Not-so Night Market at Ortigas

So last Saturday, my very great friend Faith (who you might know as my genderbend Rei-chan in cosplay!) invited us to this Night Market around our area! It ended up being a really great experience, which I seriously didn't doubt since I was with some of my best friends in the whooooole world. It was just spectacular to catch up with Faith, Kelly and Sam (bff since first grade omg) during our kind of hectic college lives (lol if feels kind of surreal to say that), especially in a fun and artsy environment like this Night Market.

This Night Market actually starts as early as 4pm and ends at Midnight. It's located at United Street near Pioneer and Shaw Blvd. (Philippines). It's held at an open field but all the stalls are set under small white tents while the open space has three hovering tent toppers above. It's really cool watching them float and dance with the wind above your head.

There is also live music performances. When I went, it was around the week of Lunar New Year so there were actually performances including dancing and the Dragon Dances (I was too scared to take a photo of them. I'm sorry HAHA) that paraded around the whole area.

It contains a lot of food and cute stores as well selling things from accessories to make up to paintings to bags and so much more! The price ranges from each item vary among the different stores since some of the goodies are hand-made and sometimes even one of a kind! I was interested in this hyperrealistic handmade brain necklace but it was a little too expensive for me hehehe... I'll save up and go back for it, though!

A fun thing you can try out are the bubbles that they sell! You can create really big bubbles and run around with your friends trying to pop them or trying to create the largest one. This item was super popular around the kids and it was fascinating seeing bubbles float around places. I'll probably give it a shot next time hehe.

I've also been told guards go around and hand out mats you can lay on the ground and use with your friends! Sam brought her own banig that we all fit in so we used that! It gave the super relaxed and hippie vibe - which is honestly, very up my alley, haha!

Here's a couple more photos I took of the night! Including my gorgeous friends (Kelly is a bit camera shy hehe), my outfit for the night, Faith's super cool early birthday present for me (the white, turquoise and black Skull pencil holder ahhh!!!) and my awesome new pastel coloured crystal necklace! I'm so in love with it, I use it to jazz up any of my outfits hehe

I had a tooon of fun with my friends, and I will surely be going back sometime soon! Especially since my house is just a couple stone throws away. I can't wait to bring my family and boyfriend here soon - and also spend time with all my friends in general here! I really love the overall vibe of this place and all the goodies you can get too. If you're looking for a new place to check out, be sure to stop by this market to make your Saturday Night real good~

Contacts Review: Cat's Eye Blue, Kirei Green & Dolly+ Brown

I ordered new contacts and received them a couple days ago! I thought it would be a great time to do a review on some contact lenses, hooray! So let's get on to them.

These contacts are from Japanese Candy Online, a store in the Philippines. It was my first time buying from them and I can say I am more than pleased with their service! The prices were very affordable, especially with their current promo where you can save money if you buy 3 pairs of lenses. I actually bought 4 contact lenses but the fourth contact lense (Cara Anime Fairy Pop Pink) was not currently in stock anymore but they sent in the other 3 contacts upon my request since the others were on-hand. I received them just two days after my request, so it basically just came in a day after the shipped them out - which was so great!! They came in carefully wrapped and packed and were in great condition. They also came with free lense cases and the quality of these lenses are divine. I can't wait to receive my Fairy Pop Pink lenses!

Here are my eyes without any contact lenses on. My eyes are basically brown, bordering on dark brown so sometimes finding lenses are a bit tricky. Like, my black lenses really show the brown of my eyes and in my opinion looks a bit odd, haha.

Oh! And side note: I didn't edit the photos much so I can really show the effect of each of the contact lenses. These photos were taken with natural lighting at around 4:30 - 5pm. Luckily, the sun hadn't set yet, hehe. And also, the contact lenses photographed in their cases show one facing down and the other facing up so you can see both sides of the lenses. It may be hard to tell since none of the lenses have a black or dark backing but the ones on the left are facing down and the ones on the right are facing up. Let's get on with the lenses!

Cat's Eye Blue

Diameter: 14.5mm

These are my favourite contacts in the whooooole bunch so far and probably my new favourite contacts! I'd like to thank the beautiful Kanra for recommending these to me. She uses it for her Princess Anna cosplay and I really love how natural they can look! I've been looking for more natural lenses lately because I much prefer how they look most of the time. Plus, they are incredibly comfy. They're really soft compared to most circle lenses/cosplay lenses.

With a diameter of 14.5, they are a bit smaller than some lenses and don't really give that huuuuge dolly-eyed look but I think that makes this very versatile! They still enlarge the eyes but not too much, so they work for both anime and more western cosplays. Play it on with a bit of make up and these gorgeous blues can really pack a punch!

Kirei Green

Diameter: 14.8mm

I was very excited about these lenses when I saw them in the bottle because they were incredibly vibrant. I was looking for turquoise lenses and according to the site's model images, these would have come out very turquoise. However, once I tired them on I would have liked them a lot more vibrant since I was really looking for in-your-face turquoise contact lenses that give that dolly effect. They are still very comfortable and I think with a little aided help on photoshop and other image editors, they can work out fine.

The deep, dark ring around the edges really help with that dolly look. I still think they look very cute and give off an interesting teal colour but if you were looking for a brighter and more intense turquoise like I was, I wouldn't recommend this. Still super cute, comfy and great! I really love the yellow nearest the pupils as well.

Dolly+ Brown

Diameter: 14.8mm

I am also very happy with these lenses! I've always had trouble with brown lenses because I really try to find something that make my eyes appear more in-your-face brown in photos and in person and before finding these babies, nothing really worked. These do appear more yellowish, especially up close but I definitely like the difference of colour and I think if it is done right, with cosplay make up and things like that - they will really look great!

I also love the size of these. They are only 14.8mm but they weren't kidding when they say they give a 16mm diameter illusion! Additionally, these are from the Dolly+ series. Basically, they are bigger versions of the Dolly series. I am a loyal follower to the vibrance of the Dolly series lenses but sometimes the harsh lines with its size kind of give that creepy feel. Here's a photo that might help to show comparison below: Dolly+ Brown Lenses vs. Dolly Blue Lenses

They both still give the same quality and intensity of colour which I love! Also, just to further explain my struggle with brown lenses and how happy I am with these Dolly+ Lenses, here is a comparison with the brown lenses I bought sometime last year. I believe these are the Pearl Plus Brown lenses. They share the exact same colour as my own eyes so other than enlarging them slightly, they don't really do much - unlike the Dolly+ lenses!

I still like the natural color the PEarl Plus lenses give,  but I think the Dolly+ lenses will work much better for cosplay!

Can you guess what characters I'll be using these lenses for? The Kirei Green and Dolly+ Brown are for new characters hehehehe I'll be back for my review on the Cara Anime Fairy PopPink lenses once I receive them. See you next Friday!

Scheduling

I've always been a fan of planners while I was in grade school and high school but I honestly didn't really find the need to have one while I started in college since the work load was so different, like it basically declined drastically and I found myself not writing anything into my planner ever if I had one.

However, now, with a lot of opportunities coming in my life, one way that I found that kept everything together was scheduling again. It just keeps me on track despite the many different aspects of my life that are continuously surprising me: cosplay, art, blogging, school, family, friends and events.

This is the planner I use in 2015. It is a bit smaller than most notebooks, so it's very easy to carry around and it has no planned out dates, so it is very flexible. I got it for very cheap at the department store and a big bonus was how cute the peach dog was hehehe

I make sure I write deadlines, due dates, home works, things to do at home and all that good stuff for each and every day. It also reminds me a lot of what I've done in the past days and things like that since I always tend to forget what I've done in the past weeks. So even if I don't write it ahead of time, sometimes at the end of the day - I write what I've done for that day, even if it's just writing "Took a six hour nap today. Whoops." (true story hahaha)

Sadly, as much as I would like to be, I'm not exactly the most diligent with writing into my planner. I only open it every other night or when I am in school, which is only thrice a week. So - to solve that, I placed a weekly schedule on something I open daily: my laptop.

This is what my laptop opens to currently. Thanks to Kyrie from Deviantart for my gorgeous wallpaper, check her out on her page: http://kyrie0201.deviantart.com/ ! Anyway, I have a sticky note up there that basically saves my life nowadays and keeps me productive. It shows what I constantly aim to do everyday of the week:

For all the work I do now, I basically rely on myself for all sorts of progress. Like, I have to set my own deadlines and schedules and things like that. I have to be productive on my own - and sometimes, that's really hard because I am a very lazy person. However, with this constant reminder staring into my face all the time, I try my best to accomplish things from each of the things listed for each day. As you can see, it's just general things to do: nothing super specific at all because you'll never know what life throws at you. So, it's still very flexible but as long as I do something related to cosplay progress for example, then it works out.

This has been taking effect lately and I can say things are going well! Only with a couple setbacks such as no material for cosplay progress (huhu, I ran out of adhesive) and my 6 hour nap today that got me doing nothing (obviously) - but, other than that, I have found myself to be a lot more productive lately, yay!

Also, if you've noticed my blogging schedule is actually on Fridays - and that will start this week! I promise!! Hahahah, I just wanted to make a post about scheduling today and update you with my new blog schedule: Every Friday, expect a new blog post! 

I am a very lazy person. If you are too, then I suggest trying a weekly schedule too! It really helps keep the productivity levels on point, huehuehue.