Saturday, November 1, 2014

Greyface

It's a completely new thing for me (even at ten months on the job) to work for a place that celebrates Hallowe'en in a pretty big way.  My office held costume contests and a cube-decorating contest.

In the Things That Don't Happen in Financial Services or Utilities department, we have:  this!  In the 28 years I've been working, the most I've ever seen anyone "do" Hallowe'en at any job was the time my boss came in wearing "hillbilly teeth" - which he had in for about ten minutes, probably.

So I heard for a week or so how they really do it up, and I thought about what I'd like to do, and I decided to go as a sort of day-wear flapper.  Long straight skirt, little skinny belt, cute vintage shoes, that sort of thing.

Then I saw the greyscale couple and realized - hey, I have some theatrical makeup, I could do that.





It was remarkably easy (easier than going white is), and a trick I want to try again so I can do it better.  The job I did in half an hour at six o'clock in the morning, as compared to the job I'd do when I was more awake, and with a couple hours to spend on getting ready - I didn't do badly, but I could do it better.  (Like matching my neck and shoulders, ahem.)

I did learn this - that makeup on the hands is an extremely tricky thing.  I've done it before, but usually not aiming for true opacity, and not using Ben Nye's clown white, which is pigment-intensive to the point it gets on EVERYTHING (hence my job yesterday sort of stopping short of the white sweater, which I had to wear during application - a trick in itself).  So my hands did not last well at all, though the manicure worked (silver on the moons, gunmetal grey on the rest).

I also learned that what at night just looks like a cool special effect, in broad daylight really reads more corpselike and creepy.  My boss had a real shock-take, and I think I kind of scared one of the other admins, and several folks commented it was gothy or scary or creepy and so on.  Worked fine, I mean it's Hallowe'en.  But I could have gone easier on the dark eye, and the constraints of work clothes sort of buried the lede - the "flapper" part of the look - and I'd like to try to put my best effort in on this look.



What'd you do for Hallowe'en?  I know of an Indy, a Maleficent, a witch, one of my trick-or-treaters had the single best gore makeup I've ever seen, and at work we had a Superman, a deviled egg, and an entire team playing out the worst fears from Shark Week ...  Tell me more!

3 comments:

TCW said...

Last night I was out with hundreds of other people in halloween costumes, skating round the centre of London. Some were really impressive (a few people had had professional makeup help). If you're interested I'll link to photos.

DLM said...

Oh my yes. That sounds like a great way to spend the holiday - please do!

TCW said...

I've put a sample on my blog. http://thewhiterajah.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/a-truly-amazing-saturday.html

There';s some beautiful professional ones on Facebook, if you can access these. The one at Piccadilly Circus is particularly impressive. https://www.facebook.com/woofsnap/photos/a.513064812164237.1073741882.447758815361504/513067152164003