Water Marble Nail Art II

Second try with the marble nail effect! This time I wanted to experiment with something that would go with my outfit. When I tried this before it didn't work, but that was because the transparency of the silver and bronze didn't really show on the black. So, I changed the base colour to white with silver on top, then did the marble effect with black and bronze varnish. I thought it turned out quite well! I still have loads of nail varnish on my actual finger which is why my fingers look really grubby but that's just varnish. I'm not a dirty person! Promise! Next I'll see what happens when I buy gold nail varnish and add that next to the mix, I think this effect is really cool but a little too cold for my steampunk outfit with is gold and brown (therefore more warm!). 

Water Marble Nail Art

This is me experimenting with Water Marble Nail Art. I painted my nails white first, then mixed dark blue and dark red in the water to make this effect. I'm going to try and make my nails a gold/bronze/silver marble but I don't know what to put as the base coat. I tried white and the silver just went white. I tried black and the bronze just went black... So I still have some more experimenting to do. Here's the tutorial I saw which helped me get these cool ass nails!

Steampunk Geisha

For the May 2012 expo, me and Onee-chan had decided aaages ago that we would do steampunk geisha outfits. Because we planned it so long ago we've managed to design, collect material and accessories to make it look really good and professional. We're going to go all out. I don't really see her very much because she goes to uni very far away and I don't have a car... But she came home for christmas and I got to see her then! So we painted the guns for our outfits...

Before and after shots of the guns, they were only £1 each from a cheapy shop!

Mine are the top middle and two little guns on the right image

Close-up of one of my guns I painted. We made them look

dirty by tissue dabbing them with black and a tiny bit of bronze paint

These are the goggles and mask which I will be wearing. I still need to colour 

them with bronze, gold and silver and the goggles are too big for my tiny

head so I'm going to be wearing them as an accessory attached to my belt

These are my belt and suspenders which I will be wearing. The belt is small but

the detail at the front adds a corset element to my outfit as I thought a corset

would be too much. The suspenders will be on show as my skirt is short at the front

but long at the back so their beauty shall be seen!

The parasol which is huge! I will have this with me but it's very fragile so I will have to be very careful with it... And then there are the boots I will be wearing! I love these shoes so much and they fit me so perfectly it's like a dream! They are originally sold on http://www.immenotyou.co.uk/  but I got them off eBay (^_^)

And finally this is the material which will be used to make my outfit. It's a mix of brown and gold and my wonderful Onee-chan said she would be working on it this week! I LOVE HER SO MUCH! I'm so excited!

For my hair I'm going to be wearing my black wig which I've bought a bun attachment for so I look more like a geisha. The colour is a bit off, but only slightly so hopefully no one will notice. The wig has a blunt fringe and is quite long but I've taken some of the front and stashed it inside the bun, and then the rest I've platted to make it look similar to dreadlocks (as is the steampunk way! As I did some research on the internet...). And I shall be posting pictures of it soon once I cut the fringe a bit. I have a very small head and the fringe goes into my eyes :'( .

Deadman Wonderland

Characters from Deadman Wonderland (left to right): 

Ganta, Senji, Sukegawa, Minatsuki, Toto and Shiro

I LOVE THIS MANGA! Just saying... It's one of the best I've ever read and it's still ongoing now. It now has 11 volumes full of action, romance and gore! Best combination ever! The story is about the main character is called Igarashi Ganta who is sent to prison for being wrongly convicted of the mass murder of his classmates. The real murderer was a strange "Red Man" which keeps haunting Ganta throughout the story. The death row prison is called "Deadman Wonderland" and prisoners all wear a collar which, if they don't eat "candy", gives out the death sentence. A girl called Shiro, claiming to be childhood friends with Ganta, protects him whilst he's in prison but Ganta, greatful for her help, has no recollection of spending time with her previous to his conviction.  The plot thickens when he finds out he has a strange blood power and is sent to to Level G where he finds more people with the same power as him. I don't want to give away too much away because it's such a great story! They have recently developed an Anime to show it's amazingness to the world and was aired in Japan in April last year. So for those of you who don't like reading (which is a shame because I feel it's the closest to the original when it's in a book form, and it's a lot more gory) definitely watch the anime. The opening theme (One Reason- DWB feat. Fade) is really cool and I actually really like it, I don't usually like opening to anime, but I approve of this one.

Minatsuki and Shiro are my favourite characters... Minatsuki because she is a crazy b*tch and Shiro because she's mysterious and I want to cosplay her at some point (I already have the white wig, just need to morph suit... >.<)

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/deadman_wonderland/

Ibitsu

(picture from the series)

Because I love really creepy gory manga, I thought I'd show this one. It's not very long, only 2 volumes, about a girl trying to be a little sister to every boy. Known as "The Strange Lolita" she sits amongst rubbish waiting to ask a boy if he has a little sister. If you reply, you are haunted and tortured by this strange person whom you never really know where or how she came about. All you know is that she's really creepy and I'm glad I'm a girl who has no siblings, and I would never stop to talk to them either! I thought this manga was really good and it's good the story was short, I don't think it would have been good if it kept on going, victim after victim. What I really liked about it was that it delved into her past which I find really interesting to read. Although it turns out to be useless, I thought it was a really good part of the story. If you like horror, definitely read!

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/ibitsu

London MCM Expo Oct 2011

This year me and Onee-chan didn't want to cosplay characters. It was kind of a last minute decision because we weren't planning on going, but in september we decided that we should because we love expo so much! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ
The theme we were going to do was Wa Lolita. I'd describe it as lolita meets geisha and I soon got really excited. My colour scheme was black and white and Onee-chan's was red and black. I got even more excited when I was told we were asked to do a photoshoot once we were there by GDWass Photography! This was one of the contacts we had made when we did the Bleach meet. And this is one of her photos of me at Expo.

(Picture by Getty Images)

I could have added more to my outfit I guess. I think I should have gotten a better wig, or some proper lace to put in my hair. The lace I had wasn't really lace, more like really thin material and broke almost everytime I tried to tie a bow! I would probably also add more black around the costume or in the umbrella just to make the outfit come all together and match properly. I had a lovely time and can't wait for next expo!

London MCM Expo May 2011

For this expo, me and Onee-chan decided to dress up as characters from Bleach, an extremely popular manga which I also read and enjoy... a lot.

Actual Soi Fon

Me dressed as Soi Fon (middle, in case you didn't realise :P)

My Onee-chan kindly made me most of my outfit, apart from the shoes, sock and hakama (those enormous trousers I'm wearing). She made me the sash, top (out of an old Ralph Lauren shirt, stylish designer cosplay FTW!), the wig and the sleeves (which were made out of leggings (ーー;) ). If I had more time (and money...) I would have bought some proper gloves and probably thinned out the wig. It was quite thick and I thought it looked too big on my head. I would also get a better bra... That one looked silly >_< ... Cosplaying someone from a popular manga is so much more fun, so many more people recognise you and want to hug and take pictures all the time. The amount of times I was stopped was ridiculous! I will definitely cosplay a popular character some time soon. I also got to meet loads of new people from the Bleach shoot and it was really fun talking to people who actually new what Anime and Manga were. Unlike most of my friends who frown upon my hobby and think I'm strange.  ＿|￣|○

London MCM Expo 2010

This is me dressed as Road Kamelot from D.Gray Man and my friends (one of them dressed as Tyki Mikk). 

Don't diss my costume. It was my very first cosplay convention and I was really nervous that no one else was going to dress up -_-. My mum kindly made the petticoat/tutu which took her hours, and the velvet suit and tie I got from primark. I must admit that looking back on it, it wasn't that great and I could add so much more to it. And get myself a wig instead of dying my hair black with some cheap halloween spray paint that I got from Clintons... So cheap that black dust kept coming out of my hair and onto my face and white shirt that by the end of the expo my face, neck and bright white shirt were now grey... Not the best look. But hey! I really enjoyed myself and started planning for next expo. ^_^

First Post!

This will be my very first post! I named the site Imouto-chan (meaning little sister in Japanese) because my Onee-chan (big sister) always calls me it and I didn't know what else to call it. It is also understandable that I am a big fan of Manga and Anime. Mainly gory, horror and romance manga. I will probably be posting things about Manga and Anime but also about cosplays which I have done and will possibly be doing. I have previously done Road Kamelot (from D.Gray Man), Soi Fon (from Bleach) and a Wa Lolita cosplay. I'll be posting more info and pictures for these in other posts. My Onee-chan and me always like to match our costumes so we try to cosplay from the same manga or use the same theme. She is also amazing at sewing and helps me loads with all my costumes... Why do I have such an expensive hobby?! >.<

Anyway the main reason I thought I'd start this is because is mainly anonymous and I want to vent my otaku love but doing that on facebook would be a bit awk because most of my friends think I'm weird already :S

On a different subject, I'm 18 and study an Art Foundation at UCA Farnham, England. I'm really enjoying it and have another blog called serafinart.wordpress.co.uk. This is where I post updates about my art and the general course if you want to visit you can ^_^