Not So Spooky Halloween.

Halloween this year was unlike Halloween's of the past. I love Halloween, don't get me wrong. But this year the spirit has been lacking. Usually my house is decked from front yard to backyard with some kind of spider, witch, or pumpkin. I may have to attribute that to being out of the state for half of the month. My job is usually bubbling with excitement gearing up for the big Halloween potluck. I especially look forward to those. We have tons of food, music, and costume contests (Not to brag, but, I've won for the past two years in a row!). This year, for reasons which I dare not go into, the potluck was canned :(

There was still a glimmer of Halloween spirit, though. We were "allowed" to dress up in costume if we wished. But the way it was worded and handled almost made me not want to dress up, know what I mean? I didn't want to NOT dress up, but I didn't want to dress in my big usual get-up I always show up in. I still wanted to make a statement without being so flashy.

So, I came up with this "non-costume" costume for work Friday:

Surprisingly, it was a hit. People didn't know who/what I was supposed to be. I didn't know who/what I was supposed to be! It was all how you interpreted it. I was a widow, a 50s housewife (a dark one, I suppose), a French lady, etc. Personally, I either went with a 50/60s housewife that just killed her husband (AKA Betty Draper gone apesh*t crazy) or Mrs. White from the movie Clue (which would have been extra perfect if I were carrying around a rope- but, could be considered a weapon at work!). I was surprised that NO ONE at work had seen this classic 80s gem- so I had to explain that one.

The dress I had hiding in the back of my closet. I probably only wore it out once. It was perfect. The gloves were purchased at a local costume/party store. The hat, my favorite piece, is vintage. I picked it up at an estate sale sometime last year for a couple of bucks. Necklace and shoes were more things just laying around.

For foundation, I used Revlon ColorStay Active in Buff, which is usually a perfect color match for me, but I applied more than usual, giving me a slightly paler look, and used a lot of powder also making me look extra pale. My eyes were a simple, smoky eye (I somewhat based the technique off a look from Kevin Aucoin's book Making Faces) . I used colors a few NYX trios (Black & gray from trio #1. Nude and dark brown from trio #3) and used Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero to line. On my cheeks, a mix of NYX Mauve and Spice blushes. On the lips I used NYX lip liner in Dark Purple and Night Out lipstick from Hard Candy (@ Wal Mart). I wanted to do something dark, but not red. This dark, vampy plum/burgundy was perfect. And, even though I specifically bought it for this look, it actually kind of grew on me!

On Saturday, I was so tired that I just stayed in. I had a costume made in case I went anywhere, so at least I have something for next year. To be in the spirit, I threw on this comfy black cotton/jersey dress, tights (again), and some cat ears. Meow! I passed out candy all night for the kids, I really do love doing that, I love to see the costumes! We had the usual pirates, zombies and witches. I did have one boy dressed as Michael Jackson (Glove and everything! I gave him extra candy) and a middle school girl dressed as Lady Gaga. It was a nice, relaxing evening watching movies and drinking hot chocolate!

Now it's your turn, tell me about your weekend!

It's beginning to look a lot like.....Halloween?

Sunday morning I was out and about doing one of my "drugstore tours", I went to a nearby town with arguably better drugstores than my town- and went looking for any deals and steals. I stopped by Big Lots, where I left disappointed in terms of make up selection, but came out with some plastic bins to store my ever-growing nail polish stash. Longs (CVS) was a dried up desert, and Walgreens had no new product since the last time I visited.

Rite Aid was the last stop before heading home, and hoped, hoped, to find something good and worthwhile. The things I have been searching for non-stop have been the new Wet n Wild "Craze" nail polishes (google is your friend, you'll get blog reviews/swatches). Usually my area i s really good with getting new WnW products, but I can't seem to find these buggers anywhere!!!

However....
I did come across this:

REALLY????????????????????

HALLOWEEN ITEMS.

Seriously, folks. You can't set up/put out the regular season items YET you bust out the black lipstick?? I don't get it. This years selection is pretty much the same as last year. Two eye shadow duos (black/white & navy/blue), fake nails, fake tattoos (not pictured), lipstick (including the obligatory black), and nail polish. Nothing new and too terribly exciting, I'm afraid to report.

I guess the only "interesting" items were the false lashes. There are a couple I remember from last year, and some that look new.

Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween maybe a little more than the average person (I may or not be already getting my costume made) - but putting out these items this early is a bit extreme.

What do you think? Are Halloween items out on display in August too early? Think it's out at the right time? Or maybe you think it's not out early enough (I would love you if you think this, hehe)?

Halloween 2008.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween this year!!! As for myself, I give it a 7 out of 10. I had a blast dressing up as Cruella De Vil, but unfortunately, my work wasn't so enthusiastic this year when it came to dressing up. What a bunch of party poopers.

And since I work with a bunch of party poopers this year, I don't have too many pictures of me in my full costume! But here's what I do have:

Rawr! This was taken in the morning when everything was nice and fresh. And I realized as soon as I took this that something was missing. I forgot to fill in my brows! Brows make such a big difference.


Here's me at work and in my full costume. The only good thing about not everyone dressing up in my department...it was more chance for me to win a prize in the contest ;) In fact, I ended up winning twice!!! One for my costume and one for the ghoulish desert I brought in (I foolishly forgot to take a picture of it- it came out really neat. I made a chocoalte cake with chocolate frosting, and crumbled oreo cookies to make it look like dirt. Then I took some "gummy body parts" and stuck them in the cake, then took red decorator gel for "blood"). I won two gift cards- $50 total! It's not my fault that no one else wanted to join in the fun!

Here's a closeup of my eyes. I know I probably have no business posting this because it's rather...eugh. I kind of forgot to put a base on in the morning. But, this was taken at the end of the day. Oops!

My favorite thing were my lashes- again this was taken at the end of the day and they were starting to lift. Plus I am quite a novice when it comes to false lashes. You have no idea how hard I practiced weeks before!

And, since it's appropriate, here's what I used:

Eyes:

• L'Oreal Eye Smoker Pencils in Noir (black) and Shimmer (white)
• Wet n Wild eyeshadows in Gypsy (black, also used to fill in brows) and Wicked (white)
• MAC Knight Devine
• Urban Decay 24/7 Pencil in Zero
• Fright Night False Lashes in "Bat Girl"

Cheeks:

• NARS Amour

Lips:

• NYX Snow White

If you have any questions...or would like a more in-depth look at how I did this (believe me it looked MUCH better in the morning, as opposed to the end of the night in the pictures), just let me know.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Nope, not Christmas. I'm talking about HALLOWEEN. Truth be told, I wasn't a big fan of the day for a long time. For some reason I just never got that excited. But then, something happened. I was planning my costumes months ahead of time. I spent an obscene amount of time and money on decorations and candy. Yes. I became one of those people that just get ape-crazy over Halloween.

Let us take a trip on memory lane, shall we? Two years ago in 2006, it was my first Halloween at my current job and went as...

Snow White!
Forgive the dress, it wasn't the best and I kind of bought it at the last minute (I had been wanting to dress up originally as Mary Poppins- something I still look forward to do one year!). This costume was insanely popular with my department (and others), I still have people that call me Snow White at work. Even the kids that came into the office believed I was "really" her. Hey, Disneyland, need a new Snow White?

Continuing on with the tradition of being the good girl, last year was...

Dorothy!
This might be my favorite costume so far because I had my dress custom made. It really is a pain in the butt to look for the perfect costume when you're not "one size fits all." The regular sizes were too small, and the "plus" size costumes were just all-out disgustingly structured. So, what else to do than have it made? This lady in my town is a genius, she made this perfectly...and didn't need a pattern! Oh, and that hair? Not mine, extensions ;)

This year I decided to do something a little different. I wanted to be bad. I wanted to be a villain. After months (mind you, I started planning LAST year) of debating and wondering who would be the perfect villain for this year......

Cruella De Vil!!!!

Let's face it, the woman's a bitch. And a fabulous one at that. She's one of the best and one of the classic Disney Villains, and I knew it would be a blast to finally be someone other than the heroine for a change. I was happy that I didn't need to do a lot of shopping around for the costume. I already have a simple "little black dress" that has come in handy Halloween's before (I used it about 4 years ago when I was Audrey Hepburn à la Holly Golightly). It only goes to my knees (Cruella's is floor length), so I'm wearing black tights to elongate the look. I thought about buying a Cruella-type wig, but decided to use my own hair and spray my hair half black and half white. Red gloves and a cigarette holder were easily found at the local Halloween costume store, and I purchased some cheapie red pumps at the mall. I was hoping I would get lucky and come across a white coat at one of the many thrift stores in my area- however, I was not that lucky. So that's the only thing I'm having made this year. I did find a couple of children's dalmation costumes so I'm using that for the collar, cuff and trim. I'm picking it up Wednesday and I can't wait to see how it turns out! As for the makeup? To be honest, I have no idea. I know I want to do a smokey eye of some type, and I even found some great lashes that are black and white at the tips. How perfect is that?

Look at that. FIERCE.

Are you just excited about Halloween? What are your plans? What are you dressing up as? Leave a comment and share!