All Hallows Eve

So Halloween was, of course, awesome! Ever since I was a kid I always looked forward to it. The candy, the costumes, you know the whole shebang! And none of that has changed a bit even now that I'm 20 years old. My mom calls me "costume queen" of our house because I put so much thought and effort into what I'm going to be each year. Even if it's not anything too elaborate, I still make sure everything's perfect.

Like last year, I was on a tight budget because I was up at college, so I chose to be Kim Possible. I already had a good pair of tan khakis, black shoes, and (would you believe it?) a long sleeved black turtle neck. So I went to Wal-Mart and found a pair of gray gloves, a cheap brown belt, and then a cheap leather wallet that I later duct-taped onto the belt (see? I could have just left it at the brown belt, but I went one step beyond). All set! I just rolled the sleeves up to my elbows on my turtle neck and I was ready to go.

My favorite costume I ever did was a chimney sweep a couple years ago. It was actually fairly simple. The hardest part was making the broom. I found most of the costume at Good Will or I already had it. I already had the pants, hat, gloves, and shoes. I found the shirt and vest at Good Will and the scarf at Target. Dad helped me with the broom. I thought up the process, or at least I suggested it. We bought a cheap broom at The Dollar Tree or Target or something and then removed the bristles end, then drilled holes into one end and... we might have glued some black pipe cleaners into them (I can't remember exactly how we got them to stay). As for my make-up, I was in art class at school so I had plenty of charcoal to spare. I just had to cut the tips off my gloves, pin my hair up under the hat and my costume was complete!

The most time consuming costume I ever had was the knight. Because I made the entire thing from scratch. But I knew exactly what I wanted. Mom and I went to the store, found the right pattern and fabrics, then set to work. Mom helped me, but I did most of it myself. I already had some pants, a belt, a pair of boots, and a black cape. And we found a sword at a Halloween store. (Oh, this is when we bought that long sleeved turtle neck). And voila!

This year was quite a process. The Joker. Not quite as time consuming as the knight, but we were on a wild hunt through many different stores, trying to find all the right pieces. We did eventually and miraculously find everything I needed. We found the purple jacket online for extremely cheap, the purple pants at Salvation Army, the yellow vest at Good Will, the face make-up, lipstick and hair-dye... IDK mom found them somewhere, I found the flower in the garage, mom had the perfect green shirt in her closet, the ribbon for the bow tie came from a craft store since we didn't have any at home, the gloves came from Target, and I already had the shoes. I had to make a pin out of the flower, but other than that, once we had everything together, it was done! (Oh yes, and I put together those cards I'm holding in the picture below. They're taped. I just had some extra time on my hands and thought they'd make a good prop. But then I came to realize I didn't have a single pocket anywhere on my costume. Not one! So I just posed for the picture and left them in the car.)

There are many different versions of the Joker and his outfit, but this was the picture I was modeling everything on:

I really wanted to talk about my hair and make-up from this year because DANG! First off with the make-up I had to cover my face with the white goop. I only had the white tube of the stuff so I started out using my fingers. It really was not working, so my mom found me a facial sponge. It went much more smoothly after that. I not only had to cover my face, but my neck and ears too, to really get the full effect. Then, of course, came the red lipstick, which I was very meticulous about. I did not want to look like the Joker from The Dark Knight. Then I pulled out my eyeshadow (which includes two shades of green and a purple) and used the darkest green to fill in my eyebrows. Then I took my black eyeliner and completely outlined my eyes all the way around. Then I pulled out my other eyeshadow with all the browns and used the darkest one to shade my eyelids slightly. And ta-da! All finished! (I actually had a lot of help from this guy below. He has like the best Joker cosplay I have ever seen in my life!)

Click to enlarge

As for my hair, that was the very first thing I did. After I took a shower and dried it and everything, I went to work on my bangs. My hair was parted down the middle, rather than slightly to the side like normal, so I parted my bangs right along there. Then I took my flat iron and curled them in their own opposite directions. Then I took some hairspray and fluffed them upwards out of my face. Then I took like 8,000 bobby pins and began to pin my hair to the back of my head. I didn't used to need so many, but my hair is much longer than it used to be. Once my hair was properly secured and hairsprayed, I procured my mom's help outside to green-i-fy my hair. I had to wear something I could easily slip over my head. It took a while, but eventually she finished, using practically the entire can. I had to go inside and wipe the excess spray off my forehead, neck, ears, etc. But then that was that. I just had to wait a little bit until I was ready to put on my make-up and costume.

I must mention what a process it was getting it all off! I will admit, it was easier than I thought with the hair-dye, but that doesn't mean it was a walk in the park. I used a wet rag before I attempted to remove the pins from my hair and use a brush. Then there was green powder all over my bathroom floor once I was done with the brush (I got most of it out that way) and my shampoo was still a little green... If you think hairspray is bad. Ha! I had BOTH in my hair! The make-up, of course wasn't hard at all, but it just took a long time. I used a wet rag first and then some make-up remover. Then I took a shower. Three shampoo runs, just to make sure I had everything out (I'm pretty sure two would have been plenty though. It really wasn't that bad).