My true spirit animal is a mermaid, it always has been. The idea of a mystical creature who swims in the sea, has fish friends and is happy as a clam. All me. So when we decided our theme this year for church was ‘Under the Sea’, I went overboard because...well…mermaids.
In light of all the sweet messages and questions, I am making a blog post all about it! I’ll link and explain every part of my costume so you can make one of your very own.
The Crown
I found this fake crystal crown a few weeks ago at FiveBelow in hopes of using it as an easy base. To make it a little more mermaid-ish I hot glued some fake pearls to it. I really planned on making a huge crown but for the time crunch, I am happy I went simple!
The Wig
I saw this wig on Amazon and I had to order it! I felt like my shorter hair didn’t fit the mermaid whimsy. When I think of mermaids, I think long long long hair. Plus if it was freezing on Halloween, it could keep me warm. For a wig ordered online it really was surprising quality! I think I loved the color the most and might dye my hair purple sometime soon...
The Top
Doing a group mermaid shoot years ago I had this already figured out. A bra is the strongest base to use for making something like this and I waited for a .99 cent deal at Goodwill to snatch up a good one. Then I just gathered all the shells I have ever collected (bucket loads) and hot glued them on strategically. I usually like to seal it with a coat of matte Modge Podge but didn’t have time. This keeps the shells from getting caught on hair and falling off. This top took me about 2-3 hours to make! My strategy was layering, flatter shells as the base and then adding more intricate/smaller shells that looked prettier.
The Tail
I have been following FinFun’s instagram account for a while now and I wish I knew about them when I did my mermaid group shoot. I had planned to make my own tail this year but with how crazy the season got, I decided to order my first tail from them. The quality was beautiful. The tail is stretchy, durable and something you can actually swim in. I ordered a size large and it was just the right fit. It is really hard to walk in but quick to take on/off. I purchased just the skin and used a child’s monofin I bought from a thrift store to fill the fin. This made the costume, little girls thought I was a real mermaid because my legs were gone. I kept tapping my fin on the sidewalk and they’d just look at me wide eyed.
Makeup
I used mostly the Naked 2 palette by Urban Decay. The gold shimmery ‘half-baked’ felt the most mermaidy. I used the other shadows for a little highlister on the nose and some cheekbones. Thenc came glitter. Lots and lots of gold glitter that I knew would curse me days later. There is something magic to the shimmer! I put it on the sides of my face, my collar bones, my arms. It finished my overall costume!
Let me know below if you have any questions!
I hope everyone had a mer-tastic Halloween!
