Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner - Brown, Review! ♥

Konnichiwa Minna-san! I've got an amazing product to review today, the Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner. I got this from EBay but it was originally imported from Japan, i've heard so many good things about this eyeliner so I really wanted to try it out and review it for you guys! ♥

The packaging for this is super cute! It's also far easier to open than a lot of Western make-up, no need for scissors. The eyeliner itself is a felt tip liner with an extremely narrow tip, for me i'm personally not a fan of felt tip liners but this one works perfectly to create a sharp line.  

I love this brown shade! It's the exact shade that all brown eyeliners should be, not the weird brown/black combination that they usually are... The formula for this liner is really watery which some people may hate, especially if you prefer gel liners. However I find it really easy to work with and extremely pigmented for a low cost product.

I wore this eyeliner for 12-14 hours a few days ago, this includes going to work and going out later that night. The result was that the liner barely budged throughout the day and definitely didn't smudge.

Overall i'm thoroughly impressed with this, the quality plus the price make for a fantastic product within budget. Even though Dolly Wink is a Japanese brand it can be found easily on EBay and Yesstyle, I would try to aim for EBay though since the postage would be cheaper. 

Dolly Wink Eyeliner (Brown) - £8.99 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161703152329?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=460674182560&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Thank you very much for reading my review and I hope you stick around for more in the future 

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Glasgow MCM Comicon 2015 Haul! ♥

Konnichiwa Minna-san!~ Today I have my Comicon Haul for you. Last week was the annual Glasgow MCM Comicon and aside from cosplaying and taking hundreds of pictures for Otakuography, I was looking at all the stalls to see what cute products I could buy ♥

This is the overall picture of my haul! It's definitely not as big as the previous two years, but I was so busy with taking photographs that buying things only happened when something really caught my eye.

My favourite item from Comicon is definitely my little Oshawott ♥ He's so adorable! My fiance bought him for me when I was getting some air and I was so happy and shocked! Look at his wee face ♥ This was an officially licensed Pokemon product and I believe he was £15, but i'm unsure of which stall was selling him.

While we were walking around CEX who had a massive DVD/Game stand in the center of the hall, were handing out cute little CEX chocolates that taste identical to a Terry's Chocolate Orange. Not brilliant for me, but my fiance loved them!

My favourite purchase of the day is two new Uta no Prince-sama Biscuit Charms!♥ Omg they're the cutest little things in the world... I'm literally obsessed. I have Ranmaru, Masato and Ren all attached to my phone and they look so adorable, they're good quality and a completely licensed product from SAOTOME GAUKEN ♥ They were £4 each from the Japan Centre stall.

This is a super cool Panda Cone from Glico and it's the Giant Caplico Panda - Cookies & Cream flavour. The texture of this is weird and interesting, it's supposed to imitate a ice cream but with chocolate instead of the ice cream ♥. The chocolate is smooth and bubbly kind of like an Aero bar and for me it tastes like a crushed Oreo. This was from the Japan Centre and I think it was £1.50!

These are from the brand Kabaya and they are Pastel Chocolate Cone snacks from the Japan Centre. I'm not overly fond of these sweets, mostly due to the bad quality of chocolate. However most children will like these since the are fun with cure designs, the little pastel marble is a crunchy little biscuit which is quite a fun texture with the chocolate. These were £2.00 and to be honest i'll probably not buy them again, they are very plain and a little cheap tasting. 

These two are basically the same product from the Japan Centre and i had no idea until I got home ♥! These are also by Kabaya. The first is a small packet of chocolate panda biscuits, the white kind of tastes like milk but i'm not 100% sure. The box of pandas are pretty different to the first packet to be honest, as they have a caramel flavouring to them. However I think they taste like a Yankee Candle or something! They're not terrible just a little fragrant ♥ The small packet was 50p and the box was £1.00 from the Japan Centre!

NOM NOM NOM! ♥ I have bought these at every convention for three years, I absolutely love Match Pocky! They taste slightly herbal because of the matcha but mostly they just taste rich and creamy, amazingly addictive. These were bought from the Japan Centre for £2.00 ♥

This is the cutest little wafer/biscuit panda i've every seen! ♥ It tastes like a Blue Riband to me (British biscuit) but the description on the Japan Centre website says it is a milk & white chocolate flavoured wafer. Either way I think it tastes fantastic and I think it was 50p from the Japan Centre stall on the last day of the convention!

This was the weirdest tasting thing of the day... WOW what a flavour! I've bought this Sangaria soft drink before but in the Melon Soda flavour, this is Grape and oh my god does it taste amazing. I would definitely not recommend you to drink it daily (so much sugar) but it needs to be tried at least once. The flavour is traditional artificial grape but the drink almost has a sherbet flavour/texture, it's so tangy and amazing. Highly recommended! This was again bought from the Japan Centre for £2.00.

CEX - https://uk.webuy.com/

Japan Centre - https://www.japancentre.com

Thank you very much for reading my review and I hope you stick around for more in the future 

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Primark PS LOVE YOUR SKIN - Argan Facial Wipes!

Konnichiwa Minna-san~ ♥ Today I have a product that's a lot more close to home than my usual US and Asian brands. Recently Primark has brought out new facial cleansing wipes that are specifically targeted for dry skin. These are the P.S. LOVE YOUR SKIN - Argan Facial Cleansing Wipes! ♥

I have bought every kind of facial cleansing wipe from Primark and literally none of them have made a lasting impression on me until I found these. Due to having eczema, finding a cleansing wipe which doesn't dry my skin out or break my skin out is a little bit of a challenge. 

However these are fantastic, they're super soft and really hydrating to my skin which is a big bonus for me. These wipes also have an amazing citrus smell, which is quite gentle and very soothing as well, I'm not a huge expert in Argan oil so i'm not entirely sure if that is the citrus smell or if it has been added in. ♥

There is quite a few chemicals in these wipes but i'm pretty happy that nothing in here reacted with my skin at all. If you have a skin condition or sensitive skin they I would be a little wary of these, but for me the result was amazing.

I've noticed that my skin has became softer and I've had far less break outs in the month that i've been using these wipes, so for me they are definitely a winner aside from my usual Huggies Baby Wipes that I use on a daily basis. Overall I absolutely love these facial wipes and I really couldn't recommend them more, especially for people with dry skin ♥ 

Primark Argan Facial Wipes - £1 (Pack of 2)

Thank you very much for reading my review and I hope you stick around for more in the future 

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StriVectin-WH™ Photo-White Dark Circle Corrector Product Review ♥

Konnichiwa Minna-san!~ Today I am reviewing the StriVectin-WH Photo-White Dark Circle Corrector (What a mouthful!). I've been working up to this product review for around two weeks now, since the manufacturers claim that 14 days are enough to see a difference in your under eye circles. ♥

StriVectin is a US skin care brand which is based in Arizona, they have been in production since 2002 and despite constant research I can't find out how Eco-friendly/Animal-friendly they are... This has already put one strike against their brand for me as I'm very cruelty-free orientated. 

They state that their products contain award winning NIA-144 Technology which is a molecule that StriVectin have created and patented. This molecule delivers Niacin which is basically vitamin B3 to the skin, which improves skin health and youthfulness. ♥

The Dark Circle Corrector contains a few key ingredients aside from NIA-144, these include:

• Light Diffusing Micas (Light reflecting, to mask and correct dark circles)
• Vitamin C
• Haloxyl™ (Renews skin cells, reduces puffiness and shadows from the skin)
• Caffeine

These together make up the main product for the Corrector. The product itself is a strange consistency, it's a mixture of a cream and ointment which is rather odd, but not unpleasant.  To me it smells like organic honey, or the Burt's Bees Lip Balm so for me I think it's lovely, but others may find the smell too strong and overwhelming. ♥

For me after two weeks I would say that I've seen a very slight difference in my dark circles, as mine aren't very strong anyway they are now nearly disappeared. For someone with very dry skin like me, it's really hard to put concealer under my eyes without it becoming cakey, this has also helped a lot with my under eye hydration. I'm assuming this is because of it's oil/ointment texture. 

For people who have very dark under eye circles, through bad sleeping patterns or genes, i'm not sure how well this may work for you. It may work if you use it for more than a month with a serum perhaps, but I don't think this product is good enough for extreme panda eyes. ♥

Although I like the RRP for this product is over £30, and for me that's not worth it. I bought mine from a TKMAXX store for £8 when they were having a yellow label sale.

I would probably give this product a 3/5. It's good for people who have dry under eyes and medium dark circles, but I wouldn't recommend it for those who are wanting they're panda eyes completely gone in 2 weeks.  ♥

Thank you very much for reading my review and I hope you stick around for more in the future 

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A New Project: Otakuography! - Cosplay Modeling & Photography.

Konnichiwa Minna!~ I have been gone for just under a month because I've been working on a special project with one of my super close friends Rachel, and that project is... *drum roll* ... Cosplay modeling and photography! 

So at the beginning of August we decided to start taking pictures of our cosplays from previous conventions and our future cosplays for this years Glasgow MCM Comicon as well. After a week or so we decided on a name for our Facebook page "OTAKUOGRAPHY". ♥

Yeah this was pretty much the entire of August for us, editing our photos, fixing the page and promoting ourselves to local cosplayers. I was pretty much waiting for the page to take off before writing this post as an explanation, so i'm glad to say that we have 150 likes so far! We have also began our Youtube channel where vlogs, m/v's of our cosplays and photo shoots can be watched!

We plan to specialize in all aspects of cosplay photography, at the moment the only upcoming photo shoots are based around anime/video games but hopefully in the future we may expand into comic books, movies etc... ♥

We both have previous experiences with photography and editing, such as degrees/qualifications and freelancing so this is not a new hobby for us and we are quite experienced in this field. However, editing in a cosplay way is slightly new but we feel like we're getting to grips with it well! 

At the moment we have only done two photo shoots, one for me which was Asuna Yuki from Sword Art Online and one for Rachel which was Natsu Dragneel Fem! from Fairy Tail. We hope to do many more in the future along with the few that we have lined up like Haruka Nanami from Uta no Prince-sama and The Pokemon Trainers from the X&Y series!

We hope to have a lot of support from all of my readers and we'll do our best to deliver amazing results at the same time as having a ton of fun. ♥♥ For any inquires into our new project whether it be for modeling/photography or advice then please don't hesitate to contact us either on our Facebook page, my blog or our Youtube Channel! ♥

Otakuography FB Page! - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Otakuography/419027741614863

Thank you very much for reading my post. I hope you stick around for more in the future 

ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ... ♥

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• 
  

Dealing with a Skin Condition: Eczema & The Cosplayer

 Konnichiwa Minna-san! Today is a very different type of post and i've been working up to it for a couple of weeks (I got very nervous). For the last two years I have been dealing with Eczema which was brought on from the stress of college, even after this much time i'm still learning about my body and what will affect my skin majorly. ♥

I wanted to write a blog post on how I deal with my condition, what I do and what I don't do and how I cope with it during some cosplays. Just as a disclosure I'm by no means speaking for everyone with this condition, it's more or less my experiences with it. ♥

In these images my eczema was no where near it's worst stages, but it was still and irritation at these levels. The first image was a slight infection which is why my arm looks a little bumpy, and the second is my arm starting to clear up from a major break out. ♥

For me changing my diet and using medicated creams has really brought my eczema under control and cleared it up majorly. ♥

My diet changes consisted of drinking more water, around 3 glasses a day. This not only started to clear my eczema but it also evened my skin tone and reduced spots on my face. Eating certain foods such as strawberries can violently break people out in rashes, i've never experienced this as I really dislike them but i've been told they are one of the worst things for skin conditions. ♥

My medicated treatments are both cream based and gel based. I'm not entirely sure of the cream one's name, but the gel one is called Audavate. For the last 4 months or so i have been primarily using the gel ointment more as it's stronger and clears my eczema up within a week. It can also be used before you go into the shower (showering can be painful during a flare up, this helps to dull the pain and protect the flared skin). ♥

Covering up my arms is one thing, but covering my neck and upper chest can be tricky. It's impossible to be in a turtle neck 12 months of the year, so i've had to learn to accept the marks that can appear in this area. The picture above is again quite mild but a lot of the time the marks on my neck can look like bruises or love bites, it's pretty upsetting seeing someone staring at you, thinking you're trashy because of the marks when it's clearly not the case. ♥

Treating these flare ups is an easy process but the hard part is knowing that the areas that are exposed can't be covered up by make-up or anything (concealer/foundation can dry the skin out even more and lead to infection). So you are pretty much stuck with the dirty looks from people until it goes away naturally or with medication. ♥

Cosplaying with eczema can be challenging, wearing a lot of layers and walking through a hot convention all day can take it's toll on your skin. Sweating with eczema can be very painful and cause immediate flare ups while you're out, this can really ruin your day and for me last year I eventually changed out of my Asuna Yuki cosplay because of this (And also because the wig is freakishly heavy). ♥

Keeping to a light weight costume is preferred since it will keep you cooler, sensitive baby wipes and keeping your medicated cream/gel in your handbag is also a must. Anything that can wipe away sweat and cover the skin with a barrier is perfect for this warm environment. I also use this system for working out and going out on sunny days to make sure I enjoy everything to the fullest. ♥

A few days ago I got a tattoo as a memorial for my dog that passed away a year ago, I also wanted to write about people having eczema and wanting tattoos as most may be deterred because of their condition. It's been 3 days now and i've had no flare ups in the area and no allergic reaction either (I have an extreme allergy to hair dye). I felt like this was work mentioning as it's a new thing I know my skin is alright with. ♥

Thank you very much for reading my post, this was incredibly hard for me to write since i'm not very talkative about this subject. I hope you stick around for more in the future 

ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ... ♥

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Hyper Japan & London 2015 Haul! ♥

Konnichiwa Minna-san! I have a very special post to share with you all today, and that is my Hyper Japan & London Haul! 

Last weekend me. my fiancé and our two friends went on a trip all the way down to London for the Hyper Japan convention, which was totally amazing! ♥ So i'm going to start off with the items I bought at Hyper Japan, and then move onto things I bought when I was exploring London !x

Kpop is a complete obsession for me, and as many of you may know I am a STARLIGHT ♥. I adore VIXX with all my heart so I made a few sneaky purchases at the Kpop stall, starting with this dust plug for my phone. It's very simple and made from acrylic but I don't have any VIXX charms hanging from my phone yet, so for me it was a must! ♥ I believe I paid £4 for this, but i'm not too sure.

My second VIXX purchase was these adorable stickers!! ♥ I'm a complete sucker for Kpop stationary, and this was no exception. It has all of the members on little stamps with some quotes beneath some of the pictures, it's far too cute xxx! I paid £5 for these but i've seen them a lot more expensive online.

I LOVE THIS KEYRING ♥ It's everything I want and more... Every member has a full picture of themselves when they were promoting Error and also a group picture as well. UGH! it's just sheer perfection, I know that most of these items are not official and are fan made, but it's so hard to find VIXX products in the UK for a decent price. This keyring was £4! ♥

My favourite anime of all time is Uta no Prince-sama ♥! I know that's a little strange and random but it's just so heart warming, light and relaxing. So to go with my other Utapri items (music box, DVD collection, phone charms, keyrings), I thought I would buy a few more things. Starting with Masato on the left! I have nothing with Masa at all and I think he is such a great character in the anime, so I just had to have a little version of him on my keys! ♥ He was £5 I believe.

I got the most adorable little Syo! Look at his little cute face ♥ xxx He's supposed to be a keyring the same as Masa, but i'm a little scared to use him like that because of the ball/chain that's used, i'm scared it'll break. He has a tiny little body and a big bobble head attached with a link, which I think is so sweet! He was £7 from a random stall which I can't remember.

And finally I bought another Ren... ♥ I know I know, obsessed much? But how could you not buy him on a biscuit! It's adorable and such high quality, so I think i'll be keeping him on my phone case along with his other version. He was £6 from the Japan Centre stall. 

I actually didn't buy this G-Dragon bracelet! it was from the Kpop stand but my friend who is a huge fan of G-Dragon and Big Bang bought a pack of these and kindly gave me one !♥ I have no idea how much these are or where else you can buy them, but it's so cute and will even fit on my tiny wrist. 

Moving on to other London purchases! This was a present from my wonderful fiancé when we visited Camden Market on our second day in London. We found this adorable little stall that sold like 40 Alpacasso's, it was so cute, but this little bag caught my eye immediately. I've seen these on various Storenvy shops at ridiculous prices, but this little gem was only £10! xxx! Thank you sweetie for the amazing present ♥

This was probably my best purchase at the market. I bought this little bag to carry my digital camera around my neck more easily, and also because I spotted the Rilkkuma lanyard so I was sold... Well that's until I saw the price, £1 !!! I could not believe it, I should've bought a few but oh well... ♥ 

We went to the Japan Centre in Piccadilly Circus, which was a fantastic experience! There was so much food and so many different varieties of sweets and drinks. I spotted a Ramune a mile away when I was looking in the cooler cabinets and I had to buy the Pokemon edition, i've hand the drink so many times but this one was just all kinds of special! ♥ It was £1.40, and they have an online website which delivers so I will link that at the end of this post for you! xxx

My final purchase of my holiday was again found in Camden Market, there was the most adorable little Japanese/Korean clothing stall somewhere in the heart of the market and I was totally drawn to it. The man had such cute items for sale at low prices so I just had to buy something. I eventually settled on this heavy, silk and lace white dress, it has amazing floral detail all over the body and skirt which I love. The lace overlay also extends past the underskirt which gives a princess effect which I like a lot. This was such a bargain at £8! I almost couldn't believe it xxx ♥

I would highly recommend going to see Camden Market, and I would definitely say that you should try and go to Hyper Japan at some point! it's so much fun and I got to meet so many nice people! ♥

Japan Centre UK - https://www.japancentre.com/en

Thank you very much for reading my haul/review and I hope you stick around for more in the future 

ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ...

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