LoSP: Day and Night Costumes and Makeup

On February 17th, our band League of Space Pirates, had two related events. During the day, we did a meet and great with a photo booth at the Virginia Comicon. Later in the evening, we hosted the official after party, Space Babes Vs. Space Pirates. Because I wanted to, I wore two different costumes, and makeup looks for the events.

For the Virginia Comicon, I wanted something that I could easily move in, and was comfortable. I chose a striped corset from Ebay, a silver stretch PVC mini skirt from Artifice Clothing (a sample bought from their Etsy shop), universe tattoo print stockings from Ebay, black canvas knee high boots (similar to the Converse ones) from Ebay, a black PVC bustle and a black PVC ruffled shrug that I made.

The fascinator I'm wearing started as a raven skull embroidered patch that I purchased from my friend Jinx at MTCoffinz. She had her assistant edit the embroidery to isolate the raven skull and make it special for me. I trimmed the felt fabric it's embroidered on, around the edge. Then, I beaded the eyes and nostrils. To finish, I did a complicated sewing process to add lots of feathers around the top back half of the skull, and finish the back to add an alligator clip while protecting all the stitching. Other accessories I'm wearing are heart cutout and jewel studded faux leather fingerless gloves from Ebay, a large silver geometric necklace from Wetseal, and 6 earrings from various places.

The gun I'm holding is a toy Tommy Gun that I altered with 4 kinds of glitter...2 silvers, a red, and a glow in the dark. It took a ridiculously long time to make, but was worth all the headaches to get it finished. I started with Krylon's silver Glitter Blast spray, which didn't go according to plan, but I was able to save the disaster with a glitter and Mod Podge Gloss technique I'd learned by making my silver boots. I tediously painted on a base color, Mod Podge Gloss, sprinkled on the selected glitter, waited for it to dry, and gave it a couple more top coats of Mod Podge Gloss. I used a lot of Mod Podge Gloss for this project, because it has a glossy finish that doesn't dull the glitter and works great at sealing fine glitter which prevents flaking! There was a lot of drying time in between steps, because I wanted to make sure everything had cured solid before adding anything else. Since the Glitter Blast served as a base for the silver, I sealed it with Mod Podge Gloss before adding fine silver glitter in some areas, for better coverage and sparkle. I sealed it again with more Mod Podge Gloss. For the small red parts, I used a combo of red acrylic and Extreme Glitter paints, as a base coat. Then, I followed up with Mod Podge Gloss, fine red glitter, and more Mod Podge to seal. For the large red ammo section, I sponged on red spray paint and red Glitter Blast spray...which didn't go according to plan. I covered that disaster with Mod Podge Gloss, fine red glitter, and more Mod Podge to seal. For the small glow in the dark sections (what looks whiteish), I used a couple coats of glow in the dark acrylic paint. Then, I did several layers of Mod Podge Gloss and glow in the dark glitter, so it had a strong glow. After all the glitter was done, I visually distressed the glitter by dry brushing black acrylic paint on certain areas. Of all the toy weapons that I've altered, this is the largest and most complicated. I love challenging myself and will definitely create more guns, which I plan on selling, since I've pretty much gotten the techniques down.

I did a day makeup and a night makeup that built on the day one. The top two makeup photos are from the day, and the bottom two makeup photos are from the night. I'm getting much better at figuring out how to do makeup looks that are long lasting...pretty much glued in place in a way. I don't know how I did makeup before primers and proper glitter adhesive!!!!

For the day, I wanted to do something dramatic, but a little soft...which is probably up to personal interpretation. For my eyes, I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion in Original, NYX jumbo eye pencils in Pots and Pans (silver) and Rust (dark red), Wet N' Wild Fantasy Makers silver, dark red, and black eyeshadows (from different Halloween collections), Sugarpill's Love+ (bright red), NYX single eyeshadows in Rust (dusty red) and Cherry (bright red), Rimmel London's Glam'Eyes Professional Professional Liquid Liner in Black Glamour, and Clinique's Naturally Glossy Mascara in Jet Black. For my lips, I have on Milani's Lip Flash in Hot Flash. It's a chubby pencil style lipstick, but it's a creamy opaque shimmery formula that last for many hours. I had removed it midway through the day, so I could eat lunch and dinner. For my face, I have on Studio Gear's Flawless Foundation in Bisque. NYX's Stay Matte But Not Flat Powder Foundation in Ivory, Shiseido's Natural Finish Cream Concealer in Light, NYX's Roll On Eye Shimmer in Platinum (for a shimmery highlight), and a random discontinued bronzer.

For the night, onto the eye makeup, I added Too Faced Shadow Insurance Glitter Glue Eyeshadow Primer, Ben Nye's Aqua Glitter in Red, and Ben Nye's Sparkler Glitter in Silver. I buy my Ben Nye products through a local costume shop, but they are sold through many different online places too. I used some of the same eye shadows for the day makeup to help give the glitter some depth, blending and shading. This was my 1st time doing a glitter eye like this, but overall I'm pleased with it. I wanted something more dramatic for the stage, so it would stand out under the bright lights. I also increased the amount of shimmery highlight, so it was high impact shine. The bottom right photo is me with my hubby after the show. You can see the makeup is still holding up very well!

Here are some great group shots from the day and evening. In the top photo, you can see the eye patch I made for Alasdair using a medical eye patch from Noah's dad Chuck, elastic, water system clear tubing, and a glow stick bracelet. Mike is wearing the cloak I made, and the skull mask I altered. He's holding two swords I paint modified. Noah is holding one of the Nerf Maverick guns I painted and wearing a pair of suspenders I modified for him. Bruce is his own DIY king, who did all his own costume modifications.

For the night portion, I changed my costume. I'm wearing a black silk steel boned corset (expensive and worth every cent) that I bought at Passional in Philadelphia, PA, a black stretch lace mini skirt (don't recall where I bought it), machine gun tattoo print stockings from Ebay, and silver glitter boots that I made. The accessories...jewelry, fascinator, and gloves are the same as the day portion. I did make a fancy bustle to go with this outfit, but it ended up not looking right. I'll deconstruct it and redo the design into something that flows better.

That is it for now. There will be at least one more costume update soon from our upcoming Book and Record Release + Dance Party at Balliceaux. If you're local, it's this Thursday, March 7th at 10pm. It's a free dance party. We're not performing, but Noah and Mike are djing...because that's one of many awesome skills they have. Two days later, on Saturday, we'll be performing on air at 97.3 WRIR for their Spring Fund Drive. We'll be on between 5pm-7pm. You don't have to live close to the radio station to hear us. You can tune in online!!! On their website, click the red box tot the left that says "Listen". That will download something. Open that download and it will send you to a feed for you to listen to with what ever music program you have on your computer. I just use the Windows Media Player for my default. It works great there. We'll be performing 4 songs...the two from the Book and Record release and two new songs. If you don't know, the Book and Record combo (a professional comic book with the lyrics and an accompanying record with the two songs) is available for purchase. You know you want at least one, because I'm in comic form...and that's pretty awesome...ok the guys are too...so that increases the awesome of course.

Carlton Kotalo of Spiderbite Studios took all of the photos except the 1st, 3rd, and 4th makeup photos. I took those with my camera phone.