Hola Demonitos and Demonitas😈 😈
Robin here, a human whose formative years were spent idolising the casts ofThe Adam’s Family,The Craft and just about any TV or Film that celebrated all things macabre. Unsurprisingly, my love of strange and ephemeral beings led me to joining the lovely BODYFX team.
In the famous words of Morticia Frump Adams:“ When we're together, darling, every night is Halloween.”
For some people, Halloween is a fun Holiday that comes once a year, allowing us to adorn ourselves in colourful costumes to hide the fall-out of government-sanctioned, ferocious candy consumption. For others, Halloween is a year-round lifestyle in which our equally ferocious appetite for costumes knows no bounds. Wherever you fall on the Spooky Spectrum, there is no denying that dressing up can be fun asHades!
I am a DEVOUT Haloweenie. I express my devotion through manic, costume, whimsy, every year. My costume ideas range in inspiration from unforgettable movie scenes, to my heroes, to funny-word-alliterations that transform into wearable art. My favourite costumes have included: an 1. H.R. Giger inspired Tiger, 2. Edgar Allen Crow, 3. Frida Khalo, 4.a Bowie Fairy, 5. a Lisa Frank inspired Leopard, 6.a monster woman whose legs were the mouth of a crocodile, 7. a Harajukubot,...and the list goes on...can’tstopwon’tstop <3
Going down the memory lane of all the costumes I’ve loved, I recognize that there have been essential elements in my costume tool kit. What follows is my current guide to realizing your horrifying, Halloween dreams (and it turns out that BODYFX is the one-stop-shop for all of it!):
PAINT ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FR...ANKENSTEIN GIRLS...
- We are living in the golden age of water-based face paint, and BODYFX has every brand/ colour/ hue/ of paint you could possibly need to transform yourself. In my own, experimental, adventures, I’ve found that the12 Colour Face Paint Palette is an absolute asset when it comes to high-quality pigments for all the colours of the rainbow. These colours are also extremely easy to mix, very bold and vibrant, they dry without smudging, and they are easy to wash off with soap and water. Using them is the closest I’ve come to painting my skin as if it were actual canvas, and they’ve allowed me to get really intricate with character skins, textures and ideas
- The year I decided to go as a Lisa Frank Leopard (Lisa is known for her wild, fluorescent characters that adorned all my classmates' school supplies when I was a pre-teen) I usedTAGs Neon Palette. I was impressed at how bold the colours appeared, not only in daylight but under black lights as well. 2021 brought us an even more amazing array of fluro-colors now that BODYFX has released their ownNeon andPastel Neon collection. These paints were made with all of the best qualities of other neon-carrying brands, and they will be sure to send you down a rabbit hole of ideas.
BITE ME!...
- Despite months of anticipation and the TRUE HORROR that is the global-shipping situation right now,BODYFX has finally acquired the best selection of fangs you could want for all your vampire/ beastie dreams to come true. These days you see fangs everywhere, and not just on the classic, halloween monsters.Grimes ,anime characters,even BEYONCE have all donned the spikey teeth. You can literally vampirize any character you want to make them look cute and scary. These are high-quality-accessories, and they can be moulded to your teeth, which is the next best thing tomillion dollar grills.
BEAUTY IS IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER…
- FX Contact Lenses are an aesthetic game changer. The range of colours and styles is mind-boggling - if you have a character in mind there are probably lenses that perfectly suit it.Zombie Gray,Manson,black light reactive leopard print, the list goes on. For those who are extremely committed to transformation, BODYFX even carries17mm lenses andSclera lenses for full-eye-coverage (from tear duct to wing-tip) in many styles. Wearing them for the first time can be intimidating, but once you get them in, it is easy to forget they are there (cue confusion over people squinting at you for a long time because you’ve forgotten your irises are bright red :D )
THERE WILL BE BLOOD…
- Something that struck me the first time I set foot in BODYFX in Morningside was the sheer magnitude of varieties of fake blood that they carry.Stage blood, scab blood, squirt blood, scratch blood, mint flavored blood, etc. For horror fans, BODYFX is theDiagon Alley of bespoke blood . Whether you want to achieve vampire drops down the chin, or create hyper-realistic wounds and scarring, they’ve got you covered! With a lot of variety comes a lot of questions. If you are attempting something gory and complex for this Halloween season, emailshop@bodyfx.co.nz and you’ll get all the answers you need to achieve the seemingly impossible. On that note, Check out thePANTRYFX series to learn some of the at-home recipes for creating these scream-worthy products yourself!
BEAUTY OR THE BEAST…
- If you have had any lingering doubts about BODYFX being theWilly Wonka’s Chocolate Factory/ candy store equivalent of an FX mecca, this will be a TKO(total-knock-out) for your skepticism. BODYFX carries an expansive line of custom, foam, prosthetics:from noses, to gills, to horns, to nipple covers, to full-faces, etc. With a full spectrum ofPros Aide adhesive products, you can easily apply the light-weight pieces to faces, necks, and torsos to completely modify your genetic appearance. If you are a stickler for realism, you will go bonkers for all these perfect appendages.
LOVE IS IN THE HAIR…
- Have you ever experienced the excitement of creating or emulating a character, fantasizing about what you will look like when you’ve fully suited up, only to have your heart broken over the drab look of a cheap wig from Look Sharp (sorry Look Sharp, we love you and are just beingMean Girls? Once again, BODYFX has you covered, mate. The in-store wig selection is massive and, like their face paint selection, you have many hues, lengths and styles to choose from. Some of my favourites include thisPastel Unicorn Maineand thisJewel toned-green Sea Witch
SCAR TISSUE THAT I WISH U SAW...
- Halloween purists may resent that the holiday evolved from celebrating all things scary, to people figuring out how to make sexy versions of everything fromtradies to bumble bees. For the true gore lovers out there, take a look at theMini FX pack on BODYFX’s website to give you a small taste of the products they sell which allow for extensively, ghastly, special effects. You can achieve wounds, blisters, scars, bruises, scratches, gashes, the sky (or the grave) is the limit! Another pro-tip,if you type in “free” to the BODYFX search bar, a slew of tutorials will come up that give you lessons on the right products and best use cases for every FX idea under the sun.
I can’t say that the above list is the unabridged list of all the items you could ever want for the perfect costume. The most tragic aspect of Halloween is having to commit to only one look, or two, or three (depending upon how many parties you’ve endeavoured to attend.) It turns out that creating a costume from head to toe is not just heckin-fun, but it’s a good practice in committing to one vision and realising it to the best of your ability. I’ve always tried to be over-ambitious when I choose a character or costume, because it’s the only way that I can force myself to master new skills. One thing is for sure, knowing where to begin is the SCARIEST PART ( mwauh hah hah HAH HAH!... *cough cough.) Well fear not, because BODYFX has got you covered.
XOXO
Robin
