overhaul.

To anybody reading this blog,

Very recently, I've made the difficult decision to leave The Lost Aria cosplay group. We've shared some pretty awesome times and created lovely memories together over the past year-and-a-bit, but it was an appropriate time, considering my own life circumstances, to break away from the group. Make no mistake that there's no enmity amongst the members/former members. It is simply time for some of us to blossom into our own kind of beauty. So here, I want to thank everyone in the group for the wonderful time we've spent together and wish them all the very best in their future endeavours, whatever they may be.

However, this isn't a goodbye post. It's a hello again post. As if I could leave behind this blog of snarky, fangirly goodness. Pssshh.

Though the name Rhapsody is behind us, now is the hour of II, III VII and IX, and the 

Cambio Cosplay group. 

Look forward to something so ridiculously great, your eyes will melt out of their sockets.

Love,

Septem.

hey, sexy lady.

Now, I don't like to boast, but in case you haven't noticed, the ladies of The Lost Aria are really, really goddamn beautiful.... So much so that I didn't feel like my joining the group would do them (or my self esteem) any good. 

I remember hanging out with Nocturne one evening during my pre-cosplay days; she showed me a bunch of pictures TLA had taken in the past, and I distinctly recall myself going home that night and brooding over how I would probably never look that good.

But enough of that. The point of this post is that I am now surrounded by a harem group of gorgeous ladies, and recently I've had a chance to (maybe?) join the ranks with my cosplay of Deathnote's Amane Misa!

Herein lies a photodump of some of my favourite TLA cosplays that ooze femininity and all sorts of loveliness:

Nocturne's guide to combating dark circles.

Recently Nocturne updated her blog with a guide to treating and preventing under-eye circles/bags. Since this is a problem we of The Lost Aria often struggle with, and I'm sure many other people do too, I thought I'd share her wisdom with you all.

Click here to go to Nocturne's blog and find out how you, too, may be rid of those annoying dark circles. :D

cosplay marathon.

Last weekend, Lullaby and Requiem came to town. We stayed at Symphony and Fantasia's place, where there was much wig brushing, fangirling, eyebrowing, and general mayhem.

While I can't show any official photos, I have plenty of photos from my phone, taken with little or no artistic sense. So here they are in all their noisy, unedited glory...

4 unachievable cosplays.

I frequently see pictures of certain characters and feel the urge to cosplay them. Or I see pics of cosplayers and wish I could be as awesome as them. Sadly, for various reasons, there are certain cosplays I don't think I'd ever be able to pull off, regardless of how much I want to. I suppose it's always healthy for one to realise one's limits. Although there's only four on this list today - everything in moderation. xD

birthday.

Ah, it's been a while since my last post. I had honestly intended to do a birthday post, and then a Christmas one, yet New Year's eve is upon us now... It's time to catch up!

My birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Traditionally, whatever happens to me on the 27th of November tends to be rather unpleasant. I did not even enjoy my 21st! However this year I was quite content. My waifu took me out to dinner and wasted $200 on our stomachs. D:

This was my dessert - a chocolate caramel torte with hazelnut cream and a miniature espresso milkshake. SO GOOD.

A few days later, I received something wonderful in the mail from my princess, Lullaby~

I am so in love with this gift wrap. I actually couldn't bring myself to discard it, so I kept it~ 

Anyway...the contents of this beautifully wrapped package?

Ta-da~

A tiered cupcake stand! Funnily enough I had been wanting to get one of these for a while now. Ah, Lullaby, how can you read my heart so well? |D

A little while after that, I received yet another generous parcel! This time it was from Nocturne and Requiem! When I unwrapped the packaging I really wanted to squeal >u<

This Bodyline number is officially my first proper lolita outfit.

I'm a big fan of wa-lolita. How did you guys know? *A* (Am I that easy to read?)

Sadly, I couldn't get a proper full-body shot with my short arms...but above is a picture of me trying. 

And of course, there's one with my face in it. :3

Thank you so much guys! Love you lots~

instant abs.

I have a reputation for being excessively lazy, especially when it comes to exercise. I hate sports (with the exception of dance), I've set foot in a gym only once in my entire life, and when it comes to jogging... I went a few times but ended up walking 90% of the time anyway. I've never cared much for having a bikini body, since I don't have nearly enough boobage to fill a bikini anyway. But since I became a member of The Lost Aria, it has come to my attention that a lot of the cosplays I want to do will require, at the very least, a toned abdominal region.

Thanks to Lullaby, who provided these links for a fantastic tutorial on open-chest binding and makeup, because really, I don't know the first thing about makeup contrary to popular belief...

testing testing.

So, I'm quite unmotivated when it comes to getting stuff done. That's why it takes ages for me to finish writing stuff, watching dramas/anime, study...

However, I do like to dress up. Even if I'm not going anywhere or doing anything else. I get sudden spur-of-the-moment urges to wear a flashy outfit, or do my makeup, or even try on my newly-acquired wigs.

In this instance, I wanted to try out my Kagamine Len cosplay. Just for kicks. I did have contact lenses on, but they weren't the right colour...plus it was an overcast day so the green didn't show up in photos... But ah well. Here are a couple of the better pictures I took. Largely unedited, just upped the contrast to make the yellow yellower.

Unfortunately since the wig is a bit small, my natural hair sticks out the side...It's not noticeable if I angle my head correctly, but it still sucks. :( And I'm really not sure how to remedy the situation either. *cry*

I still haven't had a chance to practice open-chest binding yet, but I'll get around to it soon! Since Lullaby and I have a lot of open-chest cosplays in mind....

The other day I thought of how many cosplays Lullaby and I have planned to do together, and I was highly amused by the number of plans that involve us being shirtless/nearly shirtless guys. Looking forward to it. ^^b

a rather hairy acquisition.

This post has been a long time coming. I got some new wigs a couple of weeks ago, and was waiting for a chance to take some halfway-decent photos wearing them. And once I did, I needed a chance to actually upload them...

So these wigs are just a continuation of my blonde frenzy... I had hoped for them to be rather versatile, so I could cosplay several different characters with them, but alas, they are, 1. not at all good for any other characters I want to cosplay, and 2. a tad too small for my ginormous head. But ah well, here we go.

So this one is intended for a Kagamine Len cosplay. Unfortunately, because it's too small for my head, a little bit of my hair peeps out around the back and side... Hopefully I can find a way around it, especially if we're going to be shooting more videos!!

Oh, and excuse the mess in the background.

I feel like a dork when taking camwhorey photos like this one...but it really suited the style of the wig... Now that I think about it, I really don't know what to do with this wig. It's a bit light for a Amane Misa cosplay. I can't, for the life of me, think of who else I could be...

Oh! And this one I bought off Nocturne! I really like this one - I wore it out in public that day (since I had wig hair) to meet mai waifu, and he didn't recognise me. orz

Melt omake

I'm back home after spending the weekend with Requiem, Nocturne and Lullaby down in Studentville. For two nights Nocturne had to put up with me sleeping on her floor and making a mess everywhere... But she was so lovely about it all, makes me feel like a slob. orz

Magnet omake

When I was going through the photos I took for this con, I realised that 90% of it was useless random crap I took on a whim... And so I'll share some of those here, while I leave the pretty pictures to our expert editors.

Also, I haven't included pics where you can see the other girls' faces, since I haven't asked their permission to use untouched pics of them... So my apologies, but you'll have to bear with staring at my ugly mug. :P

Fake lashes and pastel makeup...neither of which I'd used before! D:

Even Vocaloids need cash, you know.

We were in the local newspaper too... D: With a friend of ours, who also required cash.

Had only bubble tea and a little bit of Ballade's meal for lunch...otherwise I would not have been comfortable in that dress. Dx

Ballade was originally in this picture, but for the reasons I mentioned above, I cropped her out.

It's not just because I'm an attention whore!

Aaaaaand finally...the Rhapso-razzi strikes - Nocturne just looked so adorable...especially with Rin's bow and the coat and the backpack... She looked like a little schoolgirl~

I can't wait to see her Rin look again!! xD

Magnet

Draw me close to you, just like a magnet

So that even when we're separated, we'll reunite again.

~

As I mentioned, earlier this year, Ballade and I cosplayed Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka, Magnet ver. Believe it or not, it was my first time putting on makeup properly and wearing false lashes. It was also my first time wearing such a revealing dress in public... But while I was in public, I was being Luka-nee-san, so everything was fine~

The next day, Ballade became Luka, and I had a go at crossplay, being 'that guy from the Just Be Friends PV'. I don't think he has a name, so we referred to him as 'Mr JBF'...

We caught up with Nocturne too, and convinced her to cosplay Kagamine Rin's Meltdown look. She was so cute, I had to stop myself from pinching her cheeks or just squeezing her to death.

You'll see, in my next post.