Rayna Cosplay

15/08/2022

We always go on shoots at least 2 hours later than we originally planned to. There's always something going wrong with makeup, or a wig, or a costume, or props, that causes these annoying delays. In this case it was both makeup and a wig. 😫 At first I had a problem with blending my foundation into hairline of my wig (it's a lacefront), and than couldn't style the bangs of said wig. So I eventually just styled the bangs to the side, so on most of the photos it looks like there're no bangs at all.
In case you wonder, who on Earth would use a lacefront wig for a character that has bangs, the short answer is me (hi, I'm Reina). The long answer is below. ⬇️
I wanted to buy an ordinary cosplay wig at first, I even found a cool wig on Taobao, that already had Mikasa's haircut. But it was out of stock. 😬 Then I decided to buy a standard short black wig and ask my friend to cut it. (as you might know, even if it's stated in a description that a wig is for a specific character, you would likely receive a standard wig with no pre-cut bangs, no styling etc.)
Well, I ordered it, waited for like 2 months and... Ughhhh 😬 It's not like it was a bad wig, it was well...standard, but it had a huge flaw. It had this stupid firm mesh cap instead of an open cap (the one with vertical lace strips on which the wefts of hair are sewn). And the open cap always had small pieces of fabric with wefts that would stick out of the cap and cover your whiskers. The mesh cap doesn't have those. 😬 So basically you put on such wig, turn your head, the wig's hair jumps up and your real hair on your whiskers is wide open for the whole world to see 😢
It's all fine if you're gonna just take photos, you can edit it out. But I wanted to film reels with Mikasa cosplay, so using that wig would be a bad idea. And I decided to use a lacefront. It was originally a 22" wig, and my friend was almost crying when she was cutting it. 😂 I was kinda sad too, but at the end of the day I don't regret it. At least I don't have to worry about my real hair showing underneath the wig while I'm filming. Besides, I saved the hair that was cut off that wig so I could use it to style K/DA All out Akali wig
~~~~~~~

03/08/2022

The one thing I still struggle with besides wig styling is makeup.💄 Although I've been doing makeup for many years, I just can't put foundation the right way. 😬 The thing is, when everyone was living in 2020, I was still living in like 2010.😅 So I was using foundation, consealer, powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and lipstick. No primer, no setting powder, no eyelid primer, no setting spray, no nothing (and my makeup didn't hold up at all and I had no idea why 😅) . Let alone highlighter and contour, I didn't even use blush. 😅
But not so long ago I started watching on YouTube, and she inspired me to finally start working on my makeup skills.💄
First of all I bought a bunch of must-have items, like primer, eyelid primer and setting spray, and I also started using a full coverage foundation, Maybelline super stay active wear 30h foundation to be exact. And idk what's wrong with that, but I can't blend it into my skin for some reason, I always end up having spots on my face.😢 Idk maybe I need a different primer, or a different beauty sponge, or different hands👐. I don't think it's the foundation itself, since Nikkie used it in some of her videos and she managed it perfectly.
My best guess is that I'm working too slow⏱️, and it starts setting before I finish, so it turns out uneven, and I have to cover it up with powder.🤔 Then I guess I just have to practice more.💄So you'll be seeing a lot more of my cosplay selfies from now on 👌😘
~~~~~~~~~

28/07/2022

I wanted to take some selfies to test out a few adjustments that I made to my s4 Mikasa cosplay. So I bought a black underbust corset to use it instead of the leather corset that I was wearing on our first Mikasa photoshoot (the photos with the red background). And I also made a belt that's crossed on my waist. The rest of the belts are part of s1 harness, but I managed them a bit differently this time. And I truly planned to take A FEW selfies, just enough to see how these new details would look on a photo.📸 But somehow it got out of control and I took almost 300 selfies 👀
~~~~~~~~

27/07/2022

The only thing that I'm still struggling with while editing my photos is matching the subject (being myself) with background 🖌️ that's why I don't do it unless I absolutely have to. When we just started having photoshoots at home, we didn't figure out the best way to set up our home photography studio 📸. At first, we used several A1 sheets taped together as a background. It didn't look good on photos so I decided to cut myself out and put on a different background. Back then I didn't match the colors cuz the process of cutting out alone made me so miserable, I couldn't possibly handle color correction at the same time 😵.
When we shot Star Guardian Ahri we didn't have any special background at all, so cutting out myself was even more difficult 😵. And I actually edited just 1 photo of that shoot, and then forgot about it for like a year 😅.
But I got back to this shoot recently. And I've done enough editing by this point, so on all of the SG Ahri photos I've recently edited, I tried to really match myself with background so it would look natural. Well, I tried to... But I can't say that I succeeded 😅
I watched several YouTube tutorials, I followed the instructions, but I never could do it right for some reason 😅.
I would be glad to say that I wouldn't have such problems anymore cuz I know how to set up a background now, but I can't. Because now I have different problems with editing. And I'll describe them in my next post
~~~~~~~~~

19/07/2022

It's crazy to think about it, but I actually made Elsa's blue dress from Frozen I back in 2018. 😳 Yet I've had the photoshoot in full cosplay quite recently, last month to be exact. WHY? 😮 Well, this whole time I've been making a different cape, and it took me a lot, I mean, A LOT of time, cuz I've been sticking tens of thousands of rhinestones to it 💎💎💎 and I feel like I've been doing it forever 😵. BUT I've almost finished. Almost 🥴. I finished the main part and now I'm making snowflakes ❄️❄️❄️
It would be fun to know the actual number of rhinestones 💎 on my cape 🤔. Oh no, God no, I'm not counting them. 😱 But I will probably check out all of my taobao and aliexpress orders to determine how many rhinestones I bought for this cape. Well, I won't get an exact number, but I wanna know if it's possible that I've hit 100.000 rhinestones 💎💎💎
~~~~~~~

11/04/2022

Back in the days when I used to make cosplays by myself, I always tried to make every single tiny detail of a costume, and boy was it tough 😵. It was really time consuming⏳ and expensive💸 to say the least. But after I started predominantly buying costumes, I felt relieved. Now I just put on the costume and don't give a damn. Like in case of s4 Mikasa cosplay.
No breastplate? - Who cares?
No shoulder armor? - So what?
No guns? - Looks good anyways so f them.
If you're still trying to create a perfect cosplay every single time, just stop. It won't hurt you if some details are missing or not 100% accurate. Cosplay is a hobby, don't let it become a burden
~~~~~~~~

13/01/2022

28/12/2021

The first photo of probably the last outdoors photoshoot of this year (unless we get to shoot Anna👑 and Elsa❄️ in December ☃️, but since there are only 3 days left it's highly unlikely 🙃).
We actually planned to have one more shoot in October (before or after the Female titan shoot), but the weather ruined our plans 🌬️. Every single day when we had an opportunity to go on that shoot, it was either raining⛈️ or the wind was so strong that we would be literally blown away with all of our props 🌬️🙃. That's why I love cosplays like female titan ☝️ that is super comfy, doesn't have any props and even the wig is short 🥰. Short wigs are just the best 💖
~~~~~~~~~
Photo by Jinni Kim
~~~~~~~~~

31/10/2021

👻 Happy Halloween 👻
Today I'm a Female Titan from Attack on Titan 😈 It's not exactly some evil spirit 👻🧟‍♀️ But if you've seen Attack on Titan you know that these guys are scarier than most of the creatures you've ever seen in movies or shows 😱 except for the ones in "Foodfight", those scarred me for life ☠️
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna turn off my lights and watch "Are you scared?" on YouTube.
Happy Halloween for all of you introverts like myself 👻
~~~~~~~~~
Photo by Jinni Kim
~~~~~~~~~

15/08/2021

I think I'll be remaking the harness for these tails very soon and here is why 😮
When I was making the tails, first of all I made the base out of several layers of pvc, and then I attached 9 metal pipes to it. I fixed the pipes to the base with eva foam, but when I put the tails on the pipes, the pipes were turning around and the tails did not stay in place. So I fixed the pipes with the screws and... That was not a good idea😨 as the pipes broke apart at the base of the tails 😢. But actually the pipes themselves were not strong enough for the tail to hold shape. So I used metal pipes of bigger diameter and bent them as much as I could (so there was one pipe for two tails). That was not an easy task...to say the least 🥴. And I also put the smaller pipes inside the bigger pipes to reinforce the harness.
To summarize, now I have a set of tails with an incredibly heavy harness😧 and a base that is very uncomfortable for my back😨 and painful to wear 😰. And the pipes are freaking huge (26 mm 🤦🏻‍♀️)
So I am really considering remaking the harness, and I plan to use steel wire this time, not the pipes 👀. Don't use the pipes for this sort of tails (unless your tails are not that long and puffy. Mine are like 130cm long and 70 cm in girth). And it will also allow me to store the harness and the tails separately, and I won't have this giant thing in my room the whole time 👍
~~~~~~~~~
Photo by
Editing by me
~~~~~~~~~

23/07/2021

One more story from the convention here ⬇️
It was the best con ever. Why? Because the first time in forever we were SLEEPING 😴 the night before festival, and not making stuff with our hands shaking.
Ok! Great! We did it! (because we actually bought the costumes and all we had to make were props) BUT... (there is always "but", right?)
I had plenty of problems with my tail 😓. I used magnets to attach the tail. At first I made a belt with magnets sewn inside of it, and it seemed like the tail was pretty secure, BUT then we were rehearsing our performance and the tail did not hold on the belt at all cuz I was dancing 🤦🏻‍♀️. So I used even more magnets, and it still didn't work 😱. It was the evening before the con😱, and we had to get to the place pretty early the next morning, so there was no chance to buy more magnets. I thought maybe the belt was too thick, so I sewed the magnets to the dress and hooray! 😃 It worked! Or so I thought...😬
I figured out that I would have to dance very carefully for the tail not to fall off during the performance. It was so important because Akali would "accidentally" tear it off at the end of our performance. Well... As you probably guessed, the tail fell off when I was dancing 😱😱😱
I fixed it after I finished dancing and we finished the performance as planned but still... 😢😢😢 And I didn't even get when exactly it fell off 👀
~~~~~~~

08/06/2021

Cosplay STORYTIME ~Me vs. Glue for lace front wig~
I've recently had a cosplay convention, so it's time for funny cosplay stories (not funny for myself actually). I was getting ready for my stage performance as K/DA Evelynn that day. I was about to put on my lace front wig, I just had to glue it on, "no trouble here" so I thought 👀. I took the "ghostbond" adhesive (the bottle has a tip with a small hole on top), pressed on the bottle, but the glue wasn't coming out. Instead of taking a needle and piercing the hole with it, I started to press harder (silly me 😞). And guess what. 🤡 The tip flew off the bottle and freaking half HALF of the glue was on my hands and the surroundings 😱😱😱.
Then I did my best to peel the glue off my hands, and that's how I wasted half an hour 🥴. The small amount of glue was still on my hands for the rest of the day 👀. But since I was wearing Evelynn's claws, I couldn't really use my hands anyways, so it was okay I guess 🥴
~~~~~~~
Photo by .kim.357
Wig styling by
~~~~~~~

25/04/2021

The STORY of how I forgot that I had this costume 😐
~~~
I bought this costume a while ago, took a few selfies and put it in the box until I would have an opportunity to have a photoshoot outdoors 📸🌳🍁🍂 (maybe with my sister as Anna 👀).
At the end of 2020 I saw an ad of a cosplay contest in my city. It was sort of an online 💻📱 competition: cosplayers would have to come to a studio and the individual short video 📽️ would be filmed for each cosplayer. So I decided that I had to take part in it 👍🏻
The number of participants was limited and the costumes that were made recently and didn't take part in the cosplay cons had an advantage to enter the competition. So we couldn't use any of our old costumes, such as Syndra, Sylvanas, Elsa (ice dress).
I thought🤔:
"okay, I have plenty of new costumes! I have 3 K/DA Ahri🦊🎤 costumes... But I don't have a tail/wig/shoes/accessories 🙄❌.
I have Gun Goddess Miss Fortune🔫...that I haven't finished yet 😑❌.
I have Star Guardian Ahri🦊💖...I have to finish the tails, but I can do it 💪🏻. Okay, Star Guardian Ahri check✅
I have Star Guardian Miss Fortune... But since my sis wants to participate too, she'll apply for a contest with this costume and also with our new Anna coronation dress👑...
🤔It would be so cool if I had a new Elsa❄️ costume, my sis and I could be Anna👑 and Elsa❄️ (or Ahri🦊 and Miss Fortune🔫). But I guess Star Guardian Ahri is my only option 😞"
After we apllied for a contest, got a response from the organizers that we pass with Ahri🦊 and Anna👑, I remembered that I fu***ng HAVE a new Elsa❄️ costume! The blue travel dress from Frozen II 😡🤬 How the hell could I forget about that? 🤦🏻‍♀️
~~~~~~~~~~~

13/03/2021

Cosplay STORYTIME~~
A while ago I took part in the cosplay contest. We went to a studio where a short video was filmed for each cosplayer. And a couple of photos were also taken for the judges to pick the winners (we didn't win s**t, just saying 👀).
I finished making these tails the day before the contest (as usual, nothing new here folks 🤦🏻‍♀️), and I didn't quite figure out the best position for each tail for a proper weight distribution🏋️‍♀️ (the tails are heavy as hell). So before filming my video I just bent the tails randomly 🤦🏻‍♀️
Then I put the tails on and somehow got to the photozone (I could barely walk), and I've started my quarantine "cosplay performance" while my sis was getting ready for hers.
The photographer decided to take photos first, and when I turned around to take a photo of the back of my costume, I felt that I was fainting 😵 and while I was still conscious, I decided to fall on my knees to take a rest. Consequently we decided that we would film my sister's video first and I would take a rest meanwhile 🥴
I also realized that the corset I was wearing underneath the costume was too tight, so my friend loosened the lacing a little bit. I had my chance to bend the tails differently while sis was performing, but I didn't use it 🤦🏻‍♀️ and oh boy, I regret it so much.
When my sis finished, it was my turn to film a video, and we decided that it would be better to film it with me sitting on a cube, cuz I still couldn't move around freely. And that's it. I was sitting on a cube and a videographer was moving around me. But I still wanted to try to walk🚶‍♀ on a video, and you can see my attempts at the end of this video 😅. Honestly, I look like I am walking on the catwalk and wading through the storm at the same time 😅
~~~
Video by https://www.instagram.com/geektoriy/
Thanks to Aleksandra Shtern and Jinni Kim for help
~~~

20/02/2021

~Cosplay STORYTIME~
It was the hardest shoot ever. Everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong. 🤡
Me and my sis/photographer Jinni Kim planned to leave at 2pm. So, when we were already half an hour late, 🤦‍♀️ we finally got out of the house. Then something unexpected happened: I couldn't start my car. 😱 I thought that the battery in the key was low, so I ran to the store. Meanwhile, my sis was standing near the car and holding the wings 🏋️‍♀️, because the car was too close to the tree and we couldn't open the trunk door. 🚙🌳
So, I changed the battery, but my car still wouldn't start😱😱😱. It was like a Universe gave us a sign to buy some snacks, go back home and watch movies. But who cares, right? 🤡
I went back home, took the spare key 🔑 (sis was still standing at the same spot with the wings 🏋️‍♀️), returned to the car, inserted the key in the ignition switch... for the first time ever... 🙄 and Hooray! I finally started the car.🥳
I moved the car a bit forward and we put the wings in the trunk (completely messed them up in the process 🗿🗿).
We finally left, picked up Aleksandra Shtern and went to the forts.
We used GPS to get there, it took us deep into the woods. We got out of the car and we saw trees 🌳, bushes, hills⛰️, puddles🟤, dirt... All the same stuff we had been looking at for last 20 minutes or so. We were pretty sure that we didn't see 👀 any forts there🏰. But then we saw... 👀 a wall🧱👀. So, that was it? I was pretty sure I saw something completely different on the photos from the Internet. We decided to walk further into the forest⏩ 🌳. First we picked the wrong direction and we were moving away from the fort according to GPS. We returned to the car⏮️, and my sis went different direction⏬ and she found the fort!🥳 But she said that there were a lot of puddles and dirt and dirty puddles🟤🟤🟤, and there was no way we could get to that fort with all the props⚔️. So, that is how we wasted an hour🤦‍♀️
It was 4:30 pm, and it would be raining at 6 pm according to the forecast. 🌧️ like this shoot wasn't problematic enough. 😤 So, we were hoping for the best, and I really really wanted to have this shoot (I was keeping this costume since 2017 and I really really wanted to get rid of it 😩). So we went to a different fort.
I took a wrong turn, 🤦‍♀️ that is how we wasted 10-20 minutes more ➡️🔄🆘🔙🔄🔜🆗🏰. When we finally got to the destination point... it started raining. 🌧️🌧️🌧️🤬🤬🤬 But we couldn't give up! And we decided to take photos anyway.
It was a kind of torture walking around in that cosplay trying to avoid the puddles...🟤 and the dirt...🟤 and the dirty puddles...🟤🟤🟤 Huge thanks to Aleksandra Shtern for holding my wings so they wouldn't get into the dirty puddle... Uugghhh!
Now I will just list all the problems with costume:
1️⃣the belt and the skirt were constantly turning around my hips 🔄, so the front part of the belt was on the side on all of the photos (I fixed it in photoshop).😅
2️⃣ the "metal" feathers on my waist were supposed to be tucked into the skirt, but they didn't stay that way so we glued them to the belt (it didn't work that well and the front part of the belt was still on the side). I fixed it in Photoshop.😅
3️⃣ the wig got tangled moments after I had put it on➿➿➿😱
4️⃣ I couldn't put the ribbon with the little wings on my forehead because it was too tight. We just pulled it on somehow eventually. 😭
5️⃣ (last but not least) WINGS. Oooooh. Those 🤬 wings... They just collapsed🆘 the moment we took them out of the car 🚙. So Aleksandra Shtern tried to fix them🩹 with the tape as much as she could. But the feathers were constantly bending because of the wind. So, you guessed it! I fixed it in Photoshop!😅
My oh my, 😱 there is so much Photoshop on these photos, I swear I could just take the screencap of Erza from the anime, photoshop my face to it and the result would be almost the same.🤡
And also, as it was raining🌧️ during all the photoshoot my wings got completely destroyed,⚰️ so I was happy to throw them away, as well as the breastplate, feathers, belt and the boots.
Ph by Jinni Kim
Huge thanks to Aleksandra Shtern for help
Huge thanks to myself for editing these photos to death
~~

23/01/2021

Last winter I decided to try something new on my Instagram (And now I'm posting it on my FB page cuz who needs to make new content when you can reuse the old one, just saying). Me and my sister/photographer had Anastasia cosplay photoshoot with a storyline connecting all of the photos. It was Anastasia's story of being in the city for the first time after leaving the orphanage. And there are also some photos with our dog. That was an awesome shoot!

17/01/2021

Hi, my name is Ahri🦊💖, I am a popstar👑 and a woman of many talents👑.

I am a goddess of modeling and photography! 📸🤳🏻 I can take over 3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ selfies in a minute wearing 3 different costumes! 🧚🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️

I am a master of Photoshop! 💻🖌️ I can brilliantly change the background color in Photoshop. See it? Pink background💗 for a pink dress. 💗 Perfect!

I am a queen of makeup art!💄 I can do makeup like a pro and then redraw it in Photoshop!🖌️

I am an expert of hair makeovers! I can get myself a perfect haircut👱🏻, take a selfie and grow my hair back 👱🏻‍♀️in a matter of seconds!

I am a princess of magic!🔮 I can make my crystal tail 🦊 disappear! You won’t find it in any of my photos.🕵🏻‍♀️

Oh, I am so proud of myself now, I need to buy a cake for myself.🍰 Why buy💳 a cake but not make it👩🏻‍🍳? Well, I have many talents, but cooking ain’t one of them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

08/01/2021

Hi! My name is Rayna Starinets and I'm a cosplayer. I love to (1) take authentic cosplay photos 📸💎, (2) take funny cosplay photos📸🤡, (3) make an attempt to take authentic cosplay photos📸💎 and end up taking funny cosplay photos 📸🤡

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raynastarinets/

08/01/2021

Elsa selfies (yeah, I haven't had a photoshoot yet, because I haven't finished a cape, so I just keep taking selfies) with my sister as Anna and our dog Alex

08/01/2021

08/01/2021

08/01/2021

08/01/2021

07/01/2021

Hi! My name is Reina and I'm a cosplayer. I love to (1) take authentic cosplay photos 📸💎, (2) take funny cosplay photos📸🤡, (3) make an attempt to take authentic cosplay photos📸💎 and end up taking funny cosplay photos 📸🤡

I have kind of a tradition to create a new social media account for cosplay around a New Year🎆 (I've started it only a year ago tho 🤡). Last year I created a tiktok account (), posted 2 videos and forgot about it for almost a year 🤡. Hope the same thing won't happen to my page 😅

And I would like to start my FB page with one of my favorite cosplays and the first one I've made by myself - Syndra from League of Legends.