November 6, 2013

Halloween 2013 | DIY Owl Costume

Martie Hair, Makeup and Beauty DIY owl costume, feathery eyelashes, Halloween, Halloween at the salon, owl makeup, the barn owl 8 Comments

Halloween 2013

*This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you purchase using the links I provided. All opinions are my own. 

I can’t wait to show you my DIY owl costume, and my fun owl makeup. I worked so hard on it, and I’m probably prouder of this costume than any I’ve ever created. But first, I have to show off everyone else in the salon, because the whole gang was decked out in cute Halloween costumes!

The Gang

As always, Halloween at the salon was a riot! It’s my favorite day of the year to go to work, because I’m so excited to see everyone’s costume (and to show off mine!).  I always feel like I’m not going to have enough time to get ready, but I always manage to put myself together and get there a little early, just so I can take the time to “ooooh” and “aaahh” before the day gets going.

With the yucky weather forecast, I feared our Halloween would be big ol’ rainout, and it was. In spite of that, we had a great time at work, and everyone looked so darn cute!

Everyone kept joking about how Linnie-Pooh was going to have a good dinner, what with all the animals at her disposal.  She decided she was a little “skeert” of Lotus….Linnie-Pooh has quite an aversion to zombies, but would definitely hunt her up some rabbit, feline and fowl.

Don’t worry folks…that’s a toy shotgun.  It’s about the coolest one I’ve ever seen, but it is, in fact, a toy.  That thing made a cocking sound, an explosion sound, and the little fake shotgun shells even fly out when you open the barrell….how cool is that?  Shuh-Wanda pointed out that we (herself, me, and Angel) are all clueless about the cool boy toys out there, because we all have girls. She has a point!  I might need to diversify Pooh and Tigger’s toy box a little bit!

DIY Owl Costume

I shared on Monday’s post, I Am So Late, the inspiration for my DIY owl costume and the making of my wings. Today I want to share a little about the inspiration for my owl makeup.

I can’t bring myself to go buy a costume, guys.  I just can’t.  Every costume I had as a kid was homemade, and I can’t break tradition. A DIY owl costume was the only way to go for me.

As I’ve told you before, I can wear out my thumbs scrolling through pic after pic of Halloween makeup ideas. This year was no different, and I found some really great owl makeup ideas online.

These looks rock, but weren’t what I was looking for. I didn’t want to look like a cartoon character, and I kinda wanted to avoid drawing in a big, black beak.  Every time I tried a beak, my girls said I looked like a koala.  I decided that looking at others’ makeup creations was not the way to go. So, I just looked at a bunch of owls.  These were my favorite.

The barn owl.  An absence of fancy eyebrow feathers (which is the only thing I don’t love about him), strange black eyes, and a very colorful pair of wings….this guy stole my heart. And, his wings look like my wings!  Ok…my wings look like his wings, to be fair. So I created my best interpretation of this beautiful creature, with my addition of very feathery eyelashes. I think I pulled my owl makeup off pretty well, even if I was beak-less.  Of course, there is one in every crowd…someone asked if I was Miley (because of my hair, I guess?), and then laughed heartily at the realization that I was wearing too many clothes to be Miley.  Heh.  Heh Heh..yeah, I wasn’t too amused either.

How I did it

To create this look, I started by covering my entire face with a shimmery white highlighting makeup, like this one from e.l.f. I wanted a shiny white face.  I applied it all over with a powder brush, making sure to blend it in on the neck well.  Next, I used a brown eyeliner pencil, Glimmersticks from Avon in Cosmic Brown, and lightly drew an owl-face-shaped (kind of heart shaped) frame around my whole face. I used light feathery strokes to bring the line outward toward my hairline like feathers. I brought the line down from the center of my forehead to the bridge of my nose, making it skinnier as I went.  I used the e.l.f. Sunkissed Glow bronzer to contour the sides of my nose. I used Avon True Color Eyeshadow in Blackest Black on my whole eyelid, including my brow bone and eyebrows. I went underneath my eyes in the lash line with a small eyeliner brush, keeping the lines soft.

The final touch (and my favorite) to my DIY owl costume was the two sets of feathery eyelashes.  I got mine from Sephora, but you can find similar ones on Amazon, like these and these. I used the fuller, fluffy ones on top, and the ones with the long, skinny feathers on the bottom. The eyelashes made the owl makeup. Everyone loved them, and they didn’t even get on my nerves!

This was a fun day, as always.  I love seeing everyone’s faces when they come into the salon.  Most people are happy and complimentary, telling us how cute we all look.  Some, on the other hand, look as though they just swallowed a persimmon when they see us, and it’s obvious that they aren’t Halloween fans. Oh, well, not just anyone can appreciate a DIY owl costume as awesome as this one. I can’t wait until next Halloween!

X,O,X,O,   Martie