#basic cosplay

I present to you;

Untuk yang baru ber-cosplay tapi nggak pernah pakai make up macem-macem sebelumnya, mungkin bingung ya harus pakai make up apa untuk cosplay.

Picture are courstesy from Google. Apalagi yang biasa disebut cosplay yang bagus itu make nya harus flawless, a.k.a nggak ada noda, nggak ada kantung mata, etc etc.

Actually, what do you need to reach that result?

Flawless Face = natural make up = shading + highlight Sebetulnya, dalam kategori level make up itu sendiri, natural make up adalah gaya make up yang paling susah. Harus flawless tanpa kelihatan pakai make up. Barang yang harus dipersiapin diantaranya: Foundation Penting banget pilih foundation yang warnanya sewarna warna muka, atau kalau mau yang lebih terang, warna nya harus senada dengan warna muka. I do understand most of anime character has a white skin, tapi jangan maksain pake foundation dengan warna terang kalau warna muka kamu aslinya gelap. Kalo tetep dipaksain, hasilnya akan sama kayak basic coklat ditaburin tepung. Bukan flawless white, at all. Rekomen merek Revlon dan Nyx. Prefer untuk choosing yang HD atau foundation yang spesial untuk fotografi, because that what most cosplayer will end with. Revlon: + Harga lebih murah daripada merek make up lain karena mereka masuk ke tipe drugstore make-up. - Meskipun di dalam website asli dan di Amerika mereka punya range color yang lumayan lengkap, actually it seems like they only send the light color make up ke Indonesia. Which, doesn't suitable to Indonesian skin, karena warna yang terang lebih cocok untuk kulit bule. Tapi kadang kalo hoki bisa nemu juga konter yang jual range warnanya lumayan lengkap. Nyx: +Range warnanya lumayan lengkap yang masuk ke dalam pasar Indonesia. Warna mukaku coklat agak terang, tapi masih bisa masuk ke HD foundation nomor 5. HD foundation mereka tiap nomor perbedaannya sheer banget, tapi kental dengan pigmen. Kalau foundation yang murah kadang pigmen nya sedikit, jadi meski mereka beda warna, kalau dioles ujung-ujungnya tetep jadi sama-sama putih juga. - Harganya yang kurang cocok sama kantong pelajar. Concealer. Pengalaman pribadi sih, nyari ini yang paling susah. Aku coba dari Anna Sui sampai Etude nggak ada yang cocok. Sampai akhirnya temen merekomendasikan Coastal Scent. Dia cukup bagus, satu palet ada 4 warna dan harganya juga lumayan murah. Warna Camo Quad Medium cocok dengan kulit Indonesia, nggak keputihan tapi juga nggak terlalu gelap. Dan terlebih, dia beneran nutup kantong mataku ♥ Ada juga yang lebih suka concealer HD nya Revlon. Dia memang murah sih cuma sekitar 50 ribu tapi khusus untuk foto. Cuma kurangnya revlon ya itu, yang masuk ke Indonesia range warnanya kurang :< Concealer juga bisa dipakai untuk shading dan highlight. Meski untuk highlight, aku juga suka pakai Liquid Illuminator nya NYX.

Lokasi untuk Highlight/Shading

Cara pakai concealer yang benar, aplikasikan secara segitiga. Jangan cuma menutup kantong mata aja. Kantong mata juga ada 2 jenis: Puffy eyes sama Dark Circles. Kalau dark circles itu cuma warna disekitar mata lebih gelap dan gampang banget nutupnya. Yang susah itu Puffy Eyes. Puffy eyes itu kayak kerut berbentuk kantong di bawah mata. Cara nyamarinnya, concealer harus diaplikasikan di bayangannya puffy eyes.

Tapi puffy eyes ini bakalan tetep keliatan, nggak peduli setebel apa kamu cover, kalau cahaya adanya di atas kepala kamu. Karena concealer itu bisanya cuma nutup warna aja, bukan ngamplas kontur muka jadinya tetep bisa keliatan. Disarankan cahayanya dari depan muka aja, pasti nggak kelihatan / hilang dengan baik ♥ Powder Disarankan ambil powder yang HD, fungsinya untuk membantu mensupport concealer untuk menghilangkan kantung mata. Powder juga ada yang siapinnya 3 biji sih. 1 yang natural sesuai warna kulit, 1 yang lebih terang, dan 1 yang lebih tua. Fungsinya untuk menegaskan shading/highlight.

Big Doe Eyes = Lensa Kontak + Eyeliner. Kalau punya mata sipit, ada produk dari koji yang khusus untuk mengelem kelopak mata dan ngebuat mata jadi double eyelid. Tapi detail harganya juga belum tahu karena belum pernah nyoba make. Secara, mataku punya double eyelid alami + mata belo khas Indonesia. But, dengan mata belo khas Indonesia juga, it still pretty much recomended untuk pake contact lense yang diameternya besar. Tapi jangan kebesaran juga, kecuali make mau cosplay Tokyo Ghoul. Eyeliner juga. Eyeliner yang tebal juga bisa membantu mata supaya jadi kelihatan lebih besar. Tergantung tipe matanya, ada yang cocok tebal di pinggir luar, ada juga yang cocokntya tebal di tengah.

Bibir = Nude lips is a must! Untuk bibir, aturannya cuma 1 : harus natural. Jangan pakai yang terlalu pucat, tapi jangan juga pakai yang terlalu menor kecuali karakternya memang begitu. Kalau punya warna bibir yang gelap, bisa disarankan pakai Lip Liner, meski beberapa line up lipstik, seperti Etude dan Nyx memang sudah cukup tebal sampai bisa menutup warna gelap bibir. Nyx sendiri harganya cukup affordable di kantong. Sekitar 100 ribu per piece. Kalau kamu cowok, dan warna bibir kamu nggak gelap, disarankan banget pake lip tint ♥ ♥ ♥ Rekomen deh lip tint nya tony moly yang ini.

Namanya Delight Magic Tint. Kalau warna bibirnya cerah, disarankan pakai nomor 1 yang putih / transparan. Tapi kalau warna bibirnya agak gelap disarankan pakai yang no 2 atau yang hijau. Tapi aku belum tahu juga nomor 3 dan 4 hasilnya kayak apa. Minusnya Tony Moly itu, dia cenderung nggak ada tester di konternya T_T

Well, basicly untuk membuat natural make up, itu semua sih. Paling kalau ada tambahan dikit-dikit tentang alis dll, mudahlah bisa tanya-tanya ke temen atau tanya di Ask Me! button, aku nggak jelasin disini karena make up alis itu basicnya basic cosplay. Tinggal di apply aja eyeshadow pake angled brush.

Hello friends! Here are some quick tips/steps on how you (yes you) can make your own costumes and start cosplaying!

1. How to Pick the Cosplay: Whenever I pick a new costume, I always think of all the shows, games, etc that I’m into, and then pick my favorite character. I always pick a character I know I will have a fun time being or if their outfit just speaks to me. Since it is your first time cosplaying, you do not want to try something that is over your skill level. Be sure to look at the hairstyle, details on the outfit, sewing difficulty, and props. Know that whatever you pick is probably going to be harder than it looks. Before you finalize your selection, think about how you’re going to make every detail and at least get some sort of idea of how you are going to make that outfit come to life.

2. Budgeting:  Let’s face it, cosplay can be expensive. If you don’t have money growing out of your butt, it can be SUPER important to make a budget before you even start the costume. First, if you need a wig, find the wig. Those tend to be one of the more expensive pieces of the costume. Secondly, go check the local thrift stores, you will be so surprised what you can find. ESPECIALLY if you have something really simple, like a white collared shirt? BAM. THRIFT SHOPPING *cue macklemore*. I’m serious. Also, look for things that you can alter. Need a dark blue vest? Hey wow I bet that 3 dollar shirt could look like a vest if I cut off those sleeves. Learn to be creative with altering clothing that you already have. You can ask friends to borrow things, like shoes. Shoes are usually very hard to do and very hard to find, so if your friend has the perfect white boots, then do ask if you can borrow them. Fabric stores have sales like literally once a week. Wait until they go on sale to buy the fabric/supplies you need.

3. Wigs: Are wigs a necessity? For me, yes. However, I have seen some really amazing costumes that do not use wigs. If you do not want to wear a wig, or cannot afford one, that is ok. And also honestly if you have the perfect canon hair why would you waste money on a wig? Your costume can still look awesome. I will say that wigs can really give your costume the extra sparkle though. Real hair can sometimes not cooperate, it can get frizzy or your roots will grow out, or it will refuse to defy gravity. If you need a specific color, wigs are definitely the best way to go. Dyeing your hair can turn out bad, and not give you the right color (again, this is generally speaking).Now, if you chose to wear a wig, how do you get ahold of one? There are several wig sites that you can get quality cosplay wigs from. Arda Wigs, Amphegory, Match Wigs, and my personal favorite, eBay. BE CAREFUL IF YOU BUY FROM eBAY THOUGH. Make sure you check the reviews of the seller. If you use eBay, 9 times out of 10 you will be able to find an awesome wig for way cheaper than anywhere else. Long wigs and pre-styled wigs will tend to be more expensive. Most wigs need to be trimmed when they come in, but please watch a tutorial before you take scissors to your wig. CUTTING WIGS IS DIFFERENT THAN ACTUAL HAIR. I recommend this tutorial for basic wig styling. Also please note, if you want to straighten or curl or apply any kind of heat to your wig, make sure you buy a heat-safe one. It should say in the sellers comments. Also, before you go ahead and apply heat to  the whole wig, test the heat out on a small section that is invisible or can be cut off (bottom, underneath hair etc). There are seriously like 200000 wig tutorials on YouTube, so if your wig is a little challenging, go check for online tutorials.

4. Sewing: Ok I really like sewing so I’m probably going to get off on a tangent here but I will try to keep it very simple. If you know how to sew? Great awesome. If you don’t? Never fear! It is so much easier than you would think. A lot of places offer sewing classes, libraries, colleges, even high school. Go check out the above places for local classes. If there are none? Don’t worry! Check the internet. There are lots of tutorials ranging from basics (how to work your sewing machine) to things a little more difficult (how to sew that one really difficult thing). I would love to elaborate on how to sew but that would take up a lot of time and space. However, when you are selecting fabric there are a few basic things you should know. Make sure the fabric isn’t see through, and if it is make sure you buy enough to double the fabric. Make sure the fabric stretches if it’s supposed to. Make sure it will fall in the correct way (for example if you are making a dress and the fabric is too heavy or stiff it will look really weird). Make sure it is not itchy. Also, bring a reference photo to help match colors. If you have already bought some fabric in a previous shopping trip, bring a sample of it back the next time you go to make sure the other fabric you buy matches nicely with it (colors and textures etc). Don’t be afraid to ask for help! The people at the fabric store are more than happy to help (some of them might even be cosplayers themselves).

5. Makeup & Contacts: I am a very strong believer that cosplay makeup is SUPER IMPORTANT. Why? Ok so you go you to the con and you are dressed up and your costume looks super badass and you are ready to get pictures taken of you. You get there and you get so many pictures and it’s awesome and cool… But then you get home and you start looking through the pictures and you look washed out, have a lot of blemishes, look shiny, etc. And you didn’t look like that in person. But unfortunately, cameras are kind of mean and they like to make your face look a lot worse than it actually is. If you just slap on a little bit of makeup, then you will be good to go and problem solved. If you don’t want to wear makeup? That’s totally fine too. Makeup is not a requirement. If you want a more in detail cosplay makeup tutorial you should check this one that I made out. It pretty much gives you a basic idea on how to do cosplay makeup~ Ok and contacts. Contacts can be SUPER cool and make your costume look really cool, but a lot of cosplayers don’t wear them. They aren’t super important, but if you want your outfit to be the most kawaii of them all, contacts are definitely something you should check out. The sites that are good to get them at are pinkyparadise.com - they are reasonabley priced and also come with perscriptions, so if you need corrective stuff never fear! Pretty colors and pretty vision! If you don’t need perscription though, kpoptown.com is the way to go. They are cheaper, and really awesome quality (I think some of their contacts come with prescriptions but I’m not sure). Both websites are great places to order contacts. My rule of thumb to buying contacts is if my eye color is going to look weird with the wig/outfit color i will buy them. For example, with my Teto outfit the green eyes and red hair look a bit wrong so I bought contacts.

6. Attention to Details and the Importance of Detail: Details are the things that can make a good cosplay, a great one. I’m talking that tiny little bit of trim or those really cool earrings. Things like that are really what help tie a whole costume together and make the character come to life. Assuming you have the time and funds, make sure to pay attention to those little painstaking details. Make them look good, make yourself proud, because hot damn when you wear that costume you will look so cool and you will become the character you want. So yes, details may be small but they are also very important. You’d be surprised how naked and bare you could look without them.

7. Time Management: Just so you know, your deadline is closer than you think it is. Start working on your costume NOW. Buy fabric, order your wig, something. Order the online stuff as soon as possible because sometimes shipping takes longer than what it says. Just sew a little bit, or do a little bit of a prop every time you get a chance because you DO NOT want to be cramming right before a con. It’s no fun for anybody. PRETTY MUCH THE MORAL IS START YOUR COSPLAY NOW TIME GOES AWAY VERY FAST.

8. General Tips/Tricks: If you ever get stuck, check online for tutorials. There is bound to be one person who has gone through the same thing. If that doesn’t work, ask a cosplay help blog. They know a few things. Rock the costume you made. You look awesome, show some confidence. Do not let the cosplay stress you out. It’s for fun. It’s a hobby. Repeat it to yourself. This is fun. This is a hobby. Anybody can cosplay anything they want. You might get hate, but don’t let it bring you down because I love you and you’re awesome.