All posts for the month August, 2014

July and August Favorites Forgot to Mentions!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I was supposed to do the “What’s In My Bag?” post but then realized I had a few forgot to mentions in my July and August Favorites! I was watching a few favorites videos for August and did a face palm without realizing it! Here here they are!

 

Steela Lip Glaze in Pink Lemonade: The face palm happened when one of the video faves mentioned a Steela lipstick that was their fave and realized I forgot to mention this and that is the Steela Lip Glaze in Pink Lemonade! I ended up getting this as a free sample, well free item, during a run at Ulta during the summer and since I spent over $30 I got a few free samples and the lady was nice enough to give me this since it would go well with me! I like the packaging the most since it’s a tube with the brush and you have to turn the dial to get the product into the brush and just paint it on! I do like how it’s lightweight and doesn’t feel goopy and not messy unless you don’t get too much of it. I have to warn you that you may get a lot so just get a little at the base of the brush and it’s good enough for a few applications before another turn of the dial for more product! I do love the Pink Lemonade one because it smells and tastes like pink lemonade and that is why I wanted to get more of these lip glazes and also put it in my make up bag in case I want to wear that instead of whatever lip product I’m wearing at the time! Definitely love this!

 

Favorite Cosplay Part: trenchcoat with the thunder wave symbols from .hack! Yes, this was my fave part of the entire costume! Even though I did like the scarf since it’s comfortable and not heavy but this coat was a nice find at the thrift store! I did find other coats that did fit but this one was perfect since the sleeves don’t go all the way down which helped in rolling them up to show the arm bands that were painted on my arms and of course can’t forget the patches for the Thunder Wave symbol that my dad made. I may use this whenever it really gets cold here in Florida in January since it gets pretty warm despite it being a bit lightweight in how it’s made. I can’t stop looking at the patches in my closet since they were really well made and I did put a good use to my chain that I got at Hot Topic since this version is based on my Soul Eater variation, which what happens if he picks up a copy of The World and made a character for himself! Basically, I placed the chain up in one of the shoulder holsters and placed the lanyards with his name and health and ability bars as a nice touch to the costume! I do have a suit jacket with the patches as well but didn’t do the masquerade which sucked, I may use it for a different masquerade!

 

Favorite Food: Spikoky’s Crunchy Cookie Butter! I think I spelled the name right but this is something I was curious since my first visit to Trader Joe’s and I found the crunchy version the last time I went! This cookie butter tastes amazing! It feels like you’re eating cookie batter with the cookie crumbs spilled into it and it is awesome on toast! Even though the cashier said it tastes good on waffles but this was my Nutilla substitute until I ran out! If you find this, try it out! I may try the almond butter next!

 

Favorite Snack: Free Pea Snacks and Choco Pies! Two favorite snacks include the Free Pea Snacks from Trader Joe’s and the Choco Pies I found at the Asian market I tend to go to. The Free Pea snacks were addicting! They taste so good and better than chips and those Frank’s Hot Fries since they aren’t spicy, they have the salt that almost reminds me of sea salt, these are amazing and should try them out! I do hear that there’s a Japanese counterpart of these but they have MSG on them, if you don’t like the MSG then get the ones at Trader Joe’s and if you want to try the Japanese ones, you may find them as Saia or Saia Endou. The Choco Pies on the other hand are way different from the Meiji brand, which their version is more of a pastry crust and filled with chocolate and come unwrapped in a box but jumbled into one foil pack! With these, they are more individually wrapped and take on more of a moon pie and still have the marshmallow filling than just the plain old chocolate filling. I thought they were the pastry ones but when I saw them, they looked better and tasted better! Hoping the next time I go to the Asian market they still have them!

 

I think that’s all the forgot to mentioned stuff I remembered! Looking at it now, I don’t think I will do a What’s In My Bag post unless it’s a video, I may! I need to try out the video taping stuff for MythiCon first in case I want to do more videos unless you still want me to do a Word Press post! Well, til next time!

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by moonleopard85 on August 25, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty, clothing, Favorites, snacks

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 25, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/25/july-and-august-favorites-forgot-to-mentions/

July and August 2014 Favorites!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! August is about to close up and that is time for my bi-monthly favorites!

 

I have a lot of favorites this time around because since MetroCon was in July I have a few faves from there!

 

Convention Favorites:

 

Fave Panel By Fans: Hellsing Happy Hour! Yes, this is a favorite because I enjoyed the panel so much and it was very hilarious! As you read the review back in July and remembered how I said this was a good example of a fan hosted panel based on anime? Well it is still well hosted! The people were all in cosplay and were acting like the characters but more of their abridged counterparts since Team FourStar did the abridged version of Hellsing Ultimate and I still get a good laugh from that, I even recently watched episode 4 since one of the guests at Omni Expo 2015 is in it, which I will be doing my Omni Spotlight in the coming months! It would be awesome if they bring the panel to the Orlando cons since it was very entertaining! If you see this in your convention guides, I highly recommend checking it out! You can also find the intro video for the panel on YouTube!

 

Fave Guest Event: Troy Baker Acoustic Concert! If you guys weren’t at MetroCon, you missed a pretty awesome performance by Troy Baker along with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn who joined in for songs from Silent Hill since she sang the songs in the games and man this was an amazing performance done and it was my first time hearing Troy sing live since I know he had to sing as Excalibur in Soul Eater and as one of the voices in Saints Row 3 and 4 since Gondras did have him “Just a Friend” when he got his copy of 4 signed by him after the show. I know it was a VIP signing but all thanks to being press, still got to go for it and did get my badge signed since I didn’t have my stuff for him at the time. You guys should also check out his new album that is coming out soon, not sure if it will be on ITunes, but look out for it! I know I will once I get back to it! If he is at a convention near you and performing, see it! You must! Highly recommend!

 

Favorite Interview(s): Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn! When I heard that these two were guests at Metro, I had to jump on the interview wagon since they are two of the biggest names in anime, I know Troy has been rising since he is in a lot of video games especially with Far Cry 4 and was glad that I asked him about his role as Vas in that! I know I learned a lot during Chris Patton’s interview but with Troy, you just have to listen to what he says, it’s so mazing! Even though my fingers did hurt with the transcription but hey it was worth it and I did keep it under fifteen minutes with him and Mary! Mary on the other hand was a huge honor since I have been into series she has worked on like Fushigi Yugi, Digimon, and of course the ever going, Naruto! It’s great that I got to meet her and got to talk to her one on one in person since she was one of the other anime actors I wanted to meet in forever but I took it a major step farther in doing this! Now can’t wait for more things to come for these two! Just read my interviews with them, Dante Basco, and Richard Epcar if you get a chance!

 

Best Props for a Prop: Nolen North with My Twin Blades! I was happy to meet Nolen even though I did get my friend Curly Fro’s pass signed by him but it made it awesome that Nolen complimented on my twin blade props I was wearing with my .hack cosplay that day! It made sense since he was the voice of Dead Pool and I did get a pic with him and my friends, I wonder if Vivi posted it so I can print it out! This has to be my fave guest…wait a moment!

 

Fave Guest Moment: Giving Brittney Karbowski my extra Carla plushie! There we go! Had to mention this! Well, if you remembered how I told this story and if not will be re-telling it anyways! So back in January, I bought a Carla plushie on EBay from a Hong Kong seller along with a Panther Lily one since she also had it relisted when I went back to contact her that I didn’t get Carla in the mail yet. Apparently the post office called me before I went back to her and told me that the tracking got lost and can’t locate it, so the seller shipped a new one and was glad that Panther Lily came safely in the mail. So, Carla arrives and it’s all good despite her plushie looked different from Lily and Happy! Don’t know why or how, hey at least I have the three main Echseeds right now and hoping to find Funimation ones. Funny thing is that later the second one comes in the mail and was like “Oh crap!” Then I noticed Brittney was coming back to Metro this year and thought it would be nice to give it to her since she voices Wendy the Sky Dragon Slayer! When me and Nerdy Shirts shown up, this was before I found out my badge was counted as VIP, I brought the Fairy Tail part 5 insert because of Wendy and was happy to get it signed by her since I didn’t get it before Metro last year and had to go back for it since I had a bit of money left after Metro for it and then we hand her Carla! I told her it was a gift and since she is Wendy, fair that she would have a Carla too! She came around the table and hugged me, more like a glomp! At least it wasn’t to the floor, that would’ve been bad and I would be turtling it! (I was glomped to the floor once years ago, that’s why) At least now Brittney can record with Carla by her side for future Fairy Tail seasons since the series is still going! Also, take it with her to conventions!

 

Best Dealer Room Find: Both .hack//G. U. Vol 1 and Mini Raichu Plush! I felt as though I didn’t spend much since we may have to buy food for the room or have take out, trust me the grill place in the dealer room was tempting! Still, I had money left over to save for MythiCon this year and did ask for birthday money as a bonus. Anyways, I did find two awesome finds in the dealer room, I will be mentioning one of the others in the bag favorites, still the fave finds is the first one which is the first volume of the  G. U. games! I did mention in my .hack In Transmedia post about how I had a hard time finding these games and remembered how Nerdy Shirts found Legend of Legaya at Holidy Matsuri from a rare games seller that came from our school and they were at Metro and they had all three G. U. games and managed to get the first since it was the cheapest but knowing us if we find them again, hoping Mythic, we get volume 2 despite it being $70 from what I remembered, we did go to a game store near Waterford that sold vol 2 new and sealed for $129. Still, we got it for pretty good price, volume 1 I mean! I was so glad that I was able to get this since I loved the first round of games despite it being sad at some points but I can’t help how funny Piros is when he is in your party! He is funnier as Piros III in G. U. and I do love the voice acting in this more than Roots because it sound more natural and the characters interacted better than Roots in my opinion. Also, the music FITS better in this game! If you saw the prequel anime to the games, the music was all over the place for me, especially during touching moments between Haseo and Shino, but with the games it was fitting with everything! I can’t wait to get volume 2 since the first one ended on a cliff hanger like how Mutation and Outbreak sort of did. And I did get it signed by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn! And now I have something for DC Douglas to sign if he comes back! Second fave find was a mini Raichu plushie! There was a stand that had a lot of plushies and a good portion of them were Pokemon! I am a sucker when it comes to Pokemon and Hello Kitty stuff, but even though I did find Glaceon, what made me happy was finding a Raichu plushie! Even though I have the massive one, I can use this tinier one for MetroCon if I bring my Pokemon Ranger costume, which I might do next year depending on what’s going on! Still, glad I found this since on EBay, this is a hard to find plushie as well and I can see why since Raichu may be the evolved form of Pikachu but you don’t see many plushies of him! Unless you saw my massive one that I will have for MythiCon!

 

Non-Beauty Faves:

 

Shirt: Whotalia! Shirt from Aardvark Tees! I was happy that I found Aardvark Tees at Metro this year! The guy told me they were there last year but we couldn’t find them, but all thanks to Tobi and Vivi, they guided me to them! I did get Gondras the newer twelve doctors shirt but what got me happiest is that I finally got my Whotalia shirt of England being chased by the Daliks! I wanted this one since I saw it on their Etsie shop and was coming back for it and I did and they had it at their stand! I love how it’s grey and comfy! I even worn it on Sunday since I didn’t want to cosplay after the weekend I had and my feet were pretty much dead, so I went Floridian Nerd! I also worn this on my birthday, which was two weeks ago and the guy at Hot Topic gave me props for it and I didn’t know it! It is a fitting shirt since I was picking up my Tenth Doctor dress and Gondras’ 4th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver. Anyone going to MythiCon, I will be wearing the dress that Sunday since I planned on doing my Pokemon Ranger and Lucy cosplays. I am hoping by December that Aardvark still have the “Keep Calm! Have a Jelly Baby!” shirt so I can get that for Gondras for his birthday or Christmas, depending on what Dr. Who items I will be getting him!

 

Favorite Backpack: Happy backpack from Fairy Tail! From the vendor next to Aardvark I picked up something and that is the Happy backpack from Fairy Tail since I do love cats and of course the Echseeds from Fairy Tail are my favorite creatures next to Plu since he is a Rave Master element, still I love Happy! He is cute as a backpack since he is a big bag and very detailed. Even the ears are done in the exact shape of his ears and the tail is connected to his head so they can fit it in. Of course they have his tiny back pouch like in the series and the zipper for the bag part runs from close to the top of his head to a little underneath the pouch! The only thing that I don’t like about the backpack which is a pet peeve of as well with Gir, which I would understand since it is the dog hood, but I don’t get why the little bag compartment is so small when the entire pouch can be the entire head! I know both of my Mokona backpacks have big pouches that take up their entire body area but they didn’t do that with Happy, I may take up the tip to expand it by cutting holes but may ask for a professional to do that since I don’t want to ruin it and have to go searching for a Happy backpack and if they made Carla, that would be a hard decision until Gondras says get them both! Knowing he would do tha. But I may just use it on outtings that don’t require much stuff, just carry my coin purse, phone, and a lip gloss and I am good to go. I may be searching for Carla if they ever make one of her!

 

Favorite Messenger Bags: Hello Kitty Huge Bag and Soul Eater Bag! This July and August I have been using two messenger bags. My Hello Kitty one I got off of EBay was the one I used at MetroCon and then at Metro I got another Soul Eater bag and it had Maka, Soul, and Blair on it! Reason why I love the Hello Kitty one is that since I got Kuromi as one, I knew it wouldn’t be big enough since I not only had to carry my usual items such as my wallet, money pouch, and so on but my Braille Sense and all of Gondras’ water bottles and also my water just in case, and maybe either of our 3DSes in case of Street Passes, not sure if I got any from Saturday, need to get that checked, still I needed something spacious! I found one of the Hello Kitty messenger bags in an 18 inch size and it is pretty much close to the same size I saw at Sanrio back in May and I love it! It fit everything and I did get help from a volunteer since it had to be on my back since I didn’t think through with my .hack cosplay with my twin blades, but it worked! Even Tobi had fun in finding my Zuko lanyard I made for Dante Basco. I will be using this bag for cons since it also has a nice safe zipper for the main compartment. It didn’t cost that much either, I think at Sanrio it might be around in the $30+ range but thanks to EBay got it pretty cheap! And now onto the Soul Eater one which I spotted it on Friday and didn’t want to go spend happy so quickly, decided to look around first for a bit before I met up with everyone else and glad I spread out my spendings with all the stuff I had to do. Back to the bag, it is the same kind of model as my Erza bag, which I should use that one again since I miss it so, as in it’s big and pretty handy as a purse than a convention bag because when I used Erza stuff almost fell out since it doesn’t have the zipper and after almost losing FullMetal Autograph I had to be extra careful! I like how everything fits and it has the handy dandy net pocket so I can also fit my phone charger if need be. I am so glad I went back to the stand where I found this and picked it up! I may want to see if I can find them or another vendor that might have the Tiger and Bunny one because it has a cool comic book like design on it. I realized I should’ve asked a friend who was at AFO about that bag but didn’t want to ask about too many things! At least MythiCon is getting more vendors this year and I may be lucky and luckier in that dealer room!

 

Favorite Foot Wear: Leopard Sequin Flip Flops! I pI got these while in Tampa since I forgot to think of getting flip flops and glad I got these at WalMart because my feet were crap by the end of MetroCon. They are kind of like pumps but not to the point of heels or platforms, they are just one slanted board and have nice comfy padding and the band has the leopard print and nice and shiny. They saved my feet and so glad I found my size in these since shoe sizes at WalMart can be tricky in some pairs.

 

Ipsy August 2014 Make Up Bag: I had to mention this as a favorite since I finally got an Ipsy bag and so glad that I got to try out new make up while I was at it! The make up bag is a pencil case type bag to fit with the “Beauty Schooled” theme and it fits all the stuff I tend to carry in my make up bag. Maybe I should do what’s in my bag post since I seen a lot of people do them and why not since this blog mentions a lot of things. Still, a nice item and it helps me locate my make up  easily since it doesn’t take up so much room and the material doesn’t feel like it blends in so much since it’s plastic! I am hoping to get other bags like this since September is right around the corner and excited what will be next! Way to go Ipsy!

 

Music

 

Favorite Album: Black Market by Rise Against! As you know in my last favorites I mentioned “Don’t Wanna Be Here Anymore” was my fave song by Rise Against and how they were releasing a new album in July and guess what? It’s on my phone with all my Rise Against music! I will try and get an actual copy for my PC as a back up and my IPod. The album is an amazing one! It’s as good as their Sufferer and the Witness album and better than The Unraveling album with the sound of what they had on Siren Songs of the Counterculture with a hint of End Game, slight hint! It is an awesome album! It was weird though that I had to redownload “Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore” to recomplete the album because when I downloaded everything else it went from track one to track three, I think that was fixed after a month of buying it, I know it will be appearing twice in the list of Rise Against music I have but hey! I love the song! I did hear that Rise Against is touring this fall, I think Orlando is on the list again if I heard it briefly that it is in October or November I think! You guys should see them live they are amazing! I got Gondras tickets to see them as his birthday/Christmas gift since they were in Orlando at the start of 2012 and they performed a lot of songs from their albums, since this newest one you should see them since I give this album a….PAW PRINT OF APPROVAL!

 

Favorite Movie:

 

The Fluffy Movie: I know I loved Guardians of the Galaxy but I loved Gabriel Iglesias’ movie the most because it was hilarious! This movie was supposed to open during MetroCon weekend and we would go to the theater nearby where we stayed to see it but we got news it got pushed back by two weeks and Comedy Central shown his comedy specials as an apology, which was fine by us since we got to spend the rest of the evening on that Sunday watching TV before we had to head home. The wait was worth it though since I also got to use my Regal Gift Card from my brother from my college graduation and was enjoying each minute of it! I couldn’t breathe after certain moments since it was hilarious! I felt the same during Aloha Fluffy as well. I would say see the movie whenever it comes out on Blue Ray and DVD!

 

Books

 

Crave the Night by Lara Adrian: Yes, I read the latest Midnight Breed Series book and I didn’t want to close up Kindel at all! I had to get it for my Kindel app since ITunes didn’t like me very much, at least I got to read it and enjoy every minute of it! This story has to deal with Nathan, who is Corin’s son, and how he gets mated with Jordana Gates who kissed  (sorry spoilers) him during the end of Edge of Dawn and she is always on his mind but never wants to get close to how he was brought up as a lethal, vampiric hunter like Corin’s mate, Hunter (I know it sounds cheesy but the name is given to him all thanks to Mira when she was a kid) and it is pretty touching. You may be like “Holy crap!” because they reveal a secret that deals with Jordana and don’t want to reveal it right here, just read the book if you’re the over 21 like me! I highly recommend this series! I can’t wait for the next short story Tempted by Midnight since that deals one of the vamps you see towards the end of the first ten books, which speaking of Midnight novellas….

 

Marked By Midnight by Lara Adrian: This story is the story that takes place between Edge of Dawn and Crave the Night which deals with Mathius Rowan, a close friend of Sterling Chase and helped as a member of the Enforcement Squad in Boston before the Breed got revealed. It shows where Mathius ended up and that is in London and he has to solve a murder mystery of finding people dead in the river and have a mark of a scarab on their hand. While he is in town working on the case, he meets a tattoo artist who bears the Breedmate mark on her body and thinks she is connected! It is kind of touchy but at the same time it reminded me of Tess’ story back in book 2 minus a mysterious drug. I do love the fact that in this story that tattoos are seen as art rather than just something bad and you do see Mathius get one. I am hoping that the next one, Tempted, is also good since it is the linking story between Crave and book 13, which I have a feeling it might deal with the Chase twins or Dante and Tess’ son. Can’t wait! If you’re wondering, I did read the other two stories, Touch of Midnight and Taste of Midnight, didn’t like them as much as Marked since Touch is the prequel story where Gideon and Savanna meet each other and become bonded but at the same time they already told how that happened in book 9 except in this one it does reveal why Gidion is not on patrols since I questioned that throughout the first ten books. And Taste, Danika is a pretty cool Breedmate but her short story kind of felt light to me while reading it. Who knows, knowing with the next one will be interesting!

 

Skin Game by Jim Butcher: I can’t leave the books section without mentioning the latest Dresden Files book since it came out in May! I know I should’ve read it back then but it wasn’t available in Daisy format, which I may do the IBooks thing when 16 comes out! Anyways! This book was a long awaited one since the date got pushed back so much, I was happy that it did release when it did in May since Cold Days had so many things happening and this one was the same way. So Harry has to work with his arch nemesis, Nicodimus Archleon, in breaking into Hades’ vault! I know it was like a “Bowaaaa?” when I heard that these two are working with each other since the last two times that Nick and the Nickle Heads (Yeah, I used Harry’s nickname for the Denarians) come to town everything goes crazy and Nicodimus is a cheating jerk when it comes down to it. I would say give it a read when you get a chance and if you haven’t read the other books, do that as well because this series is escalating even more! Butcher bring on 16!

 

Beauty Favorites

 

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Silver Strike: In my “Best Drurgstore Products for Cosplay,” I mentioned how the Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoos are best for make up looks since they won’t budge, that is why the one I used, Silver Strike from their Metallics line, is on here! This stayed on all day since I wanted to wear the costume all day and we were staying a bit far away from the downtown area of Tampa and didn’t want to wait to put the entire costume on during the night, so I had to use something that would not come off if I sweat during the day since July is really hot here in Florida and that my skin doesn’t go to crap after cleaning it off. It was hard to clean off, especially when I wear these things normally and have to touch up, but I did get it off at around past midnight! If you want to do .hack or Fairy Tail and need something to do the markings, this thing is your best bet! Plus the silver did go well with my costume since it was a mixture of blue, black, white, and silver due to the chain I had to go with it and silver is the best color to work with for the markings and it matched the wig even. I was satisfied! So get these if you are looking for something to do markings on your body!

 

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pots and Pans: Another favorite I did mention in that post and used in my .hack cosplay and that is the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pots and Pans! Not only I used this for that cosplay but also used it to line my eyes time to time with the Extreme Silver liquid liner that NYX also makes! If you seen those pics, you also saw my eyes were also lined to add more effects to the look! I love how it glides on very smoothly and it feels like you’re not wearing anything after you apply, which sometimes with liners I feel that I feel it on my water line and lower line of my eyes but this pencil is one of those you don’t know it’s there! It goes the same with the liquids. I do have an extra of these because I thought I would need one just in case I need to touch up if I went to the masquerade or before the photo shoot if it were to happen since I had it in my make up bag along with the color tattoo for that touch up as well. Great to have extras in the future and for more make up!

 

L’Oreal Voluminous Miss Manga Mascara: I know it’s weird to know that I am starting to wear mascara and I have a few under my belt! But the one that is my fave of all of them is the Miss Manga mascara by L’Oreal! The funny thing is that Gondras saw the commercials and thought it would be perfect in getting it because of my Lucy cosplay that I do and she does have the big eyes and this mascara is supposed to give that effect and give you manga style lashes and it does! I used it two or three times already and my lashes feel like they were drawn with a black pen by a manga artist! Some people are kind of meh about this mascara since their lashes don’t come out as well and I think it’s due to the type of lashes they might have and like with skin care, not everything works best on everyone and this does work on me even if my lashes curl up naturally. I will be definitely using this with all the girl cosplays I do and if anyone does cosplay out there, this is one thing you should have! You can get it in regular black or blackest black, I went with just normal black.

 

Ulta 55 Piece Make Up Blockbuster Set: That is a long sentence to say but this was a make up set I picked up when it was about to release at Ulta and that is their 55 piece set! I used this during MetroCon because it is an easy to travel set, as in it’s more of a binder case rather than a big bulky suitcase thing like the 66 set I picked up back in May! What is great about this set is that the eye shadows are in six pan pallets and you get eight of them which gives you 48 shadows! You can remove the pallets and travel with one in your purse which is pretty convenient instead of lugging the entire thing to touch up! Plus in the set you get four dual ended eyeliners, which these are skinnier than the 66 set eyeliners that come with that, four eye shadow applicators, one for the blush which is a small blush brush, two blush pallets which contain two blushes in each, and two shiny glosses and I got this for close to $30 by what I remembered wait it was $24 which was the starting price and then they dropped it for a beauty steal. I know I should’ve waited but they gave away the free make up bag set if you bought it new! As said before, it’s travel friendly since it can fit in your suitcase and the individual pallets can fit into your make up bag and purse! I would suggest getting it now if they still have it! I also tried Ulta make up products and they are pretty good quality and very pigmented!

 

Fave Lip Combo: Revlon’s Butter Balm in Cupcake with NYX’s Butter Gloss in Cupcake! I know it sounds like a double cupcake make up idea but during Metro, I wore this duo together as an experiment to see how it turned out and it turned out pretty well! I had the Revlon Butter Balm in Cupcake which is a frosted pink paired with Cupcake from NYX’s Butter Gloss line and they feel amazing with each other! I will be definitely using these two together during MythiCon since I tend to wear Cupcake with Lucy and would be appropriate to do that since not only I get the comfort from the Butter Balm I also get a nice glossy look with the Butter Gloss! I might do the same thing by getting Red Velvet in the Butter Glosses since I have the Butter Balm of that as well! I would suggest trying out this combo!

 

Fave Nail Combo: Teal For Two and pink glitter polish! I am not sure where these nail polishes came from but I had this one teal nail polish from 2001 called Teal For Two that I found at a dollar store in the flea market and I loved the color and never used it again until recently! It still glides on very well despite it not being touched for thirteen years! I also had a bit of a glitter top coat kick and I used a pink glitter on top of it that I found when I was still at school and they tend to do something called Market Wednesdays and a thrift store came and had this polish and decided to use it finally. It turned out pretty nicely! It’s like if I dusted pink glitter on an eye shadow or if I were to get my Pet Me Please lipstick stuck in nail polish! I should’ve worn that lipstick when I had these nails, they would’ve gone nicely! Still, I may do it again!

 

Pure Ice’s Naughty: I had to mention one more nail polish fave and that is Naughty from Pure Ice, which is a company that is with Sinful Colors! This color is a golden orange and it is pretty nice! My mom even liked the color of it! I hope I can find more bottles of this at WalMart since I like the color a lot, a warning though it does chip off pretty quickly, so I don’t like that but I like it for the color!

 

Man! That was a lot of faves! I know the convention faves was a lot but what do you expect? A lot of things happen at a con! So, what is next for Nerdy Shique Universe? I may do what’s in my bag and also September’s going to be a big one for this blog since going to be doing press at MythiCon! And also can’t wait for my Ipsy bag! Stay tuned!

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by moonleopard85 on August 23, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty, Books, clothing, conventions, Favorites, Gaming, Movies

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 23, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/23/july-and-august-2014-favorites/

Ipsy Impressions August 2014

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe. I know I was going to do my favorites post but decided to my impressions on my first Ipsy products and then do the favorites post so I don’t have to combine them together in one huge post since I have so many favorites, especially with MetroCon happening in July. Stay tuned for all that.

 

So, I got my very first Ipsy bag this month and liked the products while other people seemed to get other products and sounded either excited or meh or disappointed in their videos and I feel like with the samples itt gives me a chance to try out new products in the high end range and see how I feel or if I would pick up the full size if I wanted to. On top of that, the sizes may be small in some products I kind of feel like it fits with the Back to School theme they are going for and it’s hard to find ways of lugging full size products in a backpack and need to be on the small side and also traveling. I like the idea and of course with the small sizes this month with two of the products, yeah they would run out quickly but you can get the full size if you want to or not, so I am not disappointed! What do I think about each product?

 

Jersey Shore Sun Magongo Anti-Aging Lip Conditioner in Mandarin Green Orange Ginger: A lot of the Ipsters got this lip balm and others got other lip balms depending on their bags but I think this one was given out the most since I seen videos where subscribers got this and I was one of them. I used this right away after I finished my Sparkle Sugar Shine lip balm from Lip Smackers and I like the feeling but what I hated about this lip balm is how it gets destroyed so easily! What I mean is that it seems to fall apart pretty easily in some points, especially when I checked on how much I had left by pushing it up to get an idea of it, when I tried pushing it down it caused it to fall apart even more, especially while I put it on my lips so I had to take the top off to keep it from not doing that anymore and it got finished off within like four days I gotit because I used it so much and how my lips thirsted for the moisture. Since I liked it so much, I may get another down the road but now since I have so many lip balms, I should see what else Ipsy sends me since September is right around the corner, new bag soon! Not bad of a lip balm!

 

Urban Decay Perversion Mascara: As said in the “What’s In My Ipsy Bag August 2014” post I had a feeling that Ipsy read my mind when I picked up the Naked Basics pallet and knew that I was inching into mascaras lately since I do have the Miss Manga, the Ulta Voluminous Mascara in my free make up bag, and CK One, and of course the ones that came with my Disney villain books which I am not sure if I will use right now since I am liking this one and the Miss Manga so far! I haven’t tried out the other two yet since CK One is pretty expensive and glad to get it free, who knows when I will use it and the Ulta one. I decided to wear this mascara, the Perversion, to check it out for one night last night and what I liked about it is that it didn’t spread if my eyes twitch a little, it just stays on the lashes even while in application. I can kind of see why Urban Decay is pretty big in the cosmetics realm but I am not sure if I will go and pick up a full size of this unless I get my points racked up again at Ulta or something, still it’s pretty good and it’s a decent sample size! Plus it comes off pretty easily when I had to remove it since it doesn’t feel like a waterproof formula or close to it. I did see some people get the free eye liner in their bag if they didn’t get this, but glad I got this!

 

Paula’s Choice Moisturizer with SPF 30+: I know it has a longer name but I think this will be easier to say! When I was watching other subscriber videos, I didn’t see many people get this product! People got the Dr. Brandt Primer, the shimmer lotion, a dry shampoo or both the primer and shimmer lotion or the shampoo and lotion, and other bags did get a body lotion made with volcanic minerals, so not many people got this item like I did. I have been using it since I got it and well it’s not that bad but I feel that it doesn’t react well with my Celestial moisturizer when I put it on later on, it makes my skin feel itchier if I put it on and I did feel itchy when I used it as a base for my make up. I formed two tiny zits when I did it with my make up, one close to my left eye and the other on my left cheek in a diagonal direction from the eye one except the one near my eye vanished all thanks to my acne control wipes from Stridex but trying to get rid of the other! Plus, it has too much of a greasy feeling if I try not too put too much but it feels matifying once it dries! I am definitely not going to get a full size of this once I’m done, I feel like it is not the best kind of moisturizer for my skin, if it was meant for it then I may get it but not a sensitive skin friend in my book. I am also glad I didn’t get the primer since it was meant for oily to combination skin and don’t have that. I wished Ipsy put “sensitive” on the survey as my skin type question. I guess it’s due to how most places make stuff that is meant for it and other companies aren’t. Not sure if I will retake the quiz to change it up, I will see what September holds for me!

 

Coastal Sense Forever Blush Duo: Normally I don’t go for blush but I had to crawl out of the box a little bit and try this out! I was kind of jealous when some of the bags came with eye shadows I love eye shadow but since I hear good things about Coastal Sense all thanks to Make Up Freak, I had to give it a try! I tend to put the blush on my cheek bones (I know it’s supposed to be the apples but I watched a make up artist and he says to do it on the bones since you naturally blush there and it looks better that way as well!) and then blend it in with my powder to make it look natural and that nothing’s there. It feels pretty comfortable like nothing is there once you know you put it on. I may have to try my other blushes I have from Ulta and see how they go but the Coastal Sense ones are pretty good.

 

Lord and Berry Kajal Kohl Eye Liner pencil: I never heard of Lord and Berry until now, well since other people got products by them in the past in their bags and now I got one! This eyeliner is a small one and some people were sad about the size, except for me of course! If any of you got any of the E. L. F. pallet books during Christmas and know the pencil liner that comes with them, it’s basically the same size and I don’t mind if it is. If I need to, I may pop it into my make up bag and head out. Plus, I think the size would be adequate for anyone who is starting in eyeliner and usually sampling them would help know what you like, if need be, find a dupe for it if the person can’t afford it or the company discontinues it since I seen it before. This eyeliner is pretty smooth to go on and it glides pretty well! Need to be careful since it can smudge all over the place since of course with kohl it used to be liquidy and that’s how this pencil feels, especially with a liquid eyeliner placed on top of it. So, will I get a full size of this? If they have other colors maybe, but I am more comfortable with the Wet N Wild pen liner I use for black and the NYX, WNW, and E. L. F. ones but at least I get the samples to try them out and see how I like it and may get a full size if I wanted to.

 

Well, with one product being a disappointment, to me the others are better and I am not disappointed with these four items! I liked the lip balm, the eyeliner, blush, and mascara since those worked out the best while the moisturizer, I will finish that up and toss it. I think I remembered I didn’t want skin care related stuff, it was a while back but hey at least this wasn’t bad and of course I am excited about September and see what that may bring in the bag!

 

So, what’s next!? July and August Faves!

 

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by moonleopard85 on August 22, 2014  •  Permalink
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Posted by moonleopard85 on August 22, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/22/ipsy-impressions-august-2014/

What’s In My Ipsy Bag! August 2014

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Today I received something awesome in the mail and that is my very first Ipsy bag!

 

I bet you’re wondering what’s Ipsy, it’s a make up subscription service where samples of make up and some skin care, hair care, and other items get sent in a make up bag every month! It costs $10 a month and you get f-6 samples according to some people that have gotten this service and I am glad to be a part of it finally! I was interested in it ever since Eleventh Gorgeous does their Birchbox Vs. Ipsy every month and I really liked what they got in Ipsy and wanted to try it out!

 

So, this month’s theme is Beauty Schooled, which makes sense since a lot of people go back to school around this time of the year and a lot of states both in public school and college start in August again and I like the theme.

 

Urban Decay Perversion Mascara: First up is I got the Urban Decay Perversion mascara! I took a look at what I was going to get and was excited that this was going to be in my bag! I feel like Ipsy kind of read my mind since I got the Urban Decay Naked Basics pallet and since they do send out products from this company, they sent me this mascara! I have been branching out into mascara lately and been getting a few, which I have the Miss Manga, of course the Ulta Voluminous one I received in the free pink bag I got when the 55 piece make up set came out back in June, and I redeemed my birthday coupon for a free CK One mascara at Ulta yesterday since I got that coupon on Monday and surprised that it was a big size. This one, I heard about it in some videos since some of the people I watch on subscriptions or through haul videos have this mascara and according to Ipsy’s page on this is that this mascara is creamy, it also voluminizes the lashes and make them bigger with one stroke, and also blacker! I never tried Urban Decay mascaras and I have been into mascaras a bit, maybe this will be a nice one to try and it will be my first time to try. The normal size is $22 at Ulta, I think it’s also the same price at Sephora, but at least I get to try this out for a change and see how I like it. Some subscribers don’t get this in their bags because they vary depending on the bag for some people and the other UD product they gave out was a pencil eyeliner I believe since I saw one video for the August bag and they got the liner instead of the mascara. This would be fun actually!

 

Coastal Sense Blush Sample Duo: Next is a Coastal Sense product and it’s a blush samp;e! It is a tiny duo and it is very tiny! I hear that Ipsy gives actual size products sometimes and even though this is a sample size, I am not sure I will be using it. I am not a blush wearer, I think I only used it once to test from my big Ulta 66 set but haven’t worn it, but I did have Lancome do a makeover on me once at Macy’s and was itchy later on since their make up is not much a great thing for sensitive skin people like me. I am not sure if I want to try this out since I did hear how awesome Coastal Sense is from Make Up Freak since she gets their eye shadows a lot! She also ordered other products but the video didn’t show that part of it last time, but hey at least I can check out what she’s talking about even if it’s a teeny tiny sample! I just took a try and it feels pretty powdery and light even when I swatched one of themon one of my cheeks! May have to consider them.

 

Jersey Shore Mogongo Lip Conditioner: Next is a lip balm! I know I have tons of lip balms since I am a LipSmackers horder! If you saw my big tin from Lush, it’s filled with all of them! Don’t worry, I am still using them! This is something different and never heard of before and it’s from a company known as Jersey Shore Cosmetics and it’s from their Sun Line which is pretty much for going to the beach and it’s all natural cosmetics! The item I got is the Migongo Lip Conditioner, which is supposed to be anti againg but at the same time they might send the anti age version to some people and the non-anti againg one to others, since the bags do vary! I tried it out and I like the feel! It’s not too greasy, it’s light! And I like the scent! I may have to use this after I finish the Pink Sugar Shine I’m using right now! And any cruelty-free buffs out there, these guys, Jersey Shore Cosmetics, are cruelty-free and use all natural products and they do have items for both adults and kids! You can find out more at jerseyshorecosmetics.com!

 

Lord and Berry Silk Cajal Kohl Eyeliner: A new eyeliner for me to try out and it’s from a company I sometimes hear but not a lot and it’s Lord and Berry! This company basically started on the runways of fashion shows in Milan and have been making products out of raw materials and use simple packaging. I can kind of see why with this baby! Literally a small pencil but it is the same size as an ELF books you get during Christmas, that kind of disappoints some people since it can be used pretty fast, hey it’s a samole and it is a trial size after all. I did swatch it and it feels smooth on the skin! I can see why it’s silky! I am not sure if I will buy a full size after I use it, but it’s not bad! I may get more in other bags to see how it goes. You can check them out if you want at lordandberry.com.

 

Paula’s Choice Clear Ultra Light Daily Matifying Fluid SPF 30+: That is a lot of words! The last item in my bag is from Paula’s Choice Skin Care! I never heard of this brand until now. I tried seeing about who they are but the site doesn’t give me much except the person who started it and they are Paula Begun, that’s it! I did take a look at the description on the Ipsy site and it’s basically a moisturizing for break out proned skin and keeps oil from going crazy and minimizes pores and it also acts like a sunscreen! A lot of people go for products like this for the SPF factor and here in Florida it makes sense. I may have to try this out when I go for walksJust squeezed some out. Careful in not squeezing too much but it smells like sunscreen, not the strong stuff, just a light smell and it does feel light and not too greasy like most SPF products! I will have to give this a go since during my summer haul I did mention I am using the Biore pore strips due to that gross, oily feeling I feel on my nose and may help if it doesn’t make my skin go crazy with the sensitivity!

 

My verdict: I kind of liked this bag minus the blush but I like how it’s a variety of products! It is my first one after all and it did impress me! I know I will be using the mascara, the lip balm, the liner, and moisturizer definitely, the blush since it felt nice, I may try it out and hoping they send me more Coastal Sense stuff! I am hoping I hear about September’s bag soon! Also, the bag, it is cute, it reminds me of a pencil case with how round it looks and I remembered school shopping years ago when they had pencil cases that were round! I may have to use it at some point! Not bad Ipsy and can’t wait what Eleventh Gorgeous gets with their bags since they tend to get different items for the both of them! You can subscribe to their YouTube channel, Facebook, and Twitter, which I should go and find that account since I have Twitter all thanks to Ipsy.

 

And if you want to subscribe to Ipsy if you are curious little kitties like I was, you can go to www.ipsy.com and take the quiz to customize your bag and join, it costs $10 a month and mention that JupiterKitty85 sent you since I do get 250 points for you guys subscribing if they do have that on the quiz.

 

What is next? There is faves for July and August! Stay tuned!

 

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by moonleopard85 on August 15, 2014  •  Permalink
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Posted by moonleopard85 on August 15, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/15/whats-in-my-ipsy-bag-august-2014/

Best Drugstore Products For Cosplay!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! So, since I just did my collective haul on here it’s time for something I was inspired by one of my cosplays! As cosplayers, we tend to work with a budget in buying our parts due to our lives outside of it, whether it being in school or paying rent, we don’t have a lot of money to spend with and there are times when we have to find parts at thrift stores and modify them, sometimes find the merchandise props that are cheap on EBay if we can’t find it in stores, and so on! There is one thing that is pretty important to cosplay and that is make up in order to get the look that we need! There are very good make up kits out there but you have to pay an arm and a leg for or win Face Off for a season and that would be hard to do, plus if you live in an area where there’s a lot of heat, some make up from party stores or Halloween stores since Halloween is coming up tends to fade easily! What should I suggest? Drugstores tend to have pretty good items in their make up section and they do have sales so you can save money depending if you are a member or not. So, what are these items? Keep on reading!

 

Maybelline: Eye Studio Color Tattoos: To start off this list is a product I’ve been picking up lately and that is the Eye Studio Color Tattoo eye shadows by Maybelline! If you read my Naruto Cosplay Advice post a year ago, I mentioned these for the Kankuro eye looks and you can use them as eyeliners, but you can take these steps beyond the eyes! How so? If you read my Richard Epcar and Dante Basco interviews and saw my pics as my finished .hack character and noticed the face marks and if the sleeves weren’t down and see the arm bands on my forearms, I used the Silver Strike tattoo from the Metallics line! I bet you’re wondering, “Don’t they fade after a moment?” Actually, these babies do not budge! NOT AT ALL! Even a friend tried rubbing one of my arm bands off and still wouldn’t budge! These last like they’re supposed to until you clean them off as in they last 24 hours according to the package! For $5-$6 for each, if you are at Target around this time if they have any of the sale colors on clearance, it would be $3 for those, these things are very handy! That is why I went back for Inked in Pink to Lucy’s Fairy Tail mark since it’s in pink and it’s on the hand! And for any Kankuro cosplayers out there, they do have a black one in the new Leathers collection! I would suggest picking these up if you don’t want to use sharpies or have bad skin reactions to costume make up since these are good for all skin types and Hypoallergenic! Also, as a huge tip! Get extras if you can because big stores like Target or Ulta or even CVS in drugstores tend to stop carrying colors after a while to make room for new stuff! And of course, the extra would be handy depending on how big the look or tattoo mark you’re making, for instance Crim from .hack as an example, great to have extras when needed!

 

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil: Next is a NYX product and I tend to use these on a regular basis when I want to do silver eye looks or just line with silver and that is the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil! These glide on very well and you can use these for the eyes and a way of outlining for what you’re doing if you want to make a basic outline to help you out! You can find these at CVS or Target since they are carrying NYX products now and of course Ulta! A warning though, if you need a certain color, Ulta is your better bet since CVS and Target wouldn’t have all that you need for the entire line! Yes, you would need a eye pencil sharpener for these, I would suggest the Revlon Universal Sharpener and I do hear that Ulta has pretty good ones in their brand. Like with the Maybelline Color Tattoos, I suggest getting spares of whatever color you get like Milk, which is the white, Cottage Cheese which is the gold, and others! These also don’t cost much, around $3 if I remembered. As said, these are great for outlining for anything you want to draw on your body or face! If you are doing any of the Etotensei zombies or zombie costumes, using Black Bean would be your best bet for black! And forgot to mention, these can be used as eye shadows, for any Sango cosplayers from Inu Yasha, they do have a red one since she has some red eye makeup on. I would recommend these!

 

L’O’real Infolluble Eye Shadows: Another eye shadow for the list and that is the Infolluble Eye Shadows by L O’Real and their Paris line! I love these shadows and how they glide on! I would suggest using these if you want a pretty masquerade eye look or if you have any L cosplayers then I suggest using Soltry Smokes to do your under eye look! I love how it is a dark grey and it doesn’t have any shimmer so you can make it look really sleepy with this one! Plus these shadows are easy to build and blend and they do last for a long time, according to the packaging it’s supposed to last for 12 hours on you! Definitely a must and as always, pick up an extra but I do have to say the price does varies at where you go, it’s $7 at Target for each, around $7 or $8 at CVS and they do have specials for Extra Bucks sometimes like buy one get another for half off or you can get coupons for a few dollars off etc., $8 at Walgreens, and $6  at WalMart. So, I would say WalMart is better for these if you don’t want to spend too much and in case of getting extras when need be!

 

L’Oreal nail polishes: Another product from the same company and that is the nail polishes they make! Reason being is that they have a lot of matte colors you can use for characters that have nail polish on, take the Akatsuki as an example or if you want to paint your nails black for a zombie costume, etc. I would say go for the nail polishes from these guys since you have to go with non-shimmery colors and a lot of companies carry colors with it such as Pure Ice, Sinful, which they do have mattes in some colors, and so many other companies. I know Hot Topic’s Black Heart Cosmetics line also carries mattes but I highly recommend L’Oreal since they are easier to find and they will cost you around the same price as a Black Heart nail polish and they are very pigmented. I do have a tip and that’s carry a quick dry top coat since these dry a bit slower than others. If the polish works out, buy more bottles as back ups! Trust me, I have four more bottles of Stroke of Midnight for my Itachi costume!

 

L’Oreal Miss Manga mascara: I know it sounds weird for me to mention mascara since I never worn it but I do now time to time, don’t worry Gondras helps out with that! I am mentioning this one since it’s perfect to have the lashes of your fave female character! The Miss Manga mascara is the newest one that L’Oreal has put out and it does give you the big lashes like anime characters! Some people don’t like it depending on how their lashes turn out while others do like it and I do like this one since my lashes look nice with it on! Gondras suggested that I should get it since I cosplay as Lucy from Fairy Tail and her lashes are pretty big and bold! So, if you want that for any female you’re doing, get this for it!

 

Revlon Color Burst Lip Butters: I do love using these whenever I’m in female cosplay because they are pretty much a buttery texture and balmy! They do last for an hour or so  and they are pretty easy to carry in a small make up bag or a purse if you have one or like what I did, have a mascot character backpack and stick it in there! I also recommend wearing these as a pair with NYX’s Butter Lip Glosses for a nice glossy texture and look! I pair Cupcake from the Revlon line with the Cupcake butter gloss from NYX since they match with each other and it looked nice with my cat costume for the LARP panel! You can find a lot of colors and as said, easy and best as a lip balm so you don’t have to carry both a balm and a lip stick if you don’t want to!

 

Revlon Color Burst Matte and Balm Stains: If you read my Battle of the Balm Stains post a few months back, I mentioned these and these can be worn if you don’t want to go lip color crazy for a masquerade look or a night on the town during the convention. These have a nice sheer stain to them and at the same time can be built up if you want to go darker! Be careful, you may run into extra build up if you go too much! Make sure you have tissues handy for that! If you don’t want the Revlon ones, Jordana and Wet N Wild have similar ones that are equally as good!

 

Wet N Wild Black eyeliner pen and Maybelline Master Precise Black eyeliner pen: I mention these both at the same time because they are very good eyeliner pens! I used to use the Maybelline one and now using the Wet N Wild one but the tips are pretty similar in my opinion because they make pretty good lines not only on the eye, especially if you need a cat looking eye, but the face as well! How so? I tend to use these when I do my Itachi fine lines and Gondras did use my Wet N Wild pen when he did his .hack costume for the face markings! Great is that the Wet N Wild one is good to go over any scruff you may have! He had to be a bit scruffy for his Dr. Who cosplay with the sideburns. Still, these are very good eyeliners to use if you need some black face markings and you don’t have the Black Color Tattoo from the Leathers line. I think the Maybelline one will set you back close to $10 but if you don’t want to spend that much you can get the Wet N Wild one for $2! I should add for the Wet N Wild one if you need extras, wait until Walgreens does the buy one get the other half off and I think CVS does it too right around November, which of course holiday conventions are around that time. I did forget to add, you can use these to add a bit more darkness to your L eye look if necessary!

 

E. L. F. Eye Brushes: Time for some beauty tools and the first I would love to mention is the E. L. F. eye shadow brushes! I know I said above that you don’t have to spend a lot for make up and brushes is one of those things! If you go to Mac or Sigma, you pay like $20 for an eye shadow brush but with E. L. F. on the other hand, it costs $3 for their eye shadow brushes! These babies are very awesome brushes and if you watch a lot of Beauty Gurus on YouTube, this kind of brush is an essential! I have like four of these things because I do have the Disney Villain books and they come with the same kind of brush as well! I had Gondras use this brush in order to get my .hack make up look since the Color Tattoo is very dense and didn’t want to do the finger application like you usually do with them on your eye! Also, this brush is pretty good with any other eye shadows! I did remember using it with my L eye look! Still, this brush is amazing and you can get it at Target for $3 and if you don’t have any E. L. F. products in town, there is always their website, eyeslipsface.com!

 

Chisel Point Brushes: These babies are good when it comes to small detailing! You can get these with the gel eyeliner pots from Maybelline and L’Oreal, I think Revlon has them but Wet N Wild also has them too! They also do have companies that sell them by what I heard. If you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for one of these, you can get the gel liners for the brush or ask someone you know that may know where you can find it. Reason why I am mentioning this is that since I’m doing Lucy, it would be easy to control the tattoo with this kind of brush rather than using a big brush and easier to do tiny detailing. Also, you can dip these in to use the color tattoos as eyeliner if need be! Also, you can use the gel liners if you want that come with whatever you gotten for cosplay  if you want or as daily use, I do hear people use the gel liners for their eyebrows. Still the little brush that comes in the packaging will help out and you can probably find it at Ulta or Sally Beauty Supply for cheap if need be!

 

Baby Wipes: I can’t forget these babies and that is the way of cleaning for excess or for your brushes and that is baby wipes! There are brush  make up brush cleaners or art brush cleaners but with traveling to cons out of state or to faraway ones, it will be hard to carry bottles! Also, with some make up cleaners and wipes not everyone has the perfect reaction, as in they can sting eyes and so on, so baby wipes are your best bet when it comes to skin types, especially sensitive skin, and of course they’re not too expensive, the cheapest baby wipes are around $2 at Walgreens and WalMart! They also fit in a lot of suitcases and travel bags, even if you get small packs! I do have to say you may have to scrub a bit more to get off mascara and the Color Tattoos but they still work in the cleaning department in make up like most make up removers and remover wipes! Also, nice to use on surfaces to help with extra clean up if need be and not to piss off housekeeping! Also, easy to use on brushes as well!

 

Well, that is it for my ideas on what is the best drugstore products for cosplay! If you have any suggestions for what I should use for cosplay or as any use, just leave a comment! Don’t worry I don’t bite! I love suggestions!

 

Next up is hopefully a Ipsy post since I am waiting for my very first Ipsy bag to arrive! I will also be doing my July and August Favorites! Until next time!

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by moonleopard85 on August 13, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty, cosplay

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 13, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/13/best-drugstore-products-for-cosplay/

Collective Haul of Summer 2014

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I was thinking about posting the Drugstore Products for Cosplay but then decided to do the collective haul first since I haven’t done a haul in a while and it’s about time to post another! I have been all over the place for my stuff such as Ulta, Target, and even the Asian Market and Trader Joe’s, yes, we have one now! Let’s get on with it!

 

First, I will start with the Asian Market stuff. I have gotten some more candy and a few snack items and they even done a pretty good deal on one thing. I did get the last pack of the Hello Kitty Anniversary Candy Pack. I tried seeing if they had more than one pack since I love these so much but the pack I got was the last one there and not sure if they restocked since it was right after MetroCon, well the week after MetroCon was when I went to get this stuff, still I was glad to get these again. I also picked up these cashew candies which are little bars of candy with cashews inside! As you know, I love cashews and I thought it sounded weird to hear that they made these but when I got home and tried one out it reminded me of these peanut butter candies I loved when I was little but with cashews and they tasted pretty good! I like them! They are a bit mixed with the candies I have already and bought. I also got another pack of these lion candies that are soda flavored! They are very good and I think they changed the shape of the candy in my opinion, it is kind of more of a head rather than the entire lion character’s body, but what I like most about these is that you tend to get pepsi flavor, sprite flavor, and other soda flavors and they taste amazing and when they split and get the soda juice in your mouth it fizzes as it goes down! I suggest these, I believe the packaging said “Lion Kids Candy” or “Kids Lion Candy!” I did get another soda candy and these are more like soda bottles in the design and they have soda and also ramune flavored sodas in this pack. I had the grape, melon, and I think cider flavored ones over time and man they fizz a lot more than the ramune candies I am used to! I also picked up more of the milk candies I love, the ones that are shaped like flowers and have the bubbles on them in the texture! These are very creamy and my favorite! I wish Sanrio bring back the Hello Kitty fruit flavored milk candies because I miss them a lot. At least I found these again since the last time I went I found a different pack that had different flavors of milk like strawberry, banana, regular milk, and even corn flavored. It is a great pack with those as well but I prefer my classic ones and the Hello Kitty milkies. I also got two different fruit candies, one pack is like Life Savers and the other is shaped in a flower almost, these two are pretty good but I like the Life Saver ones a bit more since they don’t feel strong in the taste since my enhanced taste buds go nuts when I have something strong. I may get the life saver ones again if they still have them. I did get repurchases of my fave chocolate mushrooms and the Hello Kitty ghrahams, even though they are regular butter cookies but they look like Teddy Grahams that we had as kids and today! The chocolate mushrooms are just in one big bag, I wish they sold the individual wrapped ones like the bamboo shuts you find at the Asian market since I like the flavoring more and the chocolate tastes creamier that way, but at least I got these since it’s been so long since I had them. And finally, the deal of that time was $2.99 or was it $3.99 on a box of Choco Pi! These are different from the Meiji version, which if you had the regular packaged ones, they are like little pies made from the pie crust and filled with chocolate, those were okay but these are better! Why? These are more like Moon Pies! You not only have the chocolate on the outside but you have some of it with marshmallow on the inside! I looovvvee these! I am hoping they still carry them and may be still on sale if I go back before I have to leave for Daytona. So glad I found these! I did find out from the lady that they now carry Green Tea Kit Kats! Yay! I may have to go back for them soon!

 

Next is Ulta! I have been shopping at Ulta a bit more here and there and the funny thing was that I went on the same Friday I went to the Aisan Market and then the next day ordered stuff. What I got at the store was with my $3. 50 off a $10 purchase and had to get another box of pore strips since I started using them due to my nose gets the icky oily feeling and blackheads do show up time to time on me and so I found out that they were doing buy one get the other 50% off and got two boxes of the eight pack which I’m happy about! I am almost halfway through one box and will start on the other soon! My nose doesn’t feel so oily as much or clogged when I started using them! Next are two eyeliners, well liquid ones! One of them is the NYX Extreme Gold one and the other is the NYX Black one from the same line. The thing was I thought I lost my gold one during MetroCon since I had to dig for my make up stuff in my travel caboodle and thought it fell out and so got another one! I found the one I thought I lost during Metro a few days later, woops! I at least have a spare! With the black one on the other hand, thought I should get it so in case my Wet N Wild one runs out and I love how NYX’s liquid liners glide on. I also picked up another Butter Gloss from NYX and it is in Peaches N Cream! I had to have it since I heard that so many people like this one and I am also addicted to these things! My order on the other hand, it was just two items and it was due to a 20% off coupon I received in the mail and well story is my mom loved my NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Progue when I worn it and she borrowed mine until she could get one and when this coupon arrived, she asked me to order one for her since I have the account with them and I also got a little something for myself and it is one of the Steela Lip Glaze trio sets! I ended up getting a sample well a free one from when I went back in June to Ulta and the lady gave me Pink Lemonade from this line and I loved it! I believe these are limited edition since the sets are limited edition and I had to get more of these and saw that they had the Summer Trios and the one I got was the Kiss and Pout trio which includes Salted Caramel, which is a sheer gold, Cafe Au Lait, which is a shimmery pink, and finally Pink Marshmallow, which is a sheer rose gold! I was debating on which one to get because they also got the other trio known as the Read My Lips set which includes Creamsicle, shimmery coral, Pina Colada, which is a shimmery glitter one, and Pink Punch, sheer fuschia and then they had make your own which you choose three out of the entire line and it will be the same price as the sets. I almost went with the build your own since I could choose Pink Lemonade but with me and lip products, I know it would last and might be able to find again on EBay in the future, so I decided on the Kiss and Pout set since these are flavored and I am a sucker for marshmallows and salted caramel! And on my last purchase, it is my birthday month and I also had points I decided to use and finally broke down on getting it and it’s the Urban Decay Naked Basics pallet! I don’t have any of the Urban Decay stuff and I heard about how so many people have this and that is cheaper than the three pallets they have out and decided why not start off with something basic, I know it sounds cheesy but it’s true, and got this. I was glad that I got to use this with my points and got my double points. I am going back since I got my coupon for a free Calvin Klein mascara, which is a major bonus on my list. They sent me the coupon Monday since my birthday was on the weekend, makes sense for them to do that. I will try it out and see how it goes for the pallet I mean!

 

Target is next since it was mostly to find the Almay concealer stick I use and well I tried going to CVS at first but they ran out at the location I went to, so decided to check out over at Target which was nearby and they had it there, well my shade at least! I did decide to go eye shadow searching since I have this eye shadow kick lately, don’t know why and decided to get more of the color tattoos from Maybelline and see if they got the new ones in, they didn’t but they did have them on sale and the ones I got that were on sale were Electric Blue, which I love, Gold Rush, and Audacious Asphalt and the one that wasn’t on sale that I got was Bold Gold. Then I went over to L’Oreal’s Infolluble Eye Shadow section since I haven’t got any in so long and I wanted to find two colors that people say on YouTube that are nice and they were Bronzed Taupe and Amber Rush. They sold out of Amber Rush but did find it at Walgreens this past weekend and did find Bronzed Taupe at that Target, which I was happy about. I did have to get more cotton pads since I am on my last bit of the trio pack I got not too long ago. I also did get M&Ms for the movie we saw that night as well and to snack on later.

 

Next Trader Joes, this was a trip to find something I heard about from YouTuber known as Emy In Japan and also heard about them from CatSketch and Grav3yard Girl. First, I was watching a savory snacks video that Emy In Japan did and one of the snacks was these green pea snacks that are known as Saia or Saia Endou in Japan and I tried seeing if the Japanese snacks guy that goes to the cons would have it at MythiCon, unfortunately he won’t be at MythiCon but another one in Daytona Beach this month or the next because of his sales were low at MythiCon year 1. Yet again, first year con, not a lot of sales and AFO was the weekend before! Anyways, I did hear that Trader Joes had something similar and remembered CatSketch and Grav3yard Girl talking about them and decided to go and find them and they had them, they are known as the Free Pea Snacks by what I heard from the guy. Man, they are addicting! I also got coconut chips, which are these coconut shavings as chips and they taste like coconut milk while eating them. It gets strong after a while so watch out for that! I also got dried apple rings which are also good! They are almost like apple chips but more dried and chewier! I did have to restock on my favorite alphabet cookies and did get ginger snaps. What I love about these ginger snaps is that they have actual pieces of ginger! Very awesome! And the last item is crunchy cookie butter! I know it sounds weird but it’s basically like Nutilla but tastes like cookies and has actual cookie bits! They have almond butter which I want to get next! I love Trader Joe’s!

 

Nextplace is WalMart! I had to go to the super location and try and find more of the labeling tape I use in my Braille labeler but they didn’t have any! My dad did find it at the Neighborhood location that’s a walking distance away from us and got me two packs of it, which I am happy since the labeling tape that DBS got me with my label maker sucked! As in it wouldn’t stick very well and bits of it would cut off and get stuck so badly in the label making port and it makes the wheel stick. I would say to anyone who is blind and uses braille and label makers, get the Dynamo colored tape because it doesn’t cause as many problems as the big, clear tape you tend to see in them. Moving on! I had to get another bottle of Acetone Nail Polish remover since it comes in handy when removing the tough nail polishes and glitter top coats from my nails! I know it is drying, but not sure if the moisturizing formula is also acetone, can anyone tell me below? And good news is that I did find the new Color Tattoos, the Leathers collection and got it in Vintage Plum, which I love purple shadows time to time! I also got Inked in Pink so I can use it with my Lucy cosplay, which I will tell you in detail in my next post in why I get these for cosplay!

And final place is Hot Topic on my birthday! I thought I wasn’t going to get the $5 off coupon that I get every year until I called up their hotline and found out that it was in my account since they couldn’t resend me the coupon, so I saved up my cash and went! All I have to say is that this birthday was a Dr. Who birthday since we mostly got stuff from that franchise, we meaning Gondras and I because we found the 4th Doctor’s sonic screwdriver! It is the actual one from Tom Baker’s run and to make the sounds on it you push the head down since the earlier sonic screwdrivers looked a lot different than the ones you see now, especially with the ones in the customize set which I will be using since I got myself a David Tennet costume dress! Yep, they are starting to bring Halloween back and the items out front happened to be the costume dresses for some of the doctors and made me happy that they had David Tennet’s suit as one and I tried on an XL and it fits! Normally with Hot Topic girls stuff they don’t fit but this fit perfectly and is a nice slip on dress! Now to get a brown, spiky wig and a pair of cream colored or black and white Chuck Taylors since he wears those, they are comfy for him to run in! Gondras did get me an extra birthday gift since earlier in the week he got me Fairy Tail part 10 and it’s a David Tennet Tartus phone case for my phone! I needed a new phone case since my Hello Kitty one is starting to peel in some of it, it’s one of the phone wallet cases and the magnet doesn’t stay in place, at least this is on my phone now and it is super slim! I also am happy to get a Hot Cash coupon for next month since I did spend over $30 since it was also buy 1 get the other item half off! I do have my eye on a Attack On Titan shirt so will be using that on that shirt next month! I will try to go before I have to leave for MythiCon, if not, wait until after since the coupon is good from September 18th til the 28th. So, if you want this coupon, go to Hot Topic and spend $30+ because they are awesome!

 

Well, that is it for this big haul! Stay tuned for my next few posts!

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by moonleopard85 on August 13, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty, clothing, haul, snacks

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 13, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/13/collective-haul-of-summer-2014/

MetroCon: Interview With Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! So, I interviewed Dante Basco, Richard Epcar, and Troy Baker at MetroCon and now it’s time for the final one and that is with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn! Don’t worry, Gondras was also in this one as well since he was with me Saturday. She is known as Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell, Kurenai in Naruto and of course Helba and Bordeaux in .hack and G. U. and I was happy to not only meet her but interview her as well! So, what did I ask her?

 

Me and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Me and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Mari Blue Cat: You have been to MetroCon in the past as a guest.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn: Yes, two years ago!

MBC: How does it feel to be back?

MEMG: It feels great! People here are so nice! I just love the fans and they’re so sweet and kind and so generous with their time. It’s fun spending the time with them and Mary Reese puts on an unbelievable show here so I’m thrilled to be back. I love Tampa, it’s a beautiful city!

 

MBC: You have been to so many conventions across the country, what has been your favorite moment or experience?

MEMG: I was in Vegas for Otakon Vegas and a man came up to me with his girlfriend and said, “I’ve been waiting to meet you to do this!” And he turned around and knelt in front of his girlfriend proposed to her in front of me!

MBC: ::laughs:: Awww!

MEMG: And I’m an efficient in Los Angeles in California and I was like, “I can marry you if you want!” But I couldn’t because I was in Nevada but still that was amazing. And then this one…I forgot which con but a man came up to me and he handed me his patch from his unit from Afghanistan and said “Watching Ghost In the Shell and listening to your music from Silent Hill got us through it.” I was so moved I burst into tears! Those two were the best experiences I’ve ever had!

 

MBC: What has been the weirdest thing that someone has brought to you as a gift or to get signed?

MEMG: Let’s see! Signing this guy’s chest once was wild because he was really hairy y! It was just going through a forest to find to make contact with skin in that mind. ::laughs a bit::

MBC: Right!

MEMG: I think that’s it! I think that’s probably the weirdest thing!

 

MBC: You have directed and done voice work, which one do you prefer the most?

I love doing them both! I think directing makes me a better actor and I think acting makes me a better director. I love working with other directors, it really helped me hone my skills as a director, especially as an actor, so I don’t have a favorite I love doing them both. Lucky to be able to do them both!

MBC: Yeah, ‘cause I saw your entire list of stuff you’ve done like create these questions and I’m like “Wow!” Have such a reputation and…

MEMG: Thank you! I’ve been doing it for a long time!

 

MBC: What has been your favorite thing to direct and what has been your favorite to record in?

MEMG: Oh, I love everything I’ve directed! There’s a huge place in my heart for Cowboy Bebop, it was the first series I ever directed.

Gondras: You never forget your first!

MEMG: You never forget your first, that’s very true! So Bebop is a huge place in my heart and Ghost in the Shell as an actor, I think that put me on the map as an actor and I loved playing Motoko Kusanagi. But there is so many, there’s something wonderful about everything I got a chance to direct. I feel really lucky! And voice act as well! I would say those two! I am directing a new show for Disney XD called Pen Zero: Part Time Hero and that’s such an honor to work on with this amazing cast so I…it’s coming out the end of the year beginning of next year.

 

Gondras: Can you give us any details like is it animated, live action?

MEMG: It’s an original show, it’s not anime…

Gondras: No no, I mean is it like one Disney’s animated or are they doing it with a live-action cast?

MEMG: Oh, it’s going to be an animated series!

Gondras: Okay then!

MBC: Ah!

MEMG: It’s starring Adam Divine, Thomas Middlevich, Alfred Molina, Larry Willmore, it’s a really good cast and so it should be great fun!

MBC: Yeah, Disney is well known for all that!

MEMG: Yeah definitely! It’s my first show with Disney so I’m really thrilled!

MBC: I guess we’ll check it out!

MEMG: Yeah I hope so!

Gondras: You said it premieres in the fall right?

MEMG: They’re doing a Christmas episode, our Christmas episode will be in the fall and will start premiering in January!

Gondras: All right! We will be keeping an eye out for it!

 

 

MBC: Which work would you direct again and which character would you voice again if you had…

Gondras: If you had the option to ever revisit a particular series which one…which one would you do if you had a chance to revisit?

MEMG: Well that would mean I was really unhappy with what I did the first time. ::laughs a little:: I would think!

Gondras: Not necessarily that! Just to go and play those characters again like if they announced a sequel to it, like another Ghost in the Shell series…

MEMG: Oh! I would love that!

MBC: Or .hack if they bring Helba…

MEMG: I would love to be Helba again that would be great! I would love to have them to explore the relationships between Vincent and Spike and Julia if they ever do a prequel to Cowboy Bebop, to hear about that relationship! I think that would be really fun

 

MBC: You sing songs for the Silent Hill series…

MEMG: Yeah!

MBC: how did it feel to sing for those games?

MEMG: It was amazing! Akira Yamaoka is just a genious and Joa Mercer’s lyrics…it was so much fun! We go in once a year and record four songs and learn them in a week and go in and record them. It was so much fun to hear what Akira had come up with for the next game because we seem to do one like every year!And now we have a chance to go out and play together We’re playing San Japan next weekend in San Antonio and then we’re going back to Mexico City in November. I love love love singing those songs because there’s a lot of acting involved with them too. So, it’s great fun!

MBC: Yeah, I saw your performance with Troy Baker last night! It was awesome!

MEMG: Thank you so much!Yeah Troy is one of my dear friends and to get to play with him acoustic is great because when we’re in concert we tend to do the songs sort of the same way we recorded them so to get up there onstage and have it broken down with guitar and two voices was thrilling we really got to play “Frozen Rain” and “Your Rain.” So, yeah it was great fun and so glad you enjoyed it!

MBC: No problem!

 

MBC: Since you revealed the work you’rre doing with Disney XD, are there any other works?

Gondras: You can talk about?

MEMG: We’re finishing up the first season of Tenkai Knights, which is a great show I’m doing with Spin Masters, it’s on Cartoon Network now, the cast is fantastic! Todd Habercorn, Bryce Pappenbrook…

MBC: Kyle Hebert

MEMG: Kyle Hebert, Johnny Yong Bosh, um who’s our other guy, oh, Ben Diskin, Steven Blum, Crispin Freeman. It’s a great great cast and I love the show, it’s really funny and Spin Masters is really great to work for!

Gondras: Do you know if the show’s going to be premiering on the Adult Swim, like the Toonami/Adult Swim block, or is it going to be playing during the regular Cartoon Network block?

MEMG: Oh, it’s already airing on Cartoon Network right now! On the regular Cartoon Network!

Gondras: On the daytime!

MEMG: Yeah!

Gondras: I see!

MEMG: That’s really fun and of course Naruto’s still going on!

MBC: Oh yeah!

MEMG: It’s still going on and on and on!

MBC: Oh yeah, especially with the new game that’s coming out in September?

MEMG: Yeah!

MBC: We’re pre-ordering it for the PS3 right now.

MEMg: Oh good! Awesome!

Gondras: I’m a little sad that your character, Kurenai, has been pushed off to the side a little bit!

MEMG: I know! I feel that way too but I play a new Lady Mizukage which I love! She might be my favorite character I’ve done on Naruto, I love her and great fun!

 

We did end the interview with talking about Mahle Flannigan, the voice of Naruto, since the newest Ultimate Ninja Storm is coming out and having Mecha Naruto as one of the things in it, I did mention how I got to meet her last year since I couldn’t find anyone to get my Naruto items signed by her. And Mary Elizabeth was right about her, she is very generous!

 

Well, that is it for all of my interviews from MetroCon 2014! I did enjoy getting to talk to Dante, Richard, Mary, and Troy one on one when it comes to their work! Hoping next year there will be more people coming to the convention that I can interview and bring their conversations to Nerdy Shique Universe!

 

What is next for Press? MythiCon 2014! I managed to get press passes for this one and glad to do it for their second year at the Double Tree! So, stay tuned for that and see who I will be interviewing there!

 

What is up for now for Nerdy Shique Universe? Next up is a nice little post I was inspired by my make up look for my .hack character, which you can see those pictures in my first two interviews from Metro, which is the Best Drugstore Make Up for Cosplay! Also, will be doing What’s In the Ipsy bag since I joined their subscription service and not sure if I will put up a collective haul since I been getting a few products here and there! And of course, my July and August Favorites for this year! Stay tuned for all of that for the rest of August and stay tuned for my MythiCon stuff in September!

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by moonleopard85 on August 13, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 13, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/13/metrocon-interview-with-mary-elizabeth-mcglynn/

MetroCon: Interview With Troy Baker

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! As my interviews are still rolling along from MetroCon, now it’s time for a guest I wanted to meet for years and his name is Troy Baker! I remembered first hearing Troy’s voice as Archer in the original FullMetal Alchemist anime and then later as younger Etcarto in Glass Fleet! He has a major long list of roles such as Excalibur in Soul Eater, Jenos Hazzard, from Black Cat, and one of the voice options for the President of the United Saints in Saints Row 4! I was happy to interview him at MetroCon and in case you guys went to AFO and found that he wasn’t there, you get to see what I asked him!

 

(When I did the tag line, he went “TADA!” Decided to put that as a note!)

 

Mari Blue Cat: You’ve probably been to a lot of conventions across the United States,

How does it feel to be in Florida for one?

Troy Baker: Oh my gosh! It’s been a while since I’ve been back in Florida! First time here in Tampa. I love seeing cons grow and it’s always…I’m a nerd it’s always fun hanging out with my fellow nerds and it’s…with theater you get this instant response to something you’ve done and this is like our delayed response we’re in. We get to see the response to something we’ve participated in and how has it resonated with people and it’s fuel man, it gives you that juice when you see something that you’ve done is really meant something to somebody and they care enough to tell you that and that’s something that I like about coming to these conventions!

 

MBC: How does it feel to meet fans that like your work?

TB: Same thing, it’s humbling! As trite as it sounds when…it’s crazy it increasingly more and more…I remembered first Persona 4 playing Kanji, it was the first time someone told me how it hit them on a emotional level, which is funny, Persona 4 is just a mad cap game but we started creating characters that spoke to a lot of people and when you have people come up to you and say “Hey, this game, this character gave me the strength to come out because I’ve been wrestling with this myself!” That’s pretty intense, it happened to Ashley Johnson with ellie as well! Several people came up to her and said “If I played this game ten years ago, you know my life would be so much easier!” And I think the reason why…I mean books, games, there’s books, tv shows, and films, they resonate with people but there is something specific about a game that really resonates with people because it’s so emersive and you’re that character, you’re not just watching you’re participating in it. And so when we hear first hand from people how what we done has really spoken to them or move them that’s always kind of part of the job, y’know?

 

MBC: You’ve been in cartoons, video games, and anime, which one do you prefer recording the most?

TB: Anytime you get a chance to work that’s a win. I kind of count my blessings! In each one it kind of requires a certain skill set. Like when we do Avengers, it’s more like radio play, it’s a fun process because everybody in there is just stupidly talented. You’re working with like Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Roger Craig Smith, Fred Tadashore, Adrian Passtar, it’s just fun and we feel like a family! We’re in a second season now and everyone is just so second hand with each other. Then you get opportunities like The Last of Us or Shadow of Mordore, which is coming out, or Far Cry 4 which is full performance capture and it’s like doing theater but with very cinematic film performances. So really each kind of thing keeps me sharp! Anime is one of the hardest things you can do because you have a finite amount of space to translate a thought from a different language to a new language but still convey that thought with the same amount of passion and figure that was originally intended by the writers and directors, so each one has its specific challenges and kind of has its own reward!

 

 

MBC: Yeah, because I interviewed at Omni Expo and they’re like “Oh, we have a hard time matching flaps!” Getting the recording done and all that. Trying to do everything!

Gondras: Another challenge can be if the language you’re translating into doesn’t have an equivalent phrase!

TB: Absolutely! That happens a lot of times like well what they mean is! It’s not really translating the words, which you would see a lot of times with some subs, they want to stick to the letter and you lose intention, you know, “You’re a son of a goat!” It’s like that doesn’t mean much in the English language.

Gondras: Well just the fact that the Japanese have distinct words or phrases for “I love you!”

MBC and TB: Yep!

Gondras: There’s the common “daisuki” which is the common you like someone, you’re attracted to them, the “ishiteru” which is the more familiar “I love you” kind of serious thing, and there is the “koishiteru” which is the “I want to spend the rest of my life with you!”

TB: Right!

Gondras: All three things which we have one phrase for “I love you!”

TB: Right!

MBC: Mmhmm!

 

MBC: Out of all the characters you’ve played, which one would you play again?

TB: Any of them! Yeah, I mean again you’re talking about characters you live with and it’s some way it becomes a part of you. You leave them there, but anytime you get a chance to work it’s a giftbut to be able to revisit some characters, I wouldn’t do anything differently just because, for good or for bad, the performances are for what they are and if people didn’t like it, I wonder why so I can learn from it. If tthey didn’t like it I wouldn’t want to try and change it to rob someone else from the experience.But anytime I get a chance to work again as a character then that’s a win!

Gondras: If they just suddenly announce another Persona4 sequel or another Persona sequel and Kanji was going to be a guest character or something, you love the chance to…

TB: If I could, yeah, absolutely!

MBC: Or do another Disgaea 4 and do…

Gondras: as Valvetorres.

TB: Yeah! Absolutely!

 

MBC: I know I read on Google that you’re going to be the villain in Far Cry 4?

TB: Mmhmm!

MBC: How does it feel to be a villain again for that?

TB: What I love about what they’re doing in Far Cry 4 is… clearly Far Cry 3 was very successful and got “Game of the Year” and Blood Dragon DLC did really really well, and when you have a character like Vas, which he wasn’t the main villain he was just a side character. He was so compelling to watch. The temptation in the trap that you can easily fall into was “Let’s recreate that, let’s do it again!” And what I really applaud the guy at UV Soft for doing is saying, “We’re not going to do that! We’re going to come up with an equally compelling villain that doesn’t hit the same notes and we don’t follow the same formula!” And we really spend time really crafting that character and they’re really open enough and cool enough to come to me and let me have some cool, creative input into it and he’s dangerous, he’s fun as hell to play! And I’m a Far Cry fan too so it’s going to feel like a Far Cry game, it’s blowing stuff up and tigers and elephants and everything in the jungle. But it still has a good story to it as well!

 

 

MBC: I actually asked Chris Patton this, do you like recording as heroes or villains more?

TB: I love recording good characters! I don’t care what side of the law they’re on. It’s…

Gondras: Just oddly interesting can you have fun with them thing.

TB: Yeah! Absolutely! That’s a good way of putting it!

 

MBC: Would you cosplay as one of your characters though?

TB: Someone asked me that at a panel! It’s so weird because if I were to pick anyone I would pick the Joker because he has just great style! But, that’s one thing I see when I come to cons is that how good my cosplay would be, I see some people who really have it down and able to pull off really good costumes! I wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with those people who’s really good at it!

MBC: Right!

Gondras: Of course what you could do is come in as the President of the Saints!

TB: That would be good! We did a panel at San Diego ComiCon and I wore a little purple suit for that! That was fun!

Gondras: Yeah exactly! Because you customize the character you can just go “I made this version of the boss when I played the game and I made him look like me!”

TB: Nolan cosplays as himself all the time, he was in Saints Row 4. Cool!

 

MBC: Are there any new projects you can talk about?

TB: Yeah! Absolutely! This year we have Shadow of mordore which comes out October 7th which is the Lord of the Rings game, which I’m really really happy about!

Gondras: Looked pretty good! I’m interested to give it a try!

TB: It is not only look pretty but it’s running on next gen, it looks gorgeous! The world is huge! It’s like Sky Rim on crack as far as the emerging game play! Because how you choose…the style you play is not just button mashing Assassins Creed Calibur Strike. There is one thing called Shadow Strike, I think I’m getting it right, it is an incredible way to traverse and it is an incredible way of attack. The way you play determines how the world plays out and that effects the story, which I really really love! It’s literally one of those games you can play over and over again and get a different experience each time! I’m really excited to play that! And Far Cry 4 which comes out November 18th! Call of Duty 4: Advanced Warfare, which I got do with Kevin Spacey, it was fun! That’ll be out as well!

MBC: I know my nephews will be getting that one!

TB: What is cool is that it’s..their new messaging is really smart because it’s a new era for Call of Duty and what they’re really wanting to do is something different and whether you’re a fan of Call of Duty or not this is one you want to pick up!

 

Well, that is it for this interview! I found this one pretty informational like Chris Patton’s interview and it was great to have a chance to sit down with Troy Baker like this since I never got to meet him and this was one step beyond just an autograph! I did get my FullMetal Autograph, Excalibur plush, both Vampire Knight seasons, and Glass Fleet signed by him and it did surprise him that I was the only one who brought Glass Fleet for him to sign. I did almost bring my Black Cat wallscroll but with all the stuff we were bringing and the weapon props being carried Friday, it was too much. Who knows if Metro will bring him back, I hope they do because it was awesome finally meeting him. I did forget to mention that Gondras was with me for this interview and Mary Elizabeth’s interview as well and he did tell him about our wedding theme since Gondras is planning to do Valvetorres while I’m doing Rosalin for it. He did love the idea like Grant George!

 

So, the final interview is Mary Elizabeth McGlynn!

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by moonleopard85 on August 9, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 9, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/09/metrocon-interview-with-troy-baker/

MetroCon: Richard Epcar Interview!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Continuing with my interviews, I interviewed Richard Epcar during MetroCon this year! As one of the bigger names in anime, you may have heard him as Etemon, MetalEtemon, and Myotismon in Digimon Adventure 1 and of course MiloMyotismon and his host character in Adventure 2 but the voice you may remember him the most as Bato in Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex! Plus he also directed a lot of anime and video games on top of it. Man, he has a huge belt and major long nose hairs! So, what did I ask him?

Me and Richard Epcar

Me and Richard Epcar

Mari Blue Cat: You have been a director and an anime voice actor, how did you become a fan of the entire genre?

Richard Epcar: I am a fan of certain shows. I enjoy certainly the stuff I’ve worked on, so I got exposed to it through that. I did as a kid seen Speed Racer and Gigantor and and a few of those shows, which I wound up working on those actually which was kind of funny! I don’t know if that I was a big fan of this stuff until I started working on it. So…like Ghost in the Shell is a very cool show, there are a lot of these shows…the thing I love about the anime is that it pushes the envelope. It’s not formulaic like American animation, it asks a lot of questions and a lot of interesting questions and goes places that our animation never did before, I found that pretty fascinating!

MBC: Yeah, Matthew Mercer and I have talked about how the different storytelling it has.

RE: Yeah, it’s pretty interesting stuff!

MBC: I know it’s kind of weird to ask but how did you meet Ellyn?

RE: It’s one of those bizarre stories. It’s a little a kin to one of the animes I work on and knowing these different universes that happen simultaneously and the reason that I bring that up is that is because basically what happened was basically I had a friend of mine…when I first came to town, I sold my drum set for $300 and came to LA with $300 in my pocket and didn’t know anybody and I’ve done pretty well considering but I was taking out the trash out one day in my apartment and my buddy was there and said “What are you doing today?” And he said, “I’m going to this theater to audition!” And I said “Do you mind if I tag along?” We knew each other from college. So I went and auditioned at this theater company and Ellyn was there, that is how I met her and saw her there! I was smitten with her immediately and she was dating some other guy at the time and I had to kind of wait for her to come to her senses. That is how we met, we got together and doing plays together and then started doing voice work together and then directing together and then had a company we run together and so we have been doing stuff for a very long time. Long time! ::laughs a bit::

MBC: I know you do the directing and voice work thing, which one do you prefer the most?

RE: I love them both! I got through periods where I direct a lot and don’t do much voice work and it drives me crazy and then I go through periods of doing a lot of the other one, doing a lot of voice work and not a lot of directing. I do enjoy doing them both a lot and I feel that they’re both similar as far as they’re coming from creatively, but I do enjoy them a lot! I really do like to be…you know I’m an actor, I consider myself as an actor and I also consider myself as a director, it’s kind of a weird thing but I do enjoy both very much!

MBC: You do a lot of characters according to Anime News Network, which one would you voice work again and which anime would you direct again?

RE: Well, the directing one I had blast working on was Lupin III. That was really a lot of fun and would love to do another version of itagain, an incarnation of it and playing Jigan again, he was a lot of fun. Love doing Jigan, love doing Bato, you know Joker’s a great character, I would love to do him and a bunch of other video games and hoping to do an anime series with him in it. He is just a great character, a lot of fun. Yeah, it’s all great! I’ve been very, very lucky. I’ve been doing this for thirty years and have worked constantly and always get to do a lot of fun characters, a lot of different things, you know it’s always fun. I’m always the fortunate ones!

MBC: What has been the funniest thing that happened in the booth?

RE: ::laughs a bit:: This is my go to story with this. I had this friend of mine who is this voice guy. He always loves to fart in the booth, he always thinks it’s hilarious!

MBC: Oh jeez! ::giggle::

RE: He was in the booth one time and farting up a storm; there was one guy in the booth and we were doing some WALA, which means there’s a bunch of us doing a lot of crowd sounds and a lot of stuff, everytime when tthis guy would fart this other guy would laugh like a hyena and I thought and said, “I’m in hell~! This must be hell!” That was kind of a funny thing, I don’t know how much funny things we…we have a lot of fun and we laugh a lot, especially when I’m directing we have a lot of fun. I like to have everybody to enjoy themselves! I could feel as a director that your actors are loose then they’re going to be more creative and have more fun and instead of some of these directors who are iron fisted and yell at their actors, I think that it has the opposite effect on an actor, it makes them clam up and not do their best work so I don’t think they’re doing their actors any favors. I try to keep everything pretty loose and fun and we’re always having a good time when I’m directing and always laugh a lot.

MBC: I know you do the entire outtakes panel…

RE:Yes, which we’re not able to do here it’s a G-Rated convention.

MBC: Family oriented.

RE: People enjoy those, they’re a lot of fun! MBC: I was going to ask if you still doing those because I went to the one at AFO 2012 actually!

RE: Did I show them there?

MBC: Uh yeah!

RE: Did you laugh?

MBC: Yes!

RE: ::laughs::

MBC: Of course! Me and my fiance were in the crowd and enjoying that!

RE: It’s a lot of fun! We have a lot of fun and it’s a lot of fun for us to come up with this stuff y’know, it makes us laugh! I laugh, I seen them a hundred times and still laugh at them. I still enjoy them. It’s still a lot of fun, it’s too bad we can’t show them here, I completely understand why they don’t want them to show.

MBC: Are there any new projects you can talk about?

RE: Well, I’m the Joker in this new Infinite Crisis that’s coming out online. It’s an online game, it’s a lot of fun! And I’m the new Joseph joestar in the new Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure which I’m really excited about! I’m the narrator in the new Bayonata! We did the game before and now they’re doing…

MBC: A sequel!

RE: I am the narrator in that and people are excited about that!

MBC: Yeah because E3 announced the sequel to it finally and the Wii-U is picking them up.

RE: Right, I’m the narrator. In the original I was actually nominated for an award for that so it was kinda cool, I didn’t win it but it was really cool that they nominated me for that. And what else? There are a lot of other cool things coming up, I co-directed Arcum Origins which is a big game, biggest Batman game that Warner Brothers has ever ddone. I played three characters in that. So, it’s been great! We’ve been very busy and working a lot and doing a lot of different projects.

MBC: Who were you in Arcum Origins?

RE: I was a guy named Marcos, they’re all bad guys, I played a SWAT guy, he’s a bad guy! They’re all bad guys except for Batman in that.

MBC: Pretty much!

RE: I was also Judge Harkens in that.It’s hard to remember, so many characters. I’ve done about 400 characters and it’s hard to remember them all!

MBC: I remembered Troy Baker was the Joker int hat one.

RE: He was the Joker in that one and Roger Craig Smith was Batman in that one and it was very cool that they rebooted their story much like the new Star Trek in rebooting their story with a new cast, that is that’s what they kind of did with that! And then Batman and Joker were in their twenties in that and wanted younger voices for that.

MBC: I guess it makes sense.

RE: I guess so. And there’s other things going on with Mortal Kombat and other things I can’t talk about. There is a lot of cool stuff coming out!

We did talk about other things that dealt with E3 and how excited he was to talk about the stuff during his time there last year but couldn’t tell anybody! I even mentioned how Matthew Mercer was talking about the same thing during my interview with him and Richard did tell me that he will be one of the characters in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure which sounds pretty cool! I will keep a look out for it since I did see the first three episodes in Japanese during the Propeller Best of 2012! And if you guys go to any convention where Richard Epcar has his outtakes panel it is something to see! So, look out for all the stuff above!

Who’s next? Troy Baker!

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by moonleopard85 on August 8, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 8, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/08/metrocon-richard-epcar-interview/

MetroCon: Interview with Dante Basco

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! So it’s time to start my MetroCon interview series! This year I had more than two interviews and man it went fast even though they were timed, but hey I still kept them in the limit! Let’s get this thing started with Dante Basco! You may know him as the title character, Jake Long, American Dragon Jake Long back on Disney Channel and Rufio from Hook and of course, Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender! I was glad to interview him and meet him for the first time since it was his second year at MetroCon and he was at KnightroKon this year as well. What did I ask him?

 

Me and Dante Basco.

Me and Dante Basco.

Mari Blue Cat: You have been at MetroCon here in Tampa, how does it feel to be back?

Dante Basco: It’s awesome! My first thing I got off the plane was “Wow! It’s really been a year since MetroCon?” So crazy, it’s actually pretty cool since I’m new to the con world!

MBC: Right!

DB: And this is actually the first con I’ve done more than once! So it’s kinda nice to be back and see a lot of familiar faces and catch up like if anyone got married in the last year, people had like a kid in the last year. It’s a cool experience the other side of the con world…the familial side of it, the parrrt of it where con folk are some kind of family kind of people that are in this con world! I met some people from other cons that go to other cons and other kind of stuff, that’s always fun! And coming back to MetroCon a year later is cool and I kinda know what I’m doing this time.

 

MBC: I have heard that you were at ShadowCon and also KnightroKon!

DB: KnightroKon in Orlando that’s what you’re talking about?

MBC: Mmhmm!

DB: Exactly! I asked someone “Why is there so many cons in Florida? So crazy!”

MBC: Yeah, Orlando just started a new one called Omni Expo and it was the same weekend as Florida Anime Experience!

DB: Well, Florida, Orlando in particular, loves theme parks and cons I guess! ::laughs a little::

MBC: Mmhmm! Chris Patton, one of the guests at Omni Expo, was like “I’m back in Orlando and I get to go to Disney again!”

DB: A con is like a theme park without the rides. I guess the talent is the rides I guess!

MBC: Pretty much!

DB: To a certain degree!

MBC: Yeah, I’ve been a convention goer since ’05 so I know the feeling!

 

MBC: So, what has been your favorite convention experience?

DB: I don’t know! I’m still pretty new to it, I guess they’re all fun! Metro was like my first con in America, one of my first cons in America, [and] Uruguay. Really I’ve been doing cons since last year! Of course, the first one here and have been some out of the country. The travel, this is the first one in America, which is pretty much your favorite one. I still gotta get my bearings…they all have different things about them you know, it’s a hard question! I remembered in Oklahoma was a con it was out in, you know Tampa is a big city and these cons are usually in bigger cities, when you go to cons in these smaller cities it’s more intimate con situation.

MBC: Yeah!

DB: It’s a different experience, we’re in this one hotel where we’re drinking meats with the actors and directors and the con is happening all around us…not during but after hours where we see all the people, you kind of get the feel of the part of the con in a unique and strange way!

 

MBC: Have you been a convention attendee before you became famous?

DB: Nope! I think I started going to ComiCon in San Diego about seven or eight years ago! I started going because we were doing press for Avatar: The Last Airbender and that kind of stuff. So, I’ll go back there and do panels there. I did do one day though as a con attendee, which was a great experience because a friend of mine out in L. A. is a big toy collector so he gets tickets to ComiCon and was like “Let’s go!” So, I just went there with him and just did the lines and ran around early to get the toys that he wanted to get and get an education side of the toy side of cons.

MBC: Especially with figures…

DB: Figures, limited stuff, there’s websites for all this stuff, you get this thing and you buy it for this. They get this to sell on EBay, this is free, you gotta get tickets for this, it was kind of a crazy experience, it was fun to experience it like that! Standing in line with people and hanging out you know! Forty five minutes in line and have someone go “Hey aren’t you?” And I’m like “yeah! Yeah!”

MBC: It’s like “Shhh! Don’t tell anybody!”

DB: Yeah, no, we’re just hanging out! ComiCon San Diego is so big and crazy you just get lost in the crazy and melee of it!

 

MBC: What was the funniest thing that a fan brought you to sign or as a gift?

DB: One of my favorite and funniest things was a girl from here, last year, named Momo, I think she’s coming back this year, she made me these rubber duckies of all my characters. Super cool! She wrote me online saying she had something new but she didn’t want to reveal it online. I can’t wait! Last year, she had the rubber duckie of Rufio, a rubber duckie of Zuko, a rubber duckie of Jake Long, and a rubber duckie of Iro the 2nd. I Iro hadn’t even come out yet, I don’t know, I was like “Really? That’s really cool!” So cool!

\

MBC: Do you miss American Dragon Jake Long?

DB: Yeah! I love that guy! He’s a great character, a great show! We had such a great time doing it! Me and May, D’Magio, the wwhole crew is cool! The first series, that was so fun. In a lot of ways I love Zuko, I love Rufio, but just me walking around like a grown up Jake Long really.

 

MBC: If they made a sequel to Jake Long would you come back for it?

DB: Yeah maybe? My voice does sound the same!

MBC: Yeah it does actually!

DB; ::laughs::

MBC: You kind of go deeper for Zuko!

DB: Yeah, maybe something like that! Maybe I thought younger when I was Jake!

MBC: Yeah, unless they make him teenager or grown up Jake!

 

MBC: What has been your favorite episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender as Zuko?

DB: So many cool episodes, right? I don’t know, thinking back on it I loved the episode with my father when he gets scarred. I love the episode where he goes on a date, Zuko, I love seeing the colors in that character. It’s awesome! I love all the episodes with Azula because she’s one of my favorite characters and working with Grey is amazing! I love that relationship between Zuko and Azula, it’s kinda like this dysfunctional, sibling rivalry. Almost deadly, so I love that and her banter’s always great.

 

MBC: Are there any other characters you like besides Zuko?

DB: Yeah! Azula is one of my favorite characters! I love Saka, he’s a very character! I like all the characters, you know? Kaetara’s great, May’s a great friend I always love seeing her do her work and that character is very interesting. Uncle Iro with Mako, all the characters are so amazing!

 

MBC: I know you work with so many voice actors that are famous like Mark Hammel, Grey Desole, even Steven J. Blum for Legend of Kora, how does it feel to work with them?

DB: I am just in awe when I’m working with them! Sometimes you’re really thankful that you’re in the same room with these people! Mega talented, in the presence of these people. Like I said, I come from on-screen. Happy that people enjoy my voice acting work and when I get hired to do voice acting, I’m always like, “Thank you!” It’s not something I take for granted. It’s something that I celebrate the people that are amazing at the casts that you just mentioned!

 

MBC: What has been the funniest thing that happened in the booth?

DB: I don’t know! There’s always shenanigans going on there! Funny? It’s just the people you’re with like Grey Delisle, John D’Magio they’re really funny in the booth, Kevin Michael Richardson, they’re really entertaining. In specific, it’s hard to say, a lot of times in the booth we’re talking and we’re doing the characters and we’re doing our scene and people are talking about their lives and people are commenting on their lives, it turns into a whole therapy session which is hilarious. About relationships and family. It’s always fun! It becomes this very big family thing!

 

MBC: I hear that people cosplay as Rufio in the convention scene today, how do you feel about that?

DB: They’re cool. I never thought of doing it that people would cosplaying the character, you know? You’re kind of doing the character. Start seeing people cosplaying as Rufio for their Halloween costume and now being in the convention scene, I’ve seen the most amazing Rufio cosplayers. I think they’re doing amazing jobs, I love how people put the detail into it and they write me on Tumblr or what not and question me about the costume, which is great. I get a kick out of girls cosplay as Rufio. Gender bender is cool!

 

MBC: Are there any new projects that you can talk about?

DB: Animated wise, not really there are some video games I’m coming out in. There’s a new character in a new original series that you can’t really talk about! It will be coming out! And of course the last season of Legend of Kora is coming out, which just started! All that stuff is pretty cool. I can’t talk about that stuff because of NDAs. And beyond that, there’s things I’m shooting, there’s a fresh company in Hawaii called Conectic Films, we’re doing a lot of Asian Pacific Island films.

MBC: Really!?

DB: Yeah, we just done one called Hang Loose with me and Kevin Jum which is on ITunes right now! You can download it right now, it’s called hang loose! And I co-write that one! I have another that we just finished called Man Up and Paradise Broken and then I finished co-writing a film called Red Roses for a kid called Adra Rafael which is a YouTube singer, it’s a musical based off his first album and hoping that we film that before the end of the year. And I’m doing a play called Midnight Make Out Session I wrote in downtown La, for people in LA, it is going to have a cool, little run at the end of summer.

 

(Note: Couldn’t hear the name of the YouTube singer, but keep a look out for the musical!)

 

MBC: I guess you like writing a lot!

DB: Yeah, acting, writing, you know it’s a part of the creative process. Trying to be expressive!

 

Well, that was it for my interview with Dante Basco! It was awesome that I got to interview him since I was a fan of American Dragon Jake Long and did enjoy watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and if only I can catch more episodes of Legend of Kora I would be happy but Nickelodeon has this weird thing of showing episodes out of order and at weird times. Still, it was great interviewing the guy and actually meeting him. What was also great was he also asked me questions about my visual impairment before and after the interview, he even thought the Braille Sense was a pretty nice invention and did ask me about how hard it was learning Braille. So, it wasn’t just an interview with him but also an interview with me which was fun! Hoping he comes back to Orlando or Tampa in the next year or so.

 

Who is next? Richard Epcar!

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by moonleopard85 on August 8, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions, Uncategorized

Posted by moonleopard85 on August 8, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/08/08/metrocon-interview-with-dante-basco/

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