Bomshell Harley Quinn Review and Overview

Guess what? It's your favorite neighborhood neko again!

The finished product

Today I thought I'd review my Bombshell Harley Quinn Cosplay! Since I don't have any tutorials for it I thought I'd just go over it. What I bought and what I made and everything.

Harley Quinn is one of my favorite characters of all time, but to be honest, her bombshell look did have to grow on me a bit. This cosplay was also going to be pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit. I had never really worn a revealing costume before except for Celty and she doesn't really count since her suit is just skin tight and not really revealing (but she'll get her own review in time).

I'm not always confident about my body, especially my stomach because I have zero curves. But I really wanted to do it, so... I did.

Alright so first things first I needed a reference photo. Luckily the bombshell series has figures so it's very easy to get a 360 degree picture of the outfit. Instead of going with the official comic artwork I went with the figure's look which has slight variations. I also changed some features just because of my skill level (such as the patch on the back).

What we are going for

So since I like props, I decided to do the gun first. I've never made a prop gun before so I just winged it (that's like my catch phrase, I seriously don't know what I'm doing about 97% of the time). First I bought a Nerf gun at Target for like 5 bucks. It's really basic but it had a handle I liked since I would be covering up most of the barrel. 

Next I stopped at the Dollar Tree and picked up some flower arrangement foam since it was already in a cylinder. However, I've never ever ever even touched flower arrangement foam so imagine my surprise when I got home and opened it and realized how crumbly and weird it was. But I stuck it out and started  by pushing the barrel of the gun into the foam to get an impression of it so I knew how much to cut out so I could just glue it to the gun. After cutting the shape I glued it on and did the same with two more of the cylinders. After that it looked like this: (I swear I'll be making better tutorials in the future).

Nonetheless, it looked great!

After that I covered it in duct tape to hopefully keep it from crumbling apart. After that I covered it in paper mache. Then I painted everything black, except the gray ribbon looking stuff on the handle. I put a thin coat of silver paint on that part, kinda sloppily to make it look a little ruff or dirty. Then I drew on the barrel indents. Since I wasn't going to be carving it into the shape of a gun I just painted it on, creating a 3D kind of effect by making it darker in the middle than the outside of the shapes. 

And that was it! I didn't add the cork because I made it so that it could still shoot and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting my husband with it while I was working on it. I might add it later attached with velcro so I can still use it.

At this point I started working on the actual costume. I ordered the gloves, goggles and hair chalk off of Amazon. I bought the coat and shorts from the Goodwill! I already owned the thigh highs and boots. The thigh highs I believe we go from Hot Topic, but I can't really remember and the boots are from Target. The belt buckle is from Spencer's Gifts.

After I miraculously found a bomber jacket at the Goodwill I took it home. I had to sew up a large slit in the back to make the jacket just a bit tighter. Then I designed the patch. I was originally going to have a much more complicated patch. I was going to change it from the original anyway because I don't ship Harley and the Joker at all but due to my skill level the patch I designed didn't work so I made it much more simple by just making it her symbol. I made it out of felt and just sewed it on in a patchwork like style. I didn't add the the fur because I'm actually really liking how it looks without it right now.

Next I needed to find a bra. I am very flat chested, which is another part of my confidence issue, especially when I'm cosplaying a other wise large breasted character. It's obviously my preference that I beef up my chest as much as possible. I went to Walmart, which actually has a very nice selection of triple padded bras for a reasonable price. I found a red one that looked very nice but it had lace on it. Oh well, it's the one I went with. When I got it home I whipped out my trusty seam ripper and very carefully took off all the lace. One side was going to be black anyway so I didn't mind that there were tiny bits of black lace still there, even the red side in most illustrations has a black outline was I just did my best.

The bra right after I dyed it

Then it was time for my first time dying any type of clothing. Since the shorts I bought were white I had to dye those anyway, I did the bra and shorts at the same time. That's not the best idea. This is because you have to keep the clothing moving while it's in the dye so I had to stir the shorts while holding the bra half out of the water, also moving that around as well. 

The shorts were originally white but a little black dye fixes that 

Let's just say it was the longest 20 minutes of my life...

But when it was done it was indeed half black (and the shorts turned out a really nice black as well). My mom had advised me to add a package of black dye and a package of blue dye to the water to get a true black and it definitely worked. 

 After the bra was dry I just took a sharpie and drew the diamonds on the red side. She for this look there should be 4 diamonds but she typically only has three diamonds, which I prefer so I went with that. 

First look at bra + jacket

Next I made the utility belt. I got some craft foam and just winged it with the size. I checked Pinterest (my favorite cosplay resource) for a tutorial and I used this one: http://www.thefoamcave.com/captain-america-belt-build-tutorial/

Obviously I didn't make it as fancy as the one pictured but I used the same principle. I referenced the statue for how they looked. I hot glued all the pieces together, painted two red and two black, added velcro to keep them shut and a strip of craft foam to the back of each to slide them on the belt. On the belt the alternate colors. 

Before it was painted it looked a little like this

Lastly, the accessories. I made her choker out of black felt by just cutting out a strip, measuring it to my neck and adding velcro to the ends to close it. I already owned a dog tag that I bought at the Air and Space Museum back in 2012. I quickly put together her earrings. I was happy to find out upon closer inspection that her earrings are bells (I love bells, it's my favorite sound in the world). I already had bells for the collars I make so I just attached them to a pair of earring findings. 

As for hair and makeup, I'm already blonde. Harley is the only character I use my real hair for because it's actually a huge pain to use your own hair for cosplay. I put in low perky pigtails and barely straighten my hair, my hair is wavy and Harley's has just the slightest wave to it. Then I added the hair chalk. Hair chalk is great for coloring your hair temporarily. It washes out in a shampoo. The one I found was about three dollars on Amazon and it had really good staying power! I don't wash my hair everyday so I ended up keeping it in a day after my photo shoot and it stayed it really well, with very little transfer to your clothes (only right after applying it). Actually it took a somewhat aggressive shampoo to make sure it was fully out (I'm not ready to commit to red hair yet!).

For my makeup I went to the dollar tree and picked up some cheap white face paint and applied it all over my face with a foundation brush (I applied bb cream first). Then I covered my whole lid with red eyeshadow, then I went back into the crease with a dark gray. After that I used my usual ELF cream eyeliner and did a basic wing and put on false lashes. I use ones from the Dollar Tree right now since I was practicing (I'm still somewhat new to the whole fake eyelash deal) but I'll be upgrading to better ones soon. For now I really like how these ones look. 

I then drew on her little red triangles under and over her eye with red eye shadow and a teeny tiny brush. Make sure that you always check which side things are supposed to go on with Harley, I actually had to redo it because I put it on the wrong side the first time. Lastly, I put on a nice red liquid lipstick from Milani and called it a day!

Work it, puddin!

All in all, I'm super proud of this cosplay! It looks amazing to me and I feel like Harley wearing it. I'm currently back on my exercise routine to work on my abs so I can feel even more confident wearing it. (I'll probably be making a separate post on my exercise habits for cosplay).

My next blog should be about my adventures at Sangawa festival in Pittsburgh!

Anyway, thanks again for sticking with my super long blogs! 

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Meeting Voice Actors: Vic Mignona

Hey guys!

I've just returned from Sangawa Project and I got to meet Vic Mignogna for the first time!

I go to conventions for two things: 

1) to show off my cosplays 

2) to meet voice actors

I'm a huge VA nerd so I thought I would do a little series of my experiences meeting voice actors!

So first up is the big one: Vic Mignona.

In case you've never heard of him (and apparently lived under and anime rock until today) he does the voice of Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist), Tamaki Souh (Ouran High School Host Club), Fai D. Flowright (Tsubaba Reservoir Chronicles) and Zero from Vampire Knight. He's done tons more in Bleach, Panty and Stocking and others as well. He is currently also directing/producing and starring in Star Trek Continues, a series that continues the original crew of the Enterprise (for you Trekkies out there!)

When I saw he was going to be at Sangawa I freaked out just a little bit. I'm the biggest Ouran fan so this was a pretty big freaking deal. Little known fact, Vic is actually a Pittsburgh native, which is where I currently reside.

Ray was also bragging about how this would be his fourth time meeting him.

Anyway, to start, first impressions.

He actually talked at the opening ceremonies and since we were in the first row we got to be up close and personal with. He's a lot shorter in person than I would imagine. Since Aaron Desmuke (the voice of Alphonse in the first FMA) is now like 6 feet tall, they match their roles very well now.

He also has an interesting and cool fashion sense. His pants are like, I don't even know how to describe. He kind of dresses like a k-pop singer I guess.

Anyway as for meeting him and talking to him, we got to talk to him at at least four times. We went to all of his panels and signings, this being my first time, I had tons of Ouran stuff for him to sign.

The first time getting out picture taken with him

Talking to him you can tell he is super sweet and caring. He genuinely takes interest in his fans. he's aware of how popular he is and how important his role as Ed is to so many people and he takes that very seriously. Quite a few people told him their stories of how his roles were there for them  when they were going through tough times.

I have no sad stories that impacted me to him, however, Ouran is super important to me. It has been my favorite anime ever since I first saw it years ago. It's been unshakably first on my list. It gave me so much enjoyment and laughter during a dark time in my life and Haruhi is my spirit animal, she helped me learn a lot (that's why meeting Caitlin Glass was super important to me, but I'll save that for a later post). Vic being part of that obviously means a lot to me. Even if I was never a TamakixHaruhi shipper (I actually ship her with Kyoya, shhhhh don't tell him that! I also got to meet his VA, but that'll come later too)

Our second meeting, me as Harley and Ray as Ed

Anyway, back to Vic.

We got a lot of stuff signed, like my giant Ouran poster, our dvd box set of Ouran, our dvd of Air and some other stuff. Each time we met him we got pictures and hugs!

My giant Ouran Poster, now I need the other signatures!

The bottom line is, there is a reason he is so popular. He's so incredibly nice and you can't help but love him. He's so talented and funny and he can sing!

I'll be posting some video of him singing later on on Youtube and we bought his concert video but he's very good at it. He sings one of the One Piece themes, two songs in Full Metal Alchemist and the ending song for Ouran so check it out!

Anyway. Here are some links to his stuff, check out Star Trek Continues, it's very good. Ray isn't a Trekkie by any stretch of the imagination but even he enjoyed it. Become part of the Resembole Rangers, his official fan club and like his facebook page!

Star Trek Continues: http://www.startrekcontinues.com/

His Website: http://www.vicsworld.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicmignogna?fref=ts

Circle Lens Journey Pt. 1

Hey Guys! It's your friendly neighborhood neko again!

Today I want to talk about circle lenses, and my journey to getting some. This will be in two parts because, well, it has been indeed a journey.

Circle lenses are used by cosplayers and people in general to look cuter. They make the iris' look bigger, and usually, change the color as well. They were first used by k-pop stars and has migrated to American kawaii culture. Also, most circle lens stores are online and come from Korea.

Being someone who is devoted to cosplay it was just a matter of time before I got some myself. There were two things that were stopping me before:

1. They are expensive
2. I wear a prescription and thus they would be even more expensive

On both of these I was wrong. Circle lenses are pretty affordable, especially since they have a life span of about a year.

So first I looked up circle lens stores. I already knew about PinkyParadise from watching YouTubers such as xxScreamKiwixx and DrewDisaster, who are not cosplayers but use circle lenses as just part of their beauty routine. Then I just googled "Circle Lenses" to find more stores to check prices.

I started by checking PinkyParadise.com and Eyecandys.com. Both of these are the top search results. Pinky Paradise is by far the most popular site and they have a good reputation. EyeCandy's is the second top result and I found some nice reviews for them.

I was hesitant at first with Pinky Paradise. It seemed that not long ago people weren't too happy with the site, although I couldn't find out exactly why, I don't like taking risks with my eyes, after all I need them to see. So I started with Eye Candy's (you can check out their site here: http://www.eyecandys.com/). I was looking for blue contacts to start with since I was hoping to get them before my next convention, I would be cosplaying Harley Quinn and Panty Anarchy and they both have blue eyes. I was also looking for a certain diameter, about 14.5 or up and also I wanted something with a rather thick black ring around the outside. Both of these factors make your eyes look more animated and big. Of course, I also needed them in my prescription.

*Side Note: to find your prescription for circle lenses, just check the side of your contact box (as long as your prescription is up to date). Make sure you know the prescription for both eyes. for example my prescription is -4.50 in one eye and -5.00 in the other, I believe the minus' mean that I'm near sighted? I don't know, I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV.*

So to start I went through the drop down menus. I first went through the prescription menu and chose my range of vision which for Eye Candy's is -0.50 - -6.00, the ranges help filter through the available contacts. Then I just scanned through the results to find the best blue lenses until I found these:

So naturally I was about the fill out my prescription so I could order them but...

I wasn't able too..

After I quick scan of the page I saw the side note that prescriptions were not available to the U.S. yet.

Great...

So I decided to move on and go with PinkyParadise (you can check out their site and these specific lenses here: https://www.pinkyparadise.com/GEO-Xtra-WBS-202-Bella-Blue-p/a8-wbs202.htm) and found these ones and I totally fell in love with them!

They looks so animated and bright! And they had great reviews! And as you know (if you follow me on Facebook) anything that makes me more of an anime character, I want.

Now PinkyParadise if really nice in that you can order your exact prescription, they have a huge selection! So I put in my info and added it to my cart...

Except I wasn't able too...

They were sold out my -5.00 prescription!

Great...

Back to the drawing board...

So I googled "Prescription Circle Lenses" and I got the same two top results but looking a little farther down I found this site: Geo Colored Lenses (http://www.geocolouredlenses.com/). They have good reviews, although they aren't really popular. But they are FDA approved and the quality seemed good. 

Wasting no time, I immediately searched for the lenses I wanted. They are called   GEO Xtra WBS 202 Bella Blue by the way. And I found them! And in my Prescription! And I got a coupon for 20% off!

 I was so excited! So I immediately put them in my cart. It got weird right away. First I decided to create an account with them since I figured I'd probably buy from them again. That was fine. But then I had to add in my shipping address and the format was just... odd. It's hard to explain and I thought maybe the screen didn't load correctly but I had to do this twice and it was the same both times. After that I had to put in my credit card info and I'm not sure if this is common for korean sites but I had to choose the exact the bank my card is from? It also forwarded me to a completely different site to pay. It even warned me that the site goes by several different names (I guess for if I check my bank statement?). 

Anyway, I went through all their hoops until I was finally able to confirm my purchase. Yay right??

Not Yay...

The screen told me that my transaction failed... Okay, whatever, so I did it all again and I got the same result. So I decided to take a break. I few minutes later I got an email telling me that I still needed to pay for order and after reading the entire email if found out that their site was updating and wouldn't be fully up and running until later that night.

Ok, fine.

Fast forward to the next morning, I went through the whole process again annnnd...

Nope

I got the same result. 

I GIVE UP! I was pretty frustrated at this point so I put my laptop away and went to work.

After I calmed down a bit I figured I had to just go with Pinky Paradise and wait until my prescription was back in stock.

So I'll be waiting and as soon as it's back in stock I'll be ordering them. Hopefully before Katsucon or Tekko,

After I order them and get them I'll finish this journey.

Thanks for sticking around this far! I hope you guys enjoyed it! 

If you guys liked it and would like to support me on my other social media, here's the links:

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Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

This blog will feature my musing about cosplaying, reviews on cosplays and other cosplay accessories (such as circle lenses and wigs), and tutorials on making cosplays, as well as my cosplay shoots.

Basically, you are going to get to know me pretty well!

I will be updating this blog about every week, but it will all depend on what I have to share.

So now, a little about me!

Cosplay is my life! My biggest dream is to making a living doing cosplay.

I wear cat ears and collars because ever since I learned what a catgirl or neko was in anime I thought they were the cutests things ever created and have been fascinated with them since.

I have no name for my fashion... I'm like an anime goth hispter

I am married to my best friend and photographer!

I am a perfectionist when it comes to my cosplays but I'm also willing to change the design of a character if I feel it will look better or depending on the availability of certain items (lol)

I sew, make or assemble (thrift) the majority of my cosplays but I'm not above buying cosplays that are outside my skill level, however I'm always up for a challenge, although I know my limits.

Harley Quinn is my girl but we have a weird relationship because I'm a way bigger anime fan than comic book fan so....

My favorite anime character is a tie between Asuna from Sword Art Online and Kongou from Kantai Collection.

I am also a furry but it doesn't show that much, just to touch on it, I have about 5 original furry characters and 2 fursonas with another in the making. I have also adopted 2 other fursonas. I will be fursuiting in the future, if fate allows.

That's about it for now! A new blog post will be up real soon since a lot is going on right now!

Current cosplay: Bombshell Harley Quinn