Cosplay questions: specifically, buying contacts
Through magic and mayhem, I managed to get to the Ellipsis meeting yesterday. Never mind that it was just Mandy and me; it counts as a meeting! I'm remaking the Natalia shirt because the original left much to be desired. Zelly and I got a new pattern for the shirt before we moved to Beaverton, and I'm just now making use of that pattern. It's a turtleneck pattern, unlike the original, so it's designed to have a high neck set in it, rather than having to redraft an entire pattern for the neck and for the seam between neck and shoulder. So far, the shirt looks much better with the new pattern. We'll see if I say the same thing after I get home from Mandy's again later this evening.
I'd put progress on my Natalia cosplay at about fifty or sixty percent still, though. I've picked out the wig (it's here) and I've been looking at inexpensive non-prescription green contacts. There are periodic sales posted in cosplay, and I usually ignore them, but this time I clicked the link and looked through the site's selections. I'm leaning towards CandyOps since their prices are reasonable, and I could afford the shipping. The only reason I'd rather order offline than go to the local businesses that sell costume contacts is bad customer service experiences with the local places. Joker's Wild, for example. I've had downright rude service there, and so have several of my friends. I bought my Hyuuga Hinata contacts there, but they were expensive and the service wasn't worth it. I'd rather buy offline. There are virtually no customer service interactions that way.
Does anyone have experience ordering contacts offline? And what was your experience like?
If it helps, I'm just ordering green contacts. Not anything fancy - nothing like the blank white I had for Hinata, and nothing unnatural, so it's not difficult to find a green color I like. Also, I'd like them to be prescription, but I can live without. I'm farsighted with different astigmatism in each eye so I can generally see well enough to walk around for four days without my glasses (I just can't drive or operate machinery, like in prescription medication commercials!) or without contacts, which is what I did for Atoli - and my Hinata contacts were not prescription, either. Maybe it sounds like I'm being a cheapskate, but I'd rather not pay out the ass for prescription contacts when I can survive without them and just put my glasses back on when I'm in my hotel room or going to drive somewhere. However, if I can get an inexpensive prescription lens, like the ones they have at the CandyOps site (they sell GEO lenses), I'd go that route rather than going through my eye doctor and paying more than I can really afford. In the end, it's cosplay, not daily wear; I can't afford to pay as if I'm getting the contacts to wear every day.
The ones I like best are here. I like CM-903 because I like the greater yellow tones in the green; Natalia's eyes have less blue in them, and I want as green as I can get. I also like CM-833. They're the same price ($15), which is, I think, insanely cheap. I do like CH-623 better than CM-833, but they're not available in prescription, so if I wanted to get prescription lenses, I couldn't get CH-623. Still, my favorite is CM-903. I think they have the most color depth and their green is closest to Natalia's eye color.
l_a_n_g_e_r, and anyone else who's into cosplay or who's in Ellipsis, if you're reading this, what do you think about the contacts issue? (I already know l_a_n_g_e_r's opinion on the wig, but if anyone else has thoughts, share them! ^_^)
Kind of a random quotation for today, I know, but I felt like it:
"It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence."
I'd put progress on my Natalia cosplay at about fifty or sixty percent still, though. I've picked out the wig (it's here) and I've been looking at inexpensive non-prescription green contacts. There are periodic sales posted in cosplay, and I usually ignore them, but this time I clicked the link and looked through the site's selections. I'm leaning towards CandyOps since their prices are reasonable, and I could afford the shipping. The only reason I'd rather order offline than go to the local businesses that sell costume contacts is bad customer service experiences with the local places. Joker's Wild, for example. I've had downright rude service there, and so have several of my friends. I bought my Hyuuga Hinata contacts there, but they were expensive and the service wasn't worth it. I'd rather buy offline. There are virtually no customer service interactions that way.
Does anyone have experience ordering contacts offline? And what was your experience like?
If it helps, I'm just ordering green contacts. Not anything fancy - nothing like the blank white I had for Hinata, and nothing unnatural, so it's not difficult to find a green color I like. Also, I'd like them to be prescription, but I can live without. I'm farsighted with different astigmatism in each eye so I can generally see well enough to walk around for four days without my glasses (I just can't drive or operate machinery, like in prescription medication commercials!) or without contacts, which is what I did for Atoli - and my Hinata contacts were not prescription, either. Maybe it sounds like I'm being a cheapskate, but I'd rather not pay out the ass for prescription contacts when I can survive without them and just put my glasses back on when I'm in my hotel room or going to drive somewhere. However, if I can get an inexpensive prescription lens, like the ones they have at the CandyOps site (they sell GEO lenses), I'd go that route rather than going through my eye doctor and paying more than I can really afford. In the end, it's cosplay, not daily wear; I can't afford to pay as if I'm getting the contacts to wear every day.
The ones I like best are here. I like CM-903 because I like the greater yellow tones in the green; Natalia's eyes have less blue in them, and I want as green as I can get. I also like CM-833. They're the same price ($15), which is, I think, insanely cheap. I do like CH-623 better than CM-833, but they're not available in prescription, so if I wanted to get prescription lenses, I couldn't get CH-623. Still, my favorite is CM-903. I think they have the most color depth and their green is closest to Natalia's eye color.
l_a_n_g_e_r, and anyone else who's into cosplay or who's in Ellipsis, if you're reading this, what do you think about the contacts issue? (I already know l_a_n_g_e_r's opinion on the wig, but if anyone else has thoughts, share them! ^_^)
Kind of a random quotation for today, I know, but I felt like it:
"It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence."