Halloween! Step by Step Medusa:

This year for Halloween I decided to be Medusa. My boys were really big into mythical creatures and I thought it would be fun.

I wasn't sure how to approach the costume. I wanted it to be fun and not too difficult but also super cheap to put together. I decided to skip the historically accurate dress/sandals and not paint my whole face green. I wanted to use things I already had, so the end result ended up being kind of a Medusa-transforming-into-a-snake instead of being full-on grotesque.

The only thing I bought was the wig and a new set of false eyelashes so I spent around $10 total. Luckily I do have boy children so I just used whatever snakes they had laying around their room.

Step 1: Put on foundation and/or concealer, only where needed. Ok, just kidding. After I put on the first of the makeup it reminded me of a quote in one of Kevyn Aucoin's books. He was doing a supermodel's makeup, maybe Cindy Crawford or Kate Moss and the big trend was "natural" makeup, with barely and foundation. He covered her whole face until she basically looked like a set of nostrils with that caption...so yeah. Apply foundation in a shade or two lighter than your natural skintone all over, preferably with a foundation brush. I used this one:

My favorite way to apply it is to mix it with a drop or two of a good serum then paint it onto the skin with a synthetic foundation brush. It blends well and feels good on the skin.

Next, I applied a plain old glue stick right over my brows in two coats (let dry in between coats) to seal my brows. Spirit gum works well too. I have really dark/thick brows so they are hard to cover, but I just wanted to hide my brows as much as possible so I could draw on new ones. I put more foundation, (this time undiluted) on my brows only and blended.

After that, I drew on basic thin brows above my natural brows with a black pencil.

Next up: lips in cherry red, lined outside of the natural lipline and filled in with red glittery lipstick. The next part was fun: I used a pair of fishnets as a template and tapped dark green shadow onto my forehead, cheeks and chin to resemble snake scales.

Next, my eyebrows became snakes by filling them in with dark green liner and adding a red tongue and rhinestone eyes.

The wig, snakes, and false eyelashes finished things up (lashes added after this pic was taken...)

I Love This

I did not circumcise my boys and I am still stunned when I encounter friends or family that still think circumcision is something that needs to be done.

Everyone has the right to choose what's best for their own family, but I am so happy I didn't let anyone cut off healthy, functioning parts of my children's bodies.

Only one of them has had any irritation of the foreskin, we squirted in some Neosporin and it was gone in a couple of days. I've already taught them how to keep it and have explained to them why they look different from Papa (they noticed and asked me)

Anyway, I love these ladies for all the valuable information they put out there, and I love this video. With the circumcision rates down to about 40%, I'm hoping my boys never encounter ignorant girls who say "ew" when they see their penis. If they do I am hoping that I was able to instill in them the self esteem to walk away knowing that they are fine.

Wordless Wednesday: I Got Married!