Putting on the Bunny ears in red outfit to visit the Haidilao collaboration, I finally found time to document this day. Although it's towards the later stages of the campaign, as a Doctor, I still wanted to record this collaboration journey as best as I could.
For this trip, I did plenty of prep work in advance. For the base makeup, I chose a fair, oil-controlling foundation because hot pot restaurant lighting is typically very warm and can easily make skin look yellow on camera, making a solid base and setting powder essential. For my eyes, I wore blue contacts; this color looks remarkably translucent under warm lighting and creates a strong visual impact when paired with the red outfit.
The fabric texture of the Bunny ears in red outfit is very delicate. To avoid getting it dirty, I even wrapped tape around the collar and cuffs. Fixing the hairstyle took the most effort—adjusting the bangs to ensure they didn't block the line of sight for the contacts while maintaining the three-dimensional structure of the bunny ears. Pairing such hair accessories with makeup really tests your dexterity, requiring repeated checks before feeling confident enough to head out.
Upon arriving at Haidilao, the environment was even more atmospheric than I imagined, with the restaurant lights illuminating the acrylic stands and place mats with rich color saturation. When I held up the collaboration mini-sign for a selfie, the staff thoughtfully brought over a merchandise display stand, which served as a perfect background prop. Compared to a plain selfie, shots with this kind of contextual scene feel much more vivid.
I'm used to taking multiple shots from various angles to pick the most perfectly composed frame. For the cover photo at the very front, I chose a composition with the face positioned centrally towards the top, keeping the large bow and bunny ears completely within the frame, looking straight into the lens to give off a natural and lively feel.
The biggest challenge during shooting was securing the bunny ears. After all, eating hot pot requires looking down, so to prevent them from dipping into the broth, I pinned several bobby pins on the inside of the ears and sprayed styling hairspray. Fortunately, they were held tightly and gave me zero issues all evening.
As for heading out for a meal in full cosplay gear, my personal advice is to check with the restaurant in advance. Thankfully, the staff at Haidilao were very accommodating and even proactively asked if I needed help taking photos. This warm interaction made me feel very relaxed. I loved the dessert presentation on the table and the collaboration badges. Even though I missed some of the initial buzz, experiencing it in person made all the waiting completely worthwhile.
This collaboration cosplay experience gave me fresh insights into photography techniques and capturing character demeanor. Every time I wear a different outfit, I gain new takeaways in fine details. Overall, it was a very refreshing attempt.
Of course, this experience left behind a few regrets, such as not taking more full-body photos, but the set of photos I managed to keep is already satisfying enough. I hope there will be similar opportunities in the future to cosplay more favorite looks across different settings.
Eating hot pot was indeed a bit tricky, especially with wide, billowy sleeves—picking up chopsticks almost required rolling up the sleeves to grab food. So I recommend bringing a couple of extra hair ties to hold back wide sleeves when dining in such outfits.