torstai 28. elokuuta 2025

Espeon mini photoshoot

Hello~!
Yeah, in the end I decided to publish my Espeon photoshoot pics first - figured it would be nice to keep the chronological order.
I guess it's pretty obvious by now but I'm a Pokémon fan, been since childhood. Eevee and its eeveelutions have always been among my favorites, my ultimate favorite of them being Vaporeon. And when it comes to the day and night buddies... To be honest I prefer Umbreon to Espeon but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have had fun cosplaying the latter - definitely will again in the future! I just need to fix that dress first; even though it is very pretty and comfortable to wear that doesn't change the fact that its upper part is way too big for me which, of course, had an effect on how I could pose etc. But definitely will do that so I can cosplay Espeon again! 💜

I also love how dream-like the photos turned out... Or, at least most of them, prepare for the derps at the end of this post :'D 

The pics~!

Character: Espeon
Source: Pokémon 
Cosplayer: yours truly
Photos & editShiro Samurai

This is my favorite pic from the shoot 💜




Despite being cremated alive by the July sun I enjoyed this photoshoot a lot - the dress was pretty, my make-up for once didn't derp to Hell and back and the location into the bush we go was pretty much perfect for this one! 💜
...well, speaking of derping though. My make-up didn't do that. I did. And here's the proof for that 😂

"What did you say about my mother!?"

When your face becomes a Minecraft block and the creeper notices it xD

During this photoshoot I also realized how hard it is to smile in pics, like seriously! Smiling is something that doesn't really come naturally for me - and I don't really like my smile anyway - so this definitely was a challenge. It was a positive surprise and a huge relief to see how good these pics turned out to be!

And it's a wrap!
Next post: Mericon summary! 🌊

Until next time.

-Firith

tiistai 26. elokuuta 2025

Nekocon 2025 - Your not-so-local house plant is here!

Hi everybody!
Hi, Dr. Nick!

Okay, so, first of all I do apologize for being late with this summary - and not just with this one because I have three different con summaries to write now 😵 But I actually do have a reason for this and for once it's not procrastinating: I was away from home for a couple of weeks and when I finally arrived back at the north I barely had a few days to decompress and then it was already time for Matsucon (summary coming later!). 
But first things first; now it's time for the Nekocon 2025 summary! 🐈

Nekocon 2025 was held on 19th-20th of July at Kuopion musiikkikeskus (Kuopio Music Center). We - also known as Shiro Samurai and I - drove to Kuopio already on the 18th of July, also known as the Friday before the con. We had booked a room at Rauhalahti spa and figured that it would be a lot less stressful to arrive a day earlier than start driving waaayyyy too early on the actual con morning, especially because it takes like five hours to drive from here to Kuopio.
We left around 11 am if I remember correctly. Shiro Samurai's mom drove him to my place and quite immediately after that we begun our journey towards the eastern region of Finland. Like I mentioned it was about a 5-hour ride but honestly it didn't feel all that long. During the trip we laughed at stupid road and village names and saw way too many lupines and soft ice stands. 

At this point I would also like to mention that Shiro Samurai took all the pics for this summary, thank you very much! ^^ 

Once we arrived at Kuopio my brain went all error 404; you see, there was this roadwork site near the Music Center and apparently nobody really knew how to drive there. I think they were renewing a roundabout and that resulted in some very interesting driving solutions - also on my part. Well, we didn't get into a car crash, that's already a win lol. 
We had decided to retrieve our tickets already on Friday and had promised to Sallukka that we would retrieve their and Dongrieg's tickets too; they would arrive at Kuopio a lot later than we did so yeah, there was no way they would have managed to retrieve them on Friday and nobody wants to stand in a queue on Saturday morning when the con is already open. Especially not in the heatwave that was going on during Nekocon; as someone whose body jumps into the Nopetrain to Fuckthatville when it gets too hot I sure didn't enjoy it lol.

The tickets! The blue ones were ours, the golden ones belonged to Sallukka and Dongrieg.

If someone wonders why there are two types of tickets: us two had the basic ones while Sallukka and Dongrieg had the ones with which you could go and see the anime concert. 

After a quick visit to the Music Centre we finally drove to Rauhalahti, checked in and almost immediately went to the spa to relax after the long drive. We stayed there until the spa closed and then went back to the hotel room to do some skin care routines and, of course, to relax more - which in my case meant drinking a glass of white wine and reading a feel-good book written by Frida Gråsjö. Even though I mostly read horror books (imo the character development, relationships etc. are most realistic in those) sometimes I just want to read a book where everything goes unrealistically smoothly lol. 
I think it was a bit before midnight when Sallukka and Dongrieg came to retrieve their tickets from us and it didn't take that long before we went to sleep. We had planned to wake up around nine in the morning, which we eventually did...

...it just didn't result in going to the con place around midday like we had planned to do. Nope. We went to eat breakfast and after that got a huge lag spike; it took us nearly two hours before we could be bothered to do basically anything! And that... Kind of resulted us two reaching the con place around 3 p.m. Oops.

Music Center entrance view.

Music Center lobby + cloakroom.


When we finally got to the con place it was hot af. No, I don't mean our arrival or do I? - it was +29 Celsius degrees in the shadow. That quickly made the decision for us: we needed to take some costume proof photos before our make-up would be all over the place. This time we didn't make use of the bush we have used as a background the last couple of years; we decided to check if there were any other good locations nearby and I twisted my ankle during the process because I didn't look where I was walking and there was a hole in the ground in which I of course stepped.

We found a place behind Lumit, one of the two con buildings - the one with the Artists' Alley which we decided to go check out after getting at least one decent "hey I had a costume on" pic.

Is plant.

And yes, it was so hot that even though Tanemon is a very light costume I could only wear it for like three hours during Saturday until I eventually had to give up.

After taking some proof pictures we went inside Lumit; during normal days it's a music high school but during Nekocon at least the Artists' Alley, the photobooth, the flea market and the game room are located there. It's also the very same building where Konekocon was held earlier this year.

These stairs outside Lumit provided a very popular sitting spot.

The worst rush hour was over when we got there but it still felt pretty crowded, probably because the corridors between the artists' tables are quite narrow. Well, at least there was enough space to actually check out each table properly! The AC also works quite a lot better at Lumit than it does at the Music Center so yeah, despite the crowd the air quality stayed on an acceptable level. In my opinion Artists' Alley is also one of Nekocon's strong points: the placement is very good!


A couple of pics showing the Artists' Alley.

The game room where one could sit and play - or watch the Nekomättö tournament!

There's also this cafeteria area where one can just sit and relax for a while.

After checking out the Artists' Alley we begun to wonder if the Aina Kesä bubble tea stand would be at the town square. At this point Nekocon hadn't advertised it at social media - or at least we hadn't noticed it since they eventually did at some point - so we couldn't know for sure. Luckily it doesn't take more than five minutes to walk to the town square and even before that we noticed there were people holding some take away plastic cups that looked suspiciously familiar. When we arrived at the town square we sighed in relief: the boba stand was there! ❤ 

Coconut milk tea with matcha swirl and the vegan strawberry milkshake (or was it raspberry, can't remember anymore lmao).

Those drinks sure were refreshing and delicious~ 💚

After the drinks we discussed what we should do next; it was already fairly late, thanks to lazying around in the morning so if we wanted to get something to eat AND spend some time in the spa there wasn't much time to spend at the con anymore. Shiro Samurai mentioned that he wanted to check out a couple of artists at the Artists' Alley again; I couldn't be bothered so I decided to stay outside at the stairs. While I was waiting for him I messaged Sallukka and asked where they were; turned out they didn't have anything to do at that exact moment so we decided to meet up at said stairs. Shiro Samurai joined us too and we hang out as a group for a short while until the two of us really had to get going - and the two of them had an anime concert to attend.
After a quick run to the nearby grocery store and running into one of my acquaintances we drove back to Rauhalahti. We tried taking some photos there too but that... Didn't really work out, especially when I was operating the camera because I could barely see anything anymore at that point. You see, I'm allergic to many beauty products and apparently my lash glue wasn't an exception to this - wearing false eyelashes for more than 1-2 hours was painful af. Luckily my contact lenses didn't act up on top of everything... 🙈

Our room kind of exploded after taking our costumes off. Oops.


So yeah, we took our costumes off, showered and cleaned our make-up and decided to get some food before going to the spa. Downstairs, near the spa area is a Scan Burger restaurant and we decided to eat there since it was budget friendly and neither of us really wanted to drive back to the city since it would have consumed quite a lot of our precious time. The food was pretty okay but let's just say that we really couldn't eat in peace thanks to a kid who threw a tantrum about pretty much everything. I mean, I get that the kid was probably tired and hungry but still, it sure wasn't a nice experience to eat when someone was constantly screaming practically next to us.
After the dinner makkaraperunat ftw it was time to relax in the spa for a while. It was so nice to chill in the pool after being cremated alive by the sun for so many hours ❤

We went back to our room a bit before the spa closed. Since we had booked the room until Monday there was no rush to start packing during the evening, also known as we could literally just watch some TV and relax. It was either the LOTR movie or the Norwegian version of Naked Attraction we watched, can't really remember which one happened on Saturday and which one on Sunday lol.
And, of course, we had some snacks and drinks!


I mean, those heart-shaped licorices are the best and work for face censoring very well too lol ❤ 

Eventually, Sunday morning came.
We woke up around the same time, went to eat some breakfast and by some miracle managed to start putting on our costumes and make-up immediately after that! My cosplay choice for Sunday was Espeon from Pokémon and Shiro Samurai decided to become the nation of stars and stripes, also known as America (Revolutionary War version) from Axis Powers: Hetalia. It didn't take us that long to get ourselves ready - I overestimated the time I needed for Espeon's make-up - and a bit after midday we arrived at the Music Center. 
The very first thing we decided to do was to take some photos of our costumes in the nearby bush. And I mean literally in the bush lol. During our short photoshoot session we also ran into Sallukka and Dongrieg - we didn't have that much time for chatting but it sure was nice to have that brief encounter!

This costume was so comfy to wear ❤ Also finally found a chance to wear those purple fake eyelashes a bought from Tokmanni over a year ago - they were discounted and cost 1 €!

I will post more pictures in a separate post - not sure if I'll publish them after this post or after I've written all my more or less delayed con summaries but definitely in the near future! 

After the photoshoot session it was time to check out the Artisans' Alley and Dealers' Hall which were located in the Music Center. And yes, the air quality there was hideous this year too lol - almost immediately after entering the building I started to feel dizzy and somewhat nauseous. Not really a pleasant experience.
I think the artisans and vendors are pretty much the same every year; of course they have different products for sale but the same ones are pretty often there. Not complaining about this tho, just something I have noticed over the years. 


Fantasiapelit - a booth to visit if you crave some manga in your life!

Bard & Jester - I surely will buy something from them in the future, their products are awesome!

I was so tempted to buy a Miku figurine from Puolenkuun Pelit but eventually realized that it wasn't within my budget ;__; 
 
I didn't buy anything from the Dealers' Hall this time even though I was tempted to buy a Miku figurine and a kinky themed T-shirt from Niramuchu but as mentioned in the text above I really didn't have budget for either of them ;__; Well, I'm kind of eyeing both products online so yeah, likely going to buy some stuff when my financial situation gets a bit better lol.
After the Dealers' Hall it was time to check out the Artisans' Alley - and if that didn't feel like a sauna, I don't know what actually fills that criteria except for the sauna itself lol! The room is indeed spacious and all but the huuuuge windows definitely didn't help, especially because it was extra sunny outside 💀

I mean there indeed is a lot of space but it was warm af and the air quality still sucked.

After we had checked out the Artisans' Alley we decided to check out the Artists' Alley again. There were a few different artists on Sunday than on Saturday so we wanted to check them out - and I actually bought more stuff this time! It wasn't nearly as crowded on Sunday as it was on Saturday either so it was easier to actually check out the products without constantly having to worry that you were blocking somebody else's view.
When we had made some purchases we both kind of got the same idea - to the boba stand we went! This time we opted for some... Very interesting options I must say. Shiro Samurai bought a drink that was called The Reviver (and contained Red Bull) and I had a green apple soda float. So good!

I swear to deities unknown: this drink stand is 30 % of the reason why we visit Kuopio annually lmao.

This was probably my favorite: banana milk tea with matcha swirl!

I must say that I don't really remember what we did after this, probably drove back to the hotel and went to the spa :'D Not much really happened at Nekocon but it was still an enjoyable experience; this year the heat wave just was a bit too much (for example photoshooting didn't feel that comfortable). But overall I've always liked the con and Kuopio as a city; this sure wasn't the last Nekocon I'll attend! ❤

My Nekocon loot! 

So many talented artists! ;__; Thanks Shiro Samurai for the brib bird charm! 

...and some, khm, bonus photos too xD

This is what happens when you leave a bag of chocolate candies on the car's dashboard when it's sunny af - you get one big and messy chocolate candy! xD

Is plant. Needs watering. Hydrated plant is happy plant. And, for some reason, very shook plant.

Okay I feel this summary was a bit all over the place but at least it's now off the table :'D 
Next up: either Espeon photoshoot or Mericon summary - we'll see which one! 

Until next time.

-Firith

perjantai 18. heinäkuuta 2025

Nekocon 2025 cosplay plans

Hi everyone~!
And yes, I'm a bit late with this post but trust me, I have a good reason for that. I mean... One does not simply publish a cosplay plan post when said plans change twice an hour or so lol. I had intended to cosplay Dragonair at Nekocon but yeah, the magnets - which would have been used to attach the wings to the wig - never arrived and that meant the death of that plan. Well, can't help it.

But yeah, a plan B was very much needed - and it was actually Shiro Samurai who came up with it, thanks a lot for saving my Nekocon!
So yes, here they are, my Nekocon cosplay plans!



Tanemon from Digimon on Saturday

I mean... I have always liked Digimon too, not just Pokémon, I just hadn't thought about cosplaying from it before! So yes, on Saturday I will wear a Tanemon gijinka; I have been joking about being rather a plant than a human (considering the amount of water I drink on a daily basis) so this kind of fits too xD And, well, Tanemon is a literal ball of cuteness - who am I to say no to that? <3


Espeon from Pokémon on Sunday

Yes, another gijinka it is! On Sunday I will cosplay Espeon from Pokémon. Even though I like Umbreon and Vaporeon more I have to admit that this cutie also has a place in my heart 💜
...and, well, I get to borrow some stuff for this cosplay from Shiro Samurai so yeah, easy af lol. 

So yes, here are my Nekocon cosplay plans!
We will leave for Kuopio tomorrow or actually today oops and I sure do plan on debuting both of these during the weekend! The only "but" is that it's actually going to be very warm and everybody who knows me also knows that I practically melt when it's more than 20 Celsius degrees outside so yeah, let's hope I don't get cremated by the sun or anything lol. 

See you guys at Nekocon!
Oh, and the pics were found on Google.

Until next time.

-Firith

keskiviikko 2. heinäkuuta 2025

Circle lens review: I.Fairy Moonlite Red

Hello everyone~!
As the title says, it's time to review I.Fairy Moonlite Red - it's bold, it's intense and it's so red that I could've passed as a Volturi if I lived in the Twilight universe. Want to know my whole opinion about this lens? Read further~!
Shiro Samurai kindly took the pics for this review, thank you! ^.^

Important note: I got these lenses from someone who totally lost interest in wearing and reviewing circle lenses. These lenses had a wrong prescription for me and I think that these were close to their expiration date/already expired so I can not grade the comfort. However, I will say a few words about the comfort in general - pretty much my first impression of these. Remember: wearing lenses that are past their expiration date/broken/have the wrong prescription for you is a dangerous thing to do and it can damage your eyes for good so seriously, don't do it. I wore these lenses for half an hour and then threw them away so I had these on only for this review. Thank you.

No sponsors this time either.

The vials of the lenses.


The lenses in their vials.

Base curve: 8,6 mm
Diameter: 15 mm
Water content: 42 %
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

I have to say that I don't remember much about how inserting these went like - it's been quite a while. However I assume that it went pretty well since I.Fairy lenses are quite easy to insert in general. What I do remember is that I checked multiple times if the lens was the right side up or the wrong side up on my finger - as you can see, there's not much difference.

One lens in to show the enlargement.

Okay, to the "enlargement effect is very notable" category we go! That was kind of to be expected tho. I.Fairy lenses - or at least most of them - have a very notable enlargement effect and the I.Fairy Moonlite series doesn't seem to be an exception to that. So yes, if you want huge eyes with a red twist, I seriously do recommend these!

The shade of red is very bright; I mean, it can't be mistaken for any other color and it's very vibrant and  bold! I must admit that before inserting these I had mentally prepared for flagging these as "boring" and "flat-colored" but instead I got a very nice surprise - these aren't boring at all even though there's basically just one shade of red. The red part of the lens is also very opaque and doesn't let your own eye color through basically at all even if you have light eyes.
Note: I spoke about the red part of the lens. Design-wise I'd say these - at least in this particular color - would look better in dark eyes. I mean, it's not ugly in light eyes (in my case gray) either, but as you can see the pupil hole is very big and that means your own eye color will be very visible in the center. The design itself is pretty unique or at least I haven't stumbled upon that many other lenses that would be similar to these. So yes, probably not my favorite design - at least not combined with this color - but it's pretty in its own way. Also very unnatural: I wouldn't wear these at work or school. I'd say that these are great for cosplay, costume parties and alternative styles; I mean, unique lenses you can spot a mile away? Yes, please! 💅

To the lens photos that probably tell you more than all of my rambling combined lol!
These photos were taken on a sunny summer afternoon. And yes, these belong to the "house in the south" batch that I've been going through in a few reviews now.
(If I checked correctly, there will be three more reviews with these light conditions - but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere near done with the reviews, nu-uh, nope.)


Bathroom light.


Bad corridor light.


Natural light through the window.


Flash photo.


Room light, shadowy side of the house.


Facing the sun.


Back against the sun.



From the distance.

  • The color is 10/10. No joke. It's bright, it's bold and it's just awesome af.

  • The design is 6/10. I don't really like the "pupil hole is so big you could fit the damn Saturn there" design overall, but for these it works better than average. 

  • The opacity is 10/10 - in the colored parts, mind you. The red parts don't let your own eye color through. However, as you can see you can't expect these to have good coverage overall.

  • The naturalness is definitely 0/10. I don't think this really needs any explanations :'D

  • The enlargement is 8/10 - or, well, closer to 8,5 if I gave half points lol. But yes, definitely very enlarging.

And that's it for now, folks~!
I just realized that my next post is supposed to be a cosplay plan post for Nekocon and I'm still having a cosplay crisis, sos!! Well, I have 10 days to figure that out :'D Also there just might be a WIP post anyway during the autumn - not telling you yet which costume I'm about to sew but let's just say that I sure will need some blue fabric... 👀 Let the summer & autumn part of the con year begin! ❤

Until next time.

-Firith

sunnuntai 22. kesäkuuta 2025

Circle lens review: MAX Elegance Tri-Tone Brown

G'day everyone!

Let's continue with these - seemingly endless - circle lens reviews, shall we? x) This time I'll review MAX Elegance Tri-Tone Brown which, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful brown lenses I've reviewed so far! ❤ Fun fact: I have review pics for multiple brown lenses and it actually took me and my sleep-deprived brain a while to actually identify which one is which lol.
To the review! Pics for this review were taken by Shiro Samurai - thanks a lot! c: 

Important note: I got these lenses from someone who totally lost interest in wearing and reviewing circle lenses. These lenses had a wrong prescription for me and I think that these were close to their expiration date/already expired so I can not grade the comfort. However, I will say a few words about the comfort in general - pretty much my first impression of these. Remember: wearing lenses that are past their expiration date/broken/have the wrong prescription for you is a dangerous thing to do and it can damage your eyes for good so seriously, don't do it. I wore these lenses for half an hour and then threw them away so I had these on only for this review. Thank you.

Nope, there were no sponsors.

The vials of the lenses.


The lenses in their vials.

Base curve: 8,6 mm
Diameter: 15 mm
Water content: 42 %
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Inserting process went smoothly; there was no scratchiness or irritation whatsoever. The lenses settled quickly to their places and, to be honest, after that I didn't even feel them in my eyes. I'm a bit sad these had expired before I got around reviewing them; had these still been, eh, fresh and had the right prescription for my eyes I definitely would have worn these more than just once!

One lens in to show the enlargement.

These sure do deliver in the enlargement department! Even though these don't look as freaky in my eyes as the gray ones did, these still kind of eat up my eyes lol. These did exceed my expectations, that's for sure!

I have a huge knack for brown lenses and I highly doubt that a brown lens that I would dislike even exists. However, like I mentioned in the beginning of this review, these are one of my favorites by far. The color actually reminds me a bit of honey, only a few shades darker. These are inevitably brown - that much can be seen from miles away. As the name suggests, there are a few different tones of brown, making the lens look very vibrant. I would also describe the color 'bright' - not sure if a term 'bright brown' is actually a thing but it sure is now lol (or, well, it can also be that the design of these beauties makes your eyes look brighter in general). And, as you can see, the lenses look good even in light-colored - more specifically gray - eyes! ❤
The design, with this color, reminds me of crackling fire, chocolate and phoenixes. As you can see, the pupil hole isn't all that big so it doesn't let your own eye color show that much through. I mean, I don't even know how many shades lighter my eyes are than these lenses, and not much of the actual color is visible - or at least my eyes look notably more brown than gray. The black details in these lenses give them a lot more depth and even some mystic vibes - and I do highly appreciate that the limbal ring is actually quite thin. It suits these better than a thick one. As for the use purposes: I could pick these for alternative outfits and cosplays. However, I wouldn't use these as everyday lenses; these are way too big to look natural.

Lens photos, coming right up!

These pictures were taken during a sunny summer day. No filters, no edits, just re-sized. These ones also belong to the "we took photos of these when I still lived in the south" batch so yeah, the light conditions do differ from the circumstances that could be considered a norm for my reviews.


Bathroom light.


Bad corridor light.


Natural light through the window.


Flash photo.


Roomlight, shadowy side of the house.


Facing the sun.


Back against the sun.



From the distance.

Same lens, different color: Gray

  • The color is 10/10. These are what the name promises; multi-toned brown lenses. And the brown shades are very pretty.

  • The design is 7/10. I think it looks better with this color. Still not the most unique out there, but beautiful in its own way.

  • The opacity is 8/10. These look a bit more opaque than the gray ones; the pigmented part of the lens is very clearly brown and doesn't really let your own eye color through. Of course some of your own eye color will be visible through the pupil hole, but that's nothing new under the sun. 

  • The naturalness is 4/10. The color is natural-ish but these are waaayyy too big to be actually natural - not to mention the design isn't exactly the most natural out there.

  • The enlargement is 9/10. These sure do deliver!

And that's my opinion of MAX Elegance Tri-Tone Brown~!
If my calculations are correct, there are two more reviews to write before I publish my Nekocon cosplay plans! And yes, I do have a planned schedule for these posts lol; I have so much content that it just makes my life easier if I follow one. This will, obviously, ease up at some point (also known as when I have gone through these big batches from lord knows how many years ago) but for now I'm trying to publish quite often! ^-^

Until next time.

-Firith