Gosh!! I haven’t cosplayed all 2023, I’m happy someone like Zélie will be my “comeback” hehe. if you don’t know who Zélie Adebola is, first off, you’re missing out, second, she’s the main character in the “Children of Blood and Bone” book series by Tomi Adeyemi. There are currently 2 books out with the third one being teased for release sometime 2023-2024. I can’t wait!

Children of Blood and Bone Series Book Covers

Wow I never seen that first cover. I like it… especially her dark lip color, so pretty!! Also Zélie has dark brows on all covers except maybe a hint of white in the second but most fan depictions have her with white brows lol. I want to do them for my cosplay but I honestly don’t know if I could pull it off. ^.^

Zélie Fanart

My Zélie Cosplay Vision

Since I’ve been planning to cosplay Zél for a while, I already have some things bought & prepared! But I still have a number of things in my shopping cart that I need to bring my cosplay to life.

Hair

Since Zél’s hair is straight-wavy in the first book, my first depiction will be with these braids. Not exactly the same thing but the same flat look. My braided wig is from @zinnysglam on Instagram.

Face

In the past I’ve done a white lash look and I absolutely hated it. But looking back at it I’m in love! I think it’ll help add *mysticality* to this look.

To achieve her white lashes (and brows?) I’ll be using a white mascara. I’m hoping that I can just brush the mascara on my eyebrows and they’ll look natural… I mean in theory it sounds like it’ll work but I’ll try it beforehand and update! I’m also gonna be using an eyeshadow pallet for the symbols on her face, the golden one along her eye and cheek and then the white design in the center. (Minus that smudge?)

The golden design looks very challenging, I think I’ll have to do it a few times before I see success lol.

I’ll of course be wearing blue-grey contacts. The contacts in the photos are not what I’ll be wearing, those are from many moons ago, I just got a new pair from PinkyParadise. Blue contacts scare me but for Zél I will face my fears. ;-;

Accessories

Like Zél, I’ll be wearing a red and blue headwrap (headbands rlly lol). I want to have the same pattern as hers, so I’ll be attempting to draw them on with black and white fabric markers! Is that crazy? I couldn’t find those patterns so I was like, might as well?? It’ll be a fun art day for me!

Attached to the headwraps are beads, and I actually ordered these waist beads over a year ago for this cosplay, how late am I? XD

I will attempt to connect the beads with the blue gem that’s in the center of her forehead, I have faith it’ll turn out great!

I don’t know why never I noticed them but once I saw these earrings on her I knew I wanted something similar for this cosplay! I hope they don’t look weird lol I think it’ll be something where it’s not too noticeable which is what I’m going for.

Zélie Adebola Cosplay Collage

I feel much better scripting all this out! I’m excited to do this cosplay and look back at this to see what I changed/added lol. I don’t have an exact date set but it could be next week, next month— but definitely not next year!