☂ コスプレMAKE (cosplay makeup) magazine review

Hello!! Today I'll be reviewing/showing a recently published cosplay makeup magazine ☆☆ The full name is メイクだけで誰でも人気キャラになれる!!　アニメ＆ゲーム コスプレMAKE (主婦の友ヒットシリーズ) , and I've seen many posts and some previews on my twitter feed and decided to pick up a copy for myself using Amazon.co.jp. 

The magazine itself is ¥1,111 and shipping + handling fees to Australia is ¥900, which totalled to ¥2,011. Although the postage may nearly double the price of the product, the insanely quick delivery and thorough packaging made it worth it. To my knowledge for this product, Amazon offers only this method of shipping.

You can order a copy for yourself here.
NOTE: I ordered quickly when there were only 14 copies left, and at the moment they have yet to restock. Hopefully the wait won't be too long!!

Ordered on 14th July, 2015
Paid at 1:30pm - 15th July, 2015
Received at 9:30am - 17th July, 2015

Incoming picture spam, please click for enlargement/////

package!!

contents sealed in plastic

magazine's front cover

The first 12 pages featured eye makeup tutorials for the very popular online game, Touken Ranbu. Some characters have dedicated single page, step-by-step guides, whilst other characters only cover half a page, showing close ups of the eye makeup. If you're planning to cosplay from this game, I highly HIGHLY recommend you check this out - they cover 15 characters so I'm sure it'll prove useful to you!!

Ookurikara makeup tutorial

Tsurumaru Kuninaga makeup tutorial

They also have plenty of other non-character specific makeup tutorials for  female and male looks. In addition, there's plenty of guides for eyebrows, lashes, eyelid tapes, contouring, face paint, post-cosplay skincare, photoshop, interviews and many more. What I found especially interesting was their small guide to instant face slimming by using sports tape! I've seen this method being used by many cosplayers on social media (though most of the time they left wounds behind;;), and always wanted to test it out.

female makeup tutorial

eyebrows tutorial

Another extremely useful segment they had was their beginner's makeup tutorial for 3 basic female and male looks. They covered a range of basic styles that can definitely be adapted to many characters.

Overall, I think this magazine was quite worth the price - for ¥1,111 to include nearly 100 pages of content seems like a pretty decent deal to me ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ  Even though everything is in Japanese, there's plenty of supporting photos to be able to guess what they're explaining. If not, Google Translate is pretty useful for translating small sections!

I think this magazine will be extremely useful for beginning cosplayers like me, who want to move on from the basic "dolly eyed" girl makeup and start creating character-specific looks and crossplaying ☆☆

I hope this short review is useful in some way!!
P.S I am in no way sponsored to write this review, these are all my honest opinions.

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☂ lens review (GEO: angel violet)

Hello everyone!!

I've recently started uni so things have been quite hectic, but things should settle down soon and I'll be posting a bit more regularly :) I've also started sewing my cosplays for this year, so hopefully some progress posts will be up! Today I'll be reviewing GEO Medical's Angel Violet, sponsored by Adelaide Little Lens.  

Company: GEO Medical
Diameter: 14.2mm
Water content: 42%
Base curve: 8.60mm
Prescription: Yes
Lifespan: 1 year

vials

left: outside view & right: inside view

COLOUR & DESIGN
★★★☆☆
Aaaaaah unfortunately the colours showed up poorly on my dark brown eyes, only showing true purple in very good lighting + close up. The design is very nice though, and I especially like how the black specks create a gradient and help blend the colour in.  

ENLARGEMENT
★★★★☆
14.2mm lenses don't really have a significant enlarging effect, however the thick, black limbal ring really defines and makes the eyes pop out and look more cartoonish!!

COMFORT
★★★★★
Probably the most comfortable pair of lenses I've owned! Usually putting contacts in on the first go gives me some trouble (constant shifting or some pains), but these went in with no problem at all :) Wore them for approximately 2-3 hours, and only needed some eye drops afterwards, as per usual.

OVERALL
★★★☆☆
Overall, these are quite some nice circle lenses! The only let down was the colour, which to be honest I wasn't expecting too much (it might turn out better on light coloured eyes though). These are definitely good for those looking for a slight change of colour/understated lenses for casual wear and such!!

I did a quick fairy-kei makeup look with these, and it turned out looking a bit circus inspired?? Anyways, hope you found this review helpful :)

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★ daiso haul (01)

So recently I got a job (finally!!) and discovered that the shopping centre where I work at also has a Daiso store nearby ♥ Which is so very very bad for my wallet because I always go there during break and spend all my money whoops. In Australia each item is $2.80 and quickly adds up to a lot, which is why this haul is from two separate shopping trips (;° ロ°) 

But here are the items that I bought, mainly makeup products.

eyelash case

Super cute design, the pink and bow on top is an adorable combination! I especially love the three tiers for false eyelashes, as I usually interchange between two favourite top falsies + one bottom. It's not too bulky and easy to just chuck in your bag when going to cosplay events. (PS the real pink colour is better in the first pic, my camera is just not cooperating ;v;)

neutral eyeshadows

This brand of Daiso eyeshadows isn't too bad, I already have the pink/red colour combination which comes very handy! The browns and whites were pretty good, but the copper was especially pigmented and absolutely gorgeous 

colour swatch

And finally the falsies!! 90% of my falsies are from Daiso since they're extremely affordable and great to wear :) The bottom right "cross type" is my go-to pair for cosplay, since it is very dramatic and has a pointed shape. The bottom left is also pretty good for cosplay with it's gradual change from thin to thick lashes, though I'm not a big fan with the thin side as it doesn't show up well on my eyes... The top two lashes are new and I'm eager to try them out!!

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