Halloween 2015 : Once Upon A Dream

This wouldn't be my blog without a Halloween post in December. You all should know me by now!
Let's jump in!

We really struggled this year with our costumes! Craig was having a hard time thinking of ideas and I wanted to head the villain direction, but most villains have silly and somewhat boring counterparts (robbers, animals, etc.). Truly, it was frustrating trying to think of a good combo. Because I couldn't shake the villain idea, we decided to go with a villain/hero theme. Whatever works, right?

I found myself gravitating more towards the revamped 2014 Maleficent as opposed to the green-skinned Maleficent from the 1959 Disney movie. Craig would be the heroic Prince Phillip, but we decided that he would be more recognizable coming from the 1959 classic. And that's how we became the "old school" and "new school" Sleeping Beauty characters! 

The following images served as our reference photos:

Have it be known that not only do I love Jennifer Lopez movies, but I LOVE movies featuring Angelina Jolie! Yes, she's a pretty face, but I absolutely adore her style of acting (and directing!)--even in sad movies like Changeling (it's a must see AND directed by Clint Eastwood)! That being said, I naturally fell in love with the Maleficent movie and the new take on Sleeping Beauty. I won't ruin the story line, but you'll just have to fall in love with it like I did. Be sure to listen to the hauntingly beautiful song "Once Upon A Dream" sung by Lana del Rey!


-2015-
Maleficent and Prince Phillip

 

OUTFIT DETAILS

I was initially so excited for these costumes! Craig's costume required a few simple DIY projects, and I figured that mine would be so easy to put together with eBay being my best friend! I was SO determined not to procrastinate this year that I ordered my dress, gloves, and my horns way ahead of time! I was so proud of myself! All of my excitement came crashing down when my horns came in the mail. Let's just say they reeked of latex, they would not fit my head and kept sliding off, and the horns themselves looked absolutely ridiculous and NOTHING like the eBay picture. I was screwed and I was not about to purchase anything else. Or send them back to China. So began my research to create the horns myself. If only I had been aware of what a RIDICULOUS undertaking that was going to be. I ended up watching multiple videos on YouTube and finally found a couple of tutorials that I felt I could merge together to create the perfect set of horns. You can find them here and here. The first link is what I used for the structure and detailing of the headpiece and the second link is for creating the actual horns themselves. I did tailor them to how I wanted them to look so I used a lot more black electrical tape and elongated and shaped the horns to look more like Maleficent's. Good LUCK.

 My dress didn't need much doctoring, but the winged shoulder pieces were a bit floppy so I hot glued thick pipe cleaners (found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels) underneath to be able to manipulate the height and volume. Jo-Ann Fabric also became my best friend. Sorry obsessed fabric people, I took the last of the pleather and probably bought way more material than I actually needed. Remember, I don't sew and I don't know what I'm doing! Using a small amount of the pleather and a couple of button snaps, I created my neck piece. I used the rest of the pleather to wrap around my headpiece, folding the layers as I went and folding the end pieces around the base of the horns. And yes, I used a ton of hot glue to do that. After SO much time on those horns, I am pretty proud of my efforts!

I was a little worried that I wouldn't find a crow to sit atop my "staff", but I found one At Home--the store! ;) He looked a little strange with some feathers missing and his skeleton showing, but I bought him anyway, spray painted him black, and added more black feathers. For my staff, I bought a dowel rod at Home Depot and spray painted it black as well. Using a deep turquoise craft paint, I painted a styrofoam ball and then used black electrical tape to cover half of it. I hot glued the ball to one end of the dowel rod and used a combo of hot glue and wire to attach the crow.
 
Before we dive into my makeup look, I did take a detour away from the nails that Angelina wore. I hate wearing fake nails and I had to do makeup for a wedding the next day and I simply didn't want to deal with nails. So I whipped out my trusty black polish and that was that. Dismissing the nails and the green contacts, I had so much fun with my makeup! Again, I watched multiple YouTube videos on how to achieve Angelina's look. I decided that I didn't want to spend the time applying cheek prosthetics and would spend the time contouring my face for the chiseled look. So far, you know I love Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie, but I also LOVE Kat von D (and her beauty products....and LA Ink....and her tattooing skills)! Her Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette is an amazing palette to have in your arsenal and well worth every penny! It held the best matte shades for my eye look and was absolutely perfect for contouring my face for this particular look! I applied the finishing touches to my lips using her Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in "Underage Red". Hey, it's unfortunate that Makeup Forever has removed their Aqua Rouge lip stains from stores, but KvD liquid lipsticks are the next best thing!

On to Prince Phillip!

The main part of Craig's costume came together with tan pants from Forever 21 and a black dress shirt from Kohl's--he didn't own either of those items so we didn't feel bad buying both knowing that he'd wear them again! I researched an easy no-sew tutorial for his hat (found here) and it was seriously the easiest thing to make! I bought feathers from Michaels and a button from Jo-Ann's to complete it. It wasn't exactly like Prince Phillip's, but it was close enough!
 
I put off making his cape because I thought it would take forever--plus, the amount of fabric I had bought looked intimidating, but once I got started, I was done in about 20-25 minutes! Super easy. You can research YouTube tutorials, but I used this blog tutorial and adjusted the measurements to fit Craig!

 I think the worst thing to make was his tan tunic. It was quite hilarious--again, because I don't sew! I just laid out the fabric, guessed at the measurements, and created a sleeveless "poncho" with a cutout for his head to pop through! Haha! I tried it on him and then used Heat Bond strips and ironed the material to them to close the gaps on either side. He used one of his own belts to finish off the look.

 His only accessory was his sword which came from a Halloween party shop and I used chrome tape (found at automotive stores) to make the blade look more realistic.

It's so funny that we pour so much time into these costumes, but like I've said before, we love doing it! We never go to Halloween parties, and sure, a few friends may stop over, but we love dressing up for the kids. Their comments and questions are hilarious! I also think the parents get as much of a kick out of us as the kids do....and I like that. Maybe we'll be "that" house every year. Sadly, we ran out of candy after an hour, but that's a good thing, right? I purposely didn't buy bags of the full size Reeses for a reason...

Even after so much fun, I was SO glad to be done with Halloween this year! Not only did I stress out over our costumes, but I was also creating makeup looks every week for my stylist profile on Instagram! The month of October was chock full of creativity, but I think I'll jump on that wagon even earlier next year!

As always, if you happen to need any inspiration for next year or simply want to check out how crazy and weird we are, be sure to check out my previous Halloween posts here (and here)! If you love makeup and want to dive in deeper to create makeup looks for yourself, check out my Tumblr page or my stylist profile on Instagram @wren_thestylist!

Unlock your own creativity in 2016!