DIY Leopard Costume

by terri mchugh

Ok, we’ve all been there, ladies. We’ve needed a makeshift Halloween costume in a pinch and don’t know what to do! Believe it or not, your closet and makeup bag have more potential than you realize.

As we all know, the little black dress serves many purposes and helps us out of a bind when we need it to. No surprise it’s super versatile for makeshift costumes! Today I’m going to show you how I turned a fun cocktail dress into sexy leopard costume, with the help of plush leopard ears and a little makeup.

LEOPARD SPOTS

Ready to get artsy?? This is my favorite part of creating the leopard look. The makeup! It’s SO easy to execute and yet seems like you spent hours on it. Shhh… don’t let them know a 6 year old could probably do the job.

Here are some of the products I used… however, no worries if you don’t have the exact same items. Look for similar colors in your makeup bag!

1 – First step is contouring the outer parts of your face. Start off with the darker brown. If you have a contour stick, that would be a lot quicker and precise. I didn’t have one so I used an eyeshadow kit and a beauty blender to apply.

2 – Second step is to blend in the contouring. You can add different layers of brown tones if you want more depth. Just make sure to work from dark to light. Leaving the edges the darkest!

3 – Third (not pictured) use a toasty coral lip liner color and add some spots to your forehead, cascading down the side of your cheek. They don’t have to be perfect. In fact, the squigglier they are, the better. In between those spots, go in and add the gold shimmer dots (pictured). Try not to skip the gold! This creates beautiful depth!

4 – Fourth use a dark brown fine tip liner to add an outer circle to the coral spots. (Outline the coral spots)

5 – Fifth use your black (fine tip) liquid liner to outline the gold dots. At this point it should start looking more like a leopard pattern. Make sure that as your outlining the spots you don’t make perfect circles! Keep it loose, (open even), and squiggly.

THE NOSE

1 using your brown (fine tip) liner, draw a line from the inner corner of your brow down each side of your nose.

2 refine the line by softly blending it in. Keeping the shadow nice and bold.

3 use a highlighter eyeshadow to boldly highlight the bridge of the nose.

4 using your black (fine tip) liquid liner, draw a heart shaped outline on the very tip of your nose. Shading in the lower half/ nostrils.

EYES/ WHISKERS

Eyes: Exaggerate the winged eyeliner on both ends, giving it a more feline look!

Whiskers: lightly stroke on whiskers. I like to do a set of three on each side.

Throw on a pair of fuzzy leopard ears, that perfect little black dress & (a tail if you have one), ta-da! Cutest little leopard costume in just minutes!

Happy costume season!!

XOXO, terri