[Houraisan Kaguya cosplay] Serenity and Splendor in Touhou Project

This Houraisan Kaguya look has high recognizability within Touhou Project. The preparation and shooting process mainly revolved around capturing her aloof, mysterious, and slightly eerie aesthetic.

To express these qualities, the makeup was adjusted quite drastically. A very fair foundation shade was chosen, using cool-toned blush to sculpt the face. Red colored contacts were the soul of the look, selecting a design with high translucency and using eye drops to maintain moisture, ensuring sharpness in the gaze. Dark red gradient eyeshadow, paired with a long straight black wig and thick blunt bangs, brought out the nocturnal serenity belonging to the character.

The outfit is a pink Traditional Chinese style look with lustrous fabric, accented by white lace ruffles at the collar and cuffs, along with gold embroidery patterns. The red cord knots and beaded tassels were key details, taking time to arrange neatly for an exquisite finish. To convey the character's otherworldly presence, we avoided overly bright lighting, utilizing indoor wooden stairs and door panels as backdrops while using cool-toned light to enhance shadows.

Since this was an Indoor selfie shoot, I constantly adjusted the angle and placement of the phone, experimenting with low and high angles to create different senses of visual tension. In terms of posing, I incorporated more hand gestures—such as extending fingertips forward or bringing a fist close to the cheek—to break static frames and expand emotional expression.

Post-processing was kept restrained: preserving the highlights on the Red colored contacts while dimming overall ambient light to broaden contrast, making the fair skin and pink fabric appear with richer depth. Devoting extra time to costume arrangement and makeup details allowed the distinctive atmosphere to come through completely, making the entire experience very enjoyable.