This year for Halloween my husband and I decided to do something totally different. We are all about the scary costumes for Halloween. In fact,every year since we have been together has yielded an awesomely spooky costume. This year like many others we spent much time brainstorming ideas. Ultimately the main idea was thrown out by my husband. Grayscale film stars was the original idea. I have been intrigued by grayscale for a while so I loved the idea!!
I wanted to change up the idea just a little. While I love old time movies I wanted to go more in a stage performer direction. The Vaudevillians were born. I started researching grayscale costumes and didn't find that many sources. The few that I found were pretty insightful and it seems the key to correct grayscale is to have just as much gray or even more gray than black and white. If you're interested in trying a grayscale costume you might find taking a black and white photo of yourself is the perfect tool for reference.
This is NOT a B&W photo. You can see the pinks of my eyes. I added a old time photo frame to this image that is all.
In order to achieve a swinging grayscale look you have to be open to make-up. Any part of your body that is exposed needs to be gray. Your skin also has to be the correct shade of grey. I learned this the hard
way when I bought monster grey Mehron make-up and it was much too dark. If your skin is too dark you will look like a zombie from Dawn of the Dead and not grayscale. Proving the right shade is very important. We ended up using Mehron's Liquid Make-up in White with a few drops of Monster grey. The make-up didn't hold up the best on our skin. I have dry skin and my husband has oily skin. I wanted to use Kryolan, but it is very hard to find in Canada. The next time I will have to plan better and order it. The product I have seen suggested is Aquacolor in shade 32B.
Shading your skin will also play a big roll in a successful grayscale look. I would suggest shading with a dark gray shadow. I'll admit I'm not the best at shading. Most of the time I feel like I haven't got a clue. I need to make an effort this year to really learn how to shade my skin correctly. I took a stab at it anyway and I think it turned out alright. It could have been better. You want to make sure to shade cheeks bone's, around the hair line on your forehead, a little along the jaw and a shadow along the sides of the nose. Without the shading your face will fall flat. I also highlighted the areas that natural light would fall with white.
So let's talk wigs. I decided on black wigs for both my husband and myself. I have seen grayscale done with a grey wig and it's super fabulous. Either will work. I wanted to be able to use the wig again so opted for the black. I can't see having much use for two grey wigs. I love love love my wig. I loved it so much I used it for my last blog post. My husbands wig is just alright. I guess it is kind of hard to get a realistic man's wig, but I knew he would have a hat on so it did the job. Both of the wigs are professional quality wigs. I cannot do a costume wig. They are just so bad. I picked both wigs up for around $100 at Wig Secret.
I will totally use wig secret again. They shipped out the same day I ordered and got here super fast.
All the props with the exception of the sign were picked up at a local costume shop. I spray painted everything FLAT grey. You do not want to add shine to your props so make sure you get flat paint. The sign was made from a graphic I found online. I thought it was totally perfect for the Vaudevillians.
In all the think we banged out a dazzling display of heterogeneous splendor. I was very pleased with this years costumes. If you have any questions please leave me a comment below and I will do my best to answer all questions. Happy Halloween...
Stay Spooky,
Stina
xx
