As you know, I love, love, love Halloween! Everything about Halloween appeals, including costumes. I live in Australia where it isn’t celebrated much, although I see more in the stores every year and I hold out hope! Disappointingly, I’ve never been invited to a Halloween party, although years ago I had a friend with a penchant for costume/fancy dress parties and I was obviously into that! Since I won’t be heading out to a party, I wanted to come up with a spooky costume that would have some wearability after Halloween too. Rockabilly and horror seemed a natural choice, given my retro sensibilities. And Frankenstein was just perfect for what I had in mind.
I just love how easy it is to whip up a tee with heat transfer vinyl and my Silhouette! Mr Ask is my graphic design whizz, so we had a chat about what I had in mind and I left him to it. He made me a beautiful (in a monster way) Frankenstein face for the front and an anatomical heart with sparks of electricity for the back. Perfectly devilish!
We used the Silhouette to cut out the images from some neon green heat transfer vinyl. I thought that it might be complicated to weed but it took no time at all. I ironed it on to a black tee and voila! Heat transfer vinyl and cutting machines are awesome but I know that not everyone has easy access to them. If you don’t have access, you could still make this up pretty easily using tshirt transfer paper and your printer. Just be sure to use the kind that shows up on black tshirts (if you are using one).
Once the tee was made, it was time to style it up! I thought it would go splendidly with my black half circle skirt (make your own) and stretch belt for a sort of rockabilly/vintage/retro/slightly 80’s vibe. I love these stretch belts, they come in both plus and regular size from Kitty Deluxe. I was sure that the look needed green tights! I got these kelly green ones from my local costume shop in plus size but Costume Box has the same in regular and plus size and express ship Australia wide. I will note that they were very tight and not so plussize. I couldn’t resist wearing these new shoes because they’re new and I love them. I have been wearing more earrings lately and couldn’t resist these lime leopard guitar pick ones I found on eBay. As a cherry on top, I added a couple of op shop bangles. I’m loving how it all came together!
When it came to hair and makeup, I thought I’d go with a sort of 50’s Frankenstein’s bride vibe. I bought a pair of really cheap, synthetic hair extensions in white. If you are keen, I’ve seen these in the cheapy shops too. Since you can’t really heat style them, I wrapped them around an empty cardboard tube and clipped them in place, hoping to put a little curl into them. They were there for a couple of weeks and had only a slight curl at the end but at least I tried. I clipped just one of them in to the front of my hair and sort of followed Cherry Dollfaces suicide roll tutorial. I altered things a bit to suit my face and left part of my fringe out because it refused to do anything else! You can see what I had to work with in the pic that was taken after I took the roll out. Instead of pomade I used some beard balm, The Falling Axe, handmade by one of Mr Asks mates. It’s 100% vegan, worked perfectly and my new favourite hair thing! I put the rest of my hair into a pony tail but didn’t pull the whole thing through (leaving it a sort of loop) and pinned the resulting messy pouf down until I was happy with the height and shape.
I did my makeup as usual with a red lip and winged liner (struggle with wings? I got you) but I added a few changes. Instead of bronzer, I used a purple grey shadow to contour/bronze for that lightly dead look. I used a pale gold shimmery cream shadow on the eyelid, softening as I hit the crease, as my base. My green shadow was quite pale and I wanted to bump up the colour, if you have a white pencil (like NYX Jumbo in Milk) that would be great too. I used a subtle green shimmery shadow to my lid and blended it up to the brow. I also used this green as my cheek highlight. I used some regular highlight underneath the green too for shiny factor. I can suddenly understand why minty green highlights are all the rage! I think they could be ok for everyday, which I wouldn’t have believed at all! I had to go heavy with the green to get a ghostly look. I skipped blush because I didn’t want to look too lively. I did a similar black & red lip to the one I had in my Brains and Bird Bones Halloween post. It just adds drama to a red lip which might seem redundant (red lips are dramatic) but if your everyday is red it adds a little spice. If you are curious, I’ll have a full list of makeup items at the bottom.
I am super happy with the overall result! All the details add up to something quite punchy and electrifying. In fact, that is the way of retro dressing. It’s all in the details. Together, this is a quirky but cute costume. As parts, most things I already owned and wear often. I know I will wear my Frankenstein tee at any time of year – I actually really love it! The tights may not get worn again but the cheapo hair extensions really highlighted my roll, so I think they could be cool for another day. I love the earrings but Mr Ask wants to steal them for actual guitar picks! I kinda like seeing how much mileage I can get from what I already have and I suggest you do too. I’m pretty sure you could hit up a couple of op shops and find some awesome elements to work with your tee. If you are inspired to create a costume from this post, I would be thrilled to see what you make, send me pics! For more Halloween inspo, check out my huge Halloween post for costumes, food and cocktails. Happy Halloween!
Makeup Used
Face:
- Lacura Primer
- Maybeline Fit Me Matte & Poreless in 120
- Maybeline Fit Me Concealer in 20
- NYX Matte Not Flat Powder in Nude
- Inglot Eyeshadows in 363 & 358
- Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone
- Makeup Geek Shadow in Shimmermint
Eyes:
- Physicians Formula 2 in 1 Eye Booster in Black
- NYX Brow Mascara in Black
- Bobbi Brown Long Wearing Shadow Stick in Beach
- Makeup Geek Shadow in Shimmermint
- Rimmel Scandaleyes Pencil in Black
- Avon Glimmerstick in Turquoise Burst
- Covergirl Supersizer Mascara in Black
- eBay Half Lashes
- Ardell Clear Brush On Lash Glue
Lips:
- Rimmel Scandaleyes Pencil in Black
- MAC Lipstick in Russian Red
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