Cirque Love: Merimask

Confession time! I'm a HUGE sucker for Cirque du Soleil. Like, HUUUUUUGE. As in, when Needless Markup did a special Christmas collab with them a few years back, and sold a bunch of Cirque ornaments, my mom got like, 4 for me. And okay, I examine the costumes/hair/makeup more than I do the action, but I can't help that. It's toooooooo pretty!

So yeah, instead of browsing and stumbling upon another not-so-well-known Etsy seller, I clicked on Merimask's shop through the vampire article (which I originally wasn't going to read because I thought it might be Twilight-related, but it wound up being a lot better, which made me happy).

AND HOLY AMAZEBALLS. She(?) makes masks so incredible that freaking Cirque wanted to sell them?! Not gonna lie, I started freaking out, because my favorite part of browsing the Cirque gift shops is ogling the masks. Okay, and I seriously considered getting a butterfly one once. ANYway. She's another one of those sellers who did one thing in school and then settled into something completely different. Which gives me hope!

Basics: Leather. You can see. You can breathe. Workmanship looks absolutely INCREDIBLE. Colors, texture (OMG THE TEXTURES), all the details are just, ahhhhhhhh. These are easily the first masks I've seen that I've actually gone and thought "hey, these would give Cirque a run for their money." (I feel like the Double Rainbow man, I can't express how I feel in words hahaha)

I am head over heels in love with the Medusa, and Gorgons creep me out, so that's a testament to how good she made it look. And I cannot for the life of me get over the flipped tails of the Fighting Betta Fish--I kinda want to see them in blue! I also loooove how the Japanese Fox thumbnail made me go "hey that looks Japanese!" and it was. And of course, gotta throw it back to my Asian roots, and mention the Frost Dragon. You can tell she does her research.

(I'm still dying over how gorgeous these things are, so I'm just gonna end this here.)