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Cosplay makeup hack: How to bring anime sparkle to your eyes

Oona McGee Nov 2, 2021
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Sailor Moon is here to give us a tutorial in transformation magic!

Throughout October, our resident cosplay and makeup expert Natsuki Gojo has been giving us styling tips for nailing Halloween cosplay…even if, in these pandemic times, you’ve got a mask covering up half your face.

For her final instalment in the series, Natsuki is sharing some tips that’ll last us well beyond Halloween, as it’s all about perfecting big, sparkly manga/anime eyes. And to show us how it’s done, she’s dressing up as one of her all-time favourite characters, Sailor Moon.

Natsuki says the first thing to keep in mind for any magical girl transformation is that makeup has the power to change not just your appearance but also your state of mind, making it a vital component of getting into character. And one of the most important points to remember is to always choose makeup shades that match the colour of the wig you’ll be wearing.

To match her golden locks, Natsuki chose: golden shades for her eyebrow powder and mascara (top left), brown and white liquid eyeliners (top middle), warm brown and glittery eyeshadows (top right), brown fake lashes (bottom left), and powders for shading, which can be in brown hues to match your skin (bottom right).

To help create the illusion of big, anime eyes, it’s best to attach false lashes over both the top and bottom lashes. For natural-looking top lashes, opt for the ones that add oomph to the outer corner of the eyes, and to increase the size of your eyes, make sure the lower lashes are a pinky shade of brown.

To add extra sparkle and largeness to the eyes, Natsuki used the eyeshadow shades marked with stars below. She blended the top three warm brown shadows over her eyelid, gradating them for a natural look, before adding the glittery shadows in special sections for extra sparkle.

The brown liner was used to add definition to the top lid, while the white liner was used on her waterline to make her eyes appear larger. Be sure to attach your lower lashes under your natural ones, to make the gap between your eye and lashes seem even bigger, and then add the glittery shadows to three special sections around your eye (circled below).

▼ By adding sparkle in these areas, you’ll be able to draw people’s eyes away from your eyeball, making it appear even larger.

A secret hack to nailing the anime-eye look is to use an eyeshadow with finer glitter on the inner corner of the eye and the centre of the upper eyelid, and an eyeshadow with larger glitter underneath the eye.

Another hack for mask-wearing cosplayers is to remember to shade the sides of your nose to make it appear smaller, just as you would when revealing your entire face. As the top part of your nose is still visible when wearing a mask, this is an important point to bring the whole look together.

▼ Adding blue-coloured contact lenses completes the transformation sequence!

Natsuki’s eyes are always beautiful with or without makeup, but now they display a special magic that gives her the power of the moon!

According to Natsuki, there’s quite a lot of makeup needed to master this look, as well as some application know-how, but once you’ve tried it a few times, the whole process becomes a lot faster and easier to handle.

Now that she’s tried her hand at masked Sailor Moon cosplay, she’s keen to take her look outdoors, and she knows exactly where she’ll be going — the Sailor Moon illumination event that’s set to open at Lake Sagami Resort’s Pleasure Forest next week!

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[ Read in Japanese ]