Last-Minute Halloween Costumes

It’s that time of year again: the leaves have fallen, the days start either freezing cold or blistering hot (depending on how you set your heater), and you need a costume, preferably with minimal effort and money. Here’s a few to get you ready to strut during midday!

The Classic Ghost

Grab a bed sheet, any bed sheet (err on the clean side). Wear over the head. Eyeholes optional.

Variations: wear a patterned bed sheet and pair with outlandish accessory for the ghost of fashions past.

Use a colored sheet and go with a few friends. Color a circle yellow and cut out a wedge. Tape to another friend and chase Pacman for the rest of the day.

Borrow a copy of  A Christmas Carol and walk around looking for Scrooge.

Ke$ha

Wear your favorite party clothes and go heavy on the eyeliner. Use a cream base makeup and apply glitter all over.

Animal

Using makeup, draw a mask around your eyes to mimic the animal of your choice, like this deer one. Pair with ears and clothing in a similar color.

Artist

Who needed a white shirt anyway? An excuse to wear wrinkled clothing. Accessorize with a paintbrush and bottle of paint borrowed from your RC office.

Variations: manage to remove an ear. If unable to become Van Gogh this way, find a few sunflowers.

Bend a coat hanger, wear it, and call it modern art

Find/make a picture frame and wear it as a self-portrait.

Zombie

Pull an all nighter.

Variations: get a decent amount of sleep, then don’t brush your hair. Pair with ripped clothing and some injuries (eye shadow makes a handy substitute for pressed makeup – just stick to the matte stuff or people might think you’re going as Edward).

Note: Red food coloring is not a substitute for fake blood!

The author as zombie Paris Fashion Week

Undead Whatever

Same as zombie, but with any other costume. Add blood by mixing corn syrup with red food coloring (add yellow and blue for a more realistic look.)

Cereal Killer

Hit up Grab n’ Go for the breakfast cereal of your choosing. Carry your cereal and spoon for the rest of the day. Splatter some red paint on the cereal and your hands. Everybody knows the spoons are sharper, anyway.

Doppelganger

Hum “Single Ladies” to yourself and casually comment how no one has ever seen you and Beyonce in a room together.

Variation: tape a LED to your chest and ask if anybody’s seen Iron Man

Cave painting
Wear beige clothing. Draw a few animals on your face with eyeliner, then place your hand on your face and daub paint around it to get that negative handprint look.

Rainy Day

Wear gray and carry an umbrella. Bring a squirt bottle filled with water for an authentic experience.

Comic Book Character

Outline the planes of your face with black eyeliner and add red dots all over, as per this tutorial.

Jack Skellington

Powder face white. Wear a suit. Draw some stitches on your face with eyeliner and black out your eyes.

Bonus: use white and black grease paint to become a skull.

PB&J

For fun with a friend! One person prints out the Welch label and wears purple, while the other wears tan and prints out a Jif or Skippy label. Tape label to shirt, and you’re set!