Cosplay Tips

Hello!

I personally haven't been able to safely wear cosplay contacts. My standard advice is to get your eyes checked and purchase only ones that require your eye's perscription information for contacts.

Do some serious vetting of the company/brand you're buying from to make sure they're actually safe.

Then only keep them for as long as they say they should be kept and keep fluid and everything on hand to care for them!

No need to apologize!

Tape over the bra is still somewhat risky. With the tape you could be restricting your lungs in an unhealthy way.

You can double layer the bra and see if that helps at all. Most chest binders are built with two layers of mesh there anyway.

Obviously, the best way would be with a professionally made binder, but if you’re doing it on the cheap (but still want to be safe) we recommend things like high compression sports bras (available at retailers such as Target for under $20).

As for methods that do not involve purchasing some sort of garment, there are, unfortunately, none we recommend. The ace bandage method is notoriously unsafe, tape is horrible for your skin, and plastic wrap will restrict both your breathing and the oxygen to your skin.

In my opinion, race shouldn’t matter in cosplay. In large part the logic behind this is simple: many people of color cosplay European-descended characters all the time.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t consider things like ethnicity when selecting a character you would like to cosplay. That being said, if everyone only cosplayed within their racial heritage, cosplay would be far less diverse than it is today.

When taking all of this into consideration, yes, you are on the right track. Changing the color of your skin to cosplay a person with a real ethnicity (as opposed to blue or green skin) is definitely not a practice we would encourage. The same goes for makeup or other modifications that emphasize features that could be considered racial in nature.

Of course you can! Cosplay isn’t about expectations of beauty. In fact, it sounds like you have a delightful concept! They make body shapers for people of any shape or size. You can explore everything from athletic compression wear to more traditional body silhouette enhancers. Our best tip would be to make sure that it matches your skin tone if it is intended to be nude (or match it to your makeup color if you are using body paint) with dye. Find ways to disguise the hems (costume-appropriate cuffs at the wrists if it is long sleeved, tucking it in at the waist if it ends at the waist, etc) that way it will give you more of a nude effect if that is your desired outcome.