All Hallow's Eve.

So it was Halloween this past weekend, and all of Karachi was a buzz about what they are wearing to Club Night. Benny called me up a month before and said, "so how are you with costume or period makeup?". My response: hell if I know! I've never tried either! She wants to be either an avatar (oh my, that's gonna be a lotta blue and white everywhere!) or a geisha (she's gonna have some serious dancing troubles). I told her it would take some research, some trial and error, but we could get there eventually.

Flash forward three weeks


"Tanyaaaaaa! The avatar costume material isn't available! I'm gonna have to purchase a whole stock of tacky cheap blue material and it's just not worth it!"

My reaction: *phew*

Flash forward a few more days

We're slumped in Ben's room, I'm exhausted after a long day at work and Ben's curled up into a ball because her tummy muscles are killing her. The tv is on and we're flipping channels and all I registered what a flash of a blue wig when Benny exclaims "I wanna be Katy Perry for halloween!!!" What the?! She whips out her phone, calls up her designer friend and asks her for an estimate for the cost of making a dress out of confections and if it was even plausible. Ofcourse it is! But it'll cost Rs. 8000 to make (that's about $90).


Flash forward another couple of days

"Damn, I really wanted to be Katy Perry, but it's just not worth spending that kinda money for just a few hours. I need another look." I suggest, why not do like a zombie doll/corpse bride/bride of Chucky type thing? Her response "yeah, but I wanted to be Katy Perry!"

Wednesday night

*Ring*

It's Benny. "You won't believe the last two days I've had! (gossip gossip gossip)... And I've been thinking more about that dead zombie doll idea..." Ka-CHING! I knew I'd sway her eventually! "I have a white skirt, but I'm going to need like a lacy white top and some ankle booties." And while she rambled on about costume ideas, I mentally rubbed my hands together in delight of the upcoming play day ahead of me! Oooohh, what fun!!!


SATURDAY ARRIVES!


Benny shows up to be house with a backache and a heart set on venting about the trials and tribulations of living in Karachi. We sit down to chat, while she eats lunch and I inwardly curse my diet. She still hadn't found the white top and person X had really hurt her feelings. We (and by that I mean SHE) finish up lunch and head into my room where I dive head first into my closet and come out with two tops that looked like they could belong to a doll. Tried both, loved both and decided to see which one suited the look better. Then we got caught up on Gossip Girl. Evening rolled around, and I started to collected my makeup. The look of judgment, mixed with horror, mixed with amusement, mixed with derision on her face, when she saw how many places my makeup emerged from, nearly made me feel guilty at its volume.... nearly. But then I retorted with a clever "don't jealous" and felt instantly better. Two armfuls and a car ride later, we got to her place, where she made me a sandwich and I set up my transformation station in her flatmates room.


And so it began on all hallows eve...


I started by covering her from forehead to back to decolletage with Kryolan TV Paint Stick in Ivory and set it with the lightest foundation powder I owned. (In retrospect, I should have started by covering the eyebrows - a mistake, I will never make again) I covered the eyebrows by using lash adhesive to glue them down and then covered them with my foundation. Next came the eyes. I measured a quarter inch under the lower lashline and starting from the tear duct, I drew and outline all the way till the outer eye. I filled it in with a matte white cream shadow and set it with a matte white powder. Then, using a black gel liner, I liberally lined the upper lash line and followed it around the new lower lash area I made, thus making the eye appear much bigger, rounder and more doll like. Using a gray shadow, I drew in a new crease line which ended near the natural brow and drew in a new brow, half an inch above the natural one. Using a shimmery gray shadow, I began shading from the crease line upwards and added a shimmering white highlighter underneath the new brow. Oh and I used a neutral shimmery color on the lids too. I should mention that before we started this "reconstruction", so to speak, Bens had put a bucket load of hair product in her which we then proceeded to set with rollers and benders to give it that curly, abused look. An hour before opening them out, we blasted the hair with heat from a hair dryer too. Once the eyes were complete, I added a set of the craziest lashes I could find on the upper lash line and a set of relatively natural looking ones below and using a gel liner, we filled in the empty areas with hand drawn lashes. I contoured the face with a matte charcoal gray shadow to give her a hollowed, unhealthy look and then drew in the lips. After concealing them, I took a black eye pencil and drew in heart shaped lips. Mixing an indigo and bright fuchsia eyeshadow onto my ring finger, I dabbed the color onto her lips, giving her a purple toned lip and coated it with a purple lip gloss. Finally, we opened out the hair, back combed it some and tied two red ribbons into the messily partitioned hair.

The final look...

Voila!

Just the picture of innocence, ain't she?

Oh, and the dress was finally a white cotton spaghetti strap top with a frilly white skirt under, which, eventually looked like a dolls frock. This was paired with black stockings and gray ankle booties that had black lace all over. I was one proud mama indeed!


Oh!!!! And in between creating a dead doll, I made me an Egyptian goddess too! Blue on the lid, gold as high lighter, gold under the eye, tons on black gel liner, false lashes, mascara and oodles of bronzer everywhere made Ms. MB a glowing, gorgeous (which she already is) goddess!

Next year, I'm taking a leaf outta Cougar Town season two and dressing up as a weather person that got blown away!

... Or something like that..

Cheers!