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Only fullbody photo.

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Sleeve with the arm hole opening already hemmed. Notice how the lower half is still raw. (full length of the sleeve is not visible)

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I hate you. All of you. 8C

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Fuck everything.

You see, before I got into cosplay I had been cramming my head effectively with the idea that makeup equaled nothing more than paying obscene amounts of money to put grease on your face so that you'd look fake. Ouch!
I'm not too sure why, how and when I developed these thoughts but I assume at least partly it comes from earlier school times when suddenly all the girls started using makeup and, while some of them looked okay, others ended up looking exaggerated with their super dark "hooker bar" eye makeup and, well, in my opinion it looked like shit. :)) Not like I'm the one to judge but yeah, as a kid I was really negative towards makeup.
I guess my dislike towards makeup was further inconsciously strenghtened that some of these overly makeup'ed girls were in reality some of the many people who bullied me in school for years. Not like the makeup in itself is the reason or that it really matters but yeah, it somehow just left an negative impact on me (probably because I remembered some specific people as "those with a lot of makeup"), even though both guys and girls were treating me like a pile of shit without human value. I hate a lot of people from my former school, lol.

But yeah, I had no idea that cheap makeup existed. I had no idea that makeup could look natural, invisible and non-fake. I had no idea that you could use makeup simply for yourself and because it's fun and not just to attract others or give off the image that you're playing sexy/popular. I had no idea that makeup could actually make you look better without looking like what society thinks the typical flamboyant gay looks like (if you're a man) or a vain and self-centered bitch. What you mean I was narrow-minded and had no check on reality?
I seriously had no idea about the actual diversity of makeup users! People who use makeup range from actors (yes, even men), alternative fashion fans to long-haired badass dudes in heavy metal bands and... cosplayers. Cosplayers. 

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THE HORROR. ... and my peeps be like "lol chill dude".

I had been effectively avoiding makeup like the plague before I got into cosplay; it was that thing that was so foreign to me and I viewed it as little more than a waste of money. I remember even telling myself that I'll never touch that shit, lol. And now I'm knee-deep in love with said shit, oops. I'm ashamed to admit it but as a young pre-teen I used to think that "the only people who use makeup are those who are too ugly without it". Ugggh, I was such a horrible kid.
Truth is that I don't even remember when exactly my opinions began to change, but at some point I realized that makeup was a neccessary evil in Cosplaylandia™ and that I had to change my approach to it at least a little, especially if I wanted to look somewhat decent on photos. But the call to change wasn't the hard part to chew in this, no no – it was the need to learn. From scratch.


Just change the barbeque recipes to the mystery of makeup and you should get the idea of what it felt like for me, lol. I seriously had to step into unknown waters – I had no idea where to even begin! Everything was so strange to me, intimidating and complicated. The huge world of makeup made my head spin like a tumble dryer and, to make it worse, I didn't have anyone to turn to for help and guidance. Mom is not an option, way too awkward.

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Have some (spinning) Monster Hunter meat grilling – because I can.

Nowadays it's more than embarrassing to think back about it but for my first two cosplays I didn't wear anything on my face, except perhaps for a miniscule amount of powder – and that was because mom told me to wear some at the con (yes, she was with me on my first big con). Yes, only powder. I didn't even color my light eyebrows to match the black wig nor use anything to define my eyes at all! Blasphemy!
Hell, I didn't even try to hide my dark circles or other nasty crud on my naked face; I seriously cringe beyond words when I bump into old cosplay photos that are tucked away somewhere in the deep dark corners of my computer – they shall never see the light of day or otherwise more than my pair of eyes will rot away. I seriously looked horrible and totally washed out, not gonna lie. It's that kind of thing when the costume is good-looking and even more so for a first one, the wig is good quality (but unstyled) but then there's *le gasp* the face with close to zero makeup on and –to put it as nicely as possible– it just crashes and burns the whole thing into cinders that float in hell for eternity. There ain't no saving that shit.

My first cosplay makeup experiences consisted of the following procedure: powder > eyeliner > fill in eyebrows (if necessary) > pale down lips (if necessary)
Nothing else. A bit later I started doing some minor contouring and after that I tried my hand at using foundation before setting the powder which, by the way, was a disaster. You see, I had always known that my skin is pale (dad would pull jokes about it) but I still wasn't expecting it to be so damn pale that I would have a hard time even finding a light enough fucking foundation! So yeah, my first foundation purchases were waaaayyyyyyy off the mark and I was nooby enough not to notice it until much later and, oh boy, do I puke at those photos now. 
Reminiscing back to that one year when I went to Sweden's biggest con (at that time) and didn't realize I had a horrible, mismatched, unblended brownish-orange foundation streak at my otherwise pale-ass jawline, that stood out like a thousand burning suns.
Finding a light enough foundation is, by the way, still one of my biggest challenges when it comes to makeup purchases, but I think I might finally have found something good – after years of accidentally buying mismatched shit that I can't use and don't know what to do with. #foundationfrustrations

I'm not gonna show you guys any old photos of my crappy makeup back then but I'll tell you that it looked really... plain and dull. I did the same very basic pencil eyeliner for all characters and yeah, it made me look like... me, with a wig on, no matter what character I was supposed to be lol. I also shudder at the reality that I didn't give a jackshit about my eyebrows until 2014, which means that I did a whole 4 years of cosplaying with hideous untouched hairy caterpillars crowning and roaming wild on my forehead!! *vomits profusely*
I mean, my eyebrows were so bushy that some hairs were growing on my eyelids! Eew. Nowadays I take out my tweezers and go through my brows at least every third day – what you mean cosplay changes you? No but really, cosplay made me start to seriously pay attention to my looks and I mean this in a good way! I'm super thankful about it now!

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My first makeup tries looked like this. #relatable

Before cosplaying I rarely gave two shits about if I looked presentable in public or not (I could as well have walked around in a potato sack, lol) but ever since I started cosplaying I make sure to look as clean and nice as possible. Cosplay also made me view beauty and makeup from a whole different angle and made it more human and less superficial, funnily enough – everyone was beautiful in their own way! Also, cosplay made me realize that even a little change could go a long way in improving how you looked in your finished costume. I mean, the difference between using, for example, liquid eyeliner instead of pencil eyeliner already does a huge difference on photos!

My initial response to using cosplay makeup was "meh" and then it slowly but surely grew into a "not too bad", followed by a "it looks better with makeup so I'll bother this time" and finally to a fullblown and self-admitted "I CAN'T COSPLAY WITHOUT MAKEUP! I NEED THIS SHIT!"

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This is so me celebrating a successful makeup job.

So yeah, cosplay totally turned my whole view of makeup upside down. From being that kid who'd not even look twice at the grocery store's makeup counter to being that young man who walks in there and actually buys stuff and walks home being all excited about trying it out! It is awkward though when there's other people around. xD I need to get over it, lol.
Nowadays I have quite a lot of makeup and I even have a makeup bag for it, but still I occasionally feel like I'm missing something... :'D I want to point out though that my cosplay makeup got a notable upgrade once I realized the wonders or primer, concealers and liquid eyeliner. It seriously took me until last year to understand how important primers and concealers are! *shamecorner* How can I have lived so long without these godsends??

I'm far from confident with my makeup skills and I still mess up. I also feel like I have a looooooot to learn –makeup knowledge is like an universe that won't stop expanding for me– but at least now I can honestly say that I LOVE MAKEUP. ♥ I can't even imagine cosplaying without makeup anymore and I've started to enjoy the whole process so much that I occasionally paint up my face for non-cosplay purposes too! Especially for alternative fashion because then I get to experiment and be creative, yay! o/
So yeah, to sum it up: I used to hate makeup but I've come to really value it as an irreplaceable tool to complete my cosplays. I also want to state that I think that makeup is for everyone! It's a fun and a great way to express ourselves and, for those who think that guys can't or shouldn't use makeup, I can say only one thing: "I don't give a rat's ass about your outdated bigoted opinion, gtfo and have a nice day. :)"

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Lens to the left shows the considerably lighter "wrong" side.

OMG my first golden pair that I open and try out! *_ * I've been itching to use a golden lens for years now and finally it's time to break my golden lens virginity, LOL. For those that do not know I want to mention that circle lenses with a gold color are fairly rare to come by – there aren't that many different ones out there in the end, especially if you compare to the common colors like blue and brown. I know most of the currently available gold lenses (what you mean I'm a lens guru, lol) and I do own more golden lenses than just this pair, but those I'll review in the future so keep an eye on my blog if you're interested in more golden goodness! ;) 

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One lens in.

Okay, so these lenses are actually gold/yellow in color when worn, which already is a huge plus! The shade is a bit darker so it appears as a more "natural gold" instead of a really bright gold that would ambush you from miles away. These lenses also show up in most lights although, in some cases, it can be a bit hard to tell from a distance, on first glance, what color it's supposed to be. Also, in some poorer indoor lights (especially in real life, aka non-camera) the lenses might appear like some undefined grayish shade because they just seem to mix and disappear with my real eye color; my real color is a blue-gray with an occasional greenish tint, by the way.
Regarding the design I must point out that it blends surprisingly well for being an unnatural color and for having such a black-speckled print. The lens design is lovely and I'd say that it's one of these multi-usable ones that works for cosplay as well as for some semi-natural daily looks.

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Facing the window in my apartment. Sunlight. (sun side)

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Apartment room light, standing next to a yellow lamp.

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Bathroom light, standing very close to the lamp.

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Flash photo indoors.

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Facing the window in the corridor. (not sun side)

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White corridor light.

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Yellow corridor light.

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A warm orange-yellow light in the staircase.

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Outdoors, facing the light. (sun is too low in the horizon, it's blocked by trees)

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Outdoors, back against light.

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Indoors on third floor*, facing sun through a window. (sunset-like light)

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Indoors on third floor*, facing sun through a window. Crazy bright! * = my apartment is on the third floor and this makes it possible for me to face the sunlight, even though it's otherwise (aka if I was ground-level) too low in the horizon.

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Facing window in my apartment, blue light.

Surprisingly natural-looking for being a gold-colored lens. I'm impressed.

I got the inspiration to write this post after I, once again, helped someone online to find a fitting pair of circle/contact lenses for their cosplay. I tend to browse online forums and cosplay groups on Facebook etc and help out with questions about contact lenses; I like to help people and so I got the idea to do this kind of "do and do not" type of list when it comes to colored contact lenses. I hope that this will be helpful to someone out there who's about to buy their first ever colored circle lenses to their cosplay!
Oh, and if you need help with finding suitable circle lenses for a character that you want to cosplay, feel free to email* me for suggestions! But please please PLEASE provide reference images of the character (with the eyes clearly visible) because hey, I don't know every single character in existence. xD I'll try to help as best as I can! ^_^ 
*= my email can be found to the left of my blog, under "About Me".

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Me wearing the EOS Bubble Blue circle lenses.

The thing is that many times –both online and in real life– I've stumbled upon people who say that they've done the same things and, every time, I wish they knew better. I don't mean to be that person but I think it's important to not do any risky stuff with lenses because hey, you only have one set of eyes and if you damage them it's most often permanent. It's worth to think about.





There's probably a lot more that I could add to this list but I'm not too eager to do a 10 kilometers post, haha. For those still filled with questions about how to put in lenses etc there's plenty of really good tutorials online, both by private persons and by contact lens stores. 
Also, please remember that not everyone can wear contact lenses and that visiting an optician before your first lens experience is a good idea – they can answer all your questions and concerns better than I or any other cosplayer can, that's for sure. I'm not an eye specialist or anything, just a guy who has done his research pretty well and who likes to help others. 

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Me wearing the I.Fairy Hanabi Green circle lenses.

Before I end this post I want to recommend some circle lens stores that I've personally bought from and that I have deemed to sell genuine and safe-to-wear lenses:

• PinkyParadise
• HoneyColor
• LensVillage
• Ifairycon
• Uniqso
• Eyedodo

There surely is a lot more lens stores out there that are also safe but those linked above are some of my favorites and most frequented shops. ^^ Other stores I've used include, for example, CandyLens.

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Am I the only one being reminded of Koujaku from DRAMAtical Murder from these pics? xD Maybe I should cosplay him...

So yeah, if you are looking for a pure red lens then I'd suggest avoiding the Fynale Honoo Red or you might be disappointed in the color. But if you need something that's a bit more pink in shade –but still is a red lens– then these are your best friends forever! Get them!

Surprisingly natural-looking for being an unnatural color...

Each issue features the work of different cosplayers, photographers, prop-makers and/or artists, and includes interviews, tutorials and stunning photography spreads.

 The first edition was released in summer 2014, and received enormous support and positive feedback from the cosplay community. We've since released two more print issues, as well as a total of 9 digital issues through our website. Beginning this April, we will be releasing the print magazine on a bi-monthly publication schedule!

Nikko's vision is that of a magazine that promotes the positive aspects of the cosplay community in a way that people can relate to. We've focused on themes such as gender stereotypes and identity confidence in cosplay, and have a number of great stories to share in future issues, including one woman’s story of how she overcame her depression and anxiety through cosplay. We focus on the craft, dedication and passion that is involved in this hobby, and are eager to share more of this amazing community with our readers. We are a very small company, and as such can guarantee that our core values of non-discrimination, positivity and inclusivity will be maintained throughout the duration of the publication.

Today I decided that it was high time that I started practising the makeup for some of my upcoming new cosplays! Soon I will reveal for you all the first convention of the year that I will attend. ヽ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ I'm super stoked about attending said con because I haven't been there for years but yeah, I'll get more to that later.
This post is about the next cosplay that I will likely debut and it's no less than Kashuu Kiyomitsu from Touken Ranbu! Yep, that's a cosplay plans spoiler right there. I wanted to try out a new makeup look now that I've gathered some more products. Too bad that I had to rush the whole thing because the sun was already going down before I even started! Screw you, polar night. So yeah, I'm sorry but I had to skip pretty much all other makeup save for the eyes, I just simply didn't have time. :( At least by doing this look I learned a lot of new eye makeup techniques that I sure as hell will experiment further with!

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A rare case when I can smile without looking stupid...

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This one is taken in yellow room light.

It's a bit annoying how my camera washes out most of my makeup, including the eyeshadows and highlights, ugh. At least it faded my pale-ass beard too so I didn't have to shave it lol. Now that I look at the photos I notice that my eyebrows are way too light; I should have filled them in some more. ._. Weirdly enough they looked dark in real life but yeah, camera...
I also want to apologize for the blueish light, the sun was down by the time I was sort-of-ready so I had to deal with the "blue hour"... or whatever it's called. I also couldn't be bothered, nor had time, to dig out the cosplay so I just took whatever red I had around me and put it over my shoulders, lol.

I'm pretty happy with this look, considering what a makeup greenhorn I am. This was also my first time ever using false eyelashes – oh what won't you do for the sake of cosplay?
For those curious I will review the two eyelash pairs that I used later so yeah, if you're interested keep an eye on my blog! ;) Fun fact is that my natural lashes are already stupidly long (been told that I have long lashes all my life by several relatives etc) so yeah, as soon as I put even a little bit of mascara on them they look like falsies lol. So yeah, when I wear actual false lashes on top of my own it's like... crazy shit.

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Styled wig.

I also wanted to put in a pic of the wig when it was newly styled. My friend Sacchan did the cutting and styling for me this time; we had to make a hairline/parting and I wasn't really comfortable with that because I lacked the know-how to do it. I did tie the ponytail though, haha.

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Really quickly thrown together outfit test. (note: mirror photo! aka corpse mode)

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Kebab arm! :DD

I found a suitable fabric in the attic and used the whole fabric width twice for the length; I made the scarf double so that it would be a bit thicker and look nice no matter which side was showing. I sewed the two pieces together and then put right sides together and sewed the scarf into a long tube. To turn the tube the right way I threaded it on my arm (I had left the ends open), like on the photo above, and just grabbed the edge and turned it around.
I had several ideas about how to make the tassels, ranging from using silk ribbon to just cutting them straight out of the fabric. Mom also did a fire resistance test on the fabric to see if we could simply just burn the edges, to keep them from fraying, but the fabric caught fire way too easily so it wasn't an option. Yeah, basically just us trying to see if there was a way to skip the tedious zigzaging part. xD
In the end I decided to cut out two separate pieces (one for each end) from the same fabric and then pre-sew the zigzag on it and then cut it up, next to the zigzag.

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Put our idea to the test – it works!

I did try first to cut and then do the zigzag but oh lord, it was such a pain in the butt that I quickly went back to the original plan. Mom later came to ask me how it went and my answer was a straight "tää on perseestä mutta toimii". :DD lol

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Second piece done and ready for cutting.

With the tassels done I just took the open edges of the scarf, folded them inside, put the tassel part inside and sewed the whole shit closed. It was a bit hard to get it to look nice on both sides because yeah, this fabric is the same type as the one I made the Star Wars robe from and, well, it lives its own life. I had to rip up the "underside" twice and redo it because it looked like shit. xD

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Tassels pinned in place.

I realized a few days later that the tasuki I had used for Yamato no Kami Yasusada was too short to work for Kashuu. The reason is because they have it tied differently – you can see it on the official art book. Yasusada has the tasuki sleeve cord tied the usual way in the front but Kashuu has it tied in a ribbon at the back.

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Touken Ranbu art book reveals Kashuu's back!

I had to ask some of my kimono friends how to tie it like that and I got some good suggestions how to make it work! I ended up having to try it several times and it was harder than I thought to get a neat bow. I will need to practise a lot more... or ask someone to tie it for me directly on the back. #lazy

I don't have any progress photos of the tasuki, except for the one below. Yeah, I decided to make a completely new one for Kashuu because I want to be accurate and hey, the fabric only cost 3 € per meter!!
I made it in school today during my handcraft class. The tasuki was made the exact same way as the scarf but because it's a lot narrower I had to use a wooden pole, to push it back to the right side, after I had sewn it into a tube.

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Tasuki in tube form, half-way done with turning it back to the right side.

So for my coming-later-this-year Tsurumaru Kuninaga cosplay from Touken Ranbu I wanted to start by making his sword, in good time. Technically he is a sword himself so... yo dawg. x) But yeah, you get the point...
I decided to split my progress in several parts to avoid a text wall. I also want to mention that this first part, the beginning, mostly consists of me being a disaster master – everything that can go wrong went wrong, basically. Can't succeed every time. I never do anyway, who am I fooling? trolololo.

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Reference image.

What I did was that this time I decided to do things a bit differently. You see, previously I've always made wooden swords from scratch but this time I decided to try the "let's modify a toy sword" approach. With that said I bought a cheapo toy katana from Partajshop and I must admit that I was quite surprised with the quality of the thing – I was expecting something really flimsy and low-end with all the parts glued on but yeah, what I got was an extremely modification-friendly plastic sword that had all the parts easily removable by just pulling them out. Said store gets both my thumbs up for their cosplay-friendly fake samurai swords! ヽ(^o^)丿

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This is what the sword looks like straight out of the package.

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This is the naked sword, all removable parts removed.

I noticed afterwards that it's for the better that I keep the part that is the "mouth" of the sheath since it provides support for when the blade glides back in. I thought I'll just cover it with worbla because it looks otherwise really cheap and fake with that overly golden color...

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The sheath comes with these two "hanging loops" on each end. I cut them off with a scissor and then sanded them flat.

I don't know how visible it is on the photos but the sword's handle came without any kind of wrappings which is a good thing because yeah, on toy katanas the wrapping always looks like complete and utter shit. No handle wrapping (aka tsukamaki) makes life easier for me because I don't have to start undoing it and neither do I have to worry about ugly glue remains. :)

I started by making the tsuba. I decided to try my hands at the sandwich method and I must say that it... didn't go quite as planned. I almost ruined my work twice but, by some miracle, I managed to save it. I want to say a few things about it because I ended up with a hilarious fail. xD You see, at first I started heating the bottom worbla piece on my freezer's lid. I had no idea what was a suitable working space for worbla because the damn tutorial didn't say a word about it so yeah, I thought that plastic shouldn't be all that bad – WRONG. My worbla stuck to it like hell (even though glue side was up) and I had to rip it off with force, to the point the whole thing got deformed, bumpy and almost tore. Seriously, don't do the same mistake.
My second thought was to use a metallic surface. The idea was good and I was on the right track but yeah, much to my disappointment I had no worbla-friendly metallic surface to work on; the closest would have been the sink/stove area on my mini kitchen but the problem was that it's way too uneven to work on. As desperate as I was I went to the common kitchen and dug through the closets and then I found a... metallic tray. It had some intricate designs on it but because it was flat I didn't think much more about it – BAD IDEA.
So, well, I did the other side of my worbla piece and –while it didn't stick as horribly to it as with the freezer– the tray had another surprise up its sleeve...

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OH MY FUCKING SHIZZLE DRIZZLE .........

I swear that when I saw that the worbla had stolen the tray's print nyysijä!worbla with it I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. xD Thank god that it's from my apartment house's common kitchen and not my mom's – mom would soooooo have killed me. I don't think anyone even uses this tray so I should be safe, lol...
Later on it finally hit me that aluminium foil might be the best surface to work on and... guess what? Of course that's what I don't have at home. So yeah, I had to call Sacchan to fetch some for me since she was coming over to my place anyway.
I need to say that I was right – tin foil is by far the best surface to work on that I've tried so far. The worbla doesn't stick to it! I guess you learn from your mistakes. But seriously, my mishaps didn't end there, no no. You see, because I did a layered design on the craft foam I had the stupid idea that I wouldn't need to glue the detail layer onto the main piece... I guess I don't need to even say that it was a bad idea too. :) Needless to say that when I had done one side (all nicely for a change) the other side moved and the second layer (detail layer) fucked up during the bonding process. I ended up with a tsuba that is not identical on both sides and thus, because the edges don't meet, it looks like shit. I tried to save it the best I could but nothing's gonna make it identical so I just have to suck it up. Oh and guess what? I also got a horrible king-size air bubble inside the damn thing too!! I did get rid of the air bubble but I had to really press down on it with my full palm, whole body weight and use protection gloves (warm worbla is warm). The problem is that because I've used my gloves for woodwork they're damaged on the surface from all the sanding etc and yeah, of course this shit caught onto the worbla and gave it a dirty and knobbly surface. HOW MUCH BAD LUCK CAN YOU HAVE IN ONE GO? щ(ºДºщ)
Note to self: fucking glue the craft foam details onto the main foam piece before using worbla on it. It will save you from raging and screwing up your project.

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My first sandwiched worbla piece done. It's fugly but it'll suffice... I guess.

Because my apartment has no spray paint friendly area shower doesn't count and because it's cold as all hell outside I couldn't paint at home; I had to wait until I had my furniture makeover & redesign class in school on Thursdays. During said class we work in a garage and yes, my teacher totally approves that I do cosplays in school, lol. So yeah, I bought some glossy white spray paint and started spraying the sheath white. I did several coatings but –because I'm horribly impatient with waiting for spray paint to dry– I ended up with a less-than-perfectly-even surface. Oh well, I have a fair chance of getting the ugliest spots covered by random details later anyway.

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My creative "where to put it to dry" solutions.

With the sheath turned white it was time to add some worbla details on it. No, just kidding – I decided to start working on the handle first. Oh boy, I need to say that I was up for some serious shit... as if it wasn't bad enough already.

Okay so, I seriously got so frustrated that I just thought that it would be a good idea to start from the beginning and so I tried to pull off the straw from its attachment point on the mouth of the can. Horrible idea, okay – I accidentally ripped up the whole damn straw, with the can mouth/dispenser still attached to it. >_> They were really inseparable, lol...
Now I just had the black rubbery pipe-like thing still standing and if I peeked into it I could see the foam in the can, oops. I just felt so lost and so infuriatingly stupid and self-hating that I had no choice but to ask the extra teacher what the fuck I should do now. He just casually told me that it's possible to buy a new mouth part for the can. He also wanted to check if the foam hadn't hardened already since he said it does that after a while and, well, I had had mine for over half a year. He looked at me and said: "you can also do like this – take something thin and stick it to the can! :D".



I kid you not – as soon as he poked whatever thin object into the can a loud explosion was heard across the whole garage, followed by "PFFFSSSSSCHHH" and then foam started gushing out of the can in all possible directions! It flowed so rapidly that it was uncontrollable and it ended up on the floor, into open cardboard boxes, tables, walls etc – fucking everywhere, basically.
It was like trying to stop the goddamn Niagara Falls, except that it was Foamgara Falls.

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Remember doing shit similar to this during chemistry class in school? – Yeah, something like that.

I swear every goddamn inch of foam came out like a mad erupting volcano from hell and it felt like it would never end. The teacher assistant guy was running around with the foam fountain in his hands and I followed after; neither of us had expected that the foam would be so, err, explosive, and we both were, quite frankly, panicking. When it finally ceased (it seriously took several minutes) I was surrounded by a sticky mess. When I looked around it finally hit me that around me were the scattered remains of my almost filled can of expanding foam; my almost unused can was all wasted and that, I tell you, made me feel wasted –that was material for several cosplay projects down the drain. My jeans ended up being a sacrifice to the angry foam gods and so did my expensive winter shoes and, almost, my Sonata Arctica hoodie as well (thank god I had rolled up my sleeves!!).

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This is what the can looked like once the foam explosion finally ended...

I spent several hours after class trying to salvage at least my shoes from the grip of the sticky goop of hell. I first tried to wash it with soap and water and scrubbing vigorously with one of those more robust brushes but lolnope, it didn't do shit – the brush seriously went and died before even a centimeter of the foam came off. I also got some of the foam residue on my fingers and I washed my hands thoroughly with soap 3 times during the first 15 minutes (countless times afterwards too) and rubbed my hands like no tomorrow and it barely did anything; I swear the foam residue stuck to my fingers so hard it felt like a second skin (especially when trying to peel it off), except a lot tackier – this crap is impossible to get rid off.
Regarding my shoes I sat for over an hour with a blade from an exacto knife just carving off the fucking foam, painstakingly slow, from my shoes. I was so angry I was gritting teeth and just wanted to kill something. No wait, correction – I wanted to drown something in PU-foam.  
Do you know that feeling when a stupid disaster happens, that ends up costing you a lot (both in materials and time), and you just try to joke/laugh it off with your classmates but inside you are about to break down and start crying/screaming because you hate your life and your fucking constant shit luck so fucking much? That's exactly how I felt.

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I got some foam where it was intended at least... very overkill though.

I think I'll gladly just end this post here because it's starting to get way too infused with my deluxe bad luck. (ﾉ_ _)ﾉ Maybe things will go better in the next episode of this project... or at least I goddamn hope so. I'm getting really sick of this Donald Duck curse that's been plaguing me for the last few cosplays, ughh.

I was bored this evening/night so I just sat for a while and thought about the upcoming Närcon Vinter and my cosplays and then it hit me – now that I'll bring Kenshin out again then why don't I update him a little and give the wig a new look?
I scrolled through some old photos of my Battousai Kenshin cosplay (for reference) and it hit me that the wig looked a bit too... I don't know... "untouched", for my current taste. :/ Too straight, lol. Besides, I wanted to mess around with a wig anyway because I was soooo bored.

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This is just the base wig. Ponytail is not shown because I didn't do anything to it.

I didn't do all that much to the wig, just spiked the front and sides all over for a more unkempt anime look. :) I didn't cut it because that was already done; this was one of my early wig cutting projects back in the days, haha.

I don't know why I'm so excited to do Kenshin again, even though it's a cosplay that stems back from 2013. Well, save for nostalgy and love of the series, that is. ^^" I guess I just really like how I look as him; it's one of those few characters that I currently feel like I actually fit – you know, that feeling when you put the cosplay on and look yourself in the mirror and actually somewhat see the (likeness to the) character? Kenshin is also one of the few of my cosplays that doesn't make me horribly self-conscious either, for the same reasons as above + that I've noticed that I do muuuuch easier get successful photos taken of me when I do him, even random con photos by others!? I hate bad photos of me so much, sob sob.
I guess it's just a relief to feel like you actually can pull off some characters with whatever physical traits you were born with. I know that it shouldn't really matter and all but yeah, on some days (especially when I feel bad about myself) it's still a really big "feel good" thing for me –can't deny– and it makes me happy because most of the time I don't like how I look in a cosplay, actually...

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The lens to the watcher's left shows wrong side out.

As far as I know Beaucon's lenses can only be found at HoneyColor– that's where I bought mine, in case anyone wonders where to get these. I also want to mention that the Beaucon Jewels series has a very similar design to those very popular 'Candy' style lenses, like EOS Sugar Candy and Vassen Sakura Candy for example. The main difference between the 'Candy' lenses and the Beaucon Jewels is the diameter – the Beaucon lenses are notably smaller.

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One lens in.

Much to my disappointment it became clear to me –as soon as I put the first lens in– that these won't be comfortable. When I had both lenses in I spent the first 10 minutes resisting all the urges to just take them off because the lenses felt really uncomfortable on my eyes, especially when I moved my gaze. They make my eyes watery and it feels like no matter how many times I clean them and re-insert them they always feel like they kinda "scratch" my eye when I move my gaze – I don't know how to explain the feeling; it's really annoying. The first 30 minutes were really unpleasant and I caught myself thinking "I just want to take these off" all the time, lol. But after that my eyes got used to them a little, sort of. I managed to wear them for 1 hour and then they suddenly just felt so dry that I went "fuck this shit" and took them out. Please note that I have sensitive and/or eyes that are often tired, which means that even though I don't find these lenses comfortable they might be hella comfy for someone else – everyone's eyes are different.

These lenses have a simple design with a thick black limbal ring and a single color that fades towards the pupil and thus creates a very nice blending look. These lenses are that perfect middleground between giving the anime look but somewhat still managing to look natural, thanks to the blending effect.

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Facing the window (always sun side) in my apartment.

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Apartment room light. I'm standing next to a lamp.

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Bathroom light.

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Flash photo.

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White light in the corridor.

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Yellow light in the corridor.

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Yellow light in the staircase.

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Outdoors with my back against the light, aka facing wall.

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Outdoors, sitting under the roof, turned towards the light.

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Outdoors, facing the light.

These have a light violet shade that looks pretty damn natural, actually. In some lights the violet color seems to look a bit grayish though. Nevertheless it's a lovely shade and a good choice (assuming these would be more comfortable for others) if you are looking for a violet lens that isn't too unnatural.

I would really have liked to be able to use these for Kenshin's portrayal in the Tsuiokuhen OVA since I was looking for a lens with a small diameter, simple design that provides the anime eye look but still something that would not be overwhelming and too distinguished. For the OVA version I'd prefer a more subtle lens, something that doesn't jump at you but still gives that surreal look to your eyes and the color change... Man, I was really hoping for the Jewels Violet to be the one because hnnng, they'd have been so perfect! >n<;; Damn comfort getting in the way!

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Lens on my finger with "wrong side" showing. Different indoor lights.

I don't know exactly where or what but these lenses have a design that I'm sure I've seen on another pair of contacts before – or at least a veeeery similar one. Then again, the print of these is rather generic I'd say; not like it's bad but yeah, I mean it in the way that it doesn't really stick out because there's several other lenses out there that looks the same.

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One lens in. This is to show enlargement.

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Facing window in my apartment.

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Facing the sun directly, through the window.

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Natural room light indoors in my apartment. (lamps off)

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Room light in my apartment. I'm standing next to a weak yellow lamp.

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Bathroom light.

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Flash photo.

The color is a nice medium violet that really shows up well. :) The lenses have a star shaped brown design towards the pupil hole, along with small black dots in the same shape; I think this is done to make them blend in a bit better with whatever natural eye color that the user has – I have light blue-gray eyes, with an occasional greenish tint. The design is kinda generic but it's still nice in all its simplicity. The black limbal ring is narrower than on most lenses and it has an irregular "cracking" effect instead of being a fully covering bold ring; this makes the lens and the enlargement effect look more modest and not as unnatural.

The issue with these lenses is the comfort. I am highly suspecting that the right lens is defective; I've tried wearing it 5 times but every time it feels like I have dirt between my eye and the lens and it feels horrible!! The lens gives a really unpleasant scratching feeling and it makes my eye water like crazy as soon as it has settled on my pupil. It's seriously horrible to wear and I've tried cleaning and inserting it multiple times and it always feels the same. :/ I threw it away as soon as I was done taking the photos and yes, this is the reason why there's fewer pictures than normal – I just couldn't stand wearing the hurting lens at all.
It seems though like the other lens (left one) is okay to wear but it feels kinda "thick" in my eye and it feels uncomfortable at first too, although not in any painful way– just the usual "I have a lens in my eye" feeling, which I dislike. I haven't tried wearing it for long but I guess I could stand wearing it for probably 2-4 hours or so. Please note though that I have dry/sensitive eyes and that comfort of each pair of lenses can be really different from person to person.

I'm back from my trip with friends to Närcon Vinter in Sweden. It was held during 12-14 February in Linköping and I must say that I had a blast! Before the con I had been crazy excited about it and now that the convention is behind me I feel like it lived up to my expectations. This is the first time in a while when I've actually felt comfortable and free of worries at a bigger convention; I feel like Närcon Vinter made me feel like I can enjoy cons again – I felt safe all along and didn't get any anxious moments etc. People were very friendly to me (includes total strangers!) and I even got some new friends, wohoo!

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The Närcon dragon logo outside Saab Arena during night time.

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Yes, it changes colors!

Some of you might remember that in the cosplans post I mentioned that I'd travel with Frozen Angel (former Jäätynyt Enkeli), Sacchan, Hitsu and Ronya. The thing is that like a week before the con Ronya suddenly informed that she can't go because her mom decided to be an asshole. I won't go into details because it's personal stuff for Ronya but I'll just say that me and Sacchan tried to convince her mother, along with Ronya herself, but her mom was 100% impossible to deal with and we had to give up on getting Ronya with us. :(
So yeah, less than one week to go before the con and I have one additional con ticket, the hotel room is booked for 3 persons and the gasoline costs for the carpool have been calculated and divided on five. I was seriously stressing and panicking because I barely knew anyone who could replace Ronya on such a short notice; I mean, we would have to leave on Wednesday and it was already Sunday! I tried calling my good ol' friend Kiivi but they couldn't go and at that point I was lost. I called Sacchan and she didn't know anyone either – unless her little brother Joni would be up for it. I desperately called Joni and explained the situation; luckily he is gamer, has been to a few cons and has an interest in cosplay so yeah, the possibility was there. He told me that he'll have to beg for vacation from his school on Monday and, if that succeeds, then he'll come with us. I lit up and waited for the next day. During my school day on Monday Sacchan called me about the "get vacation for Joni" mission twice – the first call sounded like we were fucked. The school Joni is in has a strict principal and because his underage some paper work was required with his parents signature/approval and on top of that several days of processing the request. WE DON'T HAVE SEVERAL DAYS TO WAIT. GODDAMMIT. 8C Sacchan called me some hours later and came with good news – suddenly Joni could come! :DD I don't know what black magic he or his parents used but the whole paper processing thing got skipped completely and off we go! Hell yeah!

tl;dr – Ronya informed that she can't come with when there's less than a week before the con. I and everyone else panics and ask our nearby friends on a very short notice to replace her – no luck. Turns out in the end that Sacchan's little brother Joni could come instead.

★Pre-con (Wednesday & Thursday)★

On Wednesday evening we had decided to start driving after everyone in our company had finished school for the day. Because I'm a dumb fuck I do all my packing after school on said Wednesday. :)) I'm surprised I managed to get all my cosplay stuff into my gray bag, lol.
The hours pass by and I hear nothing from Sacchan. I try to call her several times and I call Joni too but no one answers. At this point I get really worried because the clock is already mighty past 16:00 Swedish time and we should ideally have left already. I try calling Joni a second time and this time I get an answer, omgyes! He tells me that his sister had accidentally left the cellphone on soundless mode after school, classic mistake. xD Joni also says that they are not done packing yet and that it will approximately take one hour before they are anywhere near ready to jump into the car. I call Frozen Angel to inform the situation and he informs me that he had already expected them to come pick us up so he had left his apartment already and dragged all his luggage to the entrance, lol.
When Sacchan and Joni finally are ready they drive from their home to me and Frozen Angel's town (it's a 30 min car ride) to pick us up and then we went to eat together at Max, a hamburger place. Gotta start the con diet! 8D And besides, I had a shitlot of coupons to use that I had picked up from school.
With our stomachs filled with burgers and fries we finally left our starting point and started driving southwards, towards Umeå. The reason why Umeå is because my good friend Hitsu lives there and she was to be our fifth carpooler and second driver; we had decided on sleeping over at her place the night between Wednesday and Thursday so that we'd have less of a distance to drive on the morning.
We arrived at Hitsu's later than I had thought but luckily she was still awake. I ran around the apartment and knocked on her window, she waved excitedly to me and came and opened the locked front door. The clock wasn't far from midnight and so we just talked some shit and then we all went to sleep.

I don't remember when exactly we woke up on Thursday morning but it might have been around 10 in the morning. I don't think I had any breakfast either but we all just collected our stuff and left for Umeå city to go buy some provisions and take-away sushi for the long drive ahead. The car ride took many many hours and I spent most of the time either playing Monster Hunter or Pokémon on various handheld consoles and, when I wasn't playing, I was talking about all possible things with the others and most times it was really silly topics. We had, for example, come up with some really detailed and thought-out shit about why there were over ninethousand trucks on the road screwing with us and how, why and where they were holding their secret meeting to plot hell upon Sacchan's Citroën and Hitsu's Volvo. I won't go into more details but let's just say that some of the reasonings had to do with Volvo being a tool and not a car and that French cars suck. xD
At Uppsala we stopped to eat dinner and guess were we ate? :DD Max. Again. Or well, I didn't eat because my stomach was hurting– but I shared my coupons once again lololol.
When we reached Norrköping I called my big sister, because she had requested me earlier to inform her when we're in Norrköping so that she'll know when we arrive in Linköping, which is a 30 min car ride from Norrköping.So many köpings. Oh and yeah, me and Frozen Angel were to sleep at big sister's place while Sacchan, Hitsu and Joni had booked a hotel. 

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This is where I slept at big sister's apartment. The geek is spreading.

Our carpool company drove me and Frozen Angel to our sister's place when we arrived in Linköping and we got welcomed by sis and her boyfriend– it was really nice to see her again! ;A; I had never been to her new apartment and I must say that it was hella comfy and hey, I got to sleep on the tatami floor! 
She told me that I could eat some of the leftover Thai food and that was appreciated because I was pretty damn hungry. After that we played some Mario Kart 8 together all four of us and I had to try playing with Link! I've never played MK8 before so it was really weird and I... kinda sucked. :'DD Or well, I wasn't that horribly bad (highly dependingon cup though, Star Cup showed me no mercy) but I certainly wasn't as much of a pro as I am on Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, lol.
Big sis had asked me and bro before the con to bring her good old Super Nintendo with us and of course we did. I grew up with that shit too so it was a bit hard to let go but hey, it's originally hers anyway. We all three had a huge case of nostalgy when we tried to get the old childhood console to work; it took several tries to get it to start but when it finally worked I think I got a tear in my eye– the old graphics, old musics, all the memories... THE CHILDHOOD FEELS WERE REAL. The only issue was that the start button was so worn out that it barely responded; big sister managed to fix it the next day somehow.
She also tried playing some Megaman X (the nostalgy!!) and she informed us that we actually had the sought-after Japanese version of the game that is wanted by speedrunners. Our console is PAL but we have one of those things for it that makes it possible to play games from other regions! She even told us that when the game was originally bought she just wanted it because it looked cool and got it after bothering mom and dad enough lol – she had no idea that the Japanese version would be valuable. So yeah, she played the first two stages of Megaman X (or Rockman X, as the Japanese version is called) and I was just sitting there on the tatami floor and enjoying myself.

★ Friday★

The first con day!
I woke up 10 in the morning and was tired as shit, not gonna lie. The first con mornings are always so harsh; I'm really not a morning person, no matter how you put it. I stayed in bed for a while before I finally got up and ate some Havre Knas Fras for breakfast.

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The first thing I saw when I woke up. – Result? Megaman X selection screen music stuck in my head the whole morning!

Big sister's living room certainly belongs to a gamer – there's consoles from Wii U to Playstation 3 and 4 and now a Super Nintendo. She also has a Playstation 2 and the first Playstation somewhere. :)
Me and Frozen Angel started to put on our cosplays slowly after checking with the rest of our gang if we were on time with them. I need to mention though that I had some issues with the makeup, mainly the eyeliner because it was fucking up so badly. I have this kind of liquid eyeliner that dries in a way so that you can literally peel off the liner once dry; it has not been a problem before because I haven't done any thicker lines but oh lord, this time it was horrible to use!! I tried to build up a thicker line on my eyelid and the liner just crumpled and ended up looking like I had slathered fucking black latex on my eyelids?! It looked fugly, ruined everything and I ragequitted on it while a stream of swear words came rolling down from the general direction of the bathroom. Thank God sis was not home, lol. I spent way too long on the makeup and I ended up just borrowing Frozen Angel's liquid liner because I had no reserves with me and he had the same one I had before this current shit...
And as if that was the only problem I ran into – it wasn't. :) I also figured out that the violet circle lenses I had taken with me for Kenshin (without having tried them on before because lack of time) had one of the lenses defective and yeah, I couldn't wear them at all because of that. Thank lord I had taken with me a reserve pair juuuuuust in case. u_u My scarring liquid had also dried out but luckily I had taken with me an unopened bottle of it as well.
 

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Kenshin is ready! (obligatory cosplay selfie)

I called Sacchan when me and bro were ready and they came to pick us up... after a truck was done blocking their way from the hotel. Themothertruckers go to attack! We drove to Saab Arena (the con building) and left our Volvo in the parking lot.

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Saab Arena viewed from the front when we arrived.

We went inside through the main entrance and were quickly turned around by the entrance checkers/workers because we didn't have our tickets yet– they told us we had to go stand in line outside. We went outside to check the line and all I could think was "hell no".

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The long line to get your tickets. (this is just a small part of it)

Me, Frozen Angel, Sacchan and Joni followed the line to see exactly how long it was and it felt like it would never end – I thought Närcon had solved the problem of mega-sized lines!! Oh well, I found Catnipsenpai and Jackocalypse standing at the very beginning of the line and well, because I'm a sneaky bastard (and I was shaking because of the cold) I just casually stayed and chatted with them and thus skipped the line. #yolo #noregrets

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Närcon Vinter 2016 con ticket!

We got our tickets and instantly tried to find Sportcenter, aka the second building that had all the merchandise and the gaming room etc. We actually ended up going in the completely wrong direction and got fairly frustrated because there were no signs whatsoever showing which way to go!! When we got fed up with walking around cluelessly we went inside Saab Arena and asked for directions, but much to my annoyment the directions given were really unclear and vague– aka"go over the fence and continue forward". Excuse me but whut?? If I continued straight forward from where I saw the fence I'dcross the car road and enter the industry/school area on the other side which, clearly, didn't belong to the con.>_> Oh well, after some searching and looking for where other con goers were heading we finally found Sportcenter, yay.

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Sportcenter ahead, the second building of Närcon Vinter.

What instantly hit me when we got inside Sportcenter was how crammed and narrow it felt. It was also really obvious that it was a... well... sport center. I didn't really like the entrance area because of the non-con cafeteria there (by non-con I mean that it belonged to the building and not to Närcon) and the big squared off area in the middle that made it so that if you wanted to get past the cafeteria area (with tables for eating customers etc) you had to go around it and well, the corridors/passageways were narrow and a bother for me to pass through because I had swords, aka people kept bumping into my swords and it made me crazy.

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The entrance/main non-con cafeteria area, seen from one of the corners.

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A big fabric sign showing a map of the Sportcenter.

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The corridor you had to pass to get to the merchandise hall, foodcourt etc.

We all were so happy to see that bubbletea was available! I had heard rumors online that they would come but I wasn't sure if it was true. All four of us (excluding Hitsu because she was somewhere else) went to plow through the merchandise and I must say that I was pretty satisfied with the variety of goods, even though I nowadays rarely buy stuff at a con because most times it's grossly overpriced.

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The foodcourt area. The Närcon cafeteria is next to the wall.

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Bubbletea shop – my con is saved!

The merchandise ranged from the usual alpacca plushies to other cutesy stuff, figurines, t-shirts and other wearables along with accessories for alternative fashion, cosplay parts, posters, art books, DVD's and movies and basically anything that you can think of. C: There was even contact lenses but those honestly scare me and I stay away from them – they always seem to be of some kind of shady brands that I've never even heard of before and yeah, I'm quite the lens guru so that says a lot.

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This was the view when you entered the merchandise hall.

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A lot of small figurines...

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The obligatory cute plushies seller. I keep thinking that someday I want to buy an alpacca...

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My Little Pony shop feat. show accurate plush ponies.

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Pokémon League badges!

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OMG Digimon! ;A;

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Pokémon plushies.

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Pokémon mascot keychain plushies. I was so tempted to buy the Latias and Latios ones because I love and collect those.

When we were walking around the merchandise area some random person passed us by and handed out Namco Bandai paper sheets. On a closer look they were basically lottery tickets to win a Sorey figurine from Tales of Zestiria and the only thing you had to do to enter was to write your contact information and fill in the boxes of what Namco Bandai titles you are a fan of. Me, Joni and FrozenAngel got handed those papers and so we headed off to the gaming room to fill them in because that's where the Bandai Namco booth was. Sacchan got a ticket at the booth and we were quite surprised when we learned that the girl sitting at the booth was actually Finnish, omg! :O We chatted with her for a short while and then when we gave her our tickets she gave us all two booster packs of some Tekken TCG; everyone who entered the lottery got two of those as a freebie. Awesome.

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Tekken Card Tournament freebie booster pack.

When we were done checking the merchandise hall we had all gotten hungry enough that going and fetching some grub sounded like a good idea. But as per usual with cons the choices for food are limited to fast food, more or less, and so was the case with Närcon Vinter too. There would have been some kind of wraps and I guess tortillas but oh well, it was easy to go to that truck outside Sportcenter that was serving hamburgers, kebab etc for a fair price. Närcon's own food stands constantly had lines longer than life...

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There's no con without fast food.

We all bought the kebab with bread because kebab felt more tempting than burgers (hell, we had eaten burgers two days in a row) and it only cost 55 SEK, which wasn't half bad. It was snowing when we ordered (the pic is taken on Sunday, by the way) so as soon as we got our kebabs we ran inside because we didn't want to have extra snow in our meals, lol. We went to eat our food at the cafeteria/foodcourt area; it was quite the challenge to find a free table and chairs but we managed.

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Kenshin + kebab = Kebshin

In case anyone wonders I took off my tekkou before eating. Actually, they were such a pain in the ass that I spent half the con day without them, lol. They wouldn't stay in place for shit and just kept spinning you spin me right 'round baby around my arms and loosening up etc – really annoying. I actually used the tekkou that I made for Ichito back in the days because I wanted brown leather ones, instead of the black fabric ones I had been using previously and which I had bought from eBay years ago. The thing is that because I never wore Ichito longer than a few hours I hadn't really gotten to wear the tekkou long enough to figure out how they behaved and yeah, I had no idea they'd be so goddamn much of a bother to wear. I ended up just putting them on when someone asked for photos and otherwise they were swimming around in my bag. Frozen Angel accidentally almost broke one of the tying strings anyway when he put it on for me because yeah, it's a bitch to do by yourself.
Speaking of my Kenshin cosplay! I had a fair amount of people calling out "Kenshin!" when they saw me, one person fangirling and then –of course– one person asked me if my scar was real. I don't understand why it seem like that at almost every con I wear him to there's always someone who thinks that I actually cut myself in the face, for the sake of cosplay. I mean, it's nice that it looks realistic and all but hey, I'm not that hardcore! :'D

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Had some matcha bubbletea for dessert!

I swear that bubbletea is like the nectar of the gods. One of my bigger reasons to go to Närcon Vinter was bubbletea – I love it so much! The matcha milk tea with cherry bubbles was godly, seriously. I bought it twice because it was that good.

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Next to the Bubbletea shop was Gottcon, which sold candies, soda etc.

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There was also a shop selling Japanese candies and sweets.

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Next to the foodcourt was also the "crafting corner" where you could draw and do those, err, "pärlplattor". Fuse bead pegboard things...?

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You could also draw in one of these "con memory" things. :D

We went to the Skecon meetup at 20:00 but when we got there... there was like nothing to do. Four or so people were sitting in a ring on the floor and just chatting away and when me and my company came there we just said a quick hi to them and were left just... standing there. Awkwardly. I must say that it was lame as fuck and I felt like a completely outsider and thus very awkward. I really can't stand meetups when I just get ignored and don't feel welcome. There was some boring muted video with the Skecon mascot dancing Caramelldansen (which I'm really sick off, by the way) but that was about it; the whole meetup felt dead and there were like only that little friend group chatting with their own and not letting others into the fun. Ugh. Totally reminded me why I steer away from meetups. ._. We just awkwardly left after 5 minutes and well, those 5 minutes felt like the longest and most awkward minutes of my life.
I didn't attend any other panels or anything and yeah, I don't think we did that much more on Friday. We did spend some time in the gaming room but I didn't play anything myself; I just find it fun to watch others play. 

One thing though! At one point I reaaaaaally needed to take off my lenses (they suddenly started hurting my eyes and/or feeling really dry and uncomfortable) but I only ever found one bathroom in the Sportcenter building and there was always at least 5 people standing in line for the damn toilet!? I had no time to wait so I started freaking out because I didn't know where any other toilets were and then I had to rush all the way to Saab Arena and ask people there. Luckily I found a free bathroom there that I could use.But holy Christ, arrow signs for nearby bathrooms would be appreciated. During the whole duration of the con I only managed to find 3 bathrooms in total– what the fuck...?

I think we left the con late-ish, around 22:00 or something like that. Hitsu kindly drove me and Frozen Angel to big sister's as we had agreed on. At her place I ate some yummy leftover lasagne and then we watcher her play Until Dawn way too late into the night and, well, I think we all kinda shat ourselves. xD Jump scares goddammit.

★ Saturday★

The main con day is here!
Me and bro decided on waking up earlier than the day before because bro had a Hetalia panel that he wanted to attend. We had breakfast and started putting on our cosplays – today I was to cosplay Kashuu Kiyomitsu from Touken Ranbu. I called Sacchan after I had put on most of my cosplay, to check if we were on schedule, and it turns out she was a bit behind us so I waited before doing the finishing touches.

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Selfie with me as Kashuu and Sacchan as Atago from Kantai Collection. ♡

When we got to the con we headed straight for the Sportcenter again. Actually, we spent most of our time in there because Saab Arena only had the Artist's Alley, info desk, the visitors' second-hand table, the cosplay competitions and some external events that I didn't care too much about.
We went and chilled in the gaming room but all along I was hoping that those few Touken Ranbu cosplayers I had seen on Friday would be here on Saturday too – I had seen a Tsurumaru, Kogitsunemaru and Heshikiri. But as my luck is crap I of course saw none of those, or well, I saw some of the cosplayers (the previous Heshikiri cosplayer came and talked with me) but they cosplayed from other series. :( Damn. I was honestly expecting to see more TouRabu cosplayers but during the whole Saturday I only found another Kashuu and a Yamato no Kami Yasusada, whom I by the way ended up bonding and chatting a long time with. Oh, and it seemed like no one even recognized me, save for those three; I honestly got more comments about having painted nails (by fellow guys, nonetheless) than I got about my cosplay, LOL.

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Some people playing the new Naruto fighting game. Joni is the one closest to the camera by the way. :)

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The geek is strong in here. (gaming room)

I actually spent most of Saturday doing nothing... or well, hanging with my friends. XD It might sound boring as all hell but I actually enjoyed it a lot. It was a lot of fun just walking around and seeing all the cool and happy cosplayers; there was this one Saitama cosplayer from OnePunch-Man who was such a natural joy pill that spotting him immediately put me in a happy mood!

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Monster Hunter figurines!

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More MonHun figurines!

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And one more.

I was happy to find Monster Hunter merchandise but I didn't buy any; I thought they were way too expensive. Some MonHun items were literally three times as expensive as what I've paid for mine directly from Japan so.... yeaaaaah. No thanks. But it's still a feast for the eyes to see the stuff on display!

I was also looking for Touken Ranbu merchandise but, much to my surprise, there was barely anything to be found! I thought it would be a lot more popular but it felt weirdly obscure...?

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I'm not sure what these were...

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TouRabu posters. There were several different designs.

The posters are self-explanatory but those small figurines I'm a bit confused of what you are supposed to do with them. They all had their arms up and under the arms ran a small groove, almost as if you were supposed to fasten them by the groove on something. I have no idea, I never saw anything like it before. For some reason, when I checked back on those later, only the Mikazuki one was left; the rest sold out. And here I was expecting that Mikazuki would disappear first...

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Närcon had these awesome "NärConsent" signs up here and there. I approve!

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This one was outside Sportcenter.

I don't have so much to say about Saturday since I didn't even go watch the cosplay competitions or anything. I guess I should but I'm just not interested enough to stand in line for hours and then sit still more hours on a chair and stare at costumers so far away that I can barely tell what characters they are cosplaying, lol. I hate when all the tall people sit in front of me too. I don't like to sit still for long when I'm at a con because I feel like I miss a lot of what's happening around me; I guess that's the reason why I'm so bad at attending panels too...

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This is my Saturday in a nutshell – sit and chill in the foodcourt area. :D

At some point our gang gathered and we just sat in the foodcourt area and drank bubbletea together. I bought the matcha one again but Hitsu did things better than me – she was so savage that she bought two bubbleteas and drank them both on the same go!

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Hitsu wins at life.

When the clock was nearing eight I suddenly got a call from big sister's boyfriend; he told me that he'd come pick us up after eight. This meant that I had to cut my con day shorter than I had planned and I didn't have time to discover everything there was to offer. But the trade-off was not bad at all – me and bro got treated to some super-amazing sushi from one of Sweden's best Japanese restaurants!

So yeah, we spent the last 45 minutes exploring the Saab Arena and, more exactly, the Artist's Alley. We found this one Norwegian guy selling amazing Nintendo characters etc in zombie designs! Me, Sacchan and Frozen Angel ended up talking and gushing over his art for a long time and of course none of us left his table empty-handed – his stuff was seriously way too cool to pass up on!
I also chatted with Jackocalypse for a while because he also had a table at Artist's Alley; he's such a cute and sweet person. ;u;

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People are standing in line for something in Saab Area's main entrance.

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Artist's Alley area.

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Also Artist's Alley.

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Närcon information desk.

I left the con a little bit past eight and it felt like it all went by so fast; we didn't have any plans on attending on Sunday because we had to leave early, thanks to the long driving distance back home. :( Sacchan, Hitsu and Joni stayed at the con after me and Frozen Angel had to leave. Big sister's boyfriend picked us up and we drove back to their place.

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Saab Arena seen from the front during night time. Rainbows!

I must say that leaving "early" from the con didn't feel all that bad once I saw the sushi feast. Holy moly was it delicious!! Best sushi in my life, no question about it. I got to try several sushis I've never tasted before and everything was sooooooo good. ♥

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Family sushi dinner! #worthit

After the meal I spent several hours talking and asking questions about Japan with big sister. She has been there several times and talks the language fluently so yeah, I got a lot of information! She even asked if I wanted to borrow some of her language books but I forgot to ask for them when we left on Sunday morning, damnit.

★Post-con (Sunday & Monday)★

I know, Sunday is not actually "post-con" since Närcon is a 3-day con. But I decided to put it in post-con because I didn't attend the con, save for a quick visit to pick up provisions.

On Sunday morning I packed my stuff as soon as I woke up. At some point Frozen Angel called Hitsu and asked if we could do a quick stop at the con just so that we could go pick up bubbleteas for the trip or whatever else we wanted;Hitsu said it was okay but we had to be quick.
Me and bro said goodbye to big sis and her partner, I gave back the reserve keys and we left– I felt sad. :(
Everyone except Hitsu went inside Sportcenter one last time (in our normal clothes) and I bought myself one last bubbletea and also some merchandise that I had been pending back and forth with if I wanted to buy it or not; I ended up buying a Latias and Latios Pokémon plushie, they were too cute to resist. ;_; 
We got back into the car and left Linköping behind. The trip back to Umeå went without any problems, just like the trip down. We stopped to eat at Uppsala once again and yes, it was Max. Again. XD I still had coupons! They are neverending.
Once again I spent a fair amount of my time playing either Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate or talking with mostly Joni about how a jumping stick is the deadliest weapon.
But guys, I need to tell you one thing! While I was playing MonHun I did a rare G rank Expedition quest and well, I think I died a little inside when the following monsters showed up on my screen – the game decided to fuck me over, big time. MonHun fans will understand the pain. I had no chance and, even less so, because both of their timers started fairly close to one another. Fuck my hunter life. :)

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DOUBLE SAVAGE DEVILJHO!!! #savageaf #rekt

We arrived at Umeå not too late but yeah, we had to sleep early anyway because Hitsu had an airplane to pass the morning after (she's a busy girl!) that she couldn't allow to miss. 
We woke up on Monday morning before the pigs had time to fart and Sacchan, me, Frozen Angel and Joni had to dig up Sacchan's poor Citroën from all the snow that had buried it meanwhile we were gone. It was a good thing that the thing even started because it had been outside completely in the cold...
The drive from Umeå back up to Haparanda and to Finland went fine. I cracked some hilarious Finnish puns that made everyone burst out laughing – success! Nothing else noteworthy happened except that we saw 5+ reindeers on the road, 60 km south of Skellefteå around 07:00 in the morning. One dead reindeer was lying next to the trench and the rest were scattered around the road, scaring the shit out of Sacchan who was driving slowly and trying to get past them. Luckily they didn't approach our car.
When we arrived at our destination we were hungry and we went to eat... one last time... at Max. :DDDDDDD

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I bought these two on Sunday just before we left; I couldn't leave them. ;o; Latias & Latios small Craneking plush dolls.

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Sesshoumaru and Miroku rubber straps from InuYasha and a zombie Yoshi necklace from Artist's Alley by Fredrik Edén.

I was seriously so excited to find InuYasha merchandise! You never find any merch from it nowadays because it's such an old series. I really love InuYasha because it was my first manga that I started collecting and Sesshoumaru is one of my all-time favorite characters. I actually bought the Sesshoumaru strap already on Friday (insta-buy!) but I bought the Miroku one on Saturday evening.