I’ve been posting about this on my social media accounts, but I haven’t really written much about it here. But I thought it’s about time.

I made a dream cosplay in the form of the Dreamwalker (tier 3) set for my druid. It’s my most complicated cosplay ever, with advanced wiring that powers RGB LED strips and smoke machines. I spent more money than I care to admit and even more hours.

And after a few hours of wearing it, all of the gold leather applications were peeling apart, because the material I chose was bad. Really bad.

When I took off my cosplay and saw the damage, I wanted to cry, scream and throw it in the dump. Here’s some photos of how bad it was:

This was happening at every single place that had gold. Some places hadn’t peeled off, but they were loose.

A lot of research led me to a surface treatment that seemed promising. So I tried it, and at first glance, it worked. I replaced the parts that had peeled most, painted some of the places that had only a tiny bit damage and treated everything with the scratch proof thing I found. I wore my cosplay to Koyocon, I was hopeful.

But alas… When I took off the cosplay, it had peeled again. I had two choices: Retire the cosplay and never wear it again or replace every single gold piece.

I decided on the last option. Like I said – dream cosplay. And my druid cosplays have very dear places in my heart. These are the ones I display on mannequins at home.

So, the work has started… So far I’ve replaced almost all gold on the jacket. Much to go still. But it’s worth it.

So the point of this post? Stress test your materials before you use them!