and black lipstick. Everything came out of my makeup box so I didn't need to buy anything.

Outfit:

Top: Gift from Mom (it's a high neck shirt with lots of ruffles and lace, though it's pretty hard to see here)

Belt: Nichii

Skirt: 2nd hand from Mom (she kept it from like the 80's or something, so LOL vintage I guess)

Shoes: Gal Star

Lace gloves: borrowed from Steph

Top hat: Taobao

Corsage (pinned to hat): Can't remember 

Bag: Chanel 

Wig: Blue Whale

Steph did the makeup from one of the KISS band members, while Eileen did her own intepretation of the skeleton girl makeup.

With the lead singer of the band playing at the bar (Can't remember her name). I love her outfit and makeup! 

Camwhore with Eileen

The band played alot of rock classics like Bohemian Rhapsody and some Bon Jovi songs and others I can't recall which bands they came from. The band members also dressed up that night, as Hellboy, Willy Wonka and Monopoly dude. 

Steph won a prize for being one of the best dressed that night! Yay!

My makeup actually started to crack and chip away through the night probably because I alternated between the white makeup and loose powder, but it gave me a broken doll kinda effect. 

It was a simple Halloween party, but it was certainly memorable and fun.  

Outfit of the Day: Pie Date

Bf and I went to check out this hip, not-so-new eatery called Windowsill Pies. Its a quaint, cosy eatery and was fairly packed that Sunday when we went.

Of course we ordered pies, mine is the Morello Cherry while the Bf's is Grasshopper. Mine was filled with cherries and had this lovely sugared shortcrust that complemented the tart flavours of the cherries. The Grasshopper was a chocolate cake base, mint cream and surprising little nuggets of salted cookie crumble on top and sandwiched between the cake and cream portions.

Ordered the Eggplant Tower as I was famished, however, I didn't expect the plate to be this huge! It was like an entire eggplant sliced and coated with breadcrumbs and fried and then smothered with a tomato sauce. I couldn't finish the entire plate despite tasting so good, so the Bf helped out and despite usually disliking eggplant, he actually liked it!

Bf's Mocha, kinda meh... nothing really special

My chai latte, wished the spices were stronger

 

It was the first time in a long while that I felt cheerful and happy that day. I wasn't quite sure what to wear, so I settled on something simple.

Woolen Sweater: Uniqlo

Shorts: Spiral Girl

Satchel: Taobao

Velvet Ribbon Hairband: Taobao

Camwhore that day. The ribbon and my short hair reminded me very much of Kiki from the Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service. I'm actually quite tempted to cosplay her haha

 

It was a fun and fairly relaxing day, just what I needed after leaving the unpleasant situation I was in. My moods still yo-yo quite a fair bit, I could be cheerful and happy one moment and then I'm depressed and crying the next. I'm trying to get back and my feet and its taking me longer then I anticipated, but no matter what, tomorrow always comes and I still have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how slowly, in order to move on.



New Haircut, New Beginnings

If you haven't seen my Instagram yet, I chopped my hair short a few weeks back. There isn't much reason why I did it, I was just mostly frustrated with life in a lot of things, cosplay, friends, work, and just life in general. So I felt an overwhelming urge to change something, anything, at that instant. So I figured the easiest way was to simply cut my hair short as I had been having long hair for over 5 years now. I figured a new look would help my waning self-esteem and confidence and also see myself in a different perspective so that I could learn to love myself all over again.

I researched abit on some styles I wanted, took the pictures to the salon and just told the hairdresser to snip away. Naturally, he was abit hesitant at the drastic change, but after I told him I had set my mind on it, he just did it.

Last picture of me with my hair nicely styled with abit of volume and wave to it

After snipping, I was left with this hair style.

I chose to perm my hair as I was worried I would be too lazy to style it on certain days.

End result. Kinda like a mushroom but I like it

Steph sweetly came and accompanied me through the process, she also saved me from starvation and thirst by helping to get some snacks and a bottle of green tea. Thanks a lot bestie! She looks like she's either leaning on an invisible pole here or, playing hide and seek with the camera haha.

 

Outift consisted of:

Lauduree X Uniqlo Shirt

Pleated skirt: Snidel

Belt: Can't remember

Jacket: Forever 21

Satchel: Taobao

Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell

Necklace: Vivienne Westwood

Camwhore with Lovely Steph

 

After that, we had an early dinner at Dulcet & Studio.

Laughed at the Adult Cake name, we learned shortly after that it had abit of alcohol in it, hence the name.

I had the Beef Stroganoff pasta. It was heavenly, the pasta was handmade and slightly chewy, the thin beef slices was meaty but didn't over power the texture of the pasta and the bell peppers gave a slight crunch to the dish.  

Steph had the Salmon with Special Sauce. Sje said it was good too and seemed to enjoy the extra roe that they placed in the sauce

We shared this light but flavourful chocolate marble cake after our fantastic main courses. The cake was spongy and light but the chocolate icing gave it just the right hint of sweetness without being overwhelmingly sweet.

 

After I got home, I was randomly surfing the internet about Shingeki stuffs when I suddenly realised that my hair looked similar to this minor character called Hitch! 

Pics to compare haha

 

Her hair is longer but has the same wavy texture as my current hair. A few of my friends actually asked me to bleach my hair ashy gray-brown after I showed them this picture so that I could just cosplay her hahaha! 

Shingeki no Kyojin Cosplay Photoshoot

Did a cosplay shoot for the incredibly popular series, Shingeki no Kyojin, also known as, Attack on Titan. Unfortunately, a lot of my stuff that I needed for the shoot were still incomplete or in the middle of the ocean on a ship, so I dug out what I had and made do. But I still think things went incredibly well as I had lots of help from a variety of people.

Cosplayed Annie, I'm very happy with the makeup I did for her that day, will do a tutorial in the future.

Towards evening, I changed and redid my makeup and became Crista or Historia, which ever name you're more used to.

Shinji kindly came down to help at the shoot at the last minute. Silly pic of him having fun while Mini poses for a picture. She's cosplaying as Levi/ Rivaille.

He also loaned me his amazing 3D Manoeuvring Gear as I wasn't able to make mine in time for the shoot. I have no idea what I was doing in this picture

Rescend doing what he does best

Posing with Esther, this pic came from her friend and helper, Jeremiah.

End of Shoot! And took this derpy picture with Rescend while we were waiting for dinner to be served. I hadn't removed my makeup when this pic was taken, hence the more intensive lashes.

 

 

Lots of love and help went into this shoot. I was starting to crack under the pressures of my job by then and was going nuts as I had the stress of the job combined with the stress of the shoot as a lot of things were incomplete. Luckily, a lot of people kindly helped me out with so many things that somehow everything magically worked out in the end. I'm bubbling with gratefulness to these people so I'm just gonna thank them all here:

 

Shinji: For loaning me the gears, suggesting an amazing location for the shoot, coming at the last moment to help out and doing pyrotechnics to create the smoky effects for the pictures.

 

Rescend: For being an amazing photographer and friend

 

Astellecia Skye: Loaning me the jacket that fit like a dream, skirting and straps

 

Esther: Being an encouraging friend, giving me the boots that I needed, loaning me a wig and  giving advice whenever needed

 

Mini: Helping to give the base layout for the 3D gears and straps

 

Selicia: Helping me to go shopping for the materials needed for the gears and suggestions for improvement

 

Jeremiah: Assisting in the shoot, offering suggestions for the pictures and posing and giving me the opportunity to be in your book

 

 

If you read all that, yes, Esther, Mini, Selicia and my Shingeki cosplay pictures will be published in a book produced by the talented people behind Collateral Damage Studios. It is a compilation of works including fanart centred around the Shingeki series and will be sold at the upcoming AFA event. The book is printed and shipped from USA and a cute keychain is sold together with it, so you can expect really good quality work. So please support and purchase one, thanks!!

 

To encourage you further, here's a sneak preview of one of the shots from the photoshoot. Its Rescend's and my personal favourite out of all the shots taken that day. This picture is completely unedited so pardon my chubby tummy, minor details will be edited in such as changing the logo to the Military version. But on the whole, it is a beautiful picture and I'm in awe that Rescend captured such an incredible shot that day.