There is so much I have learned about cosplay since I started. Cosplay is one of those hobbies where I will continuously push myself and try new things that might be beyond my experience and skill level. That’s what makes cosplay fun. I went from wearing old Halloween costumes to wearing wigs and planning out in-depth what my next cosplay would be. I wanted to share advice I would give my younger self, but also advice that I hope those new to cosplay will find valuable.

Don’t Let Cosplay Accuracy Stress You Out

When I say cosplay accuracy, I mean planning a cosplay that looks exactly like the character I’m portraying. I get anxious when I plan cosplays if I don’t think something will look how I want it to. This will lead me into a spiral where hours will go by in my cosplay planning process, and I’m still at square one of figuring out how I will pull this off.

In all my years of cosplay, I have never had anyone come up to me and insult my cosplay because it wasn’t accurate. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I’m fortunate it hasn’t happened to me. If someone were to do that, I think we can all agree that person would be a jerk.

It’s okay if a cosplay isn’t accurate or 100% exactly like the character you’re portraying. Some of the best cosplays I have seen are when cosplayers do something different. It’s something I need to remind myself all the time, as cosplay should be fun.

Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things

I mentioned this before, but I used to not want to wear wigs. Ever. I had this notion that all wigs were uncomfortable; therefore, I had no interest in incorporating them. Now, I love wearing a new wig. I have three wigs in our closet hanging up on hooks and hope to add a few more in the future. I would love to get to a point where I feel comfortable experimenting with body paint. I haven’t found a cosplay yet where body paint will be needed, but never say never. I won’t be as nervous to try body paint because I know I will figure it out.

I wish I didn’t spend so much time avoiding wigs because now I love them. I’m applying this to other aspects of cosplay going forward.

Making Mistakes is a Part of Cosplay

It wasn’t until last year that I learned how to wear wigs correctly. When I started wearing wigs, I would put my hair in a low bun at the back of my head. I would put the wig cap on and the wig after. This left a bump at the back of my head. I went to a panel at CONvergence last year where two panelists explained that the best way to style hair before putting on a wig is to pin hair with bobby pins or braid the hair and pin it on top of your head. This allows for the wig to be applied without any bumps. At the next convention I attended, I did this with my hair, and it worked perfectly. I didn’t have a bump, and everything lay smoother than before.

I laugh at myself for figuring this out recently. I wouldn’t change anything because now I can pass that wisdom on.

Make Time for Hair and Makeup Practice

For every cosplay, I do what I call a trial. A few weeks before the convention, I put together the whole look. Starting with the wig, styling the wig, doing my makeup routine, and putting on the cosplay. I would repeat this at least two or three times before the convention. I didn’t always do this, and it would take me much longer on the day of the convention to get ready. I would highly recommend this to all cosplayers. If something doesn’t fit right, the wig isn’t the color you want, or the wig isn’t comfortable, it’s good to figure this out weeks ahead. Nothing is worse than realizing something isn’t going to work, and there isn’t time to fix it.

I have been there, and I won’t be doing that again. I always style cosplays ahead of time, and it’s made it so much easier to get ready.

Wear Comfortable Shoes

Do I need to expand on this one? I will always prioritize wearing comfortable shoes, even if my cosplay isn’t as accurate.

Cosplay is a hobby that continues to challenge me in creative ways. There’s so much I could go back and tell my younger self, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have learned as much if I hadn’t made mistakes along the way.

Last year, I wrote about what characters I wanted to cosplay. My list was way too ambitious, but I liked having a plan of which characters I wanted to cosplay in the future. It helped set me up for success, especially when the convention season began. I will make this an annual post at the end of each year, where I list out characters I want to cosplay. I will keep this list shorter and only add 3 – 5 characters max. This way, I can plan out last-minute cosplays that pop up and won’t feel limited to only this list.

To start, here are all the characters I had on last year’s list:

• Liliana Vess – Magic: The Gathering
• Meren of Clan Nel Toth – Magic: The Gathering
• Keyleth – Critical Role
• Imogen Temult – Critical Role
• Scarlet Witch – Marvel
• Kraven – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Doctor Aphra – Star Wars
• Padme – Star Wars
• Nightsister – Star Wars

I did complete a few of these, most notably Keyleth and Padme. For Liliana and Meren, these would be fun cosplays, but they are a lower priority for me since I’m more of a casual Magic player. I didn’t make Scarlet Witch or Kraven. I feel like I haven’t done a comic cosplay in a while. I always cosplay Harley Quinn and will probably cosplay Harley every year because I love her as a character. I’d like to go back to doing superhero cosplays since I did a lot of superhero cosplays when I first started cosplaying. Cosplaying as a Nightsister would be neat, but then I’d have to learn how to do body paint, and I’m not sure I’m committed to doing that next year, but who knows.

Here are the cosplays I want to complete for next year:

• Moonshine Cybin – Not Another DnD Podcast
• Vexhalia – Critical Role
• Imogen Temult – Critical Role
• Zatanna – Zatanna & The Ripper

The first character on this list is Moonshine Cybin from NADDPOD. I love NADDPOD, and I don’t see many NADDPOD cosplays out there. For Moonshine, her look should be easy. I’d wear overalls, green tights, and a white short-sleeved crop top. There’s a lot of Moonshine fan art, so I want to choose a photo and then create my cosplay from there.

I wanted to cosplay as Vexhalia this year, but there’s much to consider. There’s her bow and quiver, which I don’t see any way to buy without spending hundreds of dollars. On top of that, which look would I cosplay? Do I go with her look from the Amazon series, or do I pick a piece of fan art and go from there? I think this cosplay will be expensive no matter what, and I’d rather buy one piece of the cosplay at a time instead of paying hundreds of dollars at once.

For Imogen, I’m keeping her on this list because I think she will be an easier cosplay to create. It’s more about gathering all the clothing items and then a purple wig. The final cosplay I have is Zatanna from the WEBTOON series Zatanna & The Ripper. I loved this webcomic, and I liked Zatanna’s look. It’s cute, but not too over the top. I have a dark blue cloak that would work perfectly for this, and it gives me another excuse to wear it.

I think having four characters on this list is plenty. Knowing me, I will come up with something on the fly like I always do. In the next week or so, I’m going to do more of a formal plan as to which conventions I plan on attending next year, and that will help me figure out what cosplays I will create. This was a great cosplay year for me, and I want to keep that momentum going in 2025.

I always plan on cosplaying when I attend Twin Cities Con. On Friday, I cosplayed as Kylo Ren. I put together my Kylo Ren cosplay for Halloween last year and it turned out so well that it’s now become a permanent cosplay in my closet. I use red lip liner, black eye liner, light brown eye shadow, and vaseline to create the scar on my face. On Saturday, I put together a last minute cosplay. I decided to do a gender bent, Percy De Rolo from Vox Machina and The Legend of Vox Machina. I wanted to break down how I put this cosplay together.

I had originally thought about cosplaying as Vexhalia, but then thought against it. There are a lot of components to Vexhalia including her bow and her quiver. I was looking online and there wasn’t a way I could cosplay her on such short notice without spending quite a bit of money. Vexhalia is a character I want to cosplay down the road, but I want more time to be able to do the character justice. I was going through a Reddit post and saw someone else doing a gender bent Percy cosplay and I was immediately inspired to do one myself.

The reference image I used was a photo of Percy from the show where he’s bent over a table looking at a map. He’s wearing a light blue dress shirt with a black vest and black pants. This was the photo I used to put together my cosplay. I stole a blue dress shirt from my husband’s closet. I tucked the shirt into a pair of black jeans I own. I used a black tied corset to help cinch the look together especially because my husband’s dress shirt was a bit big on me. I ordered a pair of steampunk glasses and a silver prop gun. To complete the look, I bought a white, wavy wig. I could have opted for a white short hair look, but I like longer wigs, so that’s a personal preference I have.

This cosplay was something I put together in a week and a half. Is this cosplay accurate? Yes and no. As I walked around the con, no one recognized the look. However, when I was walking to the convention center, I had someone compliment my wig and how she thought I looked good in it. This was so nice of her to say. It definitely gave me a boost of confidence as I walked to Twin Cities Con.

I like the cosplay especially because it was a last minute look to put together. I’d love to get a more accurate prop of Percy’s gun and I’d like to find a blue jacket that I could wear over the look as I think it would be more true to Percy’s look. With that said, I’m happy with how this came together and I would wear this to another convention I attend in the future.

As a side project, I have been reading and editing all my old posts. I have a long way to go until I’m finished, but it’s been interesting to see how much better my writing has gotten and what I choose to write about. I decided to formally create a cosplay category, which has now been updated on Bizarre Brunette! I am looking forward to writing more about cosplay in the future and writing about cosplay regularly. This doesn’t change much except all of my cosplay-related posts can be found under the cosplay category on the home page.

I have a few cosplay-related posts I plan on writing about soon, but for now, it will be nice to have all my cosplay content in one organized place.

I have been curious about colored contacts in cosplay, but I wasn’t sure where to start. Last year, I posted in a local cosplayer Facebook group, and I’m glad I did. They advised me to go to the eye doctor to begin the process. It sounds silly because I didn’t even think I needed to visit the eye doctor. I figured I could order colored contacts online, and that’s it. I decided to write my own guide on how I proceeded with colored contacts because I wish this had existed for me before starting this process.

I have seen professional cosplayers use colored contacts, and I thought it made their cosplays look more realistic. It inspired me to want to try colored contacts for myself. After posting in that Facebook group, I took vision insurance when my health insurance open enrollment began last November. I’m not sure if my vision insurance covered much of my vision care, since technically it wasn’t medically necessary. I have no regrets about taking vision insurance, even if it didn’t cover the cost of colored contacts. It didn’t cost much to add on to my insurance, and it’s nice to have just in case.

After CONvergence passed, I remembered how I wanted to prioritize getting colored contacts. It’s funny how fast time passes. I checked with my insurance to find an in-network optometrist and made an appointment at a clinic five minutes from my house. When I called in, I jokingly told the receptionist how I wanted colored contacts for cosplay. She assured me it was more common than I thought it was and booked me for my first appointment.

To get colored contacts, I had three eye appointments. The first appointment was a general exam to see if I needed colored contacts with a prescription. I have 20/10 vision, so I could get away with contacts with little to no prescription. In my second appointment, I had an hour-long lesson on how to put on contacts. I’m not sure what I expected, but I STRUGGLED to put in contacts. I found myself feeling frustrated and wanting to give up. The person who was working with me was incredibly kind, and she encouraged me to keep trying, and that it took some getting used to. I finally figured it out and was sent home with clear contacts to try. For the final appointment, I had to come into the clinic with clear contacts. Surprisingly, it took me ten minutes to put the contacts in myself. I was shocked. When I arrived, the doctor checked my eyes to see if my eyes were getting enough oxygen with the contacts. Everything came back great, so I ordered my colored contacts. I chose green because I felt it complemented my Keyleth cosplay. I haven’t picked them up yet, but they have been ordered and should be ready soon.

When I got home from the final eye doctor’s appointment, I had to take out my contacts, and that took much longer. It took me about twenty minutes to take them out versus ten minutes to put them in. Oddly enough, I did much better with my right eye than my left, even though I’m left-handed. I am going to practice with my clear contacts because I want to feel confident in wearing them and taking them out, so when I’m getting ready for a convention, I’m not late to it because I’m struggling to put my contacts in.

I learned so much from this process! I learned about my eyes and how to wear contact lenses. I know how to take care of my contact lenses and how to order colored contacts, so I’m not buying anything that can’t be put into my eyes. I won’t wear colored contacts for every cosplay I do. I will save colored contacts for those cosplays where it feels necessary to get the look I want. In summary, I would highly recommend going to the eye doctor if you’re like me, where you never needed glasses or contacts. If you are already accustomed to contacts, I would be careful about where you order colored contacts to ensure you’re getting them from a good place. I’m happy I made the time to get colored contacts, and I can’t wait to experiment with colored contacts in the future.

I was swiping through old convention photos the other day. When I was going through my photos, I laughed at myself because I saw a cosplay from several years ago that I used to wear a lot. I laughed because the cosplay was an old Halloween costume and not comic-book-accurate. A few days passed, and I had a thought pop into my head. I thought it was sad that I had laughed at my old cosplay photos. Cosplay, like any other hobby, improves with more experience. I think it’s important to embrace my old photos to show how far I have come in cosplay.

When I started cosplaying, I was a college student, so reusing old Halloween costumes saved me a lot of money. If there’s anything to be told about Spirit Halloween costumes, the quality of the costumes is cheap. Surprisingly, this costume lasted several years past my college Halloween days before the costume ripped and I had to throw it away. While thrifting has helped, cosplay is still expensive, and the cosplays I do now, I wouldn’t have been able to afford while I was in college.

As I started to gain more confidence in cosplay, I wanted to expand my knowledge. I have been wearing wigs for several years, and it’s one of my favorite parts of cosplay, if I get to wear a wig. Recently, I went to the eye doctor because I wanted to start incorporating colored contact lenses into my cosplay. I’m going to devote a whole post to that process, which should be written in the next week or two. Once I have mastered colored contacts, I’d love to incorporate body paint. I will probably repeat the process I listed earlier, where I might cringe at photos where I first start using body paint, but then I will get better over time.

I am proud of myself for how much I have accomplished with cosplay. Cosplay has been a creative outlet for me in my day-to-day life. I am going to be more appreciative and respectful of myself as I think these older cosplay photos are inspiring to me. Cosplay wasn’t a hobby I gave up on. I intend to keep going and learning new things as I go.

I have never been to a cosplay photo meet-up before. At conventions, there will be coordinated times for various cosplayers to meet up and get photos taken. When I plan out my cosplays, I wear what I want on whatever day I want. This year, I happened to time my Harley Quinn cosplay on the DC cosplay photo day at CONvergence. I decided to go because why not? Some of the pictures have been posted, and I love all of them. As a side note, I don’t have permission to share the photos since Twin Cities Geek took them, and I don’t own them. With that said, they are available on social media to review.

I am obsessed with these photos! I have never gotten professional photos of my cosplays, mostly because of the cost associated with paying a professional photographer. I may consider this in the future. The quality of these photos is way better than any photo I would take. There were several photographers there, so there will probably be more photos that will be uploaded. I’m glad I went, and I definitely want to do this in the future.

In my CONvergence post, I mentioned how I put together my cosplay for Keyleth, the Druid in Critical Role’s first campaign, Vox Machina. I love Keyleth. Keyleth may not always say the right things and can be awkward sometimes, but I think she was an integral member of Vox Machina. For how much I talk about Critical Role, I had it on my radar that I wanted to cosplay as one of the characters in their world. I’m amazed at how well my Keyleth cosplay turned out, and I plan on taking Keyleth to Gen Con this year.

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest for my usual cosplay prep. The nice thing about cosplaying as a character from a TTRPG live show is that there are many looks to choose from. I have seen Keyleth cosplays that focus on a more autumn-orange look, along with Keyleth’s cosplays from her Sideshow Action Figure. I settled on Keyleth from The Legend of Vox Machina, which is her green dress, brown tall boots, and her staff.

With The Legend of Vox Machina airing on Amazon, I had a lot of options for cosplay. I found an identical Keyleth green dress on Amazon, and it’s amazing! It’s screen-accurate, and the quality is great. I was expecting this dress to wrinkle, but it didn’t. The dress came with brown legwarmers and armbands, but after reading reviews, many suggested buying those separately. I’m glad I did because the leg warmers don’t cover my legs, which is odd. I bought these brown heels that matched the tone that I was looking for. They have just enough of a heel to give me a boost, but not enough that I can’t walk in them all day. For Keyleth’s antlers, I bought two different options. One is a floral headband with a butterfly and leaves poking out of it. The other is not a headband, but a crown that ties in the back. I prefer the crown since it matches Keyleth’s dress, but also, headbands give me a headache after a while. Before CONvergence, I put the whole cosplay on just to see how it looked, and I was happy with the results.

I decided to wear Keyleth on Saturday since Saturday is one of the biggest cosplay days. It was great timing because I saw a Matt Mercer cosplay and a Pike cosplay while walking around the convention. I got a lot of compliments on Keyleth and a few people who wanted to take my picture, which is always a compliment.

Keyleth is probably one of my favorite cosplays that I have put together. I can’t wait to re-wear this cosplay to multiple conventions and potentially upgrade it as time goes on. This will be the first of many future Critical Role cosplays.

I can’t believe it’s taken me ten years to cosplay as Padme, but here we are. As I was planning what I wanted to cosplay for Planet Comicon, Padme popped into my mind right away. I always liked her look from Attack of the Clones, where she’s in the battle arena on Geonosis. It’s functional, yet sexy, and I think it looks very recognizable. I am thrilled with how the cosplay came together, and I wanted to share how it came to be.

When I started planning out this cosplay, I was contemplating buying a Padme costume from Amazon. However, once I started reading reviews, I turned away from this because many of the reviewers stated that the costumes were pretty cheap-looking. The nice thing about Padme’s arena look is that it’s easy to put together as separate pieces. I found a white crop top, white leggings, white boots, a white fanny pack, and a foam blaster. In total, I ended up spending about $110 on everything, which wasn’t that bad considering everything that I purchased.

The white crop top was soft and comfy. It wasn’t as cropped as I was expecting, which I felt worked out better than I had hoped for. The white leggings were awesome! I ordered one pair of leggings in medium and one pair of leggings in large. The medium was the better fit as I felt the large were a little bit too big in the waist, although I ended up keeping that pair to use as comfy leggings. I will say, the leggings were pretty see-through. It’s to be expected since they were cheap leggings from Amazon. If I were to make any upgrades to the cosplay, I’d invest in white leggings that were thicker. The white boots were another awesome purchase. They weren’t great to walk around in during the convention, but they looked exactly like Padme’s boots that she wore. I wore the boots to work and received compliments from coworkers about how cool the boots looked.

The one other thing that I wanted to point out was the gray armbands. I could not find any gray arm bands that I liked on Amazon. Thankfully, one of my friends is crafty, and she graciously agreed to help me and made the armbands for me. She did such a great job! The arm bands were comfortable and not too tight. The material she used was gorgeous, the gray was shiny, which I think made the arm bands look expensive. She did such a great job.

I am so happy with how everything came together and how accurate it was. I had a few people come up to me wanting to take a picture with me, and I had a lot of fun taking photos with other Star Wars cosplayers. I will definitely cosplay Padme again in the future.