Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe and the first edition of a new section on here known as Convention Impossible! What do I mean by that? Well, in the past I normally say “Convention Accomplished” or “Convention Complete” in the idea of StarFox 64 terms when a mission is half complete and they use “Complete” and when it is fully complete “Accomplished” and that is what I am doing with the ideas of Mission Impossible and to start this off is of course MetroCon!

About the Convention: MetroCon is a big convention held in Tampa Bay, Florida at the Tampa Convention Center along the river side in the center of town and it is conveniently located in that part since there are a lot of hotels surrounding that area and don’t have to interfere with traffic coming out of the LiveNation Stadium and Busch Gardens theme park, which unlike Orlando where all the conventions are located along either International Drive where we have Universal, SeaWorld, Fun Spot, Pointe Orlando, and Wet N’ Wild where a lot of tourists tend to go or near Kissimmee where Disney World parks and Old Town, plus a Fun Spot near there.

What Got Us to Go?: Well, we heard about MetroCon for years from friends that went and heard so many good things about the con and we couldn’t go due to lack of funds and we already planned to go to Mega and AFO and since friends at UCF finally convinced us to go last year since AFO screwed us over for Blind EXP last year and wanted to expand the convention to a new scene. Plus, we noticed Mega AFO were not as great as they used to be. Plus, it gave me a chance to meet Scott McNeill after 7 years of not being back to Orlando. We couldn’t miss this year and it happened!

So What was in the Mix? Well, it was the first time for me to do press to get at least some writing experience. Apologies for no pics because we were tied up getting panels ready and trying to check out other things and of course interviewing two of the guests on top of that. We did have Blind EXP and True Tips and Tricks of Fan Fiction to appear at this convention, which was great and got to see cosplays we rarely get to see back home. Plus a photoshoot with Fairy Tail cosplayers on top of that. Yeah, we were busy during the convention! Still had fun here and there, especially around the town since we don’t get to go to the West Coast as often in Florida.

My Thoughts…

Convention Center: I thought it would appropriate to talk about the place that this convention that was inside. Unlike the Orange County Convention Center, the Tampa Center is one big building that had a bridge underneath to get to different parts of Tampa, which was pretty interesting and unique. It did have the multiple floors which made it more organized for the convention, which the panels, dealer room, and registration on the first floor, artists alley and main events on the floors above it! Mega 2008 did that with South ConCourse but during that weekend there were more than one convention going on unlike Metro, it was in the middle of the summer and no other cons to disturb it. And as said above, this place is conveniently located away from the stadium and Busch Gardens so not much traffic to go around. Plus, they do have really good parking garages surrounding the area that have payment amounts go by the hour versus the $8 we always have to pay for Mega. Plus, we have shorter walking distances between the garages and even the parking lot we did have to pay $10 for but still a nice walking distance from the convention. Smart building plans Tampa!

Dealer Room: Next is the dealer room, which all conventions have! I loved this one the most because it is more spacious than the AFO one and bigger than that, despite AFO was in a small hotel area, which is getting rebuilt right now, still a lot more vendors than what they had. As in more than one or two cosplay stands, a lot of anime merch from many anime dealers from all over Florida than just a small handful and getting one from way North like that Maryland dealer last year at AFO and the Georgia dealer during Florida Anime Experience, which they were the only DVD dealers those two times. I know it sounds a bit sad but there are times when a lot of people want to buy DVDs and not all stands have the same product at each stand and need to go to other stands to find what they are looking for and that is what Metro had! They catered to cosplayers, anime merch collectors, and DVD lovers! Trust me, it was really convenient with the cosplay stuff since I did get my Ginji wig mixed for my Haru wig and accidently brought that instead and bought an orange wig to do Kyo from Fruits Basket instead. Also, did have to get a new belt for my Lucy costume since the one I had didn’t exactly fit right due to how wide my waist has been and I rarely get belts. So glad there was a leather seller to provide me a nice, big belt and the right color too! Metro, get these people again because we love their stuff. Don’t worry everyone, I will be doing a full haul post next on here to talk about what I bought! Stay tuned for that!

Cosplay: Oh man, so much of it! Well, we didn’t have camera out for most of them but my fiance, who was my partner in crime for press due to me being blind and it would be hard doing some of the video taping and other things requiring sight, but there were cosplays we rarely catch in Orlando. For instance, we found a lot more Naruto cosplayers and some of them happened to be Killer B and the Rykage from Shippuden and done by guys who were African American. Some other cosplays we did find included a few Deadpools running around, such as Link version, one doing Bain from Batman, one in a prom dress, which was a lady Deadpool, and one in a French Maid’s outfit, guessing a joke towards maid cafes everywhere since he is Deadpool after all! We also found Soul Eater, the usual My Little Pony, and of course, Fiary Tail! I was doing Lucy since Blind Exp was having Fairy Tail and there was a group doing a panel…I will be talking about that during panels. The shoot was fun and I did surprise the people with my keys, why? I had all 15 keys! As in, the ones Lucy gets in the entire series, which I got in a set of 18 but they didn’t include Capricorn so had to get that one separately. Unfortunately Loki didn’t style his hair, Gray didn’t have the right hair color, which was a bit of a shame, but what was worse, there was supposed to be a Freed cosplayer and didn’t show up in costume, especially during the panel. Wigs people, they help so much! One cosplay that is getting a rise and it is from the new game Project X Zone which my fiance was doing Reiji from, well getting the base for it since his costume is hard to do a bit, but great thing is duct tape! Anyways, this game recently came to the US on the 3DS back in June and it was the game we pre-ordered along with Deadpool. It is basically a strategy RPG with fighting and crosses characters from Namco, Bandai, and Capcom! Of course, there were a few Sega ones in the mix but still an awesome game! We heard people were doing Dante from Devil May Cry, his partner Dimitri from Darkstalkers and Ryu from Street Fighter and even some of our friends did one of the teams from the game. Looks like this game is getting a lot of hype that people are doing the new and old from this game. Hell, my fiance wants me to do Saya, the fox/cat demon girl, from it. Not sure if I will yet, but need to get new things for Lucy first, like a new pouch and new boots possibly. (Yeah, the boots hurt my toe area!)

Panels: We only went to one game show, one panel, and did have to host two of them. First was the Wacky AAnime Game Show. It was a trivia game with a bit of Double Dare for a bit, but with food being eaten. There are two teams of three and they are picked through raffle tickets. Me, Tobi, nor his girlfriend were picked since the tickets were picked in the zero range but it was entertaining to watch. The problem was that the music seemed to drown out the host’s voice! We could hardly hear but the questions were based on categories and the answers were right due to the judges liking it. One question which should have a bit of research on the answer and that was the “Name top fave anime now!” Someone said Bleach and well, a known fact, it was kicked out of the top Shonen Jump three and replaced by Toriko and did explain that when he had to improvise the Blind EXP to Q&A. The physical challenge that would be fun to do is eating Froot Loops with chopsticks, a nice little finger cramp. What was funny how a guy ended up with a prize of a make up pallet.

The Fairy Tail panel was not as great because of how the group hosted it! I did mention how the Freed guy was not in costume, he was the main host of the panel! In our opinion, it felt as though the group didn’t read or watch their source material and normally hosting a panel like this tends to make it better by knowing the material you’re presenting on. For example, when we did “Tsubasa Talk” a few years back and had it as a debate panel, the audience and us had a better idea of what Tsubasa was about since season 1 finished releasing in the states and season 2 was on its way a few days after AFO. I wish I could’ve been in it because I had a familiararity with season 1 and some of the stuff that happned later on with what my fiance and Tobi read, which helped our Q&A out better. Not only that, they made the characters sound not at all as they were, which brings back the idea of “research.” Sorry, but not a great panel.

Blind Exp was a flop due to faulty equipment but we may redo this at Holiday Matsuri since we did get our hands on Fairy Tail Part 5. They should improve the panel hostings by inspecting equipment before the convention starts, which I will mention in the items that should be improved. But the Q&A did go well because people asked questions about the series and anime and that made it even more of a panel that deals with anime versus the Fairy Tail one we went before the shoot. Though True Tips and Tricks of Fan Fiction did go well since we did have tips that helped and people asked questions to make the tips sound clearer and we didn’t have a heckler this time around, which we made it clear to wait until after the tips to do so.

Even though we were running like chickens with their heads cut off for our panels, I did want to go to the Soul Eater panel earlier Saturday but didn’t get to the center til our first interview with Brittney Karbowski, which is next! But we will make to more panels and have better press coverage if I decide to do press again! (Normally, someone gets better after a second go around.) I also did want to go to the Human Chess Match, but as said before didn’t get to the center until after it happened but we did hear good things about it and wanted to see how better it was to Wasabi’s boring Human CHECKER Match, yes Checkers, there is always next year!

Voice Actor Interviews: Outside of the thoughts, we did interview two of the guests and it was fun! I thought it would be great to do classic meets new! So, I interviewed Brittney Karbowski, who played roles such as Black Star from Soul Eater , Wendy the Sky Dragon Slayer in Fairy Tail, and the first role I heard her as, Roya in Kiba. And a classic and always popular, Scott McNeill, who has been in Inu Yasha, Beast Wars, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Even though I wanted to do Janet Varny but I am more familiar with the works that Scott and Brittney have been in since being an anime fan for over 18 years! What are the highlights?

First Brittney Karbowski, I never got to meet her due to the first year of Florida Anime Experience being the weekend I had to go to Miami to get my eyes checked and how stable my condition was, but my fiance got my stuff signed by her in my place and she remembered him. I was glad to meet her and well kind of improve the questions due to my Braille Sense not saving them, which was weird, but I did remember some. Don’t worry, we will have the interviews up on WordPress.

With Scott, it was a fun interview since he is very talented and I haven’t seen him since Mega 2006, it was great hearing him do old voices such as Rat Trap, Waspinator, SilverBolt, and DinoBot. What made him sad that he mentioned during the interview that when Transformers Animated brought Waspinator in (since they did bring in Black Arachnia) they had Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob, voice him along with Star Scream but didn’t call Scott back for Waspinator. The interview will be seen soon! Before we left Scott, we did give him a gift of Pocky since he loves the little cookie sticks with chocolate. (Got it since someone lured him away back in 2006 with it when I got to his table!)

Needs for Improvement:

Well, now to the end, well close to it, like most movies, video games, and other things, there are things that need to be improved and Metro kind of needs it. Sorry for doing a critical view of this but not everything is always perfect and of course like what we said during True Tips and Tricks of Fan Fiction, Constructive Criticism = Good Criticism! So, what does it need to improve?

1. Guests: I think this needs aan improvement especially for next year. It was great meeting Brittney and Scott but it feels as though Metro is going down the route with non-anime related guests. Yes, I know they have fans but this is anime where there should be more anime related guests. Last year they had Crispin Freeman and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, then years before Johnny Yong Bosch and Greg Ayres were big names around but this year there were two anime guests and rest were Janet Varny, Phil Lamar, Dante Basco, and DC Douglas. I don’t have a problem with DC but it would be great to bring back Johnny, Greg, hell even Mary since she has been getting more work. Also should bring more new names that show up now such as Josh Grell (who was Kenichi), Micah Asoledad (Soul Eater Evans himself), or even Tia Ballard (Cat Planet Cuties), Newton Pittman (Fairy Tail) as good examples! Even mythiCon is getting a big guest line up for its first year and one of them include Liam O’Brian! What also kind of needs the improvement is that it wasn’t mentioned before is that Janet, phil, Dante, and DC were charging and normally we see that with Mega but these four were charging for signatures. I could see Dante doing it but with guests it would be different if they had their own postcards or pictures being charged like George Lowe, Peter Mayhew, and a few other people who does it and not charge someone for whatever they brought and not knowing about it. I know these people have fans but charging makes the convention meet n greet experience not as great unless they have something to charge than the item a fan brought. Still, I would like to see more anime guests and that needs to be improved.
2. Panels: I would say that panels need to be improved because it felt as though some of the equipment used for the rooms wasn’t inspected before panelists used it. I know we will bring our own equipment for now on especially before Holiday Matsuri if it happens but conventions should inspect the equipment before it gets used and doesn’t malfunction along the way during it. Trust me, I felt embarrassed when the voice track didn’t work in our Blind EXP panel and we still want to take it to Metro again next year. Another point of improvement, some people who host panels on certain series need to read and watch source material, as in research! I know we are all fans but what I saw from the Fairy Tail panel, it felt like fan fiction to us. I would be up there but they turned me down when I said if they need Lucy, I would do it.

Will We Return? YES! Despite Blind EXP being a flop, we want to come back! Why? MegaCon and AFO aren’t as interesting as this one and this convention has a simpler layout than Mega and it doesn’t feel so squeezed in as AFO and KnightroKon’s dealer room (yeah, the halves on both sides were so squeezed in, I felt claustrophobic and I am not clastrophobic~!) and the dealer room had everything for everyone in the anime community and that is what I want from a dealer room, to buy items to watch, plushies to squeeze, cosplay items, especially ones to get in a pinch that we can’t get at wig shops or in our local Hot Topics! Definitely we will be coming back! But not staying at the Courtyard again since we went through a fire alarm surprise early Sunday morning! So, the Waterside next year!

Verdict: Convention Complete! As in, we need to get the panels working full strength esp Blind EXP next year! Plus get pictures since we agree on if me and my fiance split up, he has the camera to take pics. At least we got a pic of Grue from Dispicable Me!

Well, that’s my weekend at MetroCon! What is up next on the Convention block? Why MythiCon of course! I will try and get the interviews with Scott and Brittney up here if we get the transcript out of it since it was video taped on our 3DS (yep, it does video press people) and will be doing my big haul! Stay tuned! Til next time!

Warning: This Review May Contain Spoilers!

Hello and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I know I was going to wait until after Metro to post again on here but I just saw Pacific Rim! I know what you are thinking, that movie that has mechs and giant monsters that may be copying off Evangelion and the Kaiju legacy? Yes! And it was awesome! I know I like Eva but I found this film having a better explanation than the newest film, Eva 3.33 which Funimation just licensed but this Deltoro made it better. How so?

The Set Up: The film takes place in the Pacific where creatures known as Kaiju came from a crack in the tectonic plates to wreak havoc on the Earth and take out major cities along the Pacific Ocean coastlines. Yagers, the mechs that are made to defeat these monsters, are sent to take them out including the ones our hero, Rowley pilots and ends up losing his brother the co-pilot and keeps him from piloting again since he saw and felt his brother’s death since the Yagers are programmed through neurolinking through both pilots. Then five years after the brother’s death, he gets back after knowing that Yagar program is brought back to take out the newer Kaiju that are coming out of the ocean.

Thoughts? It is unique and it does show that Warner Brothers can have a great movie in their studios and they have Mr. Deltoro pulling the ropes in bringing us his signature monstrous thrillers and a bit of world’s end clock with this movie. Yeah it does have Evangelion 3.33 elements, I know I should say End of Evangelion but this has more of the newer film series with the third movie. Why? I seen the newer Eva and the problem was that they didn’t explain much, as in what happened 14 years between the second and third movies since the preview for the third was supposed to talk about what happens to Nerv after what Shinji did in the second but didn’t! While Pacific Rim, on the other hand did it right by explaining some of the things that are going on such as why the Kaiju were attacking and what the different types were there to do, the Yagars in their mechanics and why two people can pilot them, there were three for one of them but mostly two pilot them. Now that is good mech storytelling, especially with anything dealing with the apocalypse and done in the Ring of Fire of course! I don’t want to give too much away because you guys should see what I am talking about.

Characters: I know I should talk about cast but the characters would be better because they kind of the anime character archetype. I know they casted Ron Pearlman, Hellboy himself, as a guy who collected Kaiju parts and the guy who played Heimdal in the Thor movies because of the second one coming out as the commander, which I can say does have a bit of mirror effect of Commander Ikari from Eva as in the hardass guy who at least tells his son that he has daddy issues in the movie and of course has a Japanese girl, Mako, who acts like Rei Ayanami and has the same blue hair as her and very close to the Commander in Pacific Rim. Don’t worry, no crazy cloning involved! Then you have two scientists, one who is the mean British guy and the nerdy fanboy scientist, who reflects the nerdy buddy that Shinji has, but does go crazy towards the middle of the movie due to an experiment which kind of reminds me a little of Dragonnaut: The Resonance a little. I think Deltoro was watching a bit of anime to study some of the character architypes for this sci-fi mech storyline since we do have the hard commanders, the serious guy/girl pilot, the nerd or fanboy and so on in these storylines. Still, they do put the movie together pretty well.

2D or 3D? Like so many other movies nowadays at theaters there is the 2D and the 3D versions! I would say see this movie in 2D. I know I may be saying due to being blind and can’t see 3D since it deals with cameras for each eye but the effects in this movie doesn’t need the 3D to be enjoyed because they are great on screen as is! Plus, in some movies the 3D aren’t that great and shouldn’t waste money on effects that weren’t put in 3D when they are supposed to, so I suggest 2D!

What is my rating? 5 Paw Prints out of 5! Despite the similarities to Evangelion, as in the character architypes and how they take the two pilot concept and make it into their own, this movie makes it more interesting and explain everything that is supposed to be explained when 3.33 didn’t! This is one movie that needs to be nominated because it is unique and since the disappointment of Man of Steel (I even overheard two girls talking about it in the bathroom after the movie) this is one movie that should be seen instead and shows that storytelling in sci-fi should be a thrillride rather than weird stuff all over the place. I will still get 3.33 in English when it gets released since I have the first two and Funimation tends to do good jobs on their dubbing and with their replacements for Ritsuko, Gendou, Kaowru, and Kaji, it is not bad of a cast.

That is my review! Next will the MetroCon press coverage as promised! I won’t be interviewing PikaBelleChu due to getting that interview scheduled is different from doing it through the guest coordinator, I am still interviewing Scott McNeill and Brittney Karbowski. Great thing is that I will be cosplaying as my Soul Eater character when I go since Brittney is the voice of Black Star in Soul Eater and that is the day of the fan fiction panel (best to do an OC for it). Well, that’s it! Til next time!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Well, it’s time for my favorites of May and June! These favorites are going to be special since I got a few new products and I have a haul at the end of what I picked up collectively. If I can’t fit it in, I will put a new post. But here it goes!

First, Paw Print of the Month and it goes to…

Almay Clear Complexion Concealer + Treatment: Why? Because it is being discontinued and I am sad about it. What sucks even more is that this is an award winning product and apparently Almay decided to stop making it, which is stupid. To me, if your product gets award winning stamps on it from other sites like Redbook and other places then keep it! Plus, it is a big seller and it works! I have been using it and it does help with my dark spots better than the Maybelline Dark Spot Eraser that just came out, how so? The thing is that this concealer is the actual color on the tube than the Maybelline one, I always get Light Medium in my concealer Compaq from the Clear Complexion line and when it says Light Medium it is that color and you will get it! Especially the Smart Shade products, which I used to use the powder until one that was in the Almay section pointed it out. Awesome product and wished that Almay didn’t stop making it, especially right after I JUST started using it I think three months ago! So, this deserves…you know what since it’s a new title, it deserves a Sparkling Paw of the Universe because this product may be going away but this is one product I got the last of in my shade and wishing it will come back or stay forever! Almay, don’t do this! Keep it! Because it’s an award winner here as well!

Next Holy Grails:

I rarely do Holy Grails but I have two for you!

Foot Product:

Stepping Stone by LUSH Cosmetics: I always mention this product in my Blogger posts but now I am mentioning it again! I had to break this out since with summer here, my left foot is getting the blisters again and going back to my foot care when I get that time. It’s hard to do it when I have online classes, especially with my newest one having to do reading notes which will help, but I did break out my triple effect Walgreens antibiotic cream and my Gold Bond foot cream tonight, but the one item that gets Holy Grail foot care is the Stepping Stone from LUSH Cosmetics! I love this item so much! I tried it as a sample first all thanks to my fiance’s mom went shopping and got this and had him give it to me. One try, it felt nice! Then started buying them! It’s a scrubbing stone made with pumice and sea salt and it helps with getting dead skin off and expoliates the foot, especially on the sole and in between the toes because sweat gets in there and when blisters pop it leaves that dead skin out. I had to start using it on my right foot because I am getting a little itchy. Great thing about it is that it soothes after a long day of shoe wear, especially heels, which I might have to take with me to Tampa for Metro since I will be cosplaying as Lucy and wearing heel boots! Same with MythiCon! I will be heading to LUSH again in August and crossing my fingers that they still have these so I can stock up a little more. Still a Holy Grail!

Cosplay Nail Polish:

Stroke of Midnight by L’Oreal: I know I had the name wrong back in my Naruto cosplay post here but I got it right! Stroke of Midnight gets the Holy Grail stamp for the Cosplay Nail Polish because since I do Itachi Uchiha, I need that perfect shade! At first his nails looked indigo/twilight blue and that is why I used After Hours by L’Oreal, which is close to the same line as Stroke but my fiance had a close up during the newest Ninja Storm installment and saw it was a deep gray almost black, basically a charcoal. During my last haul, I did mention I did go to Hot Topic (love that store for make up) and WalMart for that perfect polish and had a few polishes in my own collection and this one was the one I got at WalMart. Great thing it is only $5 when most companies charge crazy companies, well high ends. Anyways, this was the perfect match! I had all 20 nails painted and they looked amazing, especially after two coats for the full effect, great thing it also has a purple sheen in some lights and then silver in others. I had to get more bottles and have four extra on hand for whenever I do Itachi again or feeling for a manicure in this color and need back ups. Plus, it sucks that make up companies discontinue great colors and don’t want to let this go! I went to get two bottles and then my fiance’s mom got me two more on one of her own trips near her. So yeah, now I am good with this color! Moving onto the actual faves!

Sally Hansen

Double Duty Top Coat and Base: OMG! Best top and base ever! I tend to get Sally Hansen time to time and I love their items, I still have the Gem Crush polishes, the old chromes from years back, and the two I got in the year-end CVS sale which I haven’t worn yet but this is a great product! I never used bases for my nail painting but top coats until my fiance’s mom got me into nail polish strips lately and got me a bottle of this stuff since she recommended it and I use it! It is amazing and seals in the color and hardly chips while you are wearing it. Good example, during KnightroKon, went into Crispin Freeman’s mythology panel and my toes hit a chair leg as we walked in before it started and hit my index toe on my left foot, checked it later to see if there was a bruise and no bruise and it didn’t chip either! The nail was solid! I need to gget a new bottle because I am not only halfway through but the brush is acting weird, I guess I put it on while my nails a little tacky, which is a bad idea but I will get another bottle since I love it! Not sure if I want to try China Glaze’s but still will get this item!

Revlon

Primer Eye Shadow Pallet Plus Sparkle in Bohemian: I heard about these eye shadows on TV and I think a few haul videos but this is an awesome pallet! How so? Well, not only they are pigmented and easy to apply but you get a shadow mixed with a primer, so no primer potion needed! I never get the idea of primers until I found out about this pallet and had to try it. It has five shadows, one is the primer for the entire lid, then you have your definer above it which you go slant right, then your crease above it, then brow to the top left, and on the bottom right corner is your sparkle top coat that goes last since it is the sparkly effect! You can go less or more with the sparkles but don’t go too much since you don’t want to look like you have ten pounds of eye shadow on! Don’t want to be one of the booth girls for Maybe if You Hit It! I like the blues and how the smoothness of this shadows and top coat. I may get another in the grays for a smoky eye effect.

Black Heart Beauty

Pink lip gloss: Yay, Black Heart’s back on the list! I love their make up line that Hot Topic came out and great thing is that it’s been out for over a year now and they have been adding new stuff since then, as in new lipsticks, new polishes, and finally they added lip gloss! I was waiting for them to do this since I loved the War Paint glosses and still have them from when I bought them out of Grimace and Sweet Heart, which are their purple and light pink glosses in the line and haven’t touched the others since I am still using my tube of Grimace in my make up bag for over a year as well. What’s up with Black Heart’s lip gloss? They changed the packaging from the paint tubes they put their glosses in. I liked the paint tubes which made it interesting and it gives more meaning to the name War Paint but according to the guy last year he said that no one got the appeal. Everyone loves a critic. Anyways, this time around they put their glosses in the normal vials you tend to see at displays like Maybelline, Wet N Wild, Revlon, and so on, but these vials are bigger than a normal lip gloss! Yeah, they’re bigger and they look almost like a Sinful nail polish bottle but more cylindrical if you can say that, you need to go to the shop or website and see what I mean and the handle has like a crown on top which is cute! What I like about this is that it smells like mint and it applies very smoothly on the lips and plus, it feels a little sheer when you get it on which you need to dab in the vial in order to get enough product, but it is pigmented and you can feel the mint in it conditioning your lips while wearing it. It has a pretty good lasting power! I would recommend this since it is unique to make up lines and you rarely see a store that is known for rocker tees and fedoras to sell their own make up. I will be going again to see about getting more eye shadows since I love their Charcoal shadow still and may try out a liner or two since I didn’t get a chance to try the War Paint ones. Still, this lip gloss is one of those you need to try and it costs $5 like the rest of the line, well except some of the big shadow pallets, that’s close to $8, still worth it! Great job Hot Topic!

Jordana

Strawberry lip color: I love Jordana now! I can see why most haul videos tend to get this line and I love them! I only got the strawberry lipstick a few months ago and finally used it for my first time. I love how it does smell and tastes like strawberries and it goes on smoothly. I wish I can find more of this one but I don’t think they make this type anymore but I did go and pick up some of the other Jordana items and will mention them in the haul. I may have to go on Ebay and pick up more of this in the future since I tend to find more Jordana items there than the Walgreens stores around me, they are so small in their display! Plus, they did a big sale on Jordana and a lot of people picked up most of the items like vultures. Not sure what is going on, I guess they want to make room for new Jordana stuff but will keep checking to see what else they have and if they brought anything new.

Wet N Wild

Saved the Blue from Quick Dry: I don’t think I mentioned this in a favorites yet since my first time using the polish was last month. I got this during one of those buy 2 get one free sales they had at Walgreens and never got this color since it is one of the other blues. I love Blue Wants to Be A Millionaire from the same line and like this one as well. It is a nice quick dry and it has a nice sparkle to it. I am wearing this one with my Lucy cosplay since I want to have blue nails to go with the costume and it will stay nice with the Sally Hansen Double Duty since I like using it and may stay better.

Baiyou Blue by the Gel Line: I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this polish since I am wearing it now on my nails but I did mention how the top coat base is feeling a little weird but anyways I got this polish I got back in November when I did kind of a late night Walgreens shopping spree near Florida Mall since my dad gave me a ride to International for a convention staff meeting, which I am waiting on news about. (Should ask about it soon) The girl noticed I loved blues and was trying to find the Shimmer the Night Away pallet at the time but couldn’t but got this nail polish! It is a gel formula nail polish and heard good things about these and tried it out. I have to watch out in application because when it dries it sometimes has that bubble effect you sometimes get when you layer in a certain part of the nail a bit too much. When it dries it has a nice sheen and it looks metallic but you can see it’s deep blue with sparkle. I will keep wearing this and guy more bottles of it if I can still find them, I think they are still around. I still have Blue Moon, Caribbean Frost, and Night Prowl from this line so I will see how they go!

Sinful Colors

Amazonian from the New Shine Gel Tech line: I think I was the first to know about this line because it has been a few weeks since Sinful released their newest line of Shine Gel Tech polishes to the store and 11th Gorgeous shone them in a video a week ago! I love Sinful and it has been a while since I got polishes from them and decided to see what was new and found these and gott a deep blue called Break Away, a gray called Steel Reserve and this one and it is a deep green with glitter called Amazonian! It has been a while since I painted my nails green and almost thought about using the new green Revlon polish but wanted to give these a try first and see how they go and decided Amazonian. I like how it applies and it does take a while to dry and with the top coat, it becomes very shiny! You don’t see it green until the sheen reveals it in certain lightings and it is so gorgeous! I want to go back and pick up Spitfire, the deep purple, and maybe Aspresso since I love how shiny these are! Still, I love how Amazonian came out! Sinful should do more of these!

Lip Smackers

Cherry Cream Soda from the Vintage Soda Trio: I mentioned these in my new LipSmackers post back on Blogger, but they are the Vintage soda flavors which takes flavors of the 50s and turn them into glossy balms and you get Root Beer Float, Vanilla Malt Shake, and the one I just used, Cherry Cream Soda! It smells and tastes as it says on the packaging and I love it! It made me addicted to it. I know the other two smell great and I think I have Vanilla Malt Shake in my make up bag that I travel with, this is one balm they should make more of!

Clancy’s Cotton Candy from the Paul Frank Bakery Treats: So, last month on Ebay I finally found the Paul Frank Ice Cream flavor party pack and also got the Bakery Treats party pack all thanks to seller 702 Must Haves! You should check out her store because she carries hard-to-find and newer products that certain areas of the states don’t carry. She does have a high price but it is worth buying from her! She did help me get my hands on the Paul Frank ice cream pack in the first place. Anyways, the Bakery Treats is a pack you can’t find in stores, I believe Bonne Belle never released it to the public nor on their site and well, the store 702 Must Haves had around 4 at the time and decided to buy them since you can’t get them. I like the smells but one that didn’t belong ends up as a fave though is Clancy’s Cotton Candy. This is more of a candy or ice cream flavor but it is one of the bakery flavors which is weird, but what I like about it is that it smells more like Cotton Candy than the one in the original party pack! It has more of the sweeter cotton candy smell and taste on the lips like how you get cotton candy from Disney. I miss that stuff! I like this one the best since it moisturizes a lot better than the one from the originals set because the one in the originals seems to dry my lips a little while this one has more moisture. I wish they kept the Paul Frank items in the Target near me, I wouldn’t mind getting more of this flavor.Always Ebay!

Non Beauty Faves

Fave Tee:

Iron Man Arc Reactor T-Shirt: So, I finally got an Iron Man shirt! Iron Man is one of my fave Marvel heroes and since Iron Man 3 came out, loved it by the way, decided to make up for not getting an Avengers shirt in time for the Avengers movie last year by getting an Iron Man shirt. I tried on the one of him versus Spider Man, the one that describes him, and the one of the arc reactor. The Anthrolologist one didn’t fit with me, the Spiderman and Iron Man one did fit well, but my fiance gave me the whole I wear too much black but may go back and get this one since I also like Spidey! I did get the arc reactor one after all since it makes more sense. I like how it fits and the arc reactor looks great against black! It does show my muscles pretty well. Of course, I will be going to Hot Topic to get the Spidey one or if they made movie ones, show one of Iron Man versus the Mandarin! I keep on thinking a tattoo design of the dragons that the Mandarin has on himself surrounding the arc reactor core. Hmmm!

Fave Costume Accessory:

Vanilla Fudge Cat Ears With green and black bows and green bells: Boy that was a mouth full! As you know I love kitties! That is why I go by Mari Blue Cat here and I don’t exactly have blue ears yet to wear in the real world but the fudge ears were ones I found at Florida Anime Experience when I went to get Mahle Flannigan’s autograph! I had my old plushie ears until I found a girl who made hall these furry ears and they look like cat ears! Actual ones! I had to give the money because I couldn’t pass up! What was great, even though it was extra, but she put ribbons and bells on them with a earring clasp and man they were so colorful and hard to choose from. I chose the green and black ones with green sparkly bells. They were supposed to go on her zombie ears, which I will be getting next and I thought they go well with these ears and they give off a Wizard of Oz look to them. They look too adorable! I wore them the rest of the night, a nice step up for me in the ears department.

Monocle on a stick: Yes, you read that right! A monocle on a stick! KnightroKon I was Itachi of course, but did have my phone with the Carmen Sandiego song and Caramel Dancin but was missing a monocle! I found one at an artist alley boothe in the dealer room and was like, “My costume is complete! Monocle attack!” Yes, I had fun! And will again with the costume.

Favorite Snacks:

Sour Lemon Hi-Chew: As you guys know I Llove LOVE love Hi-Chew! I did try a new flavor out all thanks to the Japanese snacks Dude we see at the cons. He was at Florida Anime Experience and KnightroKon and will be at Metro by what he said! I hope so! He promised Green Tea KitKat! Anyways, besides the usual Hi-Chew like green apple and strawberry, he had a new one called sour lemon. I thought it was going to be sour but when I tried it, it wasn’t as sour as I thought! When you have sour candy you tend to get a kick but not here! It was light, it was like lemonade from Publix! You get sour crystals while eating it but not like Warheads sour. I guess the Japanese makes their sour candy light. I just finished my second pack and want to get more of this flavor, hoping the guy has them at Metro!

Kompeto: I mentioned these in my haul last time, but they are those sugar candies! Love them so! I still have a whole unopened bag and will be taking these with me to Metro!

White Chocolate Oreos: Yes! You read it right! Japan has these! But more interesting! Instead of the entire cookie, they are mini candy bars with the white chocolate and they taste amazing! The Japanese snacks guy first sold these to my fiance during Knightro and had me, Tobi, and another friend try them and I loved them! So, I bought a box myself! Couldn’t resist! My nephew ended up opening the box but only had one, I guess he didn’t like them . Oh well, I finished them off anyways.

Panda Pocky: Love these! They are the cookies and cream flavored pocky! Hoping the snacks guy has them again so I can get and give to Scott McNeill.
Rainbow Sherbet and Birthday Cake Oreos: Another Oreo product but these are part of the limited edition flavors they tend to release during the different times of the year and these two flavors happened to come out. My fiance first found the Birthday Cake ones on Father’s Day when I was staying over and he got some stuff to help my stomach that day and found the Birthday Cake ones at WalMart and they taste like birthday cake batter but in a sandwich cookie! Great thing is that it has actual sprinkles in the cream and best with the chocolate versions of the cookie. With the Rainbow Sherbet, we stopped by Publix that same night for saltines for me and stopped by the cookies and found these and they were the Golden Oreos with Rainbow Sherbet flavored cream. OMG it tastes like you’re having sherbet in a cone! It goes really well and I prefer these over the cake flavored ones because I always got Rainbow Sherbet most of the time as a kid.
Fave Song:

“Preserved Roses” by TM Revolution and Nana Mizuki: Finally a fave song coming back! Anyways, I have been a TM Revolution ever since I heard his (yeah, it is one guy) song “Ignite” as the theme song for Gundam Seed! The great thing is that he came out with a new song and it’s a duet with singer Nana Mizuki, who has done songs for Toriko, Rosario + Vampire and one of the Tales anime series. This song really got me when Anime Sushi sampled the anime Kakimiki Overdrive which is a new series in Japan that deals with a boy who becomes a mech pilot out of nowhere and can body switch in order to protect his friends from the evil of the universe. The song was the one that really got me since I am into TM Revolution and still have his Seventh Heaven and Coordinate Tofu Records albums. This song follows the same style Takanori does and it is techno pop and his voice synchs with Nana’s since they fit in the same octave range. I can’t stop listening to the full version and seem to get it in my head! It’s an earworm! Listen to the song and you will see what I mean.

Well, since I mentioned most of the stuff I picked up, here is my haul:

First is WalMart! At first I had to get a few grocery products such as Nutilla, more of the peanut butter and jelly stripe, which I got the strawberry one this one to try again. I also had to gget more of the Herbal Essences Honey I’m Strong shampoo and conditioner and my toothpaste but did get a few make up items, well more like brushes and eye shadow. I got a new chisel brush for my gel liners! The one that came with my L’Oreal pot seemed to screw up my lines a little and it caused so much smudges, so I tossed it and got a better one and it is working out pretty well! I also got a smaller double ended eye shadow brush! I know I have smallish brushes but somehow they are okay but not working out, so I found this one that is meant for smoky eyes but used it on my eyes with my new Infolluble Eye Shadow in Midnight Blue, it was one I got a few months ago and haven’t opened it until now, and it works better. I still have the one from Sally and my ELF one since I can use them for trios, quads, and my Primer pallet from Revlon. The only shadow I got is a quad from Flower Cosmetics! I have been waiting for a while to try eye shadows from Drew Barrymore’s line and they didn’t have any back in January when I got my lip glosses and lip sticks and finally found the shadows. I tried finding the cream ones since I heard they are pretty good but found this instead. Not sure the name but it is a four pan of purples and beiges and very pretty. They also have other ones but this one I wanted to try out. Great thing is that they are pretty pigmented and powdery. I heard some didn’t like how powdery they are but others did like them, who knows how I will feel, I may wear it soon. Great thing is that each color is easy to know what order they go in, 1 is the lid, 2 is brow, 3 is crease, and 4 is definer which I am going to apply in the order as my Wet N Wild pallets as in doing 1, then 4, 3, 2 since 1 and 2 are switched for for this since the lightest in this pallet is the lid color. And the clasp is nice and the packaging is easy to see through.

Next is Walgreens and got a lot of stuff! I got a lot of nail polishes and three of them were of course the shine colors from Sinful, Break Away, Steel Reserve, and Amazonian! I did get two other Sinful polishes and they are Ice Dream and I Miss You. I never seen these two colors until now, I am not sure if they are new, well with I Miss You which is a glittery polish in purple. I rarely get purple sparkly colors, I think the last time I got one was the purple glitter polish from Black Heart last August. I think this will be nice. Ice Dream, to me this is a dupe for Ice Touch from years ago! I heard Ice Touch was re-released in a video but this one is different from it. It is the ice sheen like in Ice Touch but it has glitter in it to make it more sparkly. It reminds me of WNW’s ice polish they have in the Wild Shine line and probably will look nice. I am not sure if I want to toss my beloved Ice Touch since it is old, it still goes on smoothly though. I did get three WNW ones since I went and found a buy 2 get one free on the Wild Shine line last Sunday. One of them was I Red a Book! I have been trying to get more red polishes since I tend to go for blue, purple, green, gray, silver, and trying to pull away but every line tends to get nice variations and decided to get this one as a change. It looks like a candy apple red and very nice and better than most of the other polishes I passed over. There is one polish I finally found and got two bottles of and it is I Need a Refreshmint! I heard so many good things of videos and in Nouveau Cheap’s blog posts and it is a mint green and Tiffany Green as well and it is a dupe for For Audrey from China Glaze and I can see why! I love the color and can’t wait to wear this one and it’s a nice change and did get two bottles of this in case of discontinuing. I know that WNW does keep their products for a long time, which is good. Now to lip items! When I got my WNW polishes, I got one of the new Rimmel 3D lip glosses in Candy Floss! I heard about these in so many videos and decided to try it since I never used Rimmel lip products before and wanted to see how it goes. I am wearing it until Sunday since I am doing 3 Day wear of my lip items since I am not on campus and not go out as much, so why not do it for three days versus the week? I love this product, it goes on smoothly and it is not as sticky as the WNW liquid lipsticks I have. Tip is to wear lip balm before applying because it won’t be as smooth when applying without one. Next are my Jordana products! I love Jordana now and glad I found a sale that was $2 for everything but everyone picked like vultures at my Walgreens and did get some things and three of them are the squeeze tubes in Honey Luau, Sugar Lips, and Strawberry Frosting! I love the smells and can’t wait to wear these when I use up my Jordana lip color and another thing is a lip frosting gloss and I believe it’s strawberry since I smelled strawberries in it when I got home and smelled it. It smells great and can’t wait to use it either. I hope they bring new items to Walgreens because I seen new items on Ebay and want to try them out!

CVS isNext CVS and I got three items and they are the Sally Hansen growth top coat because my left hand seems to have a weird thing where my middle, ring, and pinky nails aren’t growing as fast as my right nails and needed something. So, picked up the Sally Hansen growth one since I love the Double Duty one and so far it’s working a little but need to keep using it for more effect. I may clean off my nails and go over with my growth stuff. I want to grow my nails a bit before painting them for MetroCon. I also got a metal cuticle pusher since I am having a nail growing problem, so decided to get this for extra help. Then we found this and it is a box of miniature Girl Scouts thin mints Crunch Bars! I know they are supposed to be sold out and discontinued but found these at my CVS and had to get them while they are still available!

Finally Ebay! I did shop on Ebay for one item on Ebay that is beauty and it is OPI crackle polishes in Silver Shatter, Black Shatter, and Gold Shatter! The thing was I was trying to see if Ebay had the silver crackle by one seller from Hot Topic but nope! I did find these! I know I already have two bottles of black crackle but this was a closeout and I never tried OPI and great thing is that the set did have silver and one color I rarely see and it’s gold. I can use gold on different colors to make it on like blue, green, black, red, and purple, this may go on a red nail most which can look awesome. I still have my other crackles and still need to try my red one. I should try these sometime soon.

Well guys, that is it for this post! I know it’s long but had to do it. What is next? Well, my press coverage for MetroCon next month, well July! I can’t wait! I will be interviewing Scott McNeill, Brittney Karbowski, and cosplay princess of the Pokemon World, PikaBelleCVhu and will talking to other cosplayers, go to some of the events, one of them is the chess match that runs all weekend! I can’t wait! First year being there and hosting panels there, so seeing how great the audience is in Tampa and need a break from Orlando. That is it! Til next time!