Cracked Porcelain Doll Costume

Jess
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Cracked Porcelain Doll Costume I had the opportunity to dress up two days in a row for costume parties this year. I chose to be a cracked porcelain doll out of items I already had in my closet. Here are pictures of my makeup both nights.

Total Time: 2 hours

Supplies:

Porcelain dolls can be found in all sorts of types of dress, from baby dolls to formal Madame Alexander collectibles. Suit your own personality when searching for your outfit

1 old fashioned dress
1 hairbow
pearl jewelry
old fashioned shoes or boots
pale or white foundation
white eyeliner and makeup for under eyes
liquid eyeliner in black or grey
color for eyes and cheeks (I used the same color on the second night)
lip pencil and lipstick
gold hairspray
false eyelashes

I used the long pearl necklace and earrings to emphasis the doll aspect of the costume, as they often have oversized accessories. A cameo or sparkly beads would have also been effective.

Steps:

The first thing I did was to curl my hair. You could do any number of hairstyles here or even a wig. I decided to use rag curlers to give it a really old fashioned look. You could always use a curling iron or other methods for a similar look. Here is a post I found to have helpful instructions on rag curling.
- http://ducksinarowevents.blogspot.com/2012/03/hair-tutorial-get-curly-hair-using-old.html
Instead of sleeping on them, I put them in in the morning and left them in all day, occasionally using a blow dryer to speed up the process. I separated some of the curls then added the gold hair spray and the hair bow. It turned out very curly and stayed in all night long. It was even curly when I woke up the next morning.

As you can see, the rag curlers were not as successful on the second day. I wasn't as careful and didn't use as much hair styling product or heat.

I washed my face and neck clean and then used a good moisturizer all over. I wanted to make a barrier between my skin and the makeup.

The first night, I used a concealer stick all over my face and neck with powder over the top. This gave my skin a matte and smooth appearance but was a bit darker than I had envisioned. The next night I used white cream makeup lightly, with the powder over the top. I think a extremely fair foundation would have been the best option here.

I used a white eyeliner and some white cream makeup to enlarge my eyes. I then drew in the lower lid and added some painted eyelashes. This looked especially creepy from a distance. I also used false eyelashes and darkened my eyebrows.

I added eye and cheek makeup, making the cheeks very stylized and rosy. On the second night, I used a copper colored eyeshadow for both the eyes and the cheeks, giving it a more artificial color.

For the doll lips, I drew a heart with lip liner in the center of my lips and used concealer on the outside corners. This made my mouth look small and painted on.

I drew the cracks on my forehead, using some of the natural lines there. The first night, I used a eyeliner pencil in gray and dusted it with a metallic powder that I had. It was a little messier than I wanted.

The second night, I used a liquid eyeliner brush in black. It was very easy to make really fine cracks. I think a softer gray color would have been more realistic but it was pretty effective. I also added many more cracks the second night to play up the broken doll nature of the costume.

I considered adding lines to a pair of tights or on my arms and fingers, to look like joints or more cracks. I did try painting cracks on my chest and neck but the pearl necklace rubbed them off pretty quickly.
I got dressed and added my pearl necklace and earrings. I wore boots the first night, but wore old fashioned looking heels the second night. Mary Janes or even black flats would have been fine too.

It was a very easy costume to put together and was very effective. I got many compliments at my two parties and at the grocery store when I stopped for ice.

Happy Halloween!