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.
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