Halloween 2014: The Skeleton!

This year I had been looking at pictures of people dressed as skeletons, and thought some of the makeup was amazing. I decided I would like to try and give it a go and base it around the makeup used in Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' music video.

My Finished Skeleton Makeup

A Guide To Show The Key Features

I found this picture to use as a guide, when drawing on the main parts of the makeup. I used just a black liquid eyeliner to outline the shapes, then a black eyeshadow with my Sephora brush to fill in each part. After this I used my small angled brush to go into more detail and add shading to create the Skeleton/bone feel to it.

A Different Angle

The Finished Look

This was one of my favourite Halloween looks that I've done and it was really fun to do and very cheap. I wore a black strappy jumpsuit from Missguided, but you could wear a skeleton costume or dress etc. There are lots of tutorials that show the general idea of how to achieve the makeup, but most are quick versions so I would pause them as you go and take time to perfect each part as its worth the time.You'll get some funny looks out on Halloween and hopefully lots of compliments!

2013 and Starting 2014

So the end of 2013 turned out to be extremely rubbish for me, with the loss of someone very special and since then it's been all been a bit of a blur.  I thought I would start by writing about the things I've been up to as it's been like 20 years since we last posted.

Christmas was different but I had a lovely day with my family, and also got some nice new clothes which I have been loving! Most of all my coat from Zara which I think was around £90.00 but I'm not 100% sure, it's a lovely over-sized coat that is a camel/brown colour with a navy collar and I just wear it with everything, probably everyday... definitely obsessed with it. I like to wear it with a tartan top I bought from Topshop as the reds in the top go really well with it and there 'leigh' dark blue jeans.

I also got a really pretty pink and cream, patterned dress which was from Primark, but as it was a gift I'm not entirely sure on price, it goes well with big cardigans and I think it's a really flattering shape and length. I also grabbed a nice Aztec cardigan from Primark, which I LURVE. It clips at the top so I think it looks really nice on as it doesn't do up completely so shows everything else you're wearing too.

Christmas Day

I always think Urban Outfitters have some amazing clothes but I don't really look at the shoes much which evidently I should, as I went in to use a gift voucher and ended up buying some heeled boots. Annnnnnd they are my favourite shoes ever. I would say they are casual wear not really for formal occasions, they are black lace up boots with the website describing them as '90s-inspired chunky high heels with a deep tread'. I would say they kind of resemble army boots, but I just love them and never want to take them off. They are chunky but not too chunky or high.
This is the link to the site, because everyone just needs some Urban Outfitter footwear in their lives.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/uk/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=5319432524306&parentid=WOMENS-SHOES-EU

Moving onto New Years, normally something weird or bad happens on New Years for me, but this year I actually had a really great time! I went to a fancy dress party and the theme was 'what you wanted to be when you grew up'. Well, I wanted to be Ariel from 'The Little Mermaid' sooooo I went as Ariel haha. Everything I wore was just from ebay because I didn't fancy spending too much and all together only cost about £10.00.
I'm still angry about this and I probably shouldn't be, but I ordered my red wig weeks before EXPRESS delivery, and it just didn't show until two days after NYE, which made it useless. Instead I had to spray my hair red, which isn't really a good idea when you are wearing a strapless top because it made my chest and neck look bright red. Nice. But I actually think the outfit came together well for a cheap costume. Rather than wearing a purple shell bra (awkward) I used a pink Sequin crop top, and for the Mermaid fin/tail I just used an extra long green pencil skirt.

New Years Eve Fancy Dress - Ariel The Little Mermaid

For an added accessory I made a starfish necklace, from paper mache and ribbon, which I then painted with Wilkinson's tester paint pots.
The starfish was definitely my favourite part.

Halloween Makeup: The Creepy Clown

Halloween happens to be my favourite time of year, ever! I love dressing up and getting my scare on, it's that time of year I get to purposely make myself as hideous and creepy as possible and people compliment me for it! I love to try out something different each year, last year I was a Zombie Nurse and managed to freak a fair few people out, but this year I wanted to really go to Creepy Town, and I know quite a lot of people get freaked out by clowns. So, I decided it had to be a Creepy Clown.

Before starting on my own costume this year I was asked to do a few of my friends makeup so I did some little practice sessions on my hand. My friend went as a Zombie Surgeon so I needed to be able to make a deep Zombie bite mark. To do this I blended Special FX Wax into my skin, formed individual teeth marks with a small wooden cuticle stick then covered this with Ben Nye Liquid Latex. I grabbed a small cheap face paint palette which you can buy from Wilkinson or Tescos and used the black to paint inside the wound. I painted over this with red paint from my palette also painting around the wound to make it look bruised and sore. I used Ben Nye Stage Blood, which I brushed inside the wound and around it to make it look realistic. The picture below shows my practice session, but when I did it for real I added a lot more bruising and blood!

Practicing a Zombie Bite

Getting myself ready for Halloween only took around 20 minutes in total which isn't too long for the entire costume, hair and makeup! I started by painting my whole face white with a wet sponge with my small paint palette from Tescos, the great thing about being a dead/zombie clown is that you don't have to be too precise you can make it messy. I used an eyeshadow blending brush (or you can use a paintbrush) with black paint to create diamond shape eyes, but again I left them messy to add effect. I used the same technique as when I created the Zombie bite when creating the 'Chelsea Smile' mouth, this was with Special FX Wax and Liquid Latex On top. This took a while to blend in due to the paint on my face so I would suggest that you add the wax to the face before painting it white. You can spread the wax and liquid latex as far up your face as you want to make the smile bigger, I then painted the inside black and red, then added the Stage blood inside and all along my face to make it freakier. Rather than painting my nose red I just added a small circle of stage blood to it, as I preferred how this looked. Right, my eyes... one of my favourite pairs of contact lenses, and they are called White Mesh Contacts. I find these bearable for the entire night as you can still see easily through the small holes in the contacts, vision is just a little blurry. For my hair, I put in a set of old/spare hair extensions so that it didn't matter if they became ruined, and used spray in hair colour to dye Half of my hair orange and half green. These hair colour sprays were from Asda, but you can find them in lots of supermarkets or in Claire's Accessories. 

Full Costume & Makeup

The dress that I wore, I had ordered online and only just arrived in time, so if you are ordering online make sure the estimated arrival time is well before you need the costume! There are lots of clown costumes available from various stores, Asda does a female clown dress as well. This one is a Leg Avenue Dress, which included the Bow Tie and Hat.

Close Up

Overall, this is my favourite Halloween costume so far, I really enjoyed getting ready and I love the horrified looks people give me! I'm already excited to start coming up with ideas for next years costume, so let me know if anyone has any ideas!

Amy x

Products Used:

* Ben Nye Stage Blood (Bought when in US) - $6.00 but can be purchased for £4.50 in UK
* Ben Nye Liquid Latex - $4.99
* Orange & Green Hair Colour Sprays - Asda £3.00 Each
* Clown Dress with Bow Tie & Hat - http://www.legavenue.com/costumes/
* Cuticle Sticks - Wilkinson £0.50 for a pack of 10
* White Mesh Contact Lenses - www.eyesbright.com £12.95 per pair
* Small Paint Palette - Tescos £3.99 for the 'Goth Makeup Kit' which includes     red http://www.tescoparty.com/ShowProducts.aspx?pageid=653
* Snazaroo Special FX Wax 18ml - £3.99 in Partyshop