Go all out for Halloween, on a student budget

So, the big night’s coming; the one where everyone (literally, everyone) is doing something – not New Year’s Eve, no, I’m talking about Halloween.

Now you’ve probably seen the memes ‘two kinds of people on Halloween’, those who use it as an excuse to dress up cute, and those who go all-out scary. Honestly, I’m one of the latter variety, and I LOVE to get dressed up on Halloween.

Pound stores

I do buy all my expensive bleaches etc. at discount pound stores, but this is also the perfect place for cheap make-up and SFX gear, especially if you’re someone who has no idea what they are doing and this is the first (and only) time that you’ll be attempting this in the space of a year!

Usually, I pick up some liquid latex, some paint (depending on what I’m thinking of doing), and some fake blood – both of the squirty variety and squeezy variety (they have different consistencies and can be used for different things). There are loads of pound shops nearby in the Marlands in the city centre, so you can shop around.

Charity shops

If you want to move away from the mass-made costumes and be slightly more original, I can often find an old-looking, kind of scary dress in one of the Portswood charity shops. I’ve found an old black dress that I burnt and made look generally disgusting for £5 and a white lacy thing that I made into a creepy zombie bride for £3.

Halloween-themed playlist

I love everything from Tim Burton to The Purge on Halloween, so  I’ve started on a Halloween YouTube Playlist with the basics you’ll need to throw an awesome Halloween party. Feel free to add to it and take away as you wish!

Use YouTube

YouTube tutorials are really revolutionising the way that we go about our daily lives. Just last week I used one to help me fix a blocked drain, and the next thing you know I’m watching a tutorial on how to do a full hip-replacement (spoiler alert: it’s hard).

This is one of my favourite Halloween tutorials by Glam and Gore, which is a very realistic Regan from The Exorcist, and  another by PinkStylist which is from the movie Smiley - his tutorials are always awesome! Here’s one that I made last year showing how to do a quick infected Zombie bite, and one for a quick ripped mouth.

I hope these tips are helpful, and that you have a super scary (but affordable) Halloween!

Georgia