Katsucon 2016

Hey everyone!! Tare is back after a long period of being busy with our personal lives...sorry for the lack of posts, but we're glad you guys stuck around! Also, hello to all of our new friends!
Katsucon was a lot of fun for us as usual, but we did have some ups and downs along the way :( !!
All three of us worked extra hard on our new Fire Emblem Awakening cosplays and we really dropped the ball on sharing our progress pictures, but we'll get to sharing posts about our cosplays individually, soon!
All of us were pretty stressed out leading up to the con. We even dropped one of our cosplans because we just didn't have enough time :'( Unfortunately, Lilitare had a family emergency right before the con and couldn't make it, but she still worked really hard on her cosplay and hopes to share it with everyone as soon as she can! Katsu felt incomplete without her ;___;
Friday we arrived at the con at about 10am and got in line for our passes. We checked out the artist alley and dealer's room briefly and then moved all of our crap from the car to the room. We did a thorough sweep through of the dealer's room and kept tabs on things we wanted to buy! We actually went back to buy things on Saturday, but nothing we wanted was left!! (I wanted a shiba and banana plushie!!! -R). We checked out the maid cafe. Our maid was Meiko and she made Rintare's first maid cafe experience magical~~~ Kuritare was unfortunately done for the day at around 5pm after an encounter with his best friend, alcohol. On Friday night our fabulous Kyo senpai treated us to a homemade Korean food feast ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ Good times with good friends!

Met up with Aozora and other Love Live friends!

     

Saturday was a big day for us, the debut of our Fire Emblem Awakening cosplays! It took us soo long to get ready x_x We woke up at 8 and weren't out of the room until 11! A huge thanks to our friend Same-san for taking our pictures with his fancy new camera! We can't wait for you guys to see all of our pictures! This was of course the fire alarm day and we spent most of our time in costume outside in the freezing cold!! Rintare had a hard time walking around with the knee armor and Kuritare had a fun time doing his sword hand motion to people. We missed the Fire Emblem meet up too :(( At night, we did some BakaProof work and interviewed our good friend Terumi. She gave us all Boo (the pomeranian) valentines, so sweet!

   

On Sunday we winded down a little and got into much more comfortable love live tracksuit + skirt combo. We mostly spent the day with friends, finalizing purchases in dealers and artists' alley. Kuritare realized he was having too much fun and needed more footage for his video so he split off with Same-San to get more for a while. We were able to watch μnite's performance, after missing their debut at AUSA! They did a great job and we can't wait to see more from them! We ended the day by going to a cheap Chinese restaurant with our friends from far away. We can't wait for our next con and we hope that we can have all three Tares together again!

With Risa Chan!

A big shout out to all of our friends who hung out with us, old and new!

Check out our friend Kimeeji and her awesome buster swords group!

So you’re doing your first cosplay… - Rintare

You might be feeling self-conscious or scared about doing your first cosplay… It’s a big step to enter the world of cosplay and it can be a scary step to take! Luckily for you, there is so much out there for you to learn from. There tons and tons of blogs, videos, tutorials, and other cosplay community members out there just waiting to help you out! You are most definitely not going into it alone!

In my opinion, the most important thing about cosplay is exuding confidence!!! Even if you’re feeling uneasy now, when it’s the day of the convention, or photoshoot, or whatever it is, you better be the shining pinnacle of confidence! Confidence is key! I know it’s been said many times over, but if you are feeling self-conscious and down about yourself, it will show! After all, you should have nothing to feel bad about if you’ve done all this hard work slaving away for your cosplay. Even if you didn’t make your own cosplay, have confidence in the effort you put into hair, makeup, and whatever else you spent 3 hours watching YouTube videos for. Be proud!

Another way I think we cosplayers can exude confidence is by becoming the character! Do not let the costume wear YOU! You are that character for the day, so be freed from your concerns. On the day of the event (convention, photoshoot, etc.) make sure you are the best you can be! Your hair and makeup is on POINT! Your costume fits you like a glove and there isn’t a wrinkle in sight! If your cosplay has some flaws…rock it with confidence!!

Here are some more specific tips I think may help!

Costume

• Gather references of your character/outfit. A lot!!
•    Regardless of whether it’s bought or made, make sure it fits you and flatters your body shape!
•  Make alterations where needed! Shorten a skirt, hem some pants, pull in a shirt, do what it takes to get the perfect fit!
•  Remember…we are not cartoon characters with stick thin arms and legs with mile long torsos! 
• As you’re planning out a cosplay expect to run into some proportion issues. Just adjust accordingly.
• Don’t bite off more than you can chew! You should have adequate time and resources for the cosplay you want to do.

Hair

•  It can be hard to match colors and styles for your character. Just do the best you can and sometimes that means putting a wig in your cart and praying it’s the right color!
• Wig hair is not real hair and it needs to be treated as such! Learn everything you can about what you’re trying to accomplish. Even if you’re just trimming, make sure your cutting technique is the right one.
•  Hairspray is your friend.

Makeup

• Look at references or look to other cosplayers whose makeup you really like!
• PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!! There is nothing better to do!
• Watch tons of videos! Technique is very important!
• Don’t think you can get away with cheapy makeup, spend the money where it needs to be spent so your makeup doesn’t melt off of your face!
• If someone else is doing your makeup, ask them to tell you about their process and why they’re doing whatever step they’re doing.

In short, take the time to learn your craft and the time you put into it will be the result you get out of it. You should always be learning and learning and learning and then MORE LEARNING!! Learn how to be the best you can be and then GET BETTER!! Be confident in what you’re doing! Radiate dat confidence and go out there and slaaay!!

Thank you for reading!

Super Easy Kotori Hair Loop Quick Tutorial (Love Live)

Hey everyone! This is Rintare with a reaalllyy quick tutorial on how to do Kotori's (Love Live) hair loop. I know a lot of people have trouble with this, so I just wanted to share my own take on it. I hope you find this helpful!

Here's the finished loop! Read on to see what I did!

So for starters, the Kotori wig I purchased came with a small ponytail clip to attach to the wig. I know not all wigs come like this, so sorry if this tutorial doesn't apply to you! The wig I purchased was from aliexpress: here

First, take out the ponytail clip, brush it out, make sure it's all nice, yadda yadda!

Next, take a small section of hair from the top layer of the ponytail. You want to make sure you're not taking too much hair or else you will begin to see the netting underneath. I took about an inch or so wide of a section.

Third, begin forming your loop by flipping this section of hair forward (so it's in front of the teeth of the clip)! Here's a side view of that:

Fourth, go ahead and clamp that section with the clip! You can clamp so the loop is a little smaller and pull the hair up to your desired length. Spread the hair out at the top so it looks loopy!

Next, you might want to secure the loop with a hair tie so it stays! (I didn't do that yet because I plan on fixing up my whole wig later on). Somewhere around where my thumb is should be perfect!

Finally, HAIRSPRAY IT. Use the best hairspray you can find! The kind that freezes the hair in place. I find that Pantene Pro-V 24 Hour Volume Hairspray works well for me. A lot of people are a fan of got2b freeze spray as well.

Tada! All ready to be attached to your wig base.

You are now ready to clip your ponytail clip and loop onto the main wig base. Be careful not to let your loops fall out of the teeth in the process! I clip it onto a section of hair that I gathered previously. On the wig base, it's basically a side-half-ponytail and I just clip right over where I tied that section. Here's a reference that may help:

I also find that many wigs are styled so that Kotori's loop is also what makes her ahoge (the little tuft of hair on top of her head). I don't think this is the case after thoroughly researching it for myself! To style the ahoge I just grabbed a little piece of hair from the top of the wig and teased it. I hope this tutorial was clear, easy, and helpful!! Have fun styling, little birds!