MZMA Cosplay - Wig

Yo people!

So today I'm going to post some pics of how we styled the wig for MZMA (and by we I mean Mimi).  Now I know that Gachapin's modeling images are still well within your memory, but for reference here he is modeling the CosplayWigsUSA wig we purchased.

...and here it is sitting on m head, uncut and unstyled.

And now the cuts!   Mimi did an awesome job shaping MZMA's wig to what it should look like.  Much was taken off of the front and back.

 And after feathering the wig and giving it some volume, here's what it looked like (notice the little tuft of hair in the back):

[Just as a side note, if you wear a plastic garbage bag on your body while you get your hair/wig cut and styled, you will desperately need to shower afterwards (SOOOO SWEATY XD).]

I think wig turned out awesomely accurate!  The black spinal headpiece was attached with three wig clips.  The wig clips worked well for keeping the headpiece in place, but in practice, only about one was needed.

Thanks to Mimi for all of her hair-cutting expertise and patience!

We'll be back to post more cosplay pics soon, and hopefully we can show you some of our completed costumes :D

THANKS!

-Stuart-

Murumuru cosplay - the final touch! (a small wig tutorial)

Murumuru's costume was super easy to make...until I started to work on the wig, which was a disaster.  My original plan was to attach the two LONG ponytails I purchased from Arda wigs to my Eruka wig.  Let's just say that it didn't work out very well, the Eruka wig had to be preserved for the second appearance of my Eruka cosplay and it was way too thin to work with.  So I had to purchase another wig last minute from cosplay.com (due to the fact that Arda was closed Q_Q).  

The wig took way too long to arrive.  It got shipped out after I made a paypal dispute with cosplay.com.  So, don't buy from them.  

Here's the wig untouched.  It was a lot darker than the "silver" ponytails from Arda.  The quality of the wig was pretty good, except that they stitched up the eyelets in the back where you could adjust the size of your wig.  tsk tsk

Murumuru has this weird bang thing going on where it lifts up and makes a little pocket thingie (this is hard to explain Q_Q) kind of like Sephiroth's hair.  It took me ages to find a tutorial on how to make this happen, but I did find a Japanese tutorial HERE.  It uses a frozen glass bottles to form heated fibers.  Aslo..apparently this type of hair is called the middle M letter (途中Ｍ字).

so I took some hair, heated it up with my hair dryer and then rolled it down with a frozen glass tube I found. Then I teased the down side of the section and brushed the top smooth.  Hair spray was then applied to keep the shape of the "M".

Done with both sides.

I have to say, I thought my job was done after this since the ponytails were clip-on.  I was totally WRONG. There was no way on earth those heavy clip on ponytails were going to stay on that wig.  Especially when I have to make outer decorations for them. 

taken from THIS POST on cosplay.com

Now, the image above is where I got my inspiration to make my ponytails.  However, instead caulk, I used hot glue.  I know that some of you are probably frowning at this point, but I was in such a time crunch that I had to use whatever dried the fastest.  I made two little stubs on the wig and hotglued them to harden.  Then, I took the clips off of my ponytails and carved two pieces of pink insulation foams to fit/hotglue into the ponytails.  Last but not least, copious amount of hot glue were applied to the foam and the stub to hold both together.  You have to be VERY patient and hold the ponytails up until all of the hotglue is dried.  The drying process took about 10min.

After attaching the ponytails, you will notice that your wig has gotten so heavy that it is impossible to put on. Do not worry!  Just sew some wig clips in the front and you are good to go!  It will just hurt a little bit because your hair line will get pulled back really tightly.

Photo courtesy of  David Song

Photo by Stuart

and Voila!  My entire costume :D  More photos will come since Katsuya Weller is awesome and has posted some preview shots of our Mirai Nikki photoshoot already! 

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt photoshoot part 4: Stocking Anarchy

Hi all!  I know you guys have been dying for this...(lol not), I'm finally going to post my pics for our PSG photoshoot by Jack Liu.  My character is Stocking Anarchy, she is "Panty's younger sister, Stocking is a pink and violet-haired goth girl. She is generally more level-headed and intelligent than Panty, although she can be just as rude as her sister when provoked. Stocking has a gluttonous appetite for sweets and doesn't gain weight from consuming "normal" sugary foods, allowing her to eat them to her heart's content — on the other hand, she despises spicy food. She becomes enraged whenever someone tampers with her sweets or calls her overweight." --> according to wikipedia.  (I thought I'd provide a little synopsis about the characters since there were some confusion with certain individuals who made a huge deal out of our photos.  </drama>)  Of course, I'm nothing like Stocking, okay, maybe just the appetite for sweets and doesn't like spicy food part...all else is pretty true.  Q_Q


I confess that I have cheated for this cosplay, I didn't make that dress, it was altered from something I bought off of certain website...that may or may not start with the letter B and rhyme with "decline".  Why is it such a taboo anyway to buy a dress and alter it?  For those who I have offended by doing so, I apologize >.> it might happen again when I'm lazy.  


Onto the photos:

Honekoneko...no stitches on his head >o< I'm sorry~  

The carpet in Katsucon is so pretty!

Stocking is abusive towards both Honekoneko and Chuck

This one is my favorite!  

This was supposed to be the "moe" shot lol  Jack said that "some people like the knee" <.<;;;;

 That's all~  we are working hard on our costumes, so there will be updates coming soon~  btw my stocking wig is from Cosplay Wigs USA if you are interested.


Mimi

5000 HITS GIVEAWAY!!!

Guys, this is actually happening!  We have reached our first giveaway point of 5000 HITS!!!  This is a pretty exciting moment for us ^^.  The prize will be a $20 gift certificate to Arda-wigs, one of the best resources for your cosplay wigs!  Remember the pony tails I got from them some time ago?

Well, I liked it so much that we have decided to go with Arda.  The quality of wigs really makes a huge difference in your cosplay!

Some details regarding the giveaway:
1. We are using Rafflecopter to manage the giveaway.  The winner will be selected by a random algorithm used by Rafflecopter.
2. One person can only enter once, but you can increase your chances by completing the tasks listed on Rafflecopter.
3. Anyone can enter, as long as you complete the mandatory task of becoming a follower to our blog.
4. This is not a sponsored giveaway, we chose Arda wigs because we love the store.
5. It is rude to become a follower to this blog for the giveaway and then just un-follow, so please don't enter if you are not interested in the blog at all.
6. The winner must claim the prize within 48hours, or a new winner will be selected.
7. The giveaway starts from Thursday 3/29/2012 and ends at the end of Friday 4/6/2012

It would helps us out a ton if you could blog/share this giveaway with your friends and family!

Thank you so much for your support, and may the odds be ever in your favor!  (Hunger Games reference..derp)

ahh, I have not posted for a while

Stuey and I went to his sister's wedding this weekend and hence have not had anytime to either work on our cosplay or blog Q__Q.  I do, however, have some new pictures of Gachapin to share with you guys.  This is basically a wig review.

Remember this wig?  It's the wig I bought from ebay for my Eruka cosplay.  It was a very cheap wig ($24) and definitely lived up to its price.  The wig itself was thin and tangled very easily. However, it works with Eruka because she wears a big hat that covers up the very thin part of the wig.  Now, I have to somehow transform this sucker into Murumuru's hair.

I know for sure that the volume of this wig is not nearly enough and that it will be hard to make ponytails with one wig, so I ordered two LONG ponytails from Arda wigs in silver to match my current wig.

As you can see, the pony tail I got is a little big lighter than the wig I have in this picture, but in reality, they are pretty darn close.  The biggest difference is probably the quality of the ebay wig compared to Arda's.  Well, there's no comparison.  Arda's ponytail is not only silky, but also very easy to brush.  The volume of the ponytail is amazingly full but also makes it super heavy.  I might have to somehow dye the wig a little bit with a lavender colored sharpie...but we will see.

I definitely recommend ordering from Arda, however, they are a lot more expensive compared to the cheap ebay wigs.  (The ponytails were about $20 a piece with shipping)  I have also received my black rock shooter wig from Cosplaywigsusa, however, it's ponytails are not nearly as full as the ones from Arda.  I also need to figure out something in order to add some blue highlights to my black wig...any suggestions?

- Mimi -

Details on the MZMA costume

I'm posting some screencaps from the Black Rock Shooter PSP game for Stuart and others are are thinking about doing MZMA cosplay.  The quality of the pictures are low, but hopefully it shows enough details for people to understand the motifs on his jacket.

Front view

Details on the collar and head piece

Details on the glove

Details on the sword and glove

Back view

Back view

Front motif detail

Leg pouch detail

Back of head

That's that!  Hopefully this can be useful for the people out there planning to cosplay MZMA.  I'm still having difficulties understanding his coat (is it a long coat + skirt or a short coat + skirt?).

Anyways, here's a preview of upcoming wig review from Gachapin!

Don't forget to subscribe/follow our blog!!!  We also added a new fish feature on the side for you to play with.  Thank you!

Mimi

Wig Review - Red Wig for MZMA

Wig review?!  I've never done one of those before, but I might as well give it a shot.  I mean, I'll be working with it for the next couple of months anyways.  Here goes nothing! :P

I ordered the Short Medium Layered Cosplay Shag - True Red from CosplayWigsUSA as a suitable match for MZMA from Black Rock Shooter: The Game.  It arrived in a wonderful manila colored, bubble wrap lined envelope and included the wig and a wig cap.

This wig is perfectly colored for MZMA's hair.  The length at the moment is a little long, but we will shorten and style it eventually to be more appropriate. The tips of the hair are feathered out nicely, and the wig itself is pretty full.  The wig cap that came with the package is pretty nice quality as well.  I think I'll be happy with this wig :) 

**The following pictures highlight both the wig and our amazing new wig model Gachapin :D (he's a dinosaur in case you were wondering).  **

Gachapin, the wig, and the CosplayWigsUSA card.

Back view of the wig

Side view of the wig, and Gachapin looking forlorn.

Gachapin in his "I'm a sexy model" pose.  He has a bright future ahead of him :P

Gachapin modeling the wig cap.  Very nice.

We will most likely have pictures of ourselves with the wigs on at some point, but for now Gachapin works very nicely.  We may feature him modeling some of our other wigs and cosplay apparel as well.  Comment if you have any other pose suggestions for him in the future XD.

Thanks!

-Stuart-

Styling the Dr.Stein wig

Now that we have Katsucon behind us and ready to move on to the cosplay for AZ, I finally forced Stuart to send me the durpy pictures I took of him when I was styling his Dr.Stein wig. (Dr.Stein is a crazy teacher character from Soul Eater, in case you didn't know)  This is by no means a tutorial, for I have absolutely no experience in cutting hair.  However, this is a warning about wigs you get from ebay.

So we purchased a generic Dr.Stein wig from China on ebay.  The picture of the wig they provided looked like this:

It looks so nice in the picture: not very shiny, with nice feathered tips at the back.  The color is nice as well.  Wigs usually comes with long bangs so that the wearer can style it to his/her face.  Since the wig was only about $22, we jumped on the bandwagon of buying wigs from China.  Alas, that was perhaps not the best decision we have made in our life.  The wig that arrived looked rather shiny and thin...so thin that some layers of hair sewn on the wig already came off the moment Stuart tried it on.

And here comes in the Super Mimi that tries to save the day!  First of all, I had to make sure that all the threads on the wigs were intact and all the layers of hair were sewn on tightly.  I resew some of the layers that came undone.
This is what the wig looked like on Stuart before anything was done to it:

He looks like Kitaro from GeGeGe no Kitaro

Then I took out my mother's hair cutting scissors (what do you call those things?) and started to cut away all the unnecessary hair.

I obviously was very good at making this wig into an Ayanami Rei wig...This is what Stuart looked like after almost losing a piece of his ear.

Finally, I figured out that in order to cut layers into the wig, I had to brush vertically and cut vertically.  With the help of some hair gum, this is what the finally product looked like:

Not too bad right???? hahaha!!!

Until Next Time~
Mimi