Now you can filter products by size, color and more!
04 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
We are adding a new feature to our stores to help you find exactly what you are looking for!
Currently installed on SensualElegance.com and CosplayCostumeCloset.com, you will see a “Filters” section on the left of the category pages (see screen image below) letting your select a size, color, manufacturer or more to narrow down your choices to just items in that category that meet those selections! Looking for babydolls that come in size small? Click the > next to size to expand it, check the “small” box and see what is available in that size! Expand the color filters and select “black” to narrow it down more to items that come in size small and black! Click on “clear filters” or check things on and off a you wish to filter and re-filter.
I’ll be expanding the filters and adding them to my other stores as well in the coming weeks. This is a feature I’ve been wanting to add for a while and am so excited it actually works!!!
Celebrating Black Friday Early
18 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: black friday, sale, store-wide sale
Starting today, you can get 20% off on ALL my stores! On Egyptianmarketplace.com and Sensual-Desire.com no coupon is needed (these 2 stores never had the coupons added to them lol) and all prices shown are already at 20% off. All other stores, use coupon code “BLK20″ for the 20% off. The only thing it doesn’t apply to are items on clearance since these are already more than 20% off. This sale runs until November 30 so it’s a great way to get your Christmas shopping done early!!
Oh and yes, you STILL get free shipping on orders of $100 or more too! Free shipping applies to orders delivered within the US only. Standard international or express shipping rates still apply.
Halloween is coming fast! What do you want to be?
07 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Costume Ideas Tags: costume, costumes, dress-up, halloween, lets pretend
Halloween is coming so fast! Just 24 days away as I write this and I cannot believe it!
I know a lot of people think of Halloween as the time to get spooky and terrify the neighbors, but I always thought of it as more of a “let’s pretend” time.
My Arabian Princess costume wasn't this pretty
When I was a kid, my costumes tended to be more of the dress-up type…the Princess, the pirate… I remember one year trick or treating as an Arabian Princess complete with bells on my shoes to jingle around the block. I was a ballerina more than one year thanks to costumes from the dance recitals I participated in (badly, but I got to do them for 4 years!). And I remember trying on my Dad’s jackets trying to put together a Wild, Wild West costume complete with toy guns (these days I’m sure the guns wouldn’t be allowed).
It was a lot of fun even though my parents didn’t let me go to too many houses – the rumors of razor blades in candy were very prevalent when I was a kid in the 60s, so I could only go in the neighborhood and to the homes of people we knew. But that was okay – I actually enjoyed dressing up more than the actual trick or treating. I think I even liked that part more than the candy…well, unless it was chocolate that is.
Even as a kid I didn’t like haunted houses – not that I can remember there being any of them in the small town in New Jersey I grew up in. I never liked to be scared – let me play and pretend instead!
Costumes you could buy were pretty bad – those pre-packaged plastic masks and capes or other things that tore the first few minutes you wore them. Definitely not all the choices we have today! I was never fond of those so tended to rummage thru my parents drawers and closets trying to figure out something unique.
What is you fondest memory of Halloween as a kid? I’d love to hear it!
Totally Awesome! Costume ideas from Dragoncon 2011!
22 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
If you’ve never been to DragonCon in Atlanta, GA, you are missing a truly awesome event. Here is a great video to show you a bit of what you missed at Dragoncon 2011!
Switched the store to new software
03 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
You may have noticed a different look to our store. As of September 1, we changed to new cart software which offers a ton more features for you, including:
- Larger, clearer photos – click on them for even larger views!
- 360 degree views of products (where available)
- Wish List* – save items you like to purchase at a later date!
- Ability to save your cart* – cart is saved automatically when log out with items in your cart
- Order tracking numbers posted when your order ships
- Product comparison – select two or more items to view side by side
- Gift Certificates
And even more! See our general blog for more details on the new cart software.
The downside to all this is that we must manually re-enter all our products, so you will notice a lot fewer items available right now. I should have just about all costumes back in the store by September 5 and other items added shortly thereafter. We are taking this opportunity to recheck all items are current with their manufacturers, updating photos, and more.
Thanks for hanging in with us during the transition! Check out the front page announcement for a coupon code you can use now during the transition too!
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*Available when you create an account on our store. While this is no longer required to check out, it does give you additional enhancements, including these features.
The Thing invading Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights
03 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
An abandoned scientific research facility in the midst of a vast and frozen Antarctica will set the stage for “The Thing,” an all-new horror maze inspired by Universal Pictures’ upcoming film, at both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights events, which begins on September 23 and continues on select nights through October 31. In the thriller “The Thing,” paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.
The new haunted house will offer guests an unprecedented first-hand preview of the much-anticipated thriller in advance of its October 14 release. Guests will find themselves in a series of face-to-face encounters with “The Thing,” an alien creature that can transform itself into an exact replica of any living being. “The Thing” maze will recreate the spine-chilling suspense from the film, confronting guests with the paranoia and fear that comes from being trapped inside the film’s Antarctic Thule station. The shape-shifting alien could be anywhere or anything. Will they survive?
Eerily authentic, “The Thing” maze will feature elaborately designed and disturbingly real alien creatures and sets. They will match the film’s terrifying intensity and provoke both a memorable and disturbing experience. Universal’s theme parks have partnered with the film’s producers, Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (Dawn of the Dead) to create an experience that is authentic to the film. The sets, audio, musical score, creature and character references are all based on the thriller.
“We want people to live the film and experience the same terror that affects the film’s characters,” said Newman. “Our collaboration with Universal’s creative teams brought the vision of the film to life. We’re excited for Halloween Horror Nights guests to experience ‘The Thing’ in this frighteningly real way.”
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood starts on September 23 and runs on select nights through October 31. More information is available at www.HalloweenHorrorNights.com.
The History of Mardi Gras
05 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
Some time in the Second Century during mid-February, Ancient Romans would observe what they called the Lupercalia, a festival that was the pre-cursor to our present day Mardi Gras. Lupercalia was part drunken revel, part circus and honored the Roman deity Lupercus, a pastoral God associated with Fauns or the Satyr.
When Christianity took over in Rome, the early Church fathers decided it would be easier to incorporate parts of the earlier pagan celebrations into the new faith instead of trying to outlaw them. This changed Lupercalia into a carnival to give a last party before entering Lent (a symbolic Christian pentinence of 40 days beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending at Easter). The new celebration included several days of feasting and all aspects of pleasure with participants donning costumes and masks to leave their regular lives behind for the celebration.
The celebration spread from Rome to other European countries. In medieval times, the festival was given by monarchs and lords in order to ceremoniously conscript new knights and hold feasts in their honor. The lords would ride through the countryside giving out cakes to peasants (thought to be the origin of the King Cake tradition), coins (perhaps the origin of modern day Mardi Gras doubloons), and other trinkets.
Mardi Gras came to American in 1699 with the French explorer Sieur d’Iberville. The festival had been celebrated in Paris as a major holiday since the Middle Ages. Iberville’s camp was on the West bank of the Mississippi River, about 60 miles south of the city of New Orleans. As he founded the camp the day on which Mardi Gras was being celebrated in France, Iberville names the site Point du Mardi Gras in honor of the festival. The first recorded Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans was in 1827 culminating in an annual Mardi Gras Ball.
Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday,” so named because it falls on the day before Ash Wednesday and the last day prior to Lent. Since Easter varies from year to year, so does Mardi Gras.
Today of course, New Orleans is the heart of Mardi Gras though it is celebrated in many other cities and most famously perhaps, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is celebrated with parades, lots of parties, and continues that early Roman tradition of wearing elaborate costumes and masks letting you celebrate in wild abandon…with the mask and costume hiding your identity to allow you to celebrate freely.
Figuring out how to blog from my tablet
22 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in General Tags: android, blogging, tablet
I just got an android tablet so am setting things up and figuring out how to blog from it, so please just ignore this test post 
Hopefully though I’ll blog more often since it will be a lot easier for me to step away from my desk and put my feet up in the family room or my bedroom and get more creative. At least, that’s the plan!
Tis the season…for things to be discontinued!
08 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in General Tags: discontinued, discounted items, sale
Yup, it’s that time of year. As manufacturers start working on their new Spring catalogs, they decide which items they will be discontinuing. It would be nice if they would share that information with those of us who carry their products, but out of more than 80 manufacturers I currently work with, only a small handful of them actually do this. I usually find out something is discontinued when I try to order it (which of course means I have a customer that has ordered one!) which is when I delete it from the store.
This puts me into “hunting mode” and I try to find one last one somewhere. Maybe another vendor I know has one left in stock. Or maybe I can find one on Amazon or Ebay that I can pick up for my customer. Or perhaps I can find something similar for my customer they will take instead.
When all else fails, I notify my customer I just cannot get one for them and have to cancel the order (and refund it if they paid via Paypal or not charge their card at all if they provided credit card information). I hate disappointing a customer this way, but it is just unavoidable at times. It always seems like the manufacturers discontinue pieces that were popular for me too 
Own your costume, not just wear it – and win a giftcard!
11 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in Costume Tips Tags: acting, character play, cosplay, costume, getting into character, halloween
One thing I’ve learned about going to a lot of science fiction conventions over the years is that a lot of people wear costumes, but the ones I remember are the ones that OWN it – the people that got into character not just put on fancy dress.
How do you get into character? Start by creating a character represented by the costume. Costuming, especially during Halloween, is the one time when you can put your usual self (with all the stresses and worries you normally have) aside and have fun by being someone else. But how do you create a character?
If you are wearing an anime or character costume, you already have a guide – the character whose costume you are wearing. Are there some signature mannerisms or movements that character uses regularly you can adopt? Think of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. I’ve seen probably 100 people wear that costume at conventions, but the one I remember is the man who had Jack’s swagger, speech pattern, and mannerisms down cold. Watch the movie or anime and practice ahead of time.
If your costume isn’t based on an existing character or is one of your own creation, make up some back story for that character…where did they come from? How did they grow up? What struggles have they had? 
Why are they at the party/event you are going to? Playing a pirate? How about creating a treasure map and talk to people about the clues you are trying to find? Playing a fortune teller? Get a prop like Tarot cards and learn a few of the meanings so you can let people pick a card and react to it. Playing a queen? Act regally and address everyone else as peasants. Get creative! A bar wench or tavern girl can play the flirt, a vampire can of course look for their next victim, the possibilities are endless!
Whatever costume you choose, put yourself into that character (actors call it method acting) and have fun with it! It’s a great time to encourage your children to use their imaginations too! You’ll find yourself noticed a lot more by everyone…and just might win that costume contest!
We’d love to see your best costume character! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and send us your videos! Every month, the video with the most likes will win a $25 gift card to CosplayCostumeCloset.com!
Cosplay Costume Closet
