Halloween’s been long over and I know this post is weeks past its season, but I thought why not. This could be a reference-for-the-future kind of thing. I know I procrastinated too much about this and I apologize. In my last blog post, I talked about posting some graduation stuff in my “next” blog post – mostly about that dress I almost sold my soul for. In hindsight, it doesn't really matter what I wore since it was covered up with a Toga. I was going to write about it when I realized I haven’t transferred the photos from my parent’s camera to my laptop when they’ve left the country already. Not that I can’t get the files anymore, I just didn’t want to have them e-mail me all 500+ photos in a day. Hah! More excuses. I’ll see what I can do.

Okay. Now that that’s out of the way. 

About Halloween. 

I LOVE HALLOWEEN. Who doesn’t? Halloween in the Philippines isn’t as crazy as it is in other countries – not that I would know personally. Maybe it’s because there isn’t really any cultural tie to it here than it does elsewhere. Where other people like to get drunk and wasted in all the festivities (a good scare does scream for some company), we young adult Filipinos like to get wasted on that sugary-sweet candy. 

No.

No we don’t.

I may be over generalizing this. 

There are some Halloween parties here and there, but most of them are either for kids or company gimmicks, so adults (legally, I am an adult now) don’t really get to do much. There are some adult parties at clubs and bars deeper in the city, but that’s not really my type of “scene”.  

The reason why I love Halloween so much, other than getting all that free candy, is because I really like dressing up. Some may call it cosplay, others may think of it as living out some hidden fantasy; maybe it's just flat-out being weird... or a little bit of everything. I like to think Halloween is a free pass to be a weirdo-amateur cosplayer for a day. You could wear practically anything and pass it off as a costume. Plus, it gives you more confidence to just dress how you want because everyone else is being a weirdo-amateur cosplayer themselves.
 

Anyhow. I don’t really have that many reasons to participate in Halloween parties, mostly because they’re seen as for kids and the other “adults” like to sit by the side line (even though deep down I know they want to suit up too). Fortunately, a friend of mine invited us to his village’s Halloween party and of course, I was eager to say yes. I wasn’t sure if my friends would bring costumes themselves, so I’ve been putting off assembling one ‘til the last minute because I didn’t want to be the odd one out.  

You can't see it here, but the gun's strapped to my thighs.

What am I wearing?

I already had a Grey wig lying around at home so I wanted to conceptualize around that. I was planning to be a ghost at first, with [fake] blood coming out of my forehead and dark-brooding eyes, but I didn’t have enough materials and time to find plaster and food color (for the fake wound). As an alternative, I just made an angel costume. Now that I think about it, angels and ghosts are pretty much the same. They’re both dead, they like to haunt people, and they’re often portrayed in white. Fortunately, there are tons of costume paraphernalia at Divisoria, specifically in Tabora, for very cheap prices – you can even haggle them to get a discount. If you're in Manila, going there for your costume needs is worth the trouble. The white wings costed me about Php 350. The dress I got at 168 Mall, a few meters from Tabora, for Php 300. You'll pass by tons of [washable] wigs there at different lengths, probably around Php 150 to 300 depending on the length, while you roam in between streets; it's not hard to miss. Personally, I could say the quality is between Class C and B, which is good for its price. I bought a gold metal head wreath for Php 100 as a halo. Perhaps the priciest part in the whole costume was the gold finger gloves. I found it in a store at 168 Mall [3^rd floor], the ones that sold kinky netted stockings (I forgot the name though). It was Php 220 and I couldn't haggle it any lower, but I just had to have it. The toy gun I bought for Php 50 – luckily it’s already gold so I didn't have to repaint it at home. I reused my coffee-colored stockings and my white Adidas Superstar, made some arm bands and voilà, you have yourself an angel costume for less than Php 1,500.

Sorry about the photo quality. It was getting late when I took this shot.

PS: I'm no makeup expert. I use it no more than 5 times a year -- that's how inexperienced I am. I played with some eyeliner and yellow-gold eye shadow then colored my lips pink. To the makeup gurus out there, I'm sorry if this image makes you cringe. I think it looks okay though, considering I was sweating underneath all that costume.

Kudos to these people (and the owner of that house) for shamelessly wearing costumes themselves -- even though I had my doubts :P

True enough there were mostly kids roaming the village that night. My friends and I had our laughs and had a good amount of candies to spare. To think that at this time next year, we might all be busy working to bother do this again. Who knows. I’m just happy I got to spend my first and 21^st Halloween with such great people.