Día de los Muertos halloween costume - part 1: make-up

As much as I am obsessed with Christmas, I don't normally start thinking about Halloween until mid-October, and sometimes I forget about it altogether.

Having said that, I did "do" Halloween when I was younger, and I remember the best Halloween of my childhood was the year that I dressed as Death from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I don't think any photographic evidence exists of the costume - and that's because I was method acting, darling! Death isn't photographable - he's barely even visible most of the time, let alone capturable on film!

{death from above print by Phoenix Zoellick of Pixiebird}

For the costume, I had a scythe made from tin foil, cardboard and a broom handle painted black, a terrifyingly empty-looking made-up face, wore a long black cloak and attempted to speak in the tone of "two concrete blocks being rubbed together" as Death himself is described as sounding. It was tough.

{death by Erin Crociani of PuffyWoodson}

This year I'm going with the death/skelly theme again, but it'll be a lot more fun: Día de los Muertos.

The ensemble will be a much more glammed-up version of a regular skeleton (and much, much more glammed-up than the Grim Reaper!), and I've been reaping (haha!) the internet for inspiration to put together the perfect costume.

The most important aspect of this costume is going to be the calavera make-up. The look should be haunting, it is a skull after all, but also ornate and beautiful - in rememberance of the departed. There are a great many takes on calavera make-up so it's going to be great fun designing one. Have a look at some of the beautiful examples I've seen:

{1} {2} {3} {4} {5} {6} {7} {8} {9} {10} {11} {12} {13} {14} {15} {16}

I'd really like to do one with sequins - you know I love me a bit of glitter - and I've been uberly inspired! I'll let you know what I come up with nearer the time...

In the next costume post I'll go through the costume itself. Hope to see you there!