Koopok Blog: Miss Argentina costume tutorial

Miss Argentina: "If I knew then what I know now... I wouldn't have had my little accident."

I always appreciate tips when searching online for extra information, or 'How to' tutorials on costumes. So I've decided to do the same and write a tutorial on the popular receptionist of the afterlife from the movie Beetlejuice, Miss Argentina..!! -- which just happened to be my halloween costume this year.

I've wanted to do this costume for years now. There are actually a lot of great characters you can do from Beetlejuice. I've always loved the married Beetlejuice and Lydia as a couple costume and would love to do this idea for me and Jarred sometime in the future.

The two things I dreaded the most for the Miss Argentina costume was the neck cape thingy, and having to heavily paint my skin.

For the skin color I completely lucked out and happened to accidently stumble upon some body paints from the craft store Michaels. Tulip Body Art temporary face and body paint are more intended for body art, where you apply them with a brush and do the fancy designs, like when kids get the fun face paintings done at fairs or carnivals and such. When I saw that they had the perfect teal color I bought a package to try out on my skin and sure enough it was perfect. The paint itself, and especially using it as full coverage was a little tricky to work with. I found the best way to apply this was to use a damp face towel and to dip that into the paint and rub that throughout the skin.

Tulip Body Art paint: www.ilovetocreate.com/tulip-body-art

The thing I loved best was the fast drying aspect. The color didn't rub off, hardly, unlike a lot of the halloween makeup products out there. Overall for full body painting I give this product a thumbs up.

Also, I should mention that the above photo with the close up on the hand was taken at the end of the night, with ZERO touch-ups. Plus, I used a package and a half to cover my arms, chest, back, neck and face.

*UPDATE: November 7, 2011. I just wanted to report back on how well this product washed off and if there was any staining. It took a week and two days for this body paint to fully wash all off. I don't mind though, as I'll sacrifice having blue skin for a week for a good halloween costume, haha. No really though, the important areas washed off well -- which is the face and hands. Everything else can be covered under clothes until it comes off. The main areas that I had staining were all around the upper arms, shoulders -- front and back areas, and around the armpits. But I'm sure the product can react differently on different types of skin. Overall I was very impressed and would use this again.

The dress and 'red cape thingy'. The dress I purchased from Sears. It was on sale and I got it for only $40, what you easily pay for a lot of halloween costumes. Only this was better cause it's actually a dress and not a halloween costume. If you know how to sew you can make the dress too. I don't know how to sew, soooooooo, buying a dress was my only choice. I searched for party / prom dresses, and Sears had the best prices, and of-course the perfect dress.

The red cape: I just used a halloween gothic head dress that I purchased for our Tim Burton shoot.

My sister Al modelling the red head dress. xoxo.

The Miss Argentina sash. I went to the fabric store and bought wide ribbon, and used the iron-on transfer paper for the letters.

I bought a red curly wig with bangs and pinned it up -- a useful tip I got online! :)

I found the exact same shade in tights for my legs, which also I really lucked out on.

The props. I find when doing a character costume it's good to pay attention to the small details, such as the Handbook for the Recently Deceased guide book. I bought a halloween prop for a priest costume, what's to look like a bible and when you open it up it carries a flask with two small shot glasses inside. I painted the 'book' with brown craft paint and printed the book cover template (that I found online), which I then glued onto the cover.