Renaissance Faire Fairy/Elf Costume

So my boyfriend and I have been planning a Renaissance Faire trip since early August but it just did not happen until October.  We were supposed to go two weeks ago but we got rained out, forcing us to reschedule and go towards the end of October.  The theme for the weekend that we went was a spooky Halloween theme so a lot of people were there in all kinds of costumes, not just time period relevant costumes.  Which meant I fit in a lot better than I would have going any other weekend.

I was orginally going to go as a fairy but since it became much too cold for my original costume my wings no longer worked out and I had to wear a lot of layers to prevent myself from freezing to death. Therefore I've been referring to my costume as an elf instead of a fairy because of the lack of wings....

So here is a close up of the makeup I did for my costume.   I wore false lashes for the first time in over a year so it was pretty interesting trying to remember how to use them. I unfortunately bought these a long time ago and do not remember the brand name, but I really wish I did as they are so pretty with a mix of black and purple lashes.  \

On my lid is Colourpop in Liberty, which I then gently covered with Shiro Cosmetic's Maiden Queen to create a beautiful shimmery metallic teal. Next I lightly applied a matte black NYX eyeshadow from a palette I have to my crease. Under my eye I smudged boxom's VIP under my eyes to bring in some purple to match my dress.  Next I took my trusy Jesse's Girl liquid liner and drew a thin wing and also added a swirly under eye accent and dots on my brow bone. I finished up my eys with a line of glitter from a retired Urban Decay heavy metal glitter liner.

On my lips is MAC Rebel, one of my favorite lipsticks. I put this on before the faire and it was still there after eating dinner!

My ear cuffs and high elf ears are from Aradani Costumes. I added the leaf charm myself and I painted the ears with my foundation and makeup.  However because our faire trip was delayed two weeks I think my foundation turned more orange the longer it sat on the ears, resulting in them not matching as well.  My necklace is from an Etsy shop called Pegasus22.

Here is a full body shot of my costume taken right before we left.  Excuse the messy background as we were running about an hour late and were throwing everything everywhere trying to get ready quickly.  My dress is the same dress I wore to my high school prom, so I was glad to get at least one more use out of it. I originally wasn't planning on wearing the sweater, leggings, or boots, and was instead going to wear just the dress with wings tucked in the back and sandles adorned with fake flowers. My costume couldn't be exactly as I envisioned it but I still had a ton of fun and got tons of compliments on my ears and dress.

I was originally supposed to go with my boyfriend, his brother and his brother's girlfriend but they had to cancel last minute because of illness so my boyfriend and I went just the two of us.  It was his first time ever at the Ren Faire and I hope that I was able to show him a good time.  There is so much to see, so many shops to visit, and so many shows to watch that it was impossible to be everywhere.  Therefore we are definitely looking forward to going again next year! :)

Surprise!  One of my very best friends was also at the Faire!  Here we are hugging it out in front of the human chess board after the show.  I'm sure you can see just how bundled up she is....yeah this was later in the day and the temperature was dropping quickly.  You can't tell from the photo but I was perpetually shivering after about 4pm.

Even though it was cold, the people we were supposed to go with canceled, and my costume wasn't as I imagined I still had a really great day enjoying the faire with my boyfriend.  Next year we plan to go when its a bit warmer.

Jamberry Berry Sparkler

So I may or may not be able to go to the Ren Faire because of all this rain but if I do....these will be my fairy nails!  I ordered these on a whim with my hostess rewards and actually ended up liking them way more than I thought!

Normally I take all nail pictures in natural light but I added my flash for these because it really brought out the sparkles and made them look more true to life than regular lighting did.

Berry Sparkler is a super cute glitter finished wrap that starts pink and fades to a sparkly silver.  These are just so adorable and I've already received compliments on them.  They feel so magical, playful, and elegant all at the same time!  I'm really glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and got these wraps!

Aradani Costumes Unpainted Latex High Elf Ears

This summer I plan to go to the Renaissance Faire with my boyfriend and some other friends.  This time I really feel like going all out and putting together a costume.  I decided to do a fairy because I'm all about that fantasy. Therefore the first item on my list to create my costume was pointed ears!  I stumbled upon Aradani very quickly as it was one of the first results when I searched for latex elf ears.  I was so surprised by how great their prices were that I placed an order that same day!

I decided on buying the High Elf ears, two ear cuffs, and some spirit gum.

Before I go into how I attached and painted my ears I wanted to briefly talk about the accessories I bought!

Here are the ear cuffs I purchased.  This was a necessity as ear cuffs help hide the bottom seam created by the ears. I chose the Elven Cuffs because they were the cheapest and I also really liked the overall look of them.  The leaf did not come with, I attached that myself with a leaf bead I found at Michael's. So far I love the color and ease of application of these cuffs. The metal is soft so it opens easily and closes just as easily allowing for them to be taken on and off quickly.  The only draw back with these is that it seems from opening and closing them there is already a tiny crack at the top of one of them. I am not sure if the few days I've worn them has caused it or if they came like that as I did not expect them that closely at first.  Either way they were only $4 a piece so if they end up breaking, replacing them won't completely kill my wallet.

EDIT: One ended up breaking because I'm an idiot and didn't now how to properly put them on.  You slip them on over the small part of your ear at the top and slide them down to the middle, this way you never have to open or close them besides the first time when you fit them properly to your ear.

I also purchased Spirit Gum, a cosmetic adhesive.  Aradani said this is their favorite adhesive for their ears and at only $3 for this tiny jar I snatched it up.  You only need at tiny bit to apply so this will probably last me longer than my ears.

And now for the ears themselves!

Each ear is handmade and unique, they will not be carbon copies.  As you can see one of mine was actually bigger than the other.  I knew my brain would not allow this unevenness to go unnoticed so I decided to trim the bigger one down to match.  Luckily it was quite easy and I just had to take a sliver off the bottom and make the circle at the top a bit smaller. 

Here is the unpainted ear resting on my ear, not glued, with my cuff on.  I wanted to show you how different the unpainted version was from my own skin tone.  You can buy these ears painted for an extra $5 added to the base $12 but since my skin is so hard to match to anything I decided to just paint them myself.

And paint them I did!  Here is a painted ear on the left and an unpainted on the right.  

Here are the tools I used to "paint" my ears!

 First I put down a  coat of Mary Kay Mineral Powder then used my fingers to rub my MAC Matchmaster foundation all over them. Then I took a small shadow brush and applied City Color Cosmetics blush up the edge of the ear.  I also took my NYX Taupe and contoured some of the indented spots a bit more just to add some extra depth.  I then took more blush and dusted it over the entire ear to make everything a bit more pink.  I Finished with another coat of the mineral powder.

Here are both painted ears, they look eerily life like in real life.

And here is what they looked like.  Still not pink enough in my opinion.  I'm just so red...:(

So I added even more blush dustings to the entire ear. I think I ended up with 3 layers total.

And these are my finished ears! I tried to take a picture from each angle but even my front view wasn't perfectly straight.  As you can see my head is barely tilted and you can't see the other ear (its on I promise!).  They do not stick out to the side very far at all.  Overall I really really like these and can't wait to finally wear them for real!  I have a fairy costume planned for the Ren Faire and a vampire costume planned for Halloween.

Where to buy: aradanicostumes.com

price: $12 unpainted

If you've ever wanted to secretly be an elf I think $12 is a small price to pay for these amazingly crafted ears.

Art: Forest Pixie

Wow.  It has literally been months since I've picked up my Wacom tablet and finished a picture digitally.  The last few weeks I have been craving to do some digital work but my busy schedule made sure that didn't happen.  Finally now that the semester is over I was able to plug my tablet in, download the new driver, and get to drawing.  I decided to color a fairy that I had sketched about a week ago.

Here is the original sketch after being scanned into my computer.  I drew the upper body in like 10 minutes and then spent about 40 minutes on the legs.  I just suck so much at the lower half of bodies.  Ugh.  I also never add backgrounds to my pictures so this time I was determined to try something.  I really need to practice both legs and backgrounds more if I ever want to get any better.

And here is the finished picture, done on Photoshop 7.  I tried a different form of coloring this time.  I lined very thinly with black and then colored in the base colors.  From there I took a wet watercolor brush and did all the shading with that at varying opacities and sizes.  Overall I really like how it came out, especially considering I haven't touched my tablet in quite some time. I'm especially proud of that tree.  I literally never ever do backgrounds so I'm just really loving everything about this.  Hopefully this summer I can draw a lot more and keep improving. 

And here is the side by side sketch vs finished product comparison.  I love going back and looking at this to see just how much work I put into the picture.  

This was actually supposed to be a witch flying on a broomstick but as I started drawing the upper body I was getting more of a pixie vibe so I decided to completely scratch my initial idea and go with this.  That seems to always be how my pictures end up....completely different than what I had originally planned.

Haha oh well!

I hope you liked my first art post in a while.  I am definitely open to constructive criticism!

Fairy Wing Nails Using Zoya

This is another manicure that started out simple but the longer I spent studying the more I kept randomly adding to it.  It's just a coincidence that I used all Zoya polishes for this look, haha.

The gradient blue into the purple with the light sparkle at the base kind of makes me think of fairy wings :D

For the base I used Hudson which is an incredibly pretty metallic lilac.  I love this color so so so so very much for spring. I then gentle used Mosheen to create a blue sparkle gradient from the tip of my nails.  Finally I took Lux and created a light half circle at the base of my nails.  Now my nails are sparkly fairy wings.

I actually sketched out this fairy two days ago, perhaps when I color her in photoshop I'll base her wings off of this manicure!