Etude House: Play Color Eyes Eye Shadow Palette - In The Cafe (Review)

Recently, I was checking my mail box for mail considering I had made a couple of crazy big orders as of recent and found a package from close by. At first I was like, "What did I order from here?" And then came to realize that it was a surprise package from my friend Tiffiny!! She sent me a variety of things including cute stickers, a very sweet letters, and for my birthday an Etude House palette!! I was so shocked!! 

So today, I thought I would do a review on this palette because it's became my new favorite thing to play with as of recent! It's been awhile since I've played with Etude House products, especially new Etude House products-so it was really exciting to get to try this palette out. Before Tiffiny had surprised me with it, I had considered buying it for myself before I ended up purchasing the Gwen Stefani x Urban Decay palette back in July/August. However, I was afraid of the Etude House matte eye shadow shades being chalky/having fall out, so I went for the high end brand instead.


Boy was I surprised. The Urban Decay palette actually has a lot more fall out than the Etude House Play Color Eyes palette!!! :o 

First off, let's do an overview of this gorgeous palette. The "In the Cafe" series palette has a set of ten different eye shadow shades. There are two intense shimmery metallics, one sheer glitter, one bright matte pink/orange color, and the other six are all matte neutral colors. The packaging is slim and sleek-there is a mirror built in, and two sponge applicators making this palette great for traveling. 

This palette is positively perfect for fall time! The colors are are very warm and very flattering to the eyes. Because it's "cafe" themed- a lot of the colors while neutral still give off a warm or occasionally a cool toned cast (but not so cool that it's gray like the Gwen x UD palette). The mattes blend out perfectly with very little fallout. They make wonderful transition colors are also are good for the whole 'cut crease' trend that's been rather popular. The metallic shimmers and glitters are absolutely gorgeous. Both have brassy undertones-one being a brown/gold and the other being an orange/gold shade. They're incredibly buttery smooth and pigmented-they pack on so well. I was so excited to have a palette like this because I wanted to experiment with matte shades and I actually don't have a fall-time esque orange that I keep being tempted to play with. I only own a coral/summer time orange. So I was super excited to finally kind of look like a witch bitch without looking too dark and dreadful!

Personally? This palette has been perfect for giving the fall-time Halloween vibes. The orange/gold glittery shades are perfect for that pumpkin-esque/fall leaves look. I usually use the mattes for transition and crease shades and they blend beautifully and compliment the shimmery colors.  I've used it twice and have fallen absolutely in love! The key for me personally is to pair it with a vamp lip like in the look below: 

In all? This palette is incredibly underestimated. It surprisingly blew my Urban Decay out of the fucking water in terms of lack of fallout/blendability. This has been my new fall go-to staple and probably will be until the colder December weather sets in. Tiffiny clearly knows me well! ;) Thank you so much hun!!! I've been enjoying it thoroughly!! <3 <3 

Until next time!

Anastasia Beverly Hills: MoonChild Glow Kit Review + Real vs Fake Palette

For a pale skinned girl like myself, finding highlighters that actually AREN'T your skin tone can be quite the challenge. So when I saw the Anastasia Beverly Hills MoonChild Glow Kit-I was pretty much in love. Correction, I had to have it. And I've actually the make up hoarder in me has been on a HUGE Anastasia fix lately. 

So here is a review on the much loved limited edition MoonChild Glow Kit! 

First off, for awhile -I had a hard time justifying this palette. The colors were so out there and pastel-like. Would I really have the need for six highlighters and ones with all different undertones (and some more wearable than others?)... 

I debated on it for awhile.. Hell, I even bought a fake MoonChild Glow Kit to try to justify myself (we'll get to that and the details on that in a bit)... But in the end, after seeing the real life swatches of the glow kit, I decided to bust the bank and be out of 40.00 for one. I'm a weak bitch for anything 'cosmic' and 'MOON themed' especially. Don't even get me started. 

However, when I recieved my palette I was so excited and so happy to get it. It's officially been my new favorite thing to play with in my arsenal. The colors are completely one-of-a-kind and aren't something you can get out of just palette. The cool thing about the MoonChild Glow Kit is not only the uniqueness of the palette but price point. 

At first when you see 40.00 you automatically go-FUCK that's a lot. But when break it down honestly? You're getting six highlighting shades with a variety different undertones versus one highlighter from other brands that sell them as singlets. 

Also, holographic/duo chrome highlighters have been a huge trend lately in the make up work. Brands such as 'Milk Cosmetics' are making highlighters for this trend and other indie brands have even made 'rainbow highlighters' for that ethereal fairy affect. The cool thing about the MoonChild Glow Kit is the fact that you can obtain that look with many of the colors creating a duo-chrome highlight, but you can also use a single highlight shade for a more wearable look. Especially if you're a fashion chameleon like myself where one style isn't constant-you have a color for most of your blush shades. Need a gold? It Lucky Clover has you covered. Need a sweet pink high light? Pink heart is the one for you. Do you need a so white that it's icy high lighter? Blue ice. Pastels? Star and Purple Horseshoe. There are endless possibilities if you play with the palette enough to figure out what color suits what blush/what make up look. 

And for 40.00? That's not bad if you break down the variety of colors and the multiple uses you can get out of them. You can make MoonChild incredibly wearable. 

This shades are all insanely pigmented and trust me-people will be able to see your highlight from across damn room. 

Here are the swatches and my description of each high lighting shade...

The first color we have is Blue Ice, which is so white that it's a cool toned icy white. This will be perfect for those winter time looks where you're using a lot of frosty colors. 

The next shade is Star is which is basically a silver highlight. Personally? Tsuyome girls, abuse the shit out of this shade. It's perfect for that metallic silver highlight. 

Purple Horseshoe is next which has lavender cast with glitter. This is perfect for pastel looks. 

Pink Heart is the beginning of the second row. This is a beautiful highlighter with a pink undertone. This goes nicely with pink blush especially. If you're into himekaji or Popteen inspired looks-this highlighter is for you. 

Lucky Clover is an extremely interesting shade in the palette. It's a white/mint green white with gold undertones. It's surprisingly extremely wearable. I've personally been wearing it with darker hued blushes in the red tones. 

Last we have Blue Moon which is a metallic blue highlight shade. This color and Purple Horseshoe are very challenging to work with but if you figure out how to utilize it-you can create amazing looks for this. 

Other ways I use this highlight other than for on the cheek bones: 

This palette can be used as an eye shadow. The colors are incredibly pigmented so you can implement them as sheer pastel shades with lots of glitter. The light colors are amazing for that inner highlight for the corners of your eye as well as a brow bone highlight.

Personally? I love using Purple Horseshoe ontop of a pink liquid lipstick. I wait for the lipstick to dry and set and then place a highlight (or a couple) highlight shades ontop. The highlight colors give the lipstick an amazing sheen. Here's an example: 

This now gets us into the fake MoonChild palette. Before I purchased the real one, I had bought a fake. Why a fake you ask? Because I was wondering if the colors in the real MoonChild were wearable enough for 40.00.

After I purchased my fake palette, I was trying to look up information on the fake glow kits... Every Glow Kit had been reviewed other than the Moon Child. Apparently, MoonChild was a very recent fake that had been copied and released. In a way? This is a good thing because this Glow Kit is limited edition. It's nice to know there's an existing dupe for when this thing sells out. Especially if this has became a new favorite. 

However I eventually did break and buy the real palette mainly because I heard a lot of people's Glow Kits regardless of which one, were coming in shattered. That worried me a little.. Also I found very little information on the fake so I honestly wondered if it would be what I paid for. In the end, I bought the real one out of fear that I would be disappointed with the fake palette and that the real one would be sold out by then. This was actually a highlight kit that I had been wanting for a good month or so. I kept coming back to it. So I bought the real one-was super happy about it. And then had the curiosity of what the fake one would be like when it actually came in.

To my surprise, the fake one came intact. That made me extremely pleased. Noticing the packaging-I instantly found some differences. The fake is more holographic and the font on everything is slightly bolder than on the real palette. Also the fake palette has a bit of a texture that the real one doesn't have. Also the fake's packaging is a darker shade of blue.

Inside the palette, there are some differences in some of the highlighter shades.  Purple Horseshoe is pretty off in the pan and in the fake there's not much differentiation between Star and Blue Moon. Blue Ice is also much lighter than the fake in the pan..

However, don't let the pan shades fool you because here are the swatches: 

Left: Real         Right: Fake

Pretty amazing right? This a nicely done dupe... In terms of texture-the real one is a lot more buttery than the fake one. The fake one has more of a powder consistency. Also the real ones have a bit more luster to them in terms of the chrome/glitter and go on a bit more smoothly than the fake palette's. 

However other than that, it's a nice palette. 

Here's my verdict-

If you're a huge make up junkie such as myself that happens to do crazy make up all the time? The real palette would be worth the investment. It's nice. It definitely lives up to the hype. 

However, if you're not one to wear bold make up/only wear make up on an occasion or merely can't afford the palette (or can't snag it before it's gone) this is a lovely dupe for the real deal. My fake was 9.00 believe it or not. The real one retails for 40.00. My only warning about fakes-DON'T GET SCAMMED. My only annoyance with fakes is sellers and people try to pass off their fakes for the real deal and charging the real price or even half when they're not worth that type of money. So PLEASE do your research on fakes of the products if you are in the market for purchasing a fake. 

For more details on this Moon Child palette check my vlog video down below! 

COMING SOON 

SacAnime Summer 2016: Vlogs, Photoshoots, Fooding, and All Out Going Gyaru

Because my vlog post only showed peeks into my SacAnime trip (and only for Saturday), I thought it would only be appropriate to do a SacAnime blog post.

I woke up bright and early at four am on a Saturday to get ready, knowing that my look would no doubt, take up a lot of time. I would probably only be given thirty minutes to spare to pack last minute things considering that I had both hair and make up to do. x_x

For Saturday, I was aiming for a very glam agejo look. I faced a little bit of a dilemma with a ma*rs dress I currently bought (thank you boobs =_= -sigh-) so I ended up defaulting to a outfit that I had made revisions on now that I had an appropriate skirt to add under it.

Make up wise, I got to use a lot of my new make up and utilize everything I had hoarded up over the summer. My foundation stayed the way-Nars Luminous Weightless (Mont Blanc) and Soft Velvet Loose Powder (Snow)-for primer underneath I used the Tarte Poreless Primer. For brows, I used the Make Up Forever Aqua Brow and drew my brows in for once. I thought they didn't turn out too bad considering that I was using a high end brow product for the first time.

For eye make up-I wanted to keep it dramatic and neutral. Used a combination of my Gwen Stefani x Urban Decay palette (Harajuku and Pop as my base), an Etude House Look at my Eyes Cafe Eye Shadow Singlet (Berry Soda) for the outer V in my eye and for a base for the upcoming crease color, for the crease color I used the a mauve purple/brown Nars singlet eye shadow (Ondine) for the crease-I blended both the pink and brown/purple together at the crease. For my brow bone, I went back into the Gwen x UD palette and used a blend of Blonde/Bathwater and for the over brow bone I used Baby. For liner, I used Dollywink eyeliner, and Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner (gold) for the inner corner. For lashes, I used my trusty Holika Holika Magic Pole mascara and used top and bottom lashes.

I only contoured my nose for the look and focused on a blend of Nars Angelica blush with an outside blush gradient using the Play 101 Stick in a deep pink color. I used a Naked Flushed highlight (from the Native Palette) to bring it all together. For lips, I used a fake Limecrime Velvetine in Pink Velvet but that wasn't working out too good throughout the day, so I switched to the Play 101 Stick that I was using on my face.

For my hair, I placed my hair in half-up twintails. Before I curled it, I spazzed the fuck out because my hair honestly, really looked like Pikarin's (Hikari Shiina) who is a Popteen model. With my heavy make up, I honestly felt like I was the old era version of her. I felt SO CUTE. However, I knew straight hair wouldn't work with my coordinate, so I went and curled my hair.

For my outfit-I wore my Ma*rs dress/top that is from the LA/AX collab back a couple years ago, The skirt I placed under is a basic black skirt from the brand WC. My black gem tights are off brand, heart mules are from Yumetenbo. I also wore a sparkley gold heart necklace that I thought went well with the print on my dress/top thingie from Ma*rs. The bag I paired with the outfit is a Betsey Johnson one.

Afterwards, I quickly packed and headed out the door to meet Katie who was waiting for me. We were soon enroute to Sacramento. First we checked the hotel we were staying out to see if they would let us check in early. However, that ended up not working out, so we ended up going for breakfast. I took Katie to one of my favorite breakfast/snack spots in Sacramento. I honestly have a couple of favorite snack spots, but this is one I had direly missed, and one I thought that was diverse enough for it to have something for everyone.

Mahoroba Bakery is one of my favorite spots! It's really small and cute-they do everything from loaves of bread, to sweet and savory breads, as well as tea. I snuck in some (very shaky ;-;) video of the bakery as I waited for Katie to receive her food.

I got a mango Caplico to swallow down everything I bought-but I got a strawberry anko (one of my all time favorites) and pizza bread (needed some savory shit for breakfast). Katie I think got a ham and cheese croissant and a tea for her poor throat because she was getting sick a bit. x_x

We quickly scarfed down our food and made way to the convention center from there because we still had to find decent parking and get our badge. Thankfully both tasks once we arrived at the convention center, went smoothly. We found eight dollar parking for the whole day (yay) and got our badges with no hassle.

Upon getting our badges-we walked around the convention center all while playing Pokemon Go (because the Lures were lit, ALL weekend, yass). I ended up realizing that there wasn't a long ass line for Takoyaki (overprice takoyaki but takoyaki regardless =~=) and takoyaki is my ultimate weakness along with okonomiyaki-so Katie and I grabbed some of that for lunch knowing that we'd most likely wait up until dinner to stuff our faces with food (which ended up being correct surprisingly. I'm actually shocked that we decided to not wait in that long ass Starbucks line because I usually do LOLOLOL). We sat around watching cosplay gatherings and ate takoyakiiii.

Afterwards, I cleaned myself up and did a couple of outfit shots with Katie in my coordinate before I got too wrecked. :)

(psstt! Follow Katie's instagram for more shoot pictures from the weekend and other future events at: katiemiura08 @ Instagram) 

Then we went downstairs to hunt for Emma, Sydney, and Bella who were-yep, at the damn Starbucks. I was so happy to see Emma and Sydney cosplaying my ultimate OTP. Both of them were doing Haruka and Michiru/Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune from Sailor Moon. I kind of died a little inside. Bella also worked incredibly hard on forming armor for an amazing Lightning cosplay from Final Fantasy 13.

Amongst our antics, we ended up catching up since it had been awhile. Katie got to witness all weekend how crazy I am with these girls. I feel like among certain people, I am a completely different person than I am with the other crowd. With Emma, Bella, and Sydney-all my reservations and attempts to stay quiet and mature go all out in the window with them. Despite my attempts to watch over them and all, these girls make me such a spazzy goofy mess. I'm so grateful for them because they're truly one of the reasons I still go to cons and why I still try to. Not that I haven't had fun with other people-but I definitely am afraid of being judged for being spazzy and happy around others...among some other really traumatizing experiences among making new friends/other friends-Bella, Emma, and Sydney have never ever made me feel like I have to hold back or be self conscious. I know that they would never do anything to intentionally hurt me. So like I said, it was great getting to introduce Katie to them and for Katie to see a different side of me that she most likely had never met (or hadn't seen in a very long time). :)



The girls wandered for a little bit and Katie and I decided to troll the dealer's hall. Honestly, we had a plot. I had a fucking plot at least. My deal with the artist alley and dealers hall usually is-if I can't eat it or wear it? I don't need it. This has kept me from buying trinkets, figurines, and the like for years. However, I had somehow via Instagram, found some ADORABLE bath bombs that were supposed to be in the artist alley. I'm all for supporting independent people-especially if it's affordable. So here was Katie and I walking fucking everywhere in this artist alley trying to find Fizzy Fairy Apothecary. We finally found it after a little bit of searching on the map, and went ham. The creator had JUST designed some Pokemon Go bath bombs that featured Valor, Mystic, and Instinct. Katie and I got our respective teams of course. Mine being Valor and hers being Instinct. Along with that I also purchased a Sailor Moon bath bomb because it's my fandom of all fandoms (if she had Uranus and Neptune, I would have been ALL OVER IT, but I settled for Sailor Moon/Usagi LOL)....and then I saw Harry Potter Butterbeer Bubblebath, which smelled heavenly, and would last me awhile-SO I ended up getting that too. In all my purchases were around 17.00-which is totally reasonable considering Lush costs me around 21.00 for two bath bombs sometimes. x_x Plus, these are really cute and fandom-y... I'm super excited to try out everything. Perhaps I'll do a review on the vlog! I'll certainly take video of my bathbombs, so follow my instagram ToxicTsukino for that!

Once we did plenty of damage in the dealer's hall/artist alley-we ended up chilling in a variety of places while playing a bit of Pokemon Go around some Pokestops that had lit lures. We were basically waiting around for someone to free up and hang out with us. It was between Wendell and the girls at this point...

We trekked to the hotel-grabbed a outlet for awhile to charge our slowly dying phones (thank you Pokemon fucking Go...jfc) and the girls got back to us first since we were supposed to shoot them. I was super excited to do so. All of us ended up meeting up at this one building where the SacAnime rave is occasionally held because it was kind of a big artsy building with a decent amount of light and space.

Silliness occurred. So much personal space and bubbles were crossed as I directed what I wanted for poses.... I touched people...LMAO all in order for there not to be upskirts.... Katie was standing over people at one point. It was really crazy. There was one moment in time that I told Emma and Sydney to act like they loved each other.... They ended up giving me this shit instead.....

SMH. Posted on my Instagram and it got over 200+ likes on my damn account, and it ain't even of me. -amused-  Katie also took some really badass photos of Bella's Lightning which looked really great in that setting as well surprisingly.

Somehow, we also ended up wandering into this park/garden space with hella roses. It was so perfect for Michiru and Haruka. I almost wished Emma and Sydney had Infinity Gakuen uniforms to chanrge into and had a violin...because it was so perfect. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE PERFECT IN THE EVENING ugh ugh ugh... Basically, it was a really great shoot. I had so much fun helping direct it. Katie did an amazing job as well. Thank you so much Katie, for being so inclusive with them. And thank you ladies for taking time out of your day to hang out and shoot. It was so fun and I hope you enjoyed some of the shots that have been released so far.

This gets into a explanation of my shots. Once upon a time ago, I really used to be into photography and doing cosplay shoots. However, within the past year, I totally got intimidated shooting my friends because there's so many photographers who flaunt around their DSLRs and such-so there wasn't really much point for me to play around with my point and shoot glitchy digital camera. However, I did sneak in a couple shots of my OTP because it is my OTP... and I'm actually really pleased with how the shots came out... I definitely had to edit them to make them clearer and make the colors show up vibrantly-but honestly? What photographer doesn't do that? Basically, I'm really happy I still did a couple of shots. I've gotten nothing but kind comments on them.

One day in the near future (since my car is paid off), I would really love to invest in a DSLR. For my own YouTube channel and my blog here, but also so I can do proper photoshoots for others in the future. My main focus is on all my friends having fun and enjoying themselves while shooting. Things that are completely casual. I want my friends to look at their shots and go 'oh wow, is that really me?' :) Because I've felt that way over my own shots. Being an ex-model, I kind of understand all these feelings-the importance of being comfortable and feeling confident. So It would be a nice thing to do in the future. I'm really inspired by my photographer friends especially. I want to do a ton of J-Fashion shoots and such. I really love planning projects and composing settings and poses and scenes from things. Some of the best work I've done in the past, even with my own shoots, have been ones of my own planning somewhat. Once I have an image in my mind-it's kind of stuck there.

With that said, here are my shots I did for Sydney and Emma out of the blue.

Afterwards, Katie and I rushed over to the Sheraton to say hello to Wendell We caught up and talked a lot about music stuff. It was a blast as usual hanging out with him. I always enjoy stopping by and saying hello to him as well. He's such a relaxed guy among all the hustle and bustle of con life. I'm always greeted with a smile and open arms, and I'm incredibly thankful/grateful for that. :)

We hung around in the Sheraton for a while stalling for time, and ended up eventually hobbling down over to the car where we left to go to check into our hotel finally and meet up with Miguel who was rooming with us.

All of us ended up having perfect timing because Miguel ended up showing up around the time we had ended up in the hotel. All of us ended up piling into a car and heading to Mana Sushi which is another favorite spot for me in Sacramento. It's a much more recent favorite spot, but it's still a favorite. They have all you can eat on their super diverse menu for 20.00. It's like tapas almost but with Japanese and Korean food. It's so yummy! I love it lots! Miguel is vegan and there's a lot of 'non-meat' options for him there is comparison to some of the other places we usually hit.

Afterwards, we did a food drive by for the girls at the con (lmao...I wanted to feel badass and chuck that shit out the window-but it didn't end up happening that way gdi TAT I would have rolled up in douchey shades creeping and everything....y u gotta ruin Miguel? lmao) and then went off to get boba for our jenga night.

The boba place we went to is another new favorite for me, Cool Tea Bar. They have really amazing teas and smoothies for decently priced. I love the peach green tea there but this time I opted for a matcha smoothie with pudding, red bean, and boba. All in which were amazing combinations. Miguel and Katie got their orders and we picked up boba for Emma and Sydney who were joining us for jenga that night in the Sheraton.

This was our late night boba haul from hell..... Literally the most boba I've ever seen on a table at one time.

So we headed back to the Sheraton hotel where we set up to play Jenga with the girls. Oh man...Here's where I have a story for you guys. So on the way to the hotel, pretty sure Miguel dropped a straw by accident. So Sydney was without a straw and decided to yolo the shit out of her drink-aka, taking th plastic cover off and drinking it straight. WHICH WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA IN HINDSIGHT CONSIDERING WE WERE PLAYING JENGA. Who the FUCK plays Jenga with DRINKS on the table? -raises hands- THESE FUCK FACES RIGHT HERE!!! -choking laughing-

Sydney plays Jenga derpy enough honest to god. So half the tower was diagonal with her-which was terrifying. At one point it was her turn to pull out a block and stack on this tower from hell. It topples over and Sydney decides it would be a brilliant idea to punch the shit out of her OPEN CUP at that very moment.

I never saw Katie dodge projectile milk tea so fast. Here I am having Jenga blocks fly at my face. The next thing I see is Sydney face down on the fucking floor...her spilled milk tea all over the hotel lobby floor beside her-jiggling intact egg pudding and all.

Mind you it's ONE IN THE MORNING in this fucking hotel lobby. That we're NOT staying in. I hear vacuum cleaners running upstairs from where staff is hard at work cleaning the place up for the next day...

And what do all of us do?

Laugh so hard that we are in tears... It's so horrible that it's hilarious at this point. We literally CAN NOT believe what happened. I record a bit of the aftermath and I'm STILL dying laughing. Katie and I had to run to the bathroom before we peed ourselves from laughing so hard. Nobody could breathe. Forreal we were dying. I demanded that we clean that shit up because it's bad enough we're in a lobby of a hotel that late at night-and in one we're not staying at-AFTER all these staff have cleaned the place up.

I'm partially in panic and partially in laughter... Laughing because it's hilarious because that shit just happened. Panicking in fear that we might get told off before we can clean the mess we made up.

Thankfully we went potty and then grabbed a fuck ton of paper towels from the bathroom. Cleaned up the mess on the lobby floor at 1 am. And continued to play Jenga until 2 am and acted like that shit never happened.

That pretty much sums up my Saturday...


CONTINUING ON TOWARDS SUNDAY...

Sunday was a lot more chill in terms of the con. But my outfit was not. Oh no. I thought it would be a brilliant idea to dress as raunchy as possibly on the last day.

I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that I had a summer time D.i.a outfit that still needed to get some loving before it turned into fall. So I decided to wear it, thinking that I could get away with straight hair since I wouldn't have time to curl and style my hair since we had to check out at 11 am.

My make up was pretty neutral despite there being reds. Color theme was orange, gold, and red...with a matte brown crease color.

I wore a coral blush (NARS Super Orgasm with the NARS Illuminator in the same shade on top), contoured my face with the Etude House Play 101 duo stick for the perfect harsh contour for gyaru make up, and placed focus on the lips-where I used Etude House's Fresh Cherry Tint in red to really bring out the lips.

For my outfit-accessories wise I'm wearing the same gold heart necklace from Saturday and offbrand Sun and Moon earrings that I got off of Ebay. My belt is from D.i.a, my top is also from D.i.a Spec. My shorts are from Forever21 and my shoes are offbrand.

We headed out for breakfast and hit another one of my favorite hidden gems. Osaka-ya. Here I bought some really delicious mochi and manjyuu/kiku inside of their shop. Outside during the spring and summertime, Osaka-ya sells really delicious and VERY huge (and decently priced) shaved ice. Personally, my favorite is the Kintoki. Kintoki is red bean at the top and bottom of the shaved ice-with matcha powder (I order extra with condensed milk). It's absolutely one of my favorite warm weather treats. I wish I could get it more.

Katie got a cherry shaved ice and a mochi. I think she was quite shocked with the size of the shaved ice. It's really huge-even the small.

The ices remind me of the cute little festival shaved ices that you could possibly get at the summertime festivals. :)

After finishing off our shaved ices, we headed to the convention center where we roamed around. I did a photoshoot with Katie in my outfit. Personally, I felt like this outfit was very gyaru. If I had done my hair up crazy, I would have felt like a paler Black Diamond girl. Instead, I felt like with my straight hair, that I was maybe a EGG magazine model instead. That was what my look was inspired off of anyway. EGG was a huge influence-it meant having confidence and giving no fucks what people thought. I was super prepared for street harassment the entire day, I was really shocked and pleased when I didn't receive any. Perhaps it was because I was with friends, that it thankfully didn't happen and I was safe.

I used the fact that my hair was really long and not curled for once to do a couple of hair flip shots for Katie. Officially truly felt like Regina George or Chanel Oberlin at that moment. ;D

Afterwards we met up with the kiddies and sat around for a bit. Eventually Katie ended up taking a couple more pics of random cosplayers along the way and we decided to go eat lunch with the kids since I don't get to sit down and have meals with them often since they don't get to leave the con area where the super delicious food is at.

We ended up at Osaka Sushi for a little while. Everyone ordered random things. We derped around talking about Mystic Messenger and took pictures while waiting for food. :)

Afterwards Katie and I roamed around the con and dealer's hall for a bit. In the con area we ended up running into a lot of friends. Miguel also ended up finding us and took pictures of friends too.


The kiddies eventually left, and Katie, Miguel, and I decided to head on over for dinner at Ryujin which is a really delicious ramen house in Sacramento. Wendell ended up surprising us by joining us for dinner.

Dinner was really delicious. I ended up getting a really yummy combination of takoyaki (of course) and a tonkatsu shoyu ramen. Afterwards all of us took one big group pictures in the midst of our food comma and heading on our merry way.

In all? This SacAnime was incredibly enjoyable. It's been awhile since I've attended a con that's been a multiple day event. Even Fanime was a one day affair this year-so getting to spend time with people for multiple days and getting to have outfit plans for a weekend felt nice.

Huge props to Katie who kidnapped me this weekend and was a super huge trooper. This was her first time being at SacAnime where it's been at the convention center. Beforehand she mentioned wanting to get back into photography again, and I encouraged her that SacAnime would help her get back into the swing of things. SacAnime has a lot of cosplayers, but it's a very laid back con where people aren't swamped with plans and honestly-it's easier to get to know people there. So I really do hope she had a good time, because I know she needed it. Actually, I hope everyone had a good time and enjoyed their SacAnime.

To see a glimpse into my SacAnime Saturday via video, check out the video below!

Until next time guys!!!