eBay Wig Review: zhoujuntao2010

So. FFX Yuna again. Why you say? Besides the fact that I completely ruined the wig cutting it, the color just looked terrible on my skin. It just.. looked awful. Hopefully I can salvage the wig for another cosplay, maybe I can chop it up for Suzaku for next year. (Ho ho spoilers~!) Anyways.

I think the seller got the wig from the same supplier as my previous Yuna wig because they had the same tags, just different colors. So the quality is the same as the other wig, which I fell in love with.

Rating: ★★★★★/ 5 out of 5.

Pro:
- Super soft.
- Nice highlights.
- Doesn't tangle too easily.
- Very natural.

Con:

- No tracking number.

Price: $23.40 + FREE SHIPPING. (It was 10% off.)

Item Location: China.

Time for Arrival: 12 Days.

If you wish to purchase this wig, search "2905 New Long Light Brown Fashion Wavy Wig" in the eBay search bar or look through zhoujuntao2010's ebay profile.

Sakura Matsuri Report.

I went to Sakura Matsuri this weekend! I went Saturday after my drawing class. I wore a 90% completed Rei Ayanami in her school uniform. The only things that weren't finished were the buttons and collar.

The highlight was that we went to "Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles" in Chinatown. It was featured on 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate' on Food Network. That and I was really craving fresh noodles. The place was cheap (price-wise) and delicious! I will definitely have to go back there again in the future.

Sunday was tons more fun. I decided to wear Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho before the fashion show because after having a conversation about it with Keith, we decided on him since I partially wanted to test shoot my new contact lens. Tifa with blue or green eyes doesn't make sense, nor does Rei with blue or green eyes (and I would've wanted to fix the skirt..)

To quickly cap my day: I didn't sleep all night because I was finishing up Yuna. The El Dorado staff came out pretty good but pretty rickety. Went to the festival with Kevin and Keith. Wore Kurama. Shot with Keith for the lenses test. Forgot craft foam/poster board for Yuna's obi. My friend, Kadishu, ended up buying some for me♥. Met up with Philip. Hung out with them.

Shot for a bit. Shot FOR Keith for a bit. Made a "We love Mario Bueno" sign for Mario Bueno. "Embarrassed" the poor kid. Embarrassed myself by attracting much attention to myself with said sign. Went to get ready for the fashion show at 2:30. Changed into Yuna. Waited backstage at 3:45 to go up. Hung out with all teh models until the show.

Modeling in the Cosplay Fashion show. Got bombarded by people photographing me as Yuna and Mario Bueno as Tidus. Got kicked out xD Shot a bit more, went home.

All in all, this is going to sound a bit cheesy, but I feel really blessed. I'm glad that I could've met so many great friends through cosplaying. Being at the fashion show today and meeting so many talented people is truly inspiring. Everyone was so sweet and nice!

Being around other cosplayers who share the same passion as you and are about the same level is just.. amazing. It makes me want to push myself harder and challenge myself to become better. I saw a lot of friends and made some new ones!

Okay, I'm gonna end the cheesy-ness here xD

Photography by Knightmare6 and Merlin Tong Photography!

eBay Wig Review: lliying123

One of my friends wanted to shoot Rei Ayanami for AnimeNEXT so I bumped her up on my list. And since the date is rapidly approaching, I bought her wig yesterday. Out of all the wigs I saw, this one was the best one I found that actually resembled the character's hair. Now, when I originally purchased from this seller, I saw that they had 10,000+ good feedback and they've been selling for 3 years. So I decided to order it, and it was also pretty cheap.

I bought this wig on April 3rd. Two days later, I received an e-mail from the eBay Loss Prevention Department. Apparently, the seller got shut down! I have to admit, I'm pretty peeved, since I ordered this wig at the same time I ordered my FFX-2 Yuna wig, and that wig arrived yesterday. Nevertheless, I'm going to try to keep an open mind on this.

I e-mailed the user and they said eBay shut them down for suspicious activities. Anyways, they said they are still shipping my wig and I should have received a tracking number, which I did, which I received when I asked for it. As of now, (4/13/11), the USPS says "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment."

4/20/11: So I received the wig today. The quality is not bad. The seller delivered as promised, so I'm not angry about eBay shutting them down. I'm still a little peeved about it, but I got my wig so I have no complaints. The wig itself, like I said, is okay. The fibers actually fell everywhere. So it's not the best quality, but the wig fits, the color is good.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆/ 2.5 out of 5.

Pro:

- Tracking number included.

Con:
- Long shipping.
- The fibers are very loose.

Price: $13.99 + FREE SHIPPING.

Item Location: China.

Time for Arrival: 17 Days!

The wig is called, "New Evangelion light blue Short Cosplay Hair Wig CW183." 

Chibicon Report!

What made the whole day worth it. :)

I attended Chibicon last night at Montclair State University. My friend, Keith, came with me! You may recognize him as "TheBigTog" in some of my photographs.

It wasn't too bad for a super small convention. But I have to admit, I may have been bored if I didn't have friends there haha. I had a table in the Artist Alley, so I was there for most of the convention. I was there for almost 3 hours. It was actually really boring, but my friend, Keith, was there to keep me company along with Kevin, who also had a table there. A few of my friends went as well, so they came to say hi haha.

I also made some sales! So it wasn't a total loss for me to sit there for 2 hours and 45 minutes xD

Don't even ask.. xD

This one guy I met said that he's always seen awesome cosplays that people have made by themselves online and mine was the first one he's seen in real life. I thought that was soo sweet!

I wore my Final Fantasy X Yuna outfit! She still has some things to finish. Actually.. a lot things! My poor poor Yuna was still incomplete when I wore her to Chibicon >< There are still a few things I need to revamp for her.. She needs to be perfect! The staff came out not bad in photographs! I wasn't too keen on the way it came out in general haha. I feel that it could have been improved. Ah well.

Cheesin' it at the artist alley!

Keith and I were originally planning a photoshoot with Yuna, since the one at Castle Point didn't happen, but it rained soo much! We kept checking every so often during the artist alley (since we were seated near a window) but it wouldn't stop :/ It was hardly cloudy on Friday and was supposed to be sunny on Sunday. So after the artist alley we wandered around looking for a place to shoot Yuna. In the end, we found this nice staircase and managed to squeeze in a few photos!

Finally, a professional photograph!

I was able to obtain photos fairly quickly because I needed to submit them for the Sakura Matsuri Cosplay Fashion Show application. And now.. for some photos! Yay to Keith for making me look flawless haha. :D

All images are copyrighted to TheBigTog. So, credit the photographer and don't steal them!

You can check out the other images of Yuna on my deviantart, here!

ebay Wig Review: peaceofworld2010

So AnimeNEXT is coming up very soon! I recently ordered my FFX-2 Gunner Yuna. I intentionally wanted the wig to be different from my FFX Yuna wig. So I opted for a darker brown.

The wig ended up being slightly darker than the image. But you can tell it's not black and under the  light, it's lighter. It has nice highlights like my FFX Yuna wig, which I did enjoy.

And it was a lot longer than I thought it would be, which isn't that big of an issue.

I'll take another picture when it's less icky/rainy outside.

Rating: ★★★★☆/ 4.5 out of 5.

Pros:

- Very fast shipping.

- Soft fibers.

Cons:

- No tracking number.

- Not heat resistant.

Price: $22.99 + FREE SHIPPING.

Item Location: China.

Time for Arrival: 9 Days.

Would I order from them again? Yes.

If you wish to purchase this wig, search "J·C New Fashion Dark Brown Staright Women's Full WIG," or search in peaceoftheworld2010's ebay profile.

Nail Tutorials.

It has been.. a little over a year since I did nail tutorials. I have hardly been buying nail magazines as well >< (My mom always tells me to buy then in Taiwan because they're cheaper, but I didn't get a chance to the last time I went!) I bought a few at BookOff in NY.. But I've hardly been doing them. Saying school and cosplays don't give me enough time to do them would be a half lie. But, nail art is still one of my passions. So.

I've decided to 'attempt' to invest more time into them like I said I would do in my New Year's resolutions. So the other day I was thinking of nail tutorials I could do. And I figured since it's the beginning of April, that usually means prom season! Actually.. Maybe it's May, I'm not really sure. My prom was in June, which is already pretty late, so.. yeah.

I have 3 looks in mind. For short nails, long squarish nails, and long oval shaped nails. One look will be more simple but party/glam look, another more elegant, and last just.. "blinged out," as opposed to the standard 'French nails.' Someone wanted me to upload a tutorial for what I did for my prom. But I also spent hours on them, so.. I sort of never did that tutorial.

I hope you can understand why.. OTL

Haha this was when I was really into nails! I don't want to ever give that up.

SpringFest 2011

Super late post. It is finally spring! Even though it doesn't look like it outside.. But here is my SpringFest report!

I went to SpringFest 2011 in Polytechnic NYU on March 12th. I wore my Hatsune Miku costume because I couldn't finish Yuna on time and she's my favorite character in Final Fantasy so where was a bare minimum of what I would have to complete to debut her, and I couldn't reach it. So I wore Miku instead!

I had my drawing class so I didn't get to go to SpringFest until afterwards. I met up with my friends, ~kadishu and ~Richumaru. I went to the Cosplay Contest/Meet up and met up with ~Kitsune-Intoxicated who was hosting it. Andrew from Conpics, and my friends, *knight28, ~GI10, *TheBigTog were there. There were a lot of people! Andrew and a few other people said I should join the contest, and I had nothing better to do so I did.

I ended up winning first place in Craftsmanship. The contest was a casual event and scheduled very last minute so there were no prizes, which wasn't much of an issue to me. But.. Miku is SO popular. Haha the crowd went wild, even though I was in her 'Magnet' form.

Afterwards I was interviewed by ~OutOfTimeProductions. Since I got there late, SpringFest was pretty much over after that. So that concluded my day. My friends and I went out to dinner afterwards.

All in all I had a good time. I'll definitely attend again next year if I am able to. Hopefully I'll get to venture around the rest of the convention next time!

Here is the interview!