Cyberpunk Panam Palmer Cosplay: Let's Jack Into the Basilisk

This Panam Palmer cos­play is prob­a­bly my first some­what seri­ous attempt at cos­tum­ing, and I'm so excit­ed to just have this jack­et, with all its print­ed details, stitch­ing, and the dif­fer­ent tex­ture fabrics!

Here are the reference pictures:

There's no end to how deep some­one could fall into the rab­bit hole of cos­play detail­ing in terms of char­ac­ter accu­ra­cy: hair­styling, make­up, por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy, and (not least) the actu­al outfit.

Let's be hon­est, though: plen­ty of my friends and fol­low­ers were excit­ed just to see Panam's high­ly detailed jack­et come to life.

Panam Palmer cosplay but make it 1997 in color aesthetic

The first time you meet Panam Palmer isn't when she's bent over, tin­ker­ing with a car engine. (Though that was mem­o­rable for many Cyberpunk 2077 players!)

You can see her talk­ing to Nash in the Afterlife around the time you meet up with Dexter DeShawn. Also, when you go back to vis­it Rogue, Panam storms off and rants on the phone out­side — pre­sum­ably about Rogue Amendiares and Nash Bane.

As such, I made sure to get sil­ly pic­tures in my Panam Palmer cos­tume, gri­mac­ing at my phone, too. What's the point of cos­play if not to have fun with it?

Next Panam Palmer cosplay: how I would style it differently

Here's what I've learned about make­up, hair, and wardrobe while cos­play­ing Panam from Cyberpunk 2077.

1. Mix the fake freckle shade with a liquid medium

Combining eye­shad­ow with mix­ing medi­um (or set­ting spray) works great for fake freck­les. I'd splat­ter it on rather than dot it with a brush, using a lighter shade, and give it a more con­sis­tent spread.

2. Use a finer-​toothed comb for neater hair sectioning

Combs with fin­er teeth and small­er spac­ing in between are spe­cial­ized for that pur­pose and can make the process go a lot more smoothly.

I also now have a bet­ter idea of how to sec­tion hair after watch­ing a time-​lapse of some­one installing wool faux locs — notably, the sec­tions towards the bot­tom of the scalp get small­er and small­er near the edges.

3. Use a styling pomade for more control of stray hairs

Flyaways and frizz are a pain to Photoshop out. Enough said.

4. Skip the white eyeliner on the waterline, or maybe use a more natural color

It does look like Panam's eye­lid rims are quite light, but using white eye­lin­er on my water­line didn't quite suit me here.

It makes my eyes look rounder and more doe-​like when I'm cos­play­ing a fox-​eyed char­ac­ter. (My eyes are nat­u­ral­ly quite squin­ty anyway.)

5. Don't cut the leotard neckline as low

That's my bad. I mean, hey, I doubt many peo­ple will com­plain about a nude bra peek­ing through, but it'd be nice at least to have the option of more mod­esty with­out the jacket.

6. Higher arched eyebrows and eyebrow slit

If we're going by the old pho­tos, I would arch my eye­brows more. However, I've had my eye­brows inked (ombre and microb­lad­ing com­bo) since then, so nowa­days, I'd just use some con­ceal­er for a faux brow slit.