Sailor Moon Miracle Romance Shining Moon Powder Compact REVIEW

So it's been a long time since I've done an item review but now that I have better equipment, I can actually do them again!  I'm going to re-do my Yuna and Kairi necklace ones with better pictures... and actually do my Serah pendant one but for the time being, Sailor Moon!

Last summer, the Premium Bandai website announced that they were going to release a special line of Sailor Moon cosmetic items aimed at those who grew up with the original 90s show (aka women).  This line started out with cosmetics and the first of which to be released was the powder compact priced for sale at 3,999 Yen (around $38 USD).  When this announcement was made they said that they had plans to release this item overseas but sadly, they don't seem to plan on making good on that promise.  I believe they only got so far as Hong Kong... not the western market.  Since I felt its better to be safe than sorry and wait on that, I went on and bought my compact through Mio Boutique Tokyo where it has since then sold out and is out of production.  This item was incredibly hard to get your hands on outside of Japan because inside of the country, they were only allowing 2 items per household making it pretty much near impossible for shopping services to get them for people.  There were 2 rounds of pre-orders for this item both of which sold out within hours.  Finally, they had another round of pre-orders that was unlimited (and once again, Japan only).  I was able to secure one through this and these pre-orders were up for only a week before they sold out for good.

I paid roughly $43 for my compact sometime in June 2013 and waited 6 months for Bandai to ship them.  In total, my compact came to $57 including EMS shipping from Mio Boutique Tokyo to me.  Not a bad deal at all if I do say so myself.  I've been wanting a Sailor Moon compact since I was 7 years old and figured this may very well be my only chance to nab an affordable one.  A few days ago after a ton of drama with my designated post office, my compact arrived!  Onto the photos:

(Click to enlarge the photos)

The box is a pretty sugar pink color with a silver silhouette of Princess Serenity

Side of the box

...another side of the box.  The other side of the box has a silver silhouette of Luna but it kept photographing blurry so I don't have a picture of that.  I may do a video when I'm not feeling lazy but who knows!

The bottom of the box

Inside flaps of the box that say, "Moon Prism Power Make Up!" in a rainbow font.  I thought that was a pretty cute touch.

Onto what everyone wants, the compact!  It's nice and shiny and has acrylic rhinestones.  I consider this to be a step up from the original 90s Japanese toy since that one just had color plastic instead of "crystals."

The compact by itself.  It's a nice size but...

DEFINE COMPACT FOR ME, PLEASE.  Out of all the compacts that I own (and I collect them), this is by far the fattest and most impractical one of them all!  Powder compacts are typically thicker than dual mirror ones (duh) but I think this one is just a bit much...  It opens by pressing on the rectangle.

View of the bottom

The compact opened.  It comes with a really cute powder puff.  It's quite small compared to every other powder puff that comes in my other compacts though.

Opened compact for a view of the mirror.  The mirror is very tiny and impractical.  I could hardly see myself in it because it's so small... but the moon and star relief surrounding it is pretty cute.

The compact opened showing the design of the silver crystal and ribbon.  Now this is where I become very disappointed.  In the promotional photos of the compact, I couldn't tell how the powder and powder puff would be separated but...

...as you can see here, the only thing separating the powder, the powder puff, and the mirror is a crappy sheet of clear plastic with the crystal and ribbon printed on it.  I found this to be very cheap and tacky.  Most high quality powder compacts have a separating compartment to store the powder puff beneath it.  This was a very stupid decision on Bandai's part not to include this feature.


All in all, it's a pretty cute but very impractical powder compact.  Originally, I planned on actually using this compact for the mirror and keeping it in a silk pouch so it would be safe in my purse but... this thing is way too chunky!  I was honestly expecting it to look a bit nicer too since its aimed at adult women but it looks just as childish as the finish on the 90s toys.  The construction of the compact left me unsatisfied as well since there really wasn't anything to separate the mirror, powder puff, and powder from one another except for a crummy round sheet of plastic.  That's... not very practical for a functional compact.  I haven't tested the quality of the powder (and I probably won't at this point) but it does smell pretty nice.  On the Premium Bandai website its described as smelling like "princess rose."  I don't really think it smells a thing like a rose but the smell is quite pretty and inoffensive.

Now for the quality of the powder itself... it's pretty mediocre drug store quality but I was expecting that since this item was marketed solely for its packaging.  It's a pretty crappy as far as highlighters are concerned and its filled with small glitter rather than quality mica powder.  It doesn't pick up very well and goes on quite cakey.  It's decent for reducing the look of oil but all in all, the powder is lousy but who actually bought this for the product alone?  The compact is a cute collectible and my classmates in cosmetology school comment on it all the time (and laugh at its size) but if you're looking for a good highlighter, I highly recommend Too Faced's Candelight Glow Highlighting Powder Duo.

As for where to buy this compact, as of right now the only place that I know of is on eBay although you will be paying higher than retail prices for it as this is a sold out limited edition item.  If you're a Sailor Moon collector, I recommend it as a piece for your collection.  For those of you who wanted to actually use this compact... I don't really recommend it since it's very impractical.  The next upcoming Sailor Moon anniversary item on my list is the Proplica Crescent Moon wand!  I've been wanting a crescent moon wand my entire childhood and I went on and pre-ordered mine through Ami Ami.  From what I've seen, it looks a lot better than the sought after Sailor Moon World version of the wand and the (now) funny looking 90s toy.  Best of all, it's perfect for cosplay!  I'll finally have a pretty prop for Princess and Queen Serenity. ;__;

Something that has confused me for a while...

...and that is why do people buy cosplay wigs from Hello Cosplay?  I mean, come on people!  You can get the same wig on eBay FOR A LOT LESS MONEY.  For example, a long unstyled wig on Hello Cosplay's site costs $30 plus $15 shipping (if you're in the USA) bringing your total cost up to $45.  Then there's eBay... you can get the same wig for $23-$28 and not have to pay shipping!  Then there's the recent drama about this company stealing images of products sold by other sellers.  Chances are high you will not get what you think you're getting in the photo.

If you're looking for a cheap cosplay wig and you're just starting out, check out eBay!!  Seriously people, they have some of the cheapest un-styled cosplay wigs you can find outside of Taobao.  eBay wigs are often the cheapest cosplay wigs you can find when you're new and on a budget.  The key to finding a good eBay wig is research and checking out the seller's feedback.  If I'm looking for a cheap wig to style or do some experimenting on, I usually check out sellers like CosplayDNA and cosplaywig.  CosplayDNA has some really cheap wigs that are okay in terms of quality since they're pretty shiny.  cosplaywig is pretty much the same but a little pricier and offers pre-styled character wigs.

All in all... check eBay before throwing your money away on a random Chinese cosplay website.  Sure, the wigs from the 2 sellers I recommended ship directly from China but you'll get a much better price than you would get at places like Hello Cosplay and Cosplay House.  Research is the key!

Wig reviews, anyone?

I've decided to do some wig reviews on this blog in the future since I shop from many different vendors for them.  If I'm able to, I'll have one written by next week.  First up, Arda Wigs.

Animegacon 2012 review...

This convention was held August 17th-19th at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (formerly The Hilton).

Yeah, fuck that con.  I'm never going back there again.  It was hands down the worst convention I have been to in years.  The entire thing was nothing but hype.  They promised snacks and drinks will be served at the masquerade ball and they didn't deliver.  All they had was water in the back of the room (as with every panel room) from what a friend tells me.  Why in the hell were they charging a fee to enter when they said it would cover the cost of snacks and drink and yet didn't have it!?  The theme was Gundam Wing but they didn't have anything to even represent said theme.  At all.

The dealer's hall was quite small and there were only two vendors that interested me, one of which was selling the ever so popular necomimi and another one was Epic Cosplay.  Other than that, the selection was filled with mostly bootleg Chinese goods.  Why can't cons ban this crap?  It looks awful and the jewelry is filled with lead.  There were some vendors selling items that were better left concealed from general view.  You do not want a child to walk past a pillow of an anime girl with her exposed breasts for the world to see!

There were several rooms showing anime which never interests me since I can do that at home.  Then again, I don't really watch anime anymore since I'm more of a gamer.  Even if I were into anime, these conventions don't show the old school stuff I enjoyed.  I walked past several of these screening rooms and they were pretty much empty.  Nothing was of interest to me except for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt since that show is so unique compared to most anime crap of the modern era.  In short, I passed on the screening rooms.

Biggest con in the universe, eh?  Well, it sure lived up to its name as in it was the other kind of con (if you know what I mean).  There was hardly anyone there.  The con was so small and not worth the $60 at the door price for a badge or the $40 one day only pass.  I would say $25 at the most.  For a con to brag about people pre-registering by the thousands I sure didn't see that many people there--a few hundred at the most.  This con hyped itself up so much about being such an amazing convention and it failed to deliver.  The most unusual aspect about this convention's attendance was that there were more cosplay videographers and photographers than cosplayers themselves.  This never happens.  I think this happened because that huge hype of a large masquerade prize draws out some amazing cosplayers... but the majority of the cosplayers that were in it to win it were in the screening room and not walking about.

That brings me to the biggest drama maker of this con--the cosplay masquerade contest.  The promise of the $10,001 drew out a lot of cosplayers that brought out their A-game.  When you're using the cosplay masquerade contest as the main draw of a convention, you better fucking make sure you have appropriate prizes for the winners.  Every costume that entered this thing was nothing short of amazing (honestly I was really surprised by this).  Several awards were given out and for some reason or another, they were giving some groups multiple awards.  Weird, but okay whatever.  This is what left a bad taste in everyone's mouth that was involved in the competition (including myself): no one but "Best in Show" got a worthwhile prize.  Say you win... "Best Overall Craftsmanship" (which I believe is second place).  The prize you got was merely a DVD boxset donated by one of the convention sponsors and a useless trophy.  Most people would say, "Better than nothing at all, right?"

NO.

There is a huge jump when first place is $10,001 and second place is just a trophy and a DVD boxset.  This is equivalent to winning nothing at all.  The trophy has no monetary value and the DVD boxset is worth about $40 at the most (since DVDs have very little to no value at all these days), yet the first place winner gets $10,001.  There were numerous awards given out which were the exact same thing that second place got.  Now do you see how unfair this was?  This is wrong on multiple levels.  The way they handled winning is fucking stupid.  The way things ended, they should've just used the entire $10,001 to split among the winners so no one gets screwed over (when in this case, everyone but one group did).  DON'T HAVE THE GRAND PRIZE BE $10,001 WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE SHIT FOR LESSER PRIZES.  This leaves zero incentive for any cosplayer to even bother with this sham of a masquerade next year.

And in case you're wondering, no, I didn't even place.  I am however, angry at how the prizes for everyone else was handled.  A trophy and a DVD boxset... what a slap in the face.

I won't even get started on that maid cafe... but I will.

This entire convention was centered around the maid cafe which was way overkill.  Not everyone who goes to an anime convention goes just for the maid cafe!  The whole idea of charging a fee to get into said cafe was stupid enough when you have to pay for food inside in the first place.  Needless to say, by the middle of day 2 I was sick and tired of it.  During every event, for whatever reason they were dancing to Kpop songs on stage.  Why was everything at this convention centered around the damn maid cafe???  Opening ceremonies?  Maid dance!  Gundam Wing ball (which was changed at the last minute)?  Maid dance!  Taking way too long to decide on a winner for the sham of a masquerade that cheated everyone but one group?  Maid dance!!!  Closing ceremonies?  Oh, let's add a stupid last minute maid graduation for no reason!!  The CEO guy claimed that the maid graduation was supposed to be a private event for the friends and family members of the maids in the cafe... but if that's true, then why was it part of the closing ceremonies?  Why was it in the program guide!?  His excuse for why we saw so much of the maid cafe is because "There were no other groups at the con avaliable to entertain."  Well, they were the only group the con had put together to entertain so what the hell is he talking about??  Dude can't even keep track of his lies.

The people running this con didn't know what the hell they were doing--that much was obvious.