What’s your favourite holiday? Christmas? Easter? Or is it Halloween? The day when we let our imaginations run wild and, instead of feeling that we have to prettify, we are encouraged to look as disgusting as possible.
I love Halloween, I love getting dressed up and playing games. I love bobbing for apples and grossing everyone out. Once upon a time we just threw on a sheet with eye holes cut out, those days are long gone. Now we consider our costume choices carefully. We co-ordinate, we plan and we get excited. You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy costumes though, nor do you need to be an expert face painter. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- The Zombie
This is my favourite, it’s so easy to make and wear.
An old school uniform is a failsafe option. I cannot stress enough – make sure it’s an OLD uniform and double check with your parents before making your costume.
Get it nice and dirty, red paint splodges, mud and a bit of flour are all winners.
Pop a few holes in the shirt, but don’t go overboard – you don’t want to freeze.
Scruff up trousers or school skirt (if you wear a skirt, try some old thick tights with ladders or holes in) misbutton your shirt and untuck it. Add a loose tie and maybe a jumper and that’s your costume done.
For your make up, dust some flour into your hair (again, check with your parents first) and make your hair messy. Use a bit of talcum or face powder over your face; circle your eyes with dark eyeshadow or eyeliner.
If you are worried about this, get someone to help you. Make sure you don’t have any allergies or eye infections and use a clean brush or cotton bud.
Smudge the make up around your eyes; use a red lipliner to draw a line on your cheek or forehead with small lines crossing it to look like a scar.
And finally, add some red lipstick without sticking to your natural lip line, honestly, the messier the better.
I would also paint my nails with a pale polish then splodges of red over the top. Like this
It’s very easy to do and looks very effective. The colours I used are OPI’s Thanks a Windmillion and Essie’s Size Matters, but you can use any colours you like. Be creative.
- Black Cat
This is, perhaps, the easiest to make. All you need is a pair of black leggings or jogging bottoms, a black longsleeved top and a pair of old black tights. Cut a leg off the tights at the length you want and stuff the leg with balled up sheets of newspaper. Attach the “tail” to the bottoms preferably by sewing it on (if you are struggling with this, ask an adult to help you)
Take a black headband and a sheet of black card (doesn’t matter if it’s a side of a box that you have coloured black) cut two diamond shapes out of the cardboard and wrap them around the headband, fixing them at the top points so that they look like cat ears.
For hair and make up simply use eyeliner to colour the bottom of your nose, and the tip. Then draw whiskers across your cheeks, sleek your hair back if it is short, or into a neat ponytail or bun if it is long.
Job done!
- Vampire
You have two options if you want to dress as a vampire. You can either wear a black dress and ripped tights, or you can wear black trousers, a white shirt, black cape and bow tie. The dress is easy and takes no making at all, and with the second option, you only need to make or buy the cape and bowtie.
Cape is just a piece of black material, fastened to either a ribbon or a piece of elastic (Not too tightly around your neck).
For the bow tie, just draw a bow tie shape onto a piece of cardboard, colour it in and attach it to a piece of string, elastic or ribbon (again not too tight around your neck)
I like a beehive with this costume, simply separate your hair as if you are doing a half up ponytail. Loosen the hairband and tuck the ponytail upward. Using bobby pins, pin your sides into place, making a bump on top of your head. For make up, do the same sort of thing as with the zombie.
There we have it, three costume ideas for Halloween. Check back later in the week for some other ideas and tips to stay warm while trick or treating. Happy Halloween!
Lissie is a fashion blogger who blogs about fabulizing herself from Grunge to Goddess
