Halloween is my FAVORITE time of the year. Now, if you think you understand how strongly I feel about this, then multiply it by one thousand and you will be close. All year round I look for nick knacks that could possibly be used for any of my hair brained costume ides. I like to do a lot of work to my costumes myself to add a bit of my own flavor. That way, if someone goes as the same thing, at least you won’t be identical. I wanted to go through some of my costumes and what I used to achieve the look so you can see how easy it is to pull off with a little imagination. Some of my favorites sadly enough didn’t get captured on camera. You know what they say “might have been the whiskey, might have been the gin……..”.
Titanic Casualties
This bastard costume took a lot of work. I already had long, vintage dresses from my many thrift shopping trips, so that was taken care of. I just had to find long white gloves, vintage shoes, a clutch and a parasol. Plus whatever jewelry I planned on wearing. We bought small styrofoam balls that we used as barnacles and glued everywhere (beware, too much paint makes them melt. We found out the fun way). We glued them to everything that we were wearing, plus in our wigs. We then bought five pounds of seashells to paint and glue everywhere as well, wigs too. If you plan on doing this, then start a week before because the glue will need to dry on each side of your costume. We also shredded green pieces of felt and glued them together so that they were different lengths. Then we added those with the shells and barnacles. That was the seaweed. To get the aged and frozen look on our clothes, we took them out and spray painted them with white once we had everything glued on them. Then we did the same to our wigs, jewelry, parasols, gloves, ect. To carry the frozen over to our faces we used white with a hint of silver for face paint, white eyelashes and painted white on our eyebrows. Then we affixed whatever wounds we wanted. The prep was long, but it was worth it.
Super Mario Bros.
We usually do group costumes, so of course one year we had to do Super Mario. I was Princess Peach. It was literally a little over a month after having my son so I didn’t think I would be able to rig up a costume. Wrong. I found a Southern Belle costume and turned it pink with the help of paint, ribbon, and sparkles. All affixed by hand. With that I used a tiara made to look like the princesses, as well as earrings like hers. A blonde wig, fake eyelashes and pink lipstick and I was ready to go.
Dead Bride And Groom
My husband and I were sitting at home and decided to go out to the bar for Halloween one year. So everything that we wore we had in our closets. Even his corsage was my dried corsage from my wedding shower. I had a long white dress that I ripped, threw some black and grey makeup on and covered in blood. He had pants and a dress shirt that I did the same. I ripped some tulle to use as my veil. For makeup we did original zombie makeup. Pale skin, rings around the eyes and then some wounds. For wounds you don’t need a lot of stuff to pull it off. If you dab fake blood on and add black eyeshadow for depth, it looks like the real thing. Just keep playing with it until you feel that it looks right.
Celebrity Zombies
Our second take on zombies was a little more intricate. I was zombie Jackie Kennedy, my husband was zombie Elvis. Keep in mind that when I do my costume, I’m also held accountable for his. Or there would be none. For my costume I found a 50’s tweed skirt suit that i had altered and then I covered in blood and then rolled in the dirt outside. I also had a pillbox hat and vintage shoes that I sequined for a little more fun. For his, I found a white jumpsuit with the eagle on the front and back. I then sequined all of the front and back. Not thinking, I took it out and rolled it in the dirt so it wouldn’t look new. It was damp so all of the sequins fell off. So all of the work that I did in three days I redid in one night. For accessories he had Elvis sunglasses and I had Jackie O sunglasses with a lens knocked out. For makeup that year we did prosthetics. I had an eye falling out and some wounds, held on by spirit gum and hope. We then took fake skin and covered the edging, then added fake blood and some eyeshadow for depth. We did the same for his wounds. We added some dirt and leaves to our wigs and it looked pretty good.
Freak-show
This was one of my favorite group costumes. We all went as major components of a freak show. My husband was a ventriloquist and I was his dummy. I had been thrift shopping and found a girls dress that was like a dolls. Puffy sleeves that flared out at the bottom but was short. I added sequins all over it and did the same to my gloves. We then made my strings and the wooden piece that he held to “control me”. His costume consisted of a top hat, pants, bow tie and jacket complete with tails. I had the luxury of throwing sequins on all of those pieces too. I added a wig to mine and a mustache to his. Note: my husband turns into an ass the second a fake mustache hits his face, so we told him that for the rest of his life if he needed to wear another one it would be made out of peanut butter so we can easily wipe it(and his attitude) off. For my makeup I added lines on either side of my chin to mimic a mouthpiece, lines around my knees and elbows where my joints would have to move if I was made out of wood, freckles, and big doll eyes. Keep in mind, to achieve big doll eyes I used fake eyelashes on the tops and bottoms of my eyes which caused one eye to shut all night. Other than that, it was a pretty fun damn night.
I’ve done many other costumes over the years, one of the most memorable was the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was Columbia and my husband was Eddie aka Meatloaf. It was amazing and we nailed it. No pictures to show of that night though. My whole point to this is… You can do anything with a little imagination, paint, and a lot of glue. You can pull a lot of shit off with some effort. I love Halloween every year. Costumes, drinks, and great friends that are willing to go along with my dress up craziness. Not only do they go along with it but they get right in on the costumes and help the whole way. Who doesn’t want to costume with your buds all night? Sounds like a perfect time to me. So I hope that this gives you a little Halloween inspiration. I can’t wait to see some great costumes!
So many good memories of Halloween with you! I loved being Nintendo Princesses with you, but nothing beats when we did Rocky Horror Picture Show!