Style Post - Halloween 2012 Edition

"Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire,

I do wander everywhere."

-A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare 

I can't help but think of A Midsummer Night's Dream every time I see photos of myself in this leafy ensemble. Wearing this made me feel like a fairy queen or a forest goddess. (My boyfriend said I could be the Jolly Green Giant's wife - ha!) Whatever you want to call this costume, it will definitely become one of my all time favorites.

For this costume, I started with the "Mother Nature" dress from Halloween City. There was only one left and it had a torn strap. However, it was on clearance and I really loved the color and the ombre detail on the bottom. I could tell that this dress had potential.

This costume came with a really ugly and cheap-looking headband with leaves that didn't even match the dress. At first, I thought of just ditching the headband and wearing a gold necklace as a headpiece instead, but then I thought...why not just make my own? I went to Michaels with the dress on hand to try and find leaves that would match better with the fabric. Lo and behold, I found the perfect floral spray...in the Christmas section of all places! These green leaves were originally part of a spray of sparkly, bright green poinsettias. I took apart the flowers and with the help of my grandma and her sewing machine, crafted a whole new headband for my costume.

After completing my leafy headband, I still had plenty of leaves left over. In order to make my dress look more like a costume and not just like a normal dress, I added leaves to the bodice and skirt.

Faustina and I went out in our costumes not just for a Halloween party on Saturday night, but also for dinner before with some girlfriends. I sneaked off into our hosts' bathroom a few times just to take these pictures. This photo is a little hazy because of the fog machines. Also, I am kind of sad that I don't have any full length pictures of my costume. The dress is about knee length and I wore gold Grecian style sandals.

Let's talk about my hair and makeup now, shall we? I was originally planning on wearing my hair up, but then I realized that having my hair down in messy waves would look more natural and fairy-like.

As for my makeup, I was inspired by this and this. I love experimenting with theatrical style makeup, mostly because it's very rare that I get to do it. I just realized that I can easily adopt this look for every day - as long as I keep the color on my lids only, of course.

I honestly don't mean to brag, but I am amazed by how flawless my skin looks in these photos, especially because my skin is far from it. Not to worry - I'll be sure to do reviews on my new favorite makeup products soon!

I'm sorry about the weird colors in this picture. I took this detail photo of my eye makeup in my bathroom, which has terrible lighting. (I'm not this pale!) I'm definitely not a makeup expert, so I can't promise to offer any tutorials on this blog. However, if I come up with any other creative ideas, I'll definitely share them with all of you!