Amazing DIY Zombie Halloween Costume

Another innocent civilian has been turned to a zombie this year and this one looks like she really put up a fight! The wounds all over her face show you what really lies under her skin and her ripped clothes show her determination to find her next victim!

A message from Jennifer, the creator of the ‘DIY Zombie Halloween’ costume:

I made this costume for myself, DIY, all homemade. And it is me wearing it in the photo. I was inspired to make this because I love The Walking Dead, I love Halloween, and creepy makeup and had seen some really cool makeup effects people had done at other Halloween parties to make it look like your skin was falling off sort of speak. I never did anything like this before, and got some tips from YouTube videos.

I did not have much money, nor did I have some of the things the videos listed I needed, so I used my creativity to try out other options from stuff at home. For my makeup, I used toilet tissue (yes! Toilet paper!) and school glue (instead of liquid latex, that I couldn’t afford at the time) I love Halloween so I did have fake blood in my Halloween stuff, and some grayish green makeup and I always have black eyeliner and eye shadow, so I used all of it for this. I first added the tissue by separating the sheets, (taking a square of it, then pulling it apart to make two thin sheets instead) then applied the school glue where I wanted to make the effect.

Then adding the tissue paper, adding more glue on top of where I wanted it to stick to my face and then drying it with a hairdryer on low setting (so I wouldn’t burn my face)till dry. The more layers the better in spots. It is hard to explain without showing you how I did it in a video or in person of course. Because you have to have some of the tissue sticking out like in my photo for the ripped skin effect. When I was done, adding it to around my eye, I also added some to my upper chest, and by my hair, up on my forehead, because I wanted to add fake brains by my hair.

As you can notice in the photos…for the brains, I used just a tad cooked instant oatmeal with barely any water in it, (so it gets real sticky)and added fake blood to it and when it was how I wanted it to look, I then mixed in some of the glue and then applied it to the place I had ready for it, by my hair as seen in one of the photos.then applied the makeup, and added black to wear I thought needed it to look like a Zombie.

For my clothes, I got lucky at wear I used to work, they always have end of clearance sales and sell stuff for $1. I got a brand new white blazer, some new jeans and a tank for under the blazer. I made some instant coffee, and soaked a lot of parts of the blazer in the coffee to give it the dirty look. Then I did the same for the pants, and then ripped them up in places all over to my liking. I also added fake blood…and then added some craft moss I found at Dollar Tree and glues it on in spots for the effect of just coming out of the ground (like a Zombie would) I teased up my hair, and sprayed it in spots with some gray hair color I had, and added moss in my hair too.

The only thing I bought besides the $1 clothes and moss was the Zombie nails I glued on. They were about $3.99. I also added some of the makeup I had mixed together to get the grayish look, I added it to my arms, and whatever skin was peaking through my ripped clothes. I bought some shoes for Goodwill, and faked blooded them up too. I got a lot of head turns form this costume and was super proud of all my hard work. I tried entering a contest, but a lot I have gone to at bars, no matter what I have worn, or made, well, they never really see the creativity in a costume like this unless they ask you.

I also made my teeth! In the photos, its hard to see them, I do have other photos somewhere of just them, but anyways I made them out of thermoplastic that I had had from Vampire teeth, I made like a very thin cover to go over my own teeth then drew lines and cracks in them with a permanent marker. They could snap on and snap off. This was my own cool idea I got from when I had to make my Vampire teeth stay on and they came with extra thermoplastic and I couldn’t afford to buy those really cool teeth you can buy. It worked well and they were so cool I could not even feel them! I could still drink and even eat most snacks.

But I would definitely try this again! I danced the night away with my now husband (he was a bf at the time)(this was about 3 years ago I did this costume)and the makeup and glue held up for hours! After about 4 hours of sweating, it started to fall off, BUT it only made it look creepier! I had a lot of good comments on my costume and it was super fun being a Zombie.