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	<title>Maridah.com &#187; Blog</title>
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	<link>http://www.maridah.com</link>
	<description>Cosplayer, Hobbyist, and Costume Maker&#039;s Blog &#38; Gallery</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:35:48 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Fate/Zero Saber Cosplay</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2012/04/11/fatezero-saber-cosplay/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2012/04/11/fatezero-saber-cosplay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:15:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Site Updates]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=2159</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just received the photos from my shoot at Sakuracon of my Fate/Zero Saber cosplay and couldn&#8217;t wait to share them! Photos courtesy of CosplayShots. I had a very memorable first visit to Sakuracon and will share a con report in just a few days :)]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2012/04/11/fatezero-saber-cosplay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>16</slash:comments>
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		<title>Sakura-con is this Weekend!</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2012/04/04/sakuracon/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2012/04/04/sakuracon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:46:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Convention News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=2142</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I will be attending my first Sakura-con this coming weekend in Seattle, Washington! While there, I will be participating in the Aniplex events promoting Fate/Zero with American Cosplay Paradise. Read on for details! If you will be attending the convention, make sure to come to the Fate/Zero Gathering being hosted by ACP on Sunday from 11:30am to 12:30pm at the Aniplex Booth. Facebook event page here! There are autographed posters signed by the guests of honor being given away at this event! The event is a cosplay event, but it&#8217;s open to everyone. Cosplayers will have a chance of winning exclusive merchandise! Even if you don&#8217;t have a Fate related costume, please still feel free to come by and say hi! Right after this gathering ends, the guests will be signing autographs right there at the Aniplex Booth! Saturday, don&#8217;t miss the Fate Zero Screening and Q&#38;A with guests at 1pm and autograph sessions with them afterwards, either! The screening will show episodes 14 and 15 of the new Season 2! This screening is a Sakuracon exclusive! You have two chances to get the autographs of Fate Zero writer Gen Urobuchi, editor in chief Katsushi Ota, and producer Atsuhiro Iwakami but the line is guaranteed to be long both days, so show up early! If you can&#8217;t attend Sakura-con, I will be posting photos and maybe more throughout Sakura-con on my twitter @maridahcosplay so if you aren&#8217;t following me, now is a good time to start! I will be tweeting all convention long:)]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2012/04/04/sakuracon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Wig Seller Reviews and Avoiding Scam Sellers</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2012/03/29/wig-seller-reviews-and-avoiding-scam-sellers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2012/03/29/wig-seller-reviews-and-avoiding-scam-sellers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:35:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=2117</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With so many new people coming into the cosplay hobby, and an upswing in fraudulent listings and shady sellers, I felt compelled to make a guide on how to be a smart buyer. Buying smart and avoiding scams is a big part of enjoying cosplay. No one wants to waste money and feel swindled when trying to create the look of a character you love. I&#8217;ve also included a list of wig sellers I&#8217;ve bought from, and give you an honest review of each- the good and the bad. Aside from the obvious checking of feedback when available, here are some tips to buying from cosplay sellers online: Buy from sellers that use mannequins to show products, not cosplayers. There are sellers all over the web stealing photos from cosplay sites and using them for product shots. Don&#8217;t assume the person wearing that wig or costume is modeling for a store. Odds are, they are unknowingly being used to sell goods that aren&#8217;t nice enough looking for a seller to want to show you the real thing you&#8217;d be buying. Some sellers will have galleries where you can view photos submitted by happy buyers, but reputable sellers do not use cosplayers for their actual product listings. Avoiding sellers that use cosplay photos instead of products on mannequins in product listings is a big must. You want to see exactly what you are getting. Look for photo consistency. Are all the photos shot on the same mannequin? Is the lighting the same in all the photos across their entire stock line? If you search for that same wig or costume, do other sellers have the SAME product shots? If you can easily find other sellers using the same pictures, it&#8217;s a bad sign. It probably means those sellers are all using photos of someone else&#8217;s products. Often, sellers use photos from places like Cospatio because the costumes look spot on. Those costumes cost hundreds of dollars, have custom made trims and details, and have much higher quality control than most other ready made cosplay. They aren&#8217;t what you&#8217;ll get for $60 on ebay, so be aware of this practice.  Don&#8217;t trust watermarks. Just because a picture has a seller&#8217;s store name on it, doesn&#8217;t mean it is a legitimate product shot. Sellers will watermark over photos they have stolen, and do it all the time- sometimes right over other seller&#8217;s watermarks who&#8217;ve stolen the photo too! Often they will remove other watermarks by cropping out a site&#8217;s credit or a photographer&#8217;s mark or blur it. If it looks like they&#8217;ve blurred out or cropped out someone else&#8217;s watermark, it&#8217;s a bad sign. No seller needs to do that on a photo they&#8217;ve shot of their own product. It&#8217;s a big red flag. Be skeptical. Do research. Be logical about &#8216;good deals&#8217;. Some deals are too good. If it&#8217;s a complicated costume or a styled wig, it won&#8217;t be sold for cheap. If one seller is selling something for much, much less than other sellers, be warry. Be rational and don&#8217;t just buy based on the cheapest price. Quality is directly related to price, no matter where you buy it from. That said, you can still find some reasonably good deals and not be scammed if you scrutinize and use caution. &#160; On a personal note, I&#8217;ve had a number of sellers use my photos without permission to sell wigs and costumes. If you ever see a seller using my photos, do not trust that seller. I never give anyone the okay to use my cosplay to sell costumes or wigs. I&#8217;ve sewn my costumes myself and styled the wigs on my own, so whatever it is that they are selling, it isn&#8217;t going to be what I&#8217;ve made. The same can be said for so many other cosplayers who&#8217;s hard work as been ripped off to sell questionable goods to unsuspecting buyers. None of us want to see people get scammed, and it&#8217;s unpleasant when someone uses your likeness to pull the wool over someone&#8217;s eyes. It&#8217;s like being an unwilling accomplice in a crime :( &#160; &#160; Before I get to my wig seller reviews, let me preface this with a little bit about me as a wig buyer. I prefer to style my own wigs and the majority of what I buy is plain styles that I can cut and style as needed. If you are looking for ready to go, fully styled wigs, I can&#8217;t speak to that. These reviews don&#8217;t cover where to buy a Saber wig, for example. I styled my own from a long wig, loose hair, and some home made wefts. I can&#8217;t tell you what places do it well and which ones don&#8217;t because I don&#8217;t like to take that sort of buying risk. Usually what you can do with a little time and a few youtube tutorials will be as good, if not better than a wig seller that is worried about volume and cost effectiveness but not accuracy. With that in mind, here are my reviews- Wig Seller Reviews These are some of the wig places I&#8217;ve bought from multiple times. I&#8217;m not sponsored by any of these sellers so I&#8217;m just speaking from my own experiences. I can&#8217;t guarantee the same experiences for you, of course. These are by no means all the places you can find good wigs or good deals, but if you are in a pinch and want to know a few sellers you can trust, that&#8217;s what this list is for. I&#8217;m being honest about my experiences with each here, sharing the good and the bad. &#160; Arda Wigs I&#8217;ve bought from them several times and overall would give them a positive review. Positives- Thick wigs that are very easy to style. The textured wig fiber is especially good if you want a spikey look or something stylized. It isn&#8217;t smooth like some wig fiber, which works well for short styles and cuts that need to clump together with only a little styling product. They have many cuts and colors to choose from, and the fibers are heat resistant. Ships from the USA. Good prices. Products look exactly as listed. Negatives- Very inconsistent stock. Order from them months in advance and be prepared for some of your order to not be in stock for quite a while. The wigs also lack skin tops and tend to have center parts far back on the wig, which can be an issue for creating certain realistic hairstyles. &#160; CosplayWig  I have been buying wigs from this seller for years. Overall my experience has been quite positive, and they are one of my favorites to check when I have a new cosplay planned. Positives- They have a lot of variety and many character wigs (wigs cut to be easy to style to fit specific characters.) The stock is always changing to meet current demands. Wigs have skin tops which adds a believable touch to a wig. Many of the wigs are heat resistant. You can find colors at this seller you can&#8217;t find anywhere else for such low prices. Cheap, but good quality. Seller includes free wig nets when you buy from them. What you see is what you get, too. They take their own product shots of all their wigs (and watermark the love out of them now since other sellers on ebay steal from them.) Negatives- Ships from China. This isn&#8217;t a problem for me, but might be for someone else. In the past, I&#8217;ve had orders canceled because they didn&#8217;t have stock, so contact them first if you are really interested in a wig. Years ago I had a few wigs that were less than stellar arrive from this seller, but in recent years, I&#8217;ve been happy with all my purchases. &#160; CosplayDNA This store is one of my go-to&#8217;s for plain, long wigs. I&#8217;ve had all positive experiences buying from them. Positives- Awesome for heat resistant, long wigs that are very thick and don&#8217;t tangle like other wigs. The fiber is very silky and I always check this seller first when I want a long wig that won&#8217;t tangle up on me after wearing around a con. The prices are low and the quality is great. Wigs have skin tops and are honestly as thick as 2 wigs combined from some other sellers. They have large stocks of most wigs so you can order without asking. Seller included free wig nets with my orders. Negatives- Also ships from China, but this is debatably not a downside if you don&#8217;t need it overnight. The stock styles and colors are somewhat limited compared to other sellers. &#160; Charissa-Kids I&#8217;ve only ordered a few wigs from this store and my experience was hit and miss. Positives- Fairly cheap and wide variety of styles of wig. They offer a lot of character wigs as well. Seller included free wig nets and a brush. I ordered from them in a rush when another seller&#8217;s product ended up being out of stock. Negatives- The wig I ordered for my Tsumugi was as pictured, but my wig I bought for Fumino was not. It was sold as a wig for Taiga from Toradora, which is quite similar in look to Fumino&#8217;s hair. Unfortunately the wig came very badly styled and needed a lot of work to save it. The layer of hair under the bangs was crimped and poorly cut. There was a spot in the center of the bangs that was all nap that had to be hidden. I had to create a comb over with other hair from the wig to hide the damaged wig fiber. I would advise against getting a styled wig from this seller because of the condition of this wig. However, plain styles seem to be safe. Ships from China as well, and fast shipping is not as cheap as with other sellers. They use the same model for many product shots, but sometimes use other cosplayer photos which I question the source of. I would use some discretion when buying some wigs from them because of this. Look for ones that are on a wig head and don&#8217;t look styled if you want to be certain about what you are getting. &#160; EpicCosplay I&#8217;ve bought a number of wigs from this seller and have had only positive experiences with them, both online and at conventions where they&#8217;ve been very friendly and helpful. Positives- Affordable prices, thick wigs, and ships from the US. Their wigs are similar to the ones I&#8217;ve ordered from CosplayDNA, but they are located fairly close to me and I get my orders nearly overnight. They ship fast and the wigs are heat resistant. Wigs come with skin tops and they sell very long wigs at reasonable prices. Negatives- Not much negative to say about this seller so far! They are limited in styles, but have a decent color range. &#160; Amphigory A long time cosplayer go-to, this store has the best selection of &#8216;realistic&#8217; hair colors and styles. If you need a believably real color or cut, this place is my recommendation. Positives- There are so many styles to choose from and the seller has good notes on wigs that are suitable for styling and up-do&#8217;s. They are also honest about wig thickness and quality. It&#8217;s a good place to buy wefts and loose hair for styling wigs as well. They stock a lot of supplies and styling tools that can be hard to find from cosplay wig sellers. Ships from the USA. Negatives- Can be a bit more expensive than other wig sellers. It&#8217;s very limited when it comes to unnatural hair colors, so this place is best for characters with shades hair naturally comes in. Sometimes there is a wait for products, but the seller discloses wait times well. Order well in advance. &#160; Well, that&#8217;s it! I hope this helps direct a few of you to a place where you can find a good wig for your next cosplay!]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2012/03/29/wig-seller-reviews-and-avoiding-scam-sellers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Ready for Sakuracon</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2012/03/12/ready-for-sakuracon/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2012/03/12/ready-for-sakuracon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:30:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Convention News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work in Progress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=1980</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been working hard on the weekends to finish up several costumes for the upcoming convention season. I&#8217;m feeling glad I decided to focus on making Saber&#8217;s Fate/Zero Suit since I&#8217;ve been &#8216;summoned&#8217; by ACP to participate in their team up with Aniplex for events at Sakuracon. While this convention wasn&#8217;t originally in my plans for this spring, I couldn&#8217;t say no to something like this! I&#8217;ll be attending the convention in my newly finished 3 piece suit. Here&#8217;s some work in progress pictures of it, as well as a shot of it all together. It needs a steam, but it&#8217;s all made from scratch. Sure, I could have just bought a suit and shirt instead, but that isn&#8217;t how my mind works. Making it myself means the suit buttons on the men&#8217;s side, but is tailored to a women&#8217;s cut, just as Saber&#8217;s is. I&#8217;ve also made sure to give it a 90&#8242;s power suit flair with sizable shoulder pads too XD I&#8217;m excited to wear it. In addition to working on this suit, I&#8217;ve been finishing up the last bits of my Saber Alter for Fanime. Here&#8217;s my corset work in progress as well. I&#8217;m very glad to have these two cosplays sewn and pretty much ready to go ^_^ Now moving on to my other 4 costumes for the year~]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2012/03/12/ready-for-sakuracon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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		<title>Fate Extra Giveaway!</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2012/01/23/fate-extra-giveaway/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2012/01/23/fate-extra-giveaway/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:59:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Contests and Promotionals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=1973</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m giving away a free copy of the Limited Edition Fate/Extra for PSP on my facebook page! To enter, post on this picture with the comment &#8216;GAO!&#8217; I&#8217;m looking to hear your best Saber Lion impressions! Contest ends February 10th. Winner will be selected at random. International entries are welcome but please only enter if you have an address within the continental US that I can ship to. Lion not included ^_^ He&#8217;s just cheerleading~]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2012/01/23/fate-extra-giveaway/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
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		<title>Saber Alter Work in Progress</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2011/12/18/work-in-progress/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2011/12/18/work-in-progress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:47:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Work in Progress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=1950</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I haven&#8217;t been great at posting work in progress here so I&#8217;m going to make an effort to be better about sharing my process for those interested. For staters, here&#8217;s some old progress shots on several costumes I have in the works- Saber Alter, Red Riding Hood Miku, and Saber&#8217;s Ataraxia brown dress. I started Saber Alter well over a year ago&#8230; might even be approaching 2 years ^_^;; I can&#8217;t even remember when I started it now. Sometimes I&#8217;m very slow to finish things. This project is nearly done now, though. I want to wear it sometime soon~ &#160; I started Miku in January or some time around there, as well as Saber&#8217;s brown dress. To be honest, I have a number of unfinished costumes in my sewing area just waiting to be completed. I even have a few done that I&#8217;ve just never worn. I like to work on a number of things at once. There is some method to my madness since I will periodically get sick of working on one thing and move to one of my other projects so I never get too frustrated with just one costume. It helps, since sometimes you&#8217;ll come up on a problem and not know how you want to resolve it. Putting it away for a while gives me time to come up with ideas.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2011/12/18/work-in-progress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Please change your links!</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2011/12/13/please-change-your-links/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2011/12/13/please-change-your-links/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:13:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Site Updates]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/?p=1618</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hey everyone! I just wanted to let anyone linking to this site know that my link has changed. Linking to http://www.maridah.com/blog/  will no longer link to my homepage. Please make it http://www.maridah.com/  This change is permanent ~ I&#8217;ve moved my directory, so links to /blog/ won&#8217;t find my homepage anymore. Thanks for understanding! This site is undergoing some major changes in a week, so there are some bugs right now. Sorry for any inconvenience! Next week my galleries will get a whole new makeover, though!]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2011/12/13/please-change-your-links/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>More Saber Lion</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2011/10/02/more-saber-lion/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2011/10/02/more-saber-lion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:39:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Photos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/blog/?p=1565</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Figured more Saber Lion photos were in order, so here&#8217;s a few more from Fanime 2011 :) It&#8217;s also my silliest costume, so I&#8217;m aways glad to share more of it. First two photos are from AsianSchoolBoy and last one is from LJinto featuring the lovely (and hilarious here) ToasterSix as Deedlet. We switched props :) &#160; &#160;]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2011/10/02/more-saber-lion/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Genki Life Magazine #5 Interview</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2011/09/23/genki-life-magazine-5-interview/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2011/09/23/genki-life-magazine-5-interview/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:52:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/blog/?p=1528</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Very excited to share this latest interview with Genki Life Magazine with you all! It&#8217;s issue #5 of the digital magazine which covers a number of anime and convention related topics. I&#8217;m also the cover for this issue! Check out the issue HERE Magazine&#8217;s website is here as well, so check out their other issues too. We cover a number of topics from my first days of cosplay to Otacool- as well as cosplay hot topics like popularity and WCS. Check it out and see what I have to say on it all :) &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2011/09/23/genki-life-magazine-5-interview/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Enter to win FREE contacts from VisionDirect.com!</title>
		<link>http://www.maridah.com/2011/09/21/enter-to-win-free-contacts-from-visiondirect-com/</link>
		<comments>http://www.maridah.com/2011/09/21/enter-to-win-free-contacts-from-visiondirect-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:12:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maridah</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Contests and Promotionals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.maridah.com/blog/?p=1521</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hi everyone! I&#8217;m happy to be participating with VisionDirect.com to bring you a great CONTACT LENS GIVEAWAY just in time for the Halloween season! You can enter the drawing to win FREE fantastic costume lenses from VisionDirect.com! All you need to do to enter is: 1. Like Maridah&#8217;s Cosplay Page 2. Like VisionDirect.com&#8217;s Page 3. Comment on my facebook post HERE with the name of your favorite theatrical/Halloween lenses from their huge selection of contacts! This contest is held on my facebook page, so please follow the link above to enter! A winner will be selected at random on 10/3 and the winner will receive $60 towards their choice of contact lenses! Contest open to entrants worldwide with the exception of Singapore.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.maridah.com/2011/09/21/enter-to-win-free-contacts-from-visiondirect-com/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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