Happy Halloween 2015!

So yeah... 2.5 years between blog posts is TOTALLY reasonable, right?

I've been planning this costume for a while so it was cool to be able to finally realize it... Of course I'm procrastinating actually finishing it to write this post, so.... Pictures will come later.

Light-up shell!

So you can probably guess what my costume is based on the above photo. From here on out, I'm going with that assumption as I outline what I did to get from random flotsam and jetsam (see what I did there?) to final product.

Goodwill trip: One purple bridesmaids dress c. 2005 and one pair kids' purple/black glitter slip-on sneakers.

Imagine me in purple.

Joann Fabrics trip: Wherein I spent WAY too much money on parts and pieces to make the shell, and tentacles.

The hardest part of the whole endeavor was making the shell light up. And not because that was technically difficult it was just that my LED lights kept cutting out because the wiring was bad. Luckily, I am perfectly capable of rewiring small electrics. You  have to admit the result is epic.

I bought some fabric spray paint (came home with two different colors instead of two black, whoops) and sprayed the bottom half of the dress and created an ombre-ish effect.

Then I cut the skirt into 8 equal-ish parts that ended at an appropriate distance from any "naughty bits". The dress was fully lined in front which was perfect and the back wasn't, but there was another slip sewn in, so *that* lining will become the bottom of the "tentacles" in the back. I plan on wearing black capri pants underneath to blend in with the night.

The makeup part was a lot of fun. As you know, I have a background in theatre, so creating an illusion is not difficult. I used regular items I had on hand to create it.

You poor, unfortunate souls...

The only "trick" I used was to plaster my already skimpy eyebrows down with a glue stick. Who says you don't learn useful things from RuPaul's Drag Race?

My eyeshadows were Urban Decay's "Get Baked" palette that I've had for years (I only used the turquoise called "Flipside") and a new E.L.F. quad called "Party Purple" that I picked up from Target for $2 which I used on my eyes and to create the contour on my cheeks.

Eyeliner was Rimmel's Exaggerate in "201 Noir". Lipstick was NP Set in "Madrid". Mascara was Maybelline HyperCurl VolumExpress Waterproof "Very Black" which I picked up last summer in Jakarta, Indonesia after leaving all my makeup home for the summer (ask me if I'll ever do that again!)

Also from Jakarta was my foundation and powder - Max Factor's PanStik "13 Nouveau Beige" and Transluscent powder. Both of those may not be readily available stateside, but if you live in Europe or SE Asia... Alternately, you could use a theatrical or heavy coverage foundation. The reason is that you want to COVER the brows.

For the hair, I used the "Play Dirty" dry wax spray by SexyHair to get the volume and shape and then MegaFreeze hairspray that is every pageant girl's friend. If you've ever watched an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras you know the one. If you haven't, here's a picture for reference:

In the interest of full disclosure, that's an Amazon Affiliate link, so if you click it and buy the hairspray I get a couple of pennies. Just sayin'. I wouldn't link it if I didn't think this stuff was the bombdiggity, by the way.