Other Mother

For day 14 of #31daysofhalloween, we’re doing the Other Mother. If you haven’t seen Tim Burton’s Coraline movie, what are you doing with your life?! It is a Halloween Classic movie, created from the Harper Collins book. This look is inspired by the main character Coraline’s Other Mother. Not her real one, but the one in the creepy alternate reality that drives the whole movie. Without giving too much away, Coraline is coaxed into a world that looks almost like her own, but better. She loves having everything she’s always wanted, but soon realizes it all comes at a price. Coraline’s Other Mother looks just like her real one, except there are a couple small things missing…her eyes. Is it a trap? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out. You can find it here. I’ve also included a photo of the character so you can see what we’re working with.

Although my hair is black like hers, my hair is not short. So I had to fake it with some strategic pulling and tucking. A sharp long bob wig with a side part would do the trick. You’ll also need a beige turtleneck sweater. You could also recreate this character as she appears in other outfits from the movie. You could even do her makeup the way she appears later in the movie. She gets all big and scary and…well…I don’t want to give it away…but you have some options. Anyway, my sweater is just from Steinmart.

Prep

The prep work for her eyes is pretty simple. Get yourself some black buttons that are big enough to cover your entire eye area (over your lid with enough space on either side and underneath your actual eye). Mine are from Michael’s. The buttons should have four holes in the center. Measure the size to your face before you buy them because you don’t want to find out they’re too small when you’re in the middle of trying to create this look. You know those foam disposable, triangle shaped sponges that come in a big back? Well at most drug stores they sell the same kind of sponges in a round, flat shape. Think like the size of sponge that might fit into a makeup compact. That’s what you want because it will be the perfect shape for our button eyes. Here are some for ya. What you’re going to be doing with this is gluing the sponges down to the back of each button. We need to create a barrier between it and our eyeball, such that we can easily open and close our eyes.

Measure the button against the foam pads and cut them so that the circumference is slightly smaller than the button itself. Now you want to cut out a hole in the middle of your foam sponge. This is where your eyeball will go. To make it easy, fold the pad in half and cut a small slit in the middle to start your hole, then stick an edge of your scissors through it and start cutting it wider. Measure the pad up against your eye and make sure its wide enough for your whole eye and lashes to fit through before you glue it to the back of your button. To glue the pad down, you can use hot glue to minimize the drying time, or you can use E6000 glue. Make sure its totally try and stuck on before you continue. You may want add another layer if your eyeball needs more room to open underneath. Paint the edges of the sponge with black body paint to help them blend into the color of the button. Then set them aside for later. I used the Snazaroo water activated paint. It is important to let this dry before you try to put them on your face. If you want to get super detailed, you can use some thread to weave through the holes, but I skipped this step.

Face

This is perhaps the simplest look to achieve in my entire 31 days of Halloween series. First, I put down some regular ol’ foundation. I used the Urban Decay All Nighter, concealed under my eyes as normal with Maybelline Fit Me Concealer, and set that with my favorite RCMA No Color Powder. You can contour, highlight, blush, all that jazz if you’d like. But I kept it simple with a light wash of bronzer on the cheeks and on the temples. I applied a natural blush from the Morphe9B Blush Palette. Add in the Other Mother’s little black beauty mark above the left side of your upper lip with the black body paint. Next, put on your red lipstick. I used Jeffree Star liquid lipstick in the shade Redrum. For your brows, you could fill them in with the black body paint or you could use black eyeshadow with an angled brow brush like I did. Make sure to draw on a sort of concerned yet up-to-no-good expression, with the inner corners turning up slightly.

Buttons

Okay, this is the point at which you should have your wig and costume on because you will not be able to see very well after you put these buttons on. Grab some eyelash glue or Spirit Gum (a skin safe adhesive specifically for prosthetics). But as I’ve said before, do not put on Spirit Gum unless you have the proper remover. Here they are. Eyelash glue is more accessible and easy to get off, so I’d go with that. This is the kind I used. Hold your buttons up to your face and find a good place to place them before applying glue. When you find the spot where it feels best and you can easily open your eye, apply the glue to your skin. Work on one eye at a time and KEEP YOUR EYE CLOSED so the fumes from the glue don’t irritate you. Wait for it to get tacky. This goes for any glue you end up using. Then stick your button eye on and hold it in place until you’re confident that it’s stuck down firmly. Wait a couple minutes before you open that eye. You can slightly move it around til its comfortable. Repeat it on the other eye and that’s it! Your vision will be limited so don’t do anything crazy like drive, cook, or perform surgery in this makeup.

Thanks for sticking with me through 14 days of 31 days of Halloween so far, and I’ll see you tomorrow for more!