Head/Heels Cosplay

Got a cosplay idea but the character has lots of arm (or leg) tattoos? Don’t feel like painting on yourself with body paints or hunting down that horrendously expensive temporary tattoo paper? Here’s a quick tutorial for making tattoo sleeves using nylons and sharpie markers! 

Upsides: 

- Supplies are cheap! You may even have many or all the supplies you need right at home.

- Quick and not very messy! No paint is involved, and sharpie marker dries instantly. 

- Easy! Great artistic skill not required.

- They move with your skin! People have legit thought these were real tattoos. From a distance, yes, but I had guys at cons with actual ink on their arms come over to compliment on my full (fake) sleeves. 

- You get to eat pringles! More on that later. 

Downsides:

- They are delicate. Nylons get holes in them super easy and forearms run into stuff, lean against things, and generally make it hard for the sleeves to survive. But if you only need them for a weekend, that’s ok.

- I haven’t experimented too much, but unfortunately this technique probably doesn’t work for wearers with darker skin tones. Sharpie ink is transparent, so any color it rests on just multiplies and the tattoo won’t show up very well. You’ll want to go the fabric paint or body paint route to get the best bold, bright tats. 

- Can’t do white sections, because sharpie ink is transparent and doesn’t come in white. I leave them blank and they read OK, but the white areas will always be pink, tan, brown, etc. unless you dab in a little fabric paint, which will not be covered in this tutorial.

- Sharpie is supposed to be permanent marker, but on skin…it’s not. The ink will most likely wear off onto adjacent clothes. Not that big of a deal for me, as I tend to wear my tats with white shirts that can be bleached, but other shirts may not survive as well.

OK, let’s go! Here are your supplies: 

You’ll need a pair of nylons, scissors, tape, a set of sharpies, your designs printed out on 8.5 x 11 paper, some bracelets, and a can of Pringles. You can use any design you want, of course, but Here is the link to these fine Newt Kaiju tattoo designs. 

If your nylons have an undies part, cut the legs off and wear the undies on your head for the rest of the tutorial, if desired. Put the legs on your arm like so, and cut the toes off so you can slip your hand through. You can cut some of the top of the sleeve off as well, but don’t cut too much because you can’t put it back on if your sleeves are too short. 

Here are my creepy sleeves. Now for the pringles.

Tape your design template to the Pringles can. It doesn’t reach all the way around but eh. The Pringles can gives you a nice stable surface to draw on that is roughly the shape and size of an arm. It’s a little short, so just roll up the rest of the nylon above the workspace and adjust both template and nylon down when you get to working on that part of the sleeve.

Color with the markers! I recommend doing the colored areas first and then doing the black outlines on top of it, to avoid the black ink contaminating the ink pads of the lighter markers. Remember how that always happens to the yellow ones? Eww. Nylons are thin and slide around a bit, so it’s best to use short strokes and dotting to get the ink on.

Take the template off the Pringles tube, flip the paper to the blank side and put it back on again. The paper collects the extra ink, so it’s hard to see any missed spots. Now you can see any bits you may have missed. Fill them in for completion. Also, the paper doesn’t manage to wrap all the way around the Pringles can, so now is the time to free-hand a bit of the design where the template doesn’t reach. For Newt tattoos, that’s the back of the arm. 

When you’re all done coloring, put them on!

There’s a rough end to the tattoo right at the wrist, of course. Disguise where the sleeve ends and your skin begins with some pretty bracelets:

There we are, much better!

This is a tutorial/review on using fabric softener to remove shine form a wig. Since I used a curly wig, I’ve included steps to untangle and re-curl a curly wig.

Before:

After:

Review:

Overall, the fabric softener did remove some of the shine and made the wig super soft and smell absolutely wonderful. In sunlight, the wig looks almost natural. However, in flash on under unnatural lighting, it still looks rather shiny. I tried this on a cheap $10 wig I got off G-Market(Qoo10) as a test but I’m sure it will work on other wigs too. I didn’t follow the exact tutorial that can be found online which was to soak the wig in equal parts softener to water for 5 days. In the tutorial next, you will read that I used much less and soaked it for a much shorter amount of time, maybe that’s why it’s still a little shiny. But it still worked out quite well for me. Overall, I would recommend using this method to either remove shine or untangle your wig.

Tutorial:

1)      Prepare a bucket of water just enough to submerge your wig in and add a little hair shampoo (I used my daily one which was Dove) and mix to dissolve the shampoo. Dump your wig in inside-out and gently agitate or swish the wig.

2)      Leave for 5 mins before taking the wig out and rinsing it thoroughly. Let the water flow down the wig from the top and use a low/gentle stream so as to reduce tangling. Next, take some conditioner (once again, I used my daily conditioner which was Follow Me) and rub it into the wig fibres (I add it to a little water but I think it would be better if I hadn’t).  Use a wide tooth comb and start combing out the tangles gently working your way from down to up.

3)      After sufficiently detangling your wig, rinse off the conditioner. Prepare a bucket filled with a little fabric softner and some water. The ratio I used was about 1 part softener to about 3 parts water. Prepare just enough to fully submerge the wig. Once again, flip the wig inside out and swish it gently in the bucket before letting it soak for 2-5 days (I left it for 2 days).

4)      After the amount of day you’d like has passed, take the wig out of the bucket but DON’T RINSE IT. Just place it in a towel and roll up the towel to remove as much water as possible. Then, place it on a wig stand with a towel underneath and let it air dry. You can use a hair dryer on cool setting if you like (I didn’t need to as I found that the wig dried fairly fast). Anyway, take a good long whiff of that awesome softener smell. It’s gonna be there for quite a long time but who cares; it smells fabulous.

5)      Once it dries, you can start brushing it. NEVER BRUSH A WIG WHEN IT’S WET. It can damage the fibres and permanently warp them. Since I’m brushing a curly wig, I just take a small section of hair (I just grab a curl) and start gently brushing it.

6)      Once it fully untangled, (don’t ask me how it suddenly looks like there is more hair. It’s just the magic of untangling)

twist the hair in the direction of the curl,

and you can either hair spray it now and let go (it will still be form a nice curl like this)

or be like me and curl it around you finger, pin the curl up

and when you’ve done the whole head, spray with hair spray and then remove all the pins.

And there you have it; a beautiful new looking wig with perfect untangled curls. And not forgetting that it smells like flowers. The after photo at the start was under sunlight and the photo above was under my room ceiling light at night and the next photo is with flash.

So as you can see, it’s still quite shiny but the wig is totally tangle free and with beautiful curls once again so I’m not complaining. At least it still is natural-looking in sunlight. Anyway, natural hair is still suppose to be a little shiny in lighting.

Warning: This post is probably the most nerdy costuming post I’ve ever made.  I’ve tried to keep the photos to a minimum, so be aware that a lot of the content I’m talking about here is linked within paragraphs. — The vintage/historical fashion buff in me is extremely giddy that Jeffrey Kurland chose to use vintage safety/sport goggles as the model for pretty much every single pair of glasses Holtzmann wears.  It’s also the icing on the cake of her ‘Mad Scientist’ vibe. (I’ll be tackling each pair in the order they’re introduced in the film.) Pair #1:

This is the infamous pair she wears for 90% of the movie and most of the promotional pictures.   After days of research, I can comfortably say that they are either a pair modeled after or modified from vintage pairs made by Wilson Safety Goggles between 1930 and the mid-1950s.  Back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, safety goggles did not look like they do now.  They were also used for recreational activities such as motorcycling.   You can find restored pairs of these on the internet or buy ones that are a bit cheaper and touch them up yourself.  (This is what I did.) A few months ago, O’Riginals Trading Co. had prop replica pairs for sale.  They are currently sold out, and I cannot find any information to indicate a definite re-release.   Thetake.com also suggests a usagi style steampunk pair of glasses as a good alternative.  I did some searching but didn’t find any in a yellow tint that matched the originals at a fair price.  However, there are customs being built such as this one, which go for anywhere between $150 and $300. Pair #2:

Though they seem brand new (which I’m sure they are), these goggles are another call back to that vintage motorcycle/aviator style we talked about previously.  Said goggles were also designed to fit over any other glasses one would wear every day.  This would support the theory (at least I have one) that Holtzmann uses pair #1 functionally, and not just when she’s trying to avoid blowing things up.  It would also explain why she has her glasses “stacked” in her introduction scene.   These along with pair #3 were the easiest to find in the department of cheap alternatives.  I wasn’t able to find any with the jewelers loop add-ons, but I’m sure that they would be a fairly easy edition for any cosplayer to make.   You can purchase jewelers loops individually from sellers on Etsy. Pair #3:

Again, we can easily find cheap alternatives for this pair.  Though, the screen accurate version of these goggles should be a bit more rounded on the sides.  The bug-like quality of the lenses would indicate that these are again modeled off of vintage motorcycling/sport goggles. If you use your Google-Fu, you can certainly find a pair you can be comfortable with even if it’s not the ones I’ve linked above.   I’m hoping we get to see more of this pair in deleted scenes because the screen time of these goggles was extremely brief in comparison to the others.  Pair #4: 

We get one last, unique pair just for the final battle. Once again, my research would tell me that these were modeled off of or are modified Wilson Safety Goggles - much like pair #1.  Why the different style?  These are dated as 1950s safety goggles, and it is this decade when the style began to change.

Thetake.com suggested this Amazon pair from Bouton as a decent alternative.  (Though the lenses may be too green.) Bouton is a modern company that also sells a clear version of said glasses at $10.  If the lenses are plastic, there are ways to dye them in order to get a desired color.  Bonus Find: I also love a good t-shirt.  Who doesn’t? Holtzmann’s tops are a toss up between solid colors, more blousy shirts with prints, and graphic tees.  Her “One of the Boys” shirt caught my eye.  I searched for its origins just to see what I would find. 

Made under the label Truly, Madly, Deeply, it formerly sold at Urban Outfitters. 

(Requested by @myprettynightmare as a follow up to the glasses post.) **Note: I’m not claiming any of the following items are the exact ones we see on screen - just close enough that those who want to cosplay can get an idea of the cut and style of the clothing/accessories as well as realize any changes that might need to be made.**

P.S.A ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL COSPLAYERS  This is why we cannot have nice things. (i took this from a post on facebook i saw someone put up that had to be shared elsewhere) “1: Broken Light Fixtures on a couple different floors. 2: Busted Exit Sign cause some fuckwad thought it would be A Good Idea to high-five it. 3: Actual fucking flooding in a room. 4: Punching a hole in the bathroom door and writing “One-Punch Man was here.” 5: Writing “Katsucon 2016” all over the stalls on the main floors.”

Since I defs didn’t want to carve a real pumpkin to put on my head and get nasts pumpkin insides all over my hair I decided to paper mache one. Unfortunately there was no good tutorials anywhere so I will share my trial and error knowledge.

First I got some supplies: 1 Punch balloon (they’re rounder and larger they regular balloons), some paper mache stuff in a bag, cardboard, a glue gun, paint, sculpey clay, tape, some news paper and some water and flour mixed together.

I then put at least three - five paper mache layers of newspaper with flour water on the balloon. I also measured my head and left an opening at the bottom. (NOTE: Don’t put tape on the balloon and try to peel it off after you’re done paper macheing, RIP)

After that’s all dry I put glue gunned some cardboard onto it to give it some pumpkin like ridges.

Then I filled the gaps between the cardboard and the newspaper with the paper mache in a bag stuff. Wait for it to dry. (Note: Don’t pop balloon until the paper mache in a bag stuff is dry cause it holds a LOT of water and your paper mache project will sink, RIP) After that I popped the balloon and lightly dampened the top with a sponge and water until it was wet enough to slowly press down into more of a pumpkin shape.

After it’s all dry I taped a stem I made out of card board on the top and put another layer or two of newspaper mache over top.

More drying wait time (you can use your oven on the lowest setting to make it dry faster) then I sanded it down and cut out a face with an exacto blade.

I added a little bit of backing behind the face on the inside with the paper mache in a bag to give it more of a 3D look which wasn’t that noticeable but oh well, it kidna worked… After all that stuffs done I painted it all white otherwise the newsprint would bleed through and make my colours not as bright, I also added some sculpey clay to the brow area to give it some more emotion in which I used an iron to dry it with cause it was too late to put it in the oven with paint all over it (Note: Put clay on before painting).

I sprayed it with a sealer before painting colours on it cause I find acrylics do weird things sometimes. After it was all dry I begin to paint.

I also painted the inside a red and added a kinda head rest thing on the inside since when I pushed the top down it made an uncomfortable point at the top when putting it on your head. Then once it was all dry I sprayed it with some more sealer, added some cool stuff like stitches with some ribbon and blood which I used nail polish for a shiny effect and put in some lights which weren’t very effective when my head was in the pumpkin but that’s okay, it still looked cool.

And that’s that!

How to Make Simple Gloves by  mangalphantom

✧ ･ﾟ:* WELCOME TO SPOOKIHOPE’S MYSTICAL MAGICAL FAKE FRECKLES TUTORIAL *:･ﾟ✧

*please note this could get messy since splatter is somewhat hard to control so try not to wear something you don’t want to get messed up or if you do just cover yourself with a towel

materials you’ll need:

a powder foundation darker than your natural skin tone

contact lens solution

a clean toothbrush (or one you use specifically for makeup. clearly mine still has makeup all over it so whatever)

cloth or tissue (optional but i like it)

time it usually takes to do this:

1 minute

tops

literally that’s it

why do you think i wear them so much seriously they’re the easiest thing to do holy crap

NOW ON TO THE TUTORIAL~!

STEP 1: do your face makeup as you normally would minus eyes/brows (you might get splatter on them and it’d look dang weird having a freckle over your eyeshadow)

if you don’t normally wear face makeup then dang good for you you’re already way ahead of me. carry on to step 2.

STEP 2: get your dark powder foundation and contact lens solution. put a bit of the solution on the powder and mix it (feel free to use the toothbrush to mix it, that’s what i do)

for the end result you’ll want a somewhat watery/somewhat muddy concoction. play with it until you get what you want basically. the waterier it the lighter they’ll be. the muddier it is the clumpier it’ll be.

if you’re uncertain test it out on you arm or a cloth. it should dry flat and not leave any bumps or globs.

STEP 3: dip your toothbrush in the muddy concoction you just made. (gross why’d you do that??? just kidding. haha look you got poo on your toothbrush) now give it a shake or 2, knock off some of that extra stuff. you don’t want too much on there.

STEP 4: splatter (drag you thumb across the bristles to flick it on your face) that stuff on your face wherever you want your freckles! the bridge of your nose, the apples of your cheeks, your forehead, wherever you want. the closer you hold the toothbrush to your face the smaller and denser the splatter will be, the further away the more spaced out and more area you’ll cover.

see those bigger spots? those are there because i didn’t knock off enough of the excess. you generally don’t want those.

STEP 5 (optional): use the cloth/tissue to gently pat the freckles dry. it’ll make them flatter and a little bit lighter depending on how soon you pat them after putting them on. (i like this, i feel like it makes them look a little more natural. also i’m too impatient to wait for them to dry)

BUT HOPE, WHY DO YOU USE POWDER FOUNDATION AND CONTACT LENS SOLUTION TO LIQUEFY IT??? WHY NOT JUST USE LIQUID FOUNDATION???

dude, like, you could if you want but liquid foundation is too thick. it’ll leave “moles” as opposed to “freckles” (just big ol’ globs of makeup) and it won’t dry. so if you do use liquid foundation you’ll have to liquefy it a bit more before you can use it (the same thing you do with the powder foundation).

✧ ･ﾟ:* WELCOME TO SPOOKIHOPE’S MYSTICAL MAGICAL FAKE FRECKLES TUTORIAL *:･ﾟ✧

*please note this could get messy since splatter is somewhat hard to control so try not to wear something you don’t want to get messed up or if you do just cover yourself with a towel

materials you’ll need:

a powder foundation darker than your natural skin tone

contact lens solution

a clean toothbrush (or one you use specifically for makeup. clearly mine still has makeup all over it so whatever)

cloth or tissue (optional but i like it)

time it usually takes to do this:

1 minute

tops

literally that’s it

why do you think i wear them so much seriously they’re the easiest thing to do holy crap

NOW ON TO THE TUTORIAL~!

STEP 1: do your face makeup as you normally would minus eyes/brows (you might get splatter on them and it’d look dang weird having a freckle over your eyeshadow)

if you don’t normally wear face makeup then dang good for you you’re already way ahead of me. carry on to step 2.

STEP 2: get your dark powder foundation and contact lens solution. put a bit of the solution on the powder and mix it (feel free to use the toothbrush to mix it, that’s what i do)

for the end result you’ll want a somewhat watery/somewhat muddy concoction. play with it until you get what you want basically. the waterier it the lighter they’ll be. the muddier it is the clumpier it’ll be.

if you’re uncertain test it out on you arm or a cloth. it should dry flat and not leave any bumps or globs.

STEP 3: dip your toothbrush in the muddy concoction you just made. (gross why’d you do that??? just kidding. haha look you got poo on your toothbrush) now give it a shake or 2, knock off some of that extra stuff. you don’t want too much on there.

STEP 4: splatter (drag you thumb across the bristles to flick it on your face) that stuff on your face wherever you want your freckles! the bridge of your nose, the apples of your cheeks, your forehead, wherever you want. the closer you hold the toothbrush to your face the smaller and denser the splatter will be, the further away the more spaced out and more area you’ll cover.

see those bigger spots? those are there because i didn’t knock off enough of the excess. you generally don’t want those.

STEP 5 (optional): use the cloth/tissue to gently pat the freckles dry. it’ll make them flatter and a little bit lighter depending on how soon you pat them after putting them on. (i like this, i feel like it makes them look a little more natural. also i’m too impatient to wait for them to dry)

BUT HOPE, WHY DO YOU USE POWDER FOUNDATION AND CONTACT LENS SOLUTION TO LIQUEFY IT??? WHY NOT JUST USE LIQUID FOUNDATION???

dude, like, you could if you want but liquid foundation is too thick. it’ll leave “moles” as opposed to “freckles” (just big ol’ globs of makeup) and it won’t dry. so if you do use liquid foundation you’ll have to liquefy it a bit more before you can use it (the same thing you do with the powder foundation).

Hello all! I’ve gotten quite a few people askin how I went about putting together my head for a recent costume I did at Anime Iowa 2014, so I figured I’d make a tutorial for it! More under the cut!

Things you’ll need:

Brown craft foam

Aluminum foil

Clothes iron

Ironing board

Black paint

Brown paint (lighter than your foam)

Paint brush

Paper towel

Grab some aluminum foil and crumble it into a ball. Not too tight of a ball though! The next step is almost impossible if you do. 

Next, un-crumple the ball. Flatten it out into one layer. It’s fine if there are a few holes.

Place it on top of your foam.

Take your iron and firmly press it on the foam and aluminum. My iron was set to 3 (polyester) but the correct temperature may be different for other irons. Just remember not to use steam! Before doing this on a large piece, be sure to experiment and figure out what the best temperature and what the best pressure is. On larger pieces, you’ll have to move the aluminum around a lot. It’s not a quick process.

Now you’ve got this crinkly affect on the foam. Next is painting!

Grab you’re brush, black paint, and a dish with some water. The idea is to dilute the black paint enough so that when you apply it the paint will seep into the divets the aluminum created. 

Once the watery paint is applied, wipe it off with a paper towel. Continue to do this for your whole piece of foam.

Now here’s an optional step (of which I haven’t done myself but I’ve known others who have):

Grab the light brown paint and, without diluting it, paint it on. It’s best to use a coarse brush in this case and to try to keep it out of the divets. Wipe some of the paint off. 

Remember, imperfections are always good! Uneven paint isn’t necessarily bad so just experiment with it. 

Here’s an example of a bracer I did with this method. The first two pictures are an example of the foam I began with and the rest show the end result. I hope this helps you guys out!

Sometimes you end up cosplaying a character with a really crazy hairline, and you think “How am I going to make THAT?”

Maybe you’ve already learned about lace-front wigs and how they appear more natural-looking. Maybe you’ve even heard of wig ventilation, which is the method for individually adding hairs into the lace of a lace-front wig. If you’ve gotten that far, you’ve probably noticed you need special tools, called ventilating hooks/needles, and they can be costly and hard to acquire. Fear not! I am here to show you a few methods to ventilate hair with just normal supplies you can find at your craft and sewing store!

That’s right, you can ventilate hair with just a normal sewing needle!!!

How to cover up tattoos!

use a red lipstick covering the outlines

pat on a light concealer, using a setting powder

pat on your skin tone concealer, and clean up any mistakes using baby wipes to remove excess concealer

use a fluffy brush and smooth it out with foundation powder.