Dia de los Muertos Halloween Costume

Hey Nerds,

So, first, can I start by saying that it's ironic my kids can't dress up for Halloween at school, but, I, as an adult can dress up for Halloween at work? and there's a costume contest?  OK, just wanted to get that out of the way.

Every year for Halloween, I'll either participate in a group Halloween costume with co-workers, or, I'll just dress up in costume on my own.  I was on the fence about what to do this year,

but I decided to strike out on my own as I was interested in doing a Dia de los Muertos look (Day of the Dead, also knows as 'sugar skull' look).  With recent movies out like Coco (2017) and The Book of Life (2014), this Mexican holiday has become more known to the rest of the world.  Is what I just said a fact? No, I don't know actually, LOL.  Anyway, I'm not going to pretend I know what I'm talking about and give a history lesson.  You can read more here.  I'm going to just stick to my costume elements.

As with everything I do, I go to Google first and looked up some ideas how to dress up for Dia de los Muertos.  I came across this good post: How to Dress for Day of the Dead.

Here's some quick takeaway points that I've incorporated in my costume:

• the makeup/sugar skeleton face isn't scary, and incorporates bright cheerful colors.  My face makeup colors will revolve around purple and... pink, of course!
• the outfit shouldn't be 'hoochie mama'... I hope that's self explanatory
• don't get a costume from a party store (read the point above)
• The dress/outfit for woman should be colorful, flow-y, flowery.  for myself, I'm choosing a black chiffon high-low skirt with tights, a red v-neck t-shirt, and a wide belt.  I'm pinning pink gerbera daisies and red peonies to my outfit.  I picked up the skirt in the Juniors section at Walmart several years ago when I wore it as part of a pirate costume.
• Flowers in your hair... I bought some silk flowers and hair clips, then glued them together.

Other details I'm incorporating

• lace/mesh finger-less gloves, overlaid with pink cobweb finger-less gloves.  These were just my own touch
• jewels around my eyes... I'll have a bedazzled face

Almost all the accessories were from the Dollar store

I've tried on the outfit and am happy with how it looks.  I'm most worried about the makeup because I haven't practiced it at all... I've only watched several videos of YouTubers doing the sugar skull makeup, so, my watching has been my "practice".

I wrote the above part of this post pre-Halloween, so here's what happened:

The makeup sticks were showing up very light (I concentrated on using the purple and pink), so I need to find a way to intensify them.  Luckily I found a purple eye shadow and a too-bright blush in my stash of extra make up. I was able to that makeup to intensify the color.  The white face base wasn't going to be opaque unless I was willing to do several layers.  I was ok with it being a transparent white.

The makeup application took about 40 minutes.  I ran into an issue when I ran my felt tip eyeliner pen over-top the white base and then it stopped writing.  Luckily I had found another felt tip eyeliner in my drawer.  The most time consuming part was gluing the jewels around my eyes.  I used purple eye shadow for contouring cheek bones and forehead.  I still kept with the tradition of drawing the "teeth" on the skeleton face, but I didn't do it over my lips.  For my lips I wore an intense/bright lipstick (#698 Cruel Ruby by Maybelline).  All in all I was pleased with the make up.  It didn't look like the youTubers, but I managed to get it done on a school morning while juggling kids and lunches, etc.

For my hair, I did a loose bun and pinned three flowers bunched on the right side on my face.  I painted my nails the night before in bright red.

It was time to go wake up my kids.  Before I turned on their light in their rooms, I warned them that I had my face painted for Halloween and to not get scared.  They weren't really fans, but I'm not surprised... I'm pretty sure all kids want to see their mom as they are normally, not in a Halloween get up.

Here's some pics:

Thanks Marg for getting these pics.

Well, you know my little Michael had something to say about this:

"I'm glad you didn't pick us up from school... that would of been so embarrassing".

I was glad when it came time to take off the makeup it came off with little effort.

I'm going to end it here Nerds, I binged on so much chocolate and chips on Halloween.  I was relieved to get out of the costume.