Some of you might remember that we were invited to do a cosplay panel for the Manila International Book Fair, as well as the Cosplay Mania convention last year. Kat ~
moonlightflight, China !
snowpeachdrop, El ~
rosiael and I shared some insights about how we go about our cosplay preparations. I've already posted some of them, which you may see here:
Cosplay Photography Guide
On Posing and Convention Etiquette
Wig Styling Tutorial
General Cosplay CourtesyYou may see these, and a few other things on my semi-new, sparkly
like Edward Cullen profile page.
Tuxedo Team Guide to Cosplay Makeup
Another of our little guides makes it online. Check it out on 
China's journal entries:
Cosplay Makeup Guide Part I (preparation)
Cosplay Makeup Guide Part II (execution)
Additional Stuff
I took the pictures for that tutorial so I'm not in it, but to be fair, I'll share some photos as well for additional examples. If you're sick of my face, feel free to skip this and keep in mind that I'm not forcing anyone to look at the pictures in my journal anyway. 
Without Makeup
This is me with no makeup.
And judging from the way I look, without sleep as well.(Ack, this is pretty old. I'd provide a better example if I could, but this is all I have uploaded right now, I think.)
Uzumaki Naruto
photo by Tracy ~13idiotbox
Here I am with the type of makeup I put on for when I'm cosplaying Naruto.
photo by Tracy ~13idiotbox
Same makeup and contacts, but with better lighting from the
Broken Youth photoshoot.
First, I follow the
regular makeup prep that China had posted. Clean face, moisturize, use concealer on blemishes when I have them, et cetera.
If you observe the way Naruto is drawn, you can see that there's a lot of emphasis on his eyes. I think of my face as a canvas and use liquid eyeliner to kind of follow the way his eyes are drawn, but also considering my natural eye shape. I had trouble with that gunk at first, but I learned to just think of it as ink painting so it wouldn't feel like such an alien task.
I also used a bunch of stuff like concealer and eyeshadow to make my eyebrows match the wig. (
NOTE: Light brown, not perfectly blonde because eyebrows are usually two shades darker than the actual hair color.)
For the lips, I wouldn't really advise using lip color for obvious reasons. Lip balm just to keep your lips from drying up or chapping goes a long way.
Lastly, for Naruto's characteristic facial markings, I used brown pencil and did my best to make it slightly blend into my skin for a more natural look.
Since I don't know a lot about makeup, I just think of them as art materials that I can use to sort of... draw the character's face into my own. Wow, that sounds really weird. Anyway, here are a few more examples of the application of cosplay makeup techniques.
Ulquiorra Schiffer
(Thank you, ~bladesfire for the photo!)
me, Miguel ~
merkymerx as Grimmjow, and ~
chaos-shadow as Yachiru from
Fanime 2008
ostit: Gah, I still have a lot to improve if I'm to cosplay Ulquiorra again. Ah well, it was a learning experience.
Now, on to characters that look a little more human.
Himura Kenshin
(photo by Sandee ~littlesailboat)
Kenshin looks rather feminine, so I guess the eyeliner doesn't look too out of place. Positioning the scar is always more trouble than it seems, haha. I have a weird face shape.
Sagara Sanosuke
(photo by Essa ~Cyfliq)
I'll use Miguel ~
merkymerx as an example this time.
Sometimes, even the manlier characters could use some eyeliner.
Disclaimer
Now, some might argue about some of what we have to say - such as how male characters shouldn't have eyeliner on because guys in general don't really wear makeup. And that's totally okay if that's how they want to go about it.
After all, certain makeup techniques may not have the same effects on different faces. This is just what we thinks works for US. We're sharing this not because we are proclaiming that this is the absolute truth of the world and if you do not follow us, then you are a bad person and you should feel bad about it. NO! We're doing this because we hope our insights will help you figure out something that will work for YOU.
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
As requested by many of you, I've submitted this guide as a dA news article. Here is the link. I'm happy this proved to be useful for a lot of you guys! It's the least I can do to give a little something back for your appreciation of our work. Thank you!
http://www.aliceandrabbitshop.com/customorders.htm 
Since so many of you enjoyed the Bleach omake photo entry, I thought I'd share the Death Note ones as well. 
awesome friends and photographers
Egghead 
*comes back to life*
And yeah, you really did a good job on the Ulquiorra cosplay.
You just need to frown more when cosplaying serious character (plus wider grin for flirty/playboy macho character like Sano)
[link]
Please. if not i understand. ^^
you still look nice without makeup ^^
And wow i really like your cosplay.
It is so kawaii. Errr..... I dont know what to say..-Sits there and looks at keybored- ....Buh-bye....
lol From:SheShe
If you did your wig , could you do one for me?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. This will help me a lot if ever I'm gonna finally pursue my cosplay plans