The focus of this First Snow cosplay was reshaping the eye structure and styling the plush accessories. In the original art, the character's eyes are very large and round with light gray pupils, so I chose light gray contacts and drew downward-slanted eyeliner to enlarge the eyes. For the base makeup, I used a lightweight matte foundation to replicate that pale, translucent complexion of a girl from the snowy plains, dusting a subtle touch of blush across the center of the cheeks.
The wig was a major project—to achieve that voluminous, layered silver-white long hair, several hair pads were layered underneath. The animal ears were somewhat small when purchased, so to match the large, fluffy look from the character art, I hand-added extra faux fur and readjusted the angle of the ear bases. The blue gemstone forehead accessory and dangling feathers are the essence of the character; although they fell off once during the shoot due to loose adhesive, they were eventually positioned nicely in the center of the forehead.
On the afternoon of the shoot, we specifically found a backlit grassy field. Because the sunlight was a warm golden hue, the backlight caught the edges of the hair to create a beautiful rim light. However, since the character art originally features a cool-toned ice and snow backdrop, we introduced a subtle contrast between warm and cool tones in post-processing to keep the facial rendering soft. The Cosplay photography focused primarily on the upper body, where the sweater and collared wrap naturally aligned with the original art without needing overly complex coordination.
I included an 'OOC apology' in the post because the character's original expression is very playful with a cute, cat-like mouth shape, whereas my face shape is more elongated. Combined with my somewhat vacant gaze that day, the resulting photos gave off a very quiet, almost melancholic vibe that diverged from her lively personality, leaving me to rely on subtle facial adjustments to lean into a gentle, tranquil atmosphere. We encountered various hiccups during the shoot—such as harsh backlighting creating heavy facial shadows that required constant reflector repositioning. Shooting only the upper body also meant missing out on showcasing the lower-body styling details like socks and shoes, which was a bit of a regret. Nonetheless, against the warm ambient setting, the photos took on an authentic, grounded texture. This session also taught me great techniques for rendering realistic, hair-like strokes in eye makeup, which will be invaluable for future shoots, and I'm deeply grateful to the photographer for their patient guidance throughout.