10.31.13: Halloween Skull Makeup/ Steampunk Costume

I'm totally wearing the fuck out of my rockin' Steampunk costume this whole Halloween weekend.:D
I've gotten a lot of good attention from my costume -having a good time with it.:)  And, lastnight (Halloween) was my 3rd go at my full-faced skull makeup and I'm very happy with it. Hopefully tonight will go just as well in applying it.

During the run of the night, one of the lens fell off of my goggles...so now rather than just tighten the screw for it, I think I'm going to have to add some E6000 to be sure it stays this time. And the belt loop straps on two of my pouches tore off...so gotta re-do those, it seems. Not sure exactly 'how' I want to try to re-attach them...but it needs to be done.

Unfortunately, here in Casper, there doesn't appear to be a ton of things for adults to do for Halloween...which is a real bummer.   There was a live-action production of the Rocky Horror Picture show going on at the college...but I ended up missing it, unfortunately. Hopefully they'll repeat this next year and I'll get to catch it then.   So, a friend and I dressed up and ended up hanging out at a bar with other dressed up patrons.     
She and I entered the costume contest...I got as far as finalist...but didn't place. I lost to a couple dressed as turquoise looking zombies, a Brawny Man, and an old gent dressed (rather well) as a 'one-night-stand'....he was great, he was wearing a night-stand table with a dildo, lube, handcuffs, some rope, a box of condoms, and a lamp on it.  I happily lost to him, but to the others....I'm a little grouchy about that. But whatever. I still had a good time.:D
-Really wishing I'd taken pics of some of the other people.

 -Just like last time, I used a variety of other skull makeup photos as reference and just sat and sketched the design on my face using a black eyeliner pencil over my freshly applied regular cosmetic Revlon liquid foundation.

 -Using a Paradise FX water-activated, face paint palette from Mehron, I filled in my designs. I used matte, white eyeshadow from NYX cosmetics to blend out the teeth over the face paint.  And MAC's "Carbon" black-matte eyeshadow for shading.

 -Unlike the last two applications, this time I decided to totally black-out my ears, neck, and define my jaw-line. I really like the effect a lot better this time.:)
*Using the NYX white eyeshadow and an eyeshadow brush, I added in high-lights around my face. And using MAC's "Blacktrack" fluidline and an eyeliner brush, I drew in the cracks.
And I added the black eyeshadow to further set and mattify the filled in black areas -only on my face, not my neck.

*And cause I enjoy being silly and taking pics of myself making funny faces...:


















Some detail shots:

Really happy with how well the teeth turned out this time.

My favorite profile shot of this makeup.

And, with the addition of the awesome-sauce hat:

And full-costumed pics of myself and my friend, Fathom at the Wonder Bar in downtown Casper:

 -My friend, Fathom Swanson, dressed as a Sugar Skull/Dia Los Muertos woman.

 *Myself in my Steampunk costume and skull makeup.  Got some great compliments on my skull makeup and the wings.:)

Steampunk: Halloween Masquerade Ball -Costume/Makeup

This past Friday evening I attended the Halloween Masquerade Ball in downtown Casper featuring live bands and a friend of mine performing Burlesque.

It was an interesting experience...not really my scene in regards to the music....not as many people showed up in costume as I'd hoped and there weren't a lot of great costumes.  I showed up late, unfortunately, and missed the costume contest.  But I got a LOT of compliments on my costume, lots of people staring, got circled (awkwardly) a few times, and one dude was tripping balls over my plasma lights on my wings *laughing*.
- He came up to me and due to the loud music, was pretty much having to yell....still couldn't understand all that he was saying, but I understood enough.  He claimed he had 'dropped' some drug (didn't catch the name....but I understood that he "dropped" it as you would "drop acid"...not literally, dropped it as in lost it)...and then goes on to tell me that he was tripping over the lights on my wings.      So a few minutes after he finally left (was quite awkward as he continued to stand in front of me and just mindlessly stare at my wings for another minute or two), I leaned into my sister and told her that dude had been "tripping balls" over my plasma discs. She laughed.

I felt various people roughly brush past my wings and while it pissed me off because the damned things are lit up and very hard not to notice, at the same time I know they are strong enough to not get ruined easily, and then the nasty part of me took a little glee in it due to the fact that my wings have raw metal-mesh edges and will do more damage to the person being rude and brushing into my wings than they'll do to my wings.      And, there was quite a bit of room around me, so no need to be roughly brushing into my wings.  Even if you are drunk as fuck.:/

So, had my sister take some pics of me in my costume that night. I added a black, layered, under-skirt to the outfit...which I think I'll be leaving off Halloween night. It sat a lot lower than I'd intended for it, too.  But otherwise, pretty happy with the outfit overall. 
The wings wouldn't sit properly....kept tipping to one or the other side and so my sister was continually grabbing them and recentering them for me...working on fixing that problem.

First up, my 2nd attempt at the skull makeup...these pics were taken 'after' the party:

-actually those three were before I got dressed up, so I had 'just' finished with the makeup application.



















These next were after the party.

 -Added a Sepia filter in Photoshop.

And now pics of my costume at the Halloween Masquerade Ball:

Some pics outside in downtown Casper:

And some details of the belt pockets I made from old purses:

I have some professional quality, water-activated, face paint by Mehron, that just arrived in the mail yesterday, which I'll be using for Halloween...hopefully it'll look a bit better than the cheap Halloween paint and eyeshadow does.

-I'll be posting my pics of the full costume and lit-up wings with face paint from Halloween either Friday or over the weekend.

Steampunk: Bustle skirt modeled

After creating some leather straps for some D-rings to be sewn to my bustle skirt, the skirt is now finished and I have a friend of mine, Fathom, modeling the finished skirt and utility belt for me:

My new Steampunk Utility Belt:

-I enjoyed attaching these rivets and creating the strap for the D-rings...just used a leather strap/handle from an old leather purse.

Steampunk: Bust Skirt WIP and Finished

Thanks to my awesome friend, Fathom Swanson, the once ruffled bed-skirt, now elegant Steampunk bustle-skirt, is completely finished and ready to be worn Sat evening at the party.:)

Here's some of the still-work-in-progress pics.

I realize that a difference can't really be seen in these pics...but she was still pinning/draping the material during this stage and very little had actually been sewn yet and we were still making changes in this stage...she was originally going with a ruching technique whereas I wanted something more like pleats and bunches for a more Victorian-esque feel.

Here it is totally finished:

And done!! I've got an old purse filled with paper and stuffing that she's sewn into the bustle to help get the derrier part to 'poof'. I like it.:D