This might be the easiest costume I've done yet. Well, not counting the lion hat.
If you're having flashbacks to a particular horror movie, you're on the right track. I decided to go as an onryō, a kind of ghost from Japanese mythology that's become a staple of horror movies. (You can find out a little more about that on the TV tropes page for Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl)
I borrowed the old-fashioned nightgown from my Mom, then brushed my hair so it was all in my face. (For once a costume where my hair is an asset instead of an inconvenience!) I didn't bother with any makeup-- I'd been planning on doing something crazy with my face, maybe a slit-mouth like a kuchisake-onna (another staple of Japanese horror stories) but since I still had a runny nose from last week's cold I decided that sleep was more important than makeup. The teddy bear I actually made myself as a project back in college-- hand sewn (and pretty badly if you look closely) out of a bunch of scraps I had on hand. When I was making it, I hadn't gotten the pieces to do the face yet-- but when I saw how delightfully creepy the bear looks without a proper face I decided to just leave it that way and call it "No Face Bear". Perfect for a creepy ghost girl.
Time: 5 minutes.
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Hm. On the one hand, I loved how this turned out. Fast, easy, looks great and kind of eerie. On the other-- having my hair in my face is a huge pain. Itchy, hot, and hard to see. I gave up on the hair style by the time I'd been working for just a few minutes. So I'd want to think hard about what I'd be doing before deciding to use this costume. There are a lot of things that could be done to punch this costume up-- add some fake blood, doing something with the face, etc. For that matter, I think this costume would benefit a lot from just a bit of acting-- making weird noises, walking backwards, that kind of thing.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: This is my only costume that even slightly fits with the Ghostbusters Theme, let me have this. (Though I think Still Doll by Kanon Wakeshima makes a decent Runner-Up)
Costume #40: Rebels
I knew when I saw the theme that they were intending rebels as in counter-culture: tattoos, punk clothes, mo-hawk, that kind of thing. But I felt kind of like taking a different approach-- specifically, a Star Wars Rebel.
I really enjoyed this costume.
I started out with a pair of khaki capris and a grey t-shirt. The cloth wraps actually used to be a hotel curtain-- my Mom has a big box of them left over from one of her jobs as a seamstress, so I cut it into two large strips for the body and two smaller strips for the arms. I added a brown belt, a pair of knock-off Uggs, and my trusty aviator goggles. I borrowed a toy lightsaber from my Mom's dress-up bin to complete the costume. The arm wraps were actually really annoying-- they kept unwrapping, or sliding down my arms, which started messing with my sensory processing disorder. I think in the future I'll have to figure out a better way to make those-- maybe sewing fitted arm-bands with some kind of fastener, and then putting fabric strips on that so it just looks wrapped.
I didn't bother with makeup, but I gave my best stab at Rey's triple-bun hairstyle. It didn't turn out super well: my hair is just too long and too heavy (and I just didn't do that great a job) but it was close enough that most people still recognized who I was.
Time: 50 minutes (most of which was spent on the fabric strips)
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: I had actually been wanting to do this for my costume last year, but sadly I didn't get to dress up at all. So I was really happy to have a chance to try this! I don't know if I'll ever do it again for a Halloween costume, but this is definitely coming back out when I see The Last Jedi. (Am I excited? Yes. Have I seen the trailer? Nope, and I'm not planning to. I don't want any spoilers. And if you think I'm not serious about this, you should know that I succeeded in not seeing a single promotional image or trailer for the recent live action Beauty and the Beast that included what the Beast looked like so that I could see him for the first time when I actually saw the movie. This involved a lot of clapping my hands over my eyes and stumbling around blindly. For months.)
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: There's no beating The Imperial March by John Williams for this one.
Costume #41: Steampunk
This costume almost slipped past me-- I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to wear that didn't end up working out for one reason or another (too small, impossible to walk in, ran out of time to make) which made me very sad because I love the theme so much. But then I remembered my Movie Stars costume and remembering thinking that it looked a little like a robot... and I knew how I could make this work.
I went with simple clothes-- a maroon velvet skirt and a black t-shirt, with a creme colored camisole worn with the sleeves tucked in to make a make-shift corset. The top-hat I made for a costume several years ago, and I added a brown belt, a pair of gloves, and a necklace with a steampunk-esque design.
I based my makeup design on some of the makeup worn by members of Steam Powered Giraffe, my favorite group of singing steampunk automatons. I started by using gold eyeshadow as a base (not as good as metallic face paint but it at least gave me a bit of a sheen) then drawing in panels and screws with eyeliner and filing in/shadowing with eyeshadow and lipgloss as appropriate. I tried drawing some gears on my temple but they ended up kind of wonky-looking.
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Certainly, though there's a lot of details I'd want to fine-tune, fix, or add to make this costume really shine. A better blouse, a corset or waist-coat, some spats, more practice on the makeup... you get the idea.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Though there are tons of great Halloween robot songs, and just as many if not more great Halloween robot songs, I've got to go with Brass Goggles by Steam Powered Giraffe. Actually, a lot of their songs over the years fit the bill.
Costume #42: Hunting Season
For some reason during this whole challenge, black t-shirts have sort of become short hand for "you can ignore this part of the costume". Anyway, brown pants and a t-shirt, pretty normal clothes, this costume was just in the makeup.
I used bronzer and brown eye-shadow to darken my skin. While I'm still out of white eye shadow, I did dig out an old container of white body-shimmer powder that did well enough for adding the spots and lightening the eyelids and nose. Then I did the eyebrows, nose, and eye-shapes with black eyeliner.
Time: 25 minutes
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Probably; I was really pleased with how it turned out. I'd want to get a brown shirt and maybe some antlers, but this was a good look for a surprisingly simple makeup job.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: There's not really a lot of "spooky" songs about deer; the best I could come up with is Deer In The Headlights by Owl City.
Costume #43: Zootopia
I have a pair of tiger-stripe pajama bottoms so I just wore those with a black t-shirt. Again, this costume's really in the makeup.
I'm having a lot of fun with these animal-makeup costumes: maybe I should've just done forty animal costumes for this challenge. Or maybe I should do my makeup like this everyday, what do you think?
Eh-- anyway. I used orange and yellow pastel chalk, white shimmer powder, and a few different shades of eyeshadow to do the base. Then I added in the nose, stripes, and other details with eyeliner. For the mouth, I outlined my lips with black lipstick, turning up the corners, then did purple on the outside and pink on the inside to try to imitate actual tiger lips. To finish up I did my hair in two high buns to look a little like tiger ears (which, oddly enough, my hair was the part of the costume that got the most compliments).
Time: 1 hour
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Sure, I'd consider it. It's a fun makeup job to do. I'd want to get a tail and some ears, maybe find or make a nicer outfit.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Tiger by ABBA. (Incidentally, I spent a long time debating whether or not to do a black cat instead so I could do Superstition for a theme song, but in the end I decided a tiger was more fun)
And I'm off Saturday, so that's it for this week-- in fact, that's almost it for the challenge. All that's left is Halloween proper. That doesn't have an official theme, it's just whatever costume we come up with. And I've got an idea that I'm pretty excited about, though it's a little ambitious so maybe I should have a quick and easy backup on hand just in case.
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