As a regular cosplayer, I think being able to dress up as a character is perhaps my favorite part of Halloween. When I was younger (before I even knew what the cosplay scene was all about), I would agonize over what I wear come October 31st. Often I would want to do a cool costume, but was was too self-conscious to be able to go all out. I felt like there was an unspoken mold that I needed to squeeze into.

Now that I’ve been attending anime conventions for a few years, have the make-up and special effects tutorials of Youtube to rely upon for expertise, and a lot more self confidence under my belt, I can finally try out those over-the-top looks I always wanted to as a kid. The other day I tried out what I thought of as my “black-feathered queen” look. I’m pretty pleased with the results!

The Inspiration:

This look was inspired by the Instagram group @elysian.fantasy.artistry who does just incredible fantasy photography shoots. I’ve been following their work for a few months now, and they never disappoint.

I had the idea for how it would look early one morning before I headed in for work. I took a few minutes to (badly) jot out the details before heading out the door. At the time, I didn’t even think about a crown, but that was added onto the concept later.

How I Made It:

The black feather shoulder pieces I made for my female!Scarecrow cosplay for DragonCon this year. There’s a wonderful Youtube tutorial that walks you through how to make these with feathers, hot glue, and shoulder pads. Basically I used the yellow contacts from that cosplay and the feathered shoulders, then added the black face paint and feathers to my face, with a dash of gold sheen and gold glitter.

The headpiece was more of a struggle than I expected. I took an old New Years plastic crown we bought for a few bucks at Party City last year and tore off the purple fur that was glued to the base. Then I hot glued black feathers all around it in layers, similar to how I did for the shoulder pads. Once that was done, I found a few yellowish green feathers from an old Steampunk outfit I had and added them to it as well to give it some dimension and some height.

Needless to say, I burned myself a lot…

Final Thoughts:

It’s not perfect, and you can definitely tell this is a makeup test and not the final product, but I’m really happy with how spooky it looks! It should definitely be an eye-catcher when I wear it to a Halloween party in the next couple of weeks. What I’m most pleased about is that it didn’t cost me any additional money, though honestly I had the pieces lying around because I do cosplay. The gold sheen Kryolan makeup was actually something we just picked up at DragonCon a month or so ago at the Arda Wigs booth (for quite a good discount!)

Although I never intended for my love of cosplay to spill over onto my writing blog, I suppose it was only a matter of time. It’s a hobby that I’ve grown to truly love, so I’ll probably be posting more cosplay pictures and discussions here as I create/break/repair/attempt things, mixed in with my normal writing updates. This blog has been straight writing for (at least!) five years now, so maybe it’s time for it to stretch its legs a little.

Do you have any cool makeup looks or costumes you’re hoping to try out for Halloween this year? I’d love to see what you’re putting together!

Stay spooky, dearies! 💀❤️