One of the best parts of Halloween is dressing up in Halloween costumes. Dressing in costume for Halloween dates back around 2,000 years in present day United Kingdom, Ireland, and Northern France. The time marked a period of the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter.

To celebrate, the marked the time period as Samhain as their New Year on November 1. As a result, the Celts associated October 31st with death and believed that this night that the night before Samhain. Samhain is the boundary between the living and dead became distorted.

So, to protect themselves from the ghosts of the dead the Celts would dress in costume. This prevented them from being recognized. In addition, they placed bowls of food outside their homes to satisfy the ghosts and keep them from entering their homes. This is where the tradition of Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating began. This tradition followed the immigrants into America and what has become known as Halloween.

Halloween Costume Ideas

While dressing up in a Halloween costume is fun, but it can often be difficult. Picking the perfect costume can often seem impossible. Once you find that one costume that suits you it is always exciting. Costume ideas can range from very sexy to horrifying. There are an unlimited array of costumes for Halloween.

In many cases, you can even create your very own costume with things you have laying around! This option is pretty enticing with the price you’ll pay at your local costume store. Unfortunately, you can’t always achieve the perfect look with the do-it-yourself method. Plus if you have no idea what costume you want then going to the costume shop is definitely the way to go.

Mask or Make-up?

A common question that we hear is “should you wear a mask or make-up?” Well, there are benefits to both. You can utilize both to completely change your appearance. Make-up requires some amount of work and talent in order to successfully pull off a certain “look”. On the other hand, with a mask you can simply pull it over your head and you are ready to go. It is good practice to paint around your eyes which are usually visible from outside the mask.

Unless you get an extraordinarily expensive silicone or foam latex mask, the mask will look like a mask. There isn’t a way to make a mask completely believable unless it is a skin tight silicone or foam latex mask. Or maybe it is something like a plastic Jason mask that is meant to be seen as a mask.

This leaves you with make-up. There are a number of really great make-up kits out there that even come with instructions. Depending on the effect, it could be pretty easy to do what you want with make-up. There are a number of VERY tricky make-up effects too. These will take much more time and some talent to pull off.

Another option that really tops off any mask or make-up technique are special effects contact lenses. Special effects contact lenses change the look of your eyes. It is a great way to bring your entire costume together. FX contact lenses have become surprisingly affordable!

Check out these great how-to videos from Nimba Creations!

A Few Costume Ideas

One very popular costume idea is to dress as a current political figure. In many cases these costumes embellish the person’s physical characteristics and poke fun at current hot points. It is especially fun if you are heading over to one of your friends who may get a bit annoyed by your costume. It’s all in good fun on Halloween!

Another popular costume option is to dress in a sexy outfit. Options include school girl outfit, a playboy bunny, hot police officer, or anything that you can fantasize, or imagine. Sexy costumes are a pretty popular line of costumes. Especially if you are hitting the local bar scene. When flaunting a costume of this nature, it is often good to go out with your friends and not alone.

Movie costumes are also a popular way to dress. People have been dressing as their favorite movie stars and characters for Halloween for years. This season, you will probably see a lot of familiar faces from your favorite movies. If you can watch them on the silver screen, then chances are there is a costume.

Another popular way to dress in costume is a humorous costume. Many of these can be made right in the comfort of your own home (if one is so inclined). Coming up with a costume of this nature really depends on your creativity. You can also find some pretty amusing pre-fab costumes at your local novelty store.

Let’s not forget couples costumes! Most of the couple’s costumes tend to be more on the humorous side. However, I have seen some pretty creepy things from couples. For instance, I have seen one couple dress as Romeo and Juliet post-suicide. Both of them looking like rotting corpses in tattered period costumes. It was a pretty twisted costume. I’ve also seen zombie couples, pirate couples, Dracula and Mina, and more! In general, I tend to find couples costumes at stores fairly cheesy. If that’s your thing, then by all means load it on!

You can really come up with or find an unlimited variety of costumes. In worst case scenario, you can ALWAYS use the t-shirt with “This is my freakin’ costume” written on it. If you would like more costume ideas, please visit a local costume store and browse at their selection. Even if you don’t want to buy a costume, you can always get good ideas just by looking around. Many of the costume stores have websites so you can browse online.