Last Minute Costume Ideas for Women

Got invited to a last minute costume party? Don't have a costume? No problem!

These last minute costume ideas for women will have you looking fabulous in no time at all. Your wardrobe is your passport to new and exciting personas. Use what you have readily available in your closet to create your Halloween costume. Look at pieces in your costume in new and exciting ways. Layer clothes with different patterns to get outlandish costume.

Worried your costume won't be up to muster? Have no fear. It's time to pull out your secret weapon - your make-up collection. With makeup you can create an array of costumes. Transform yourself into a lion or a zombie with the swipe of your make up brush. Add contours and intricate details with the aid of your makeup pallet.

Face Painter at Work by Alaskan Dude, on Flickr, reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic license

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! by zombieite, on Flickr, reproduced under Creative Common license 2.0

Survey your wardrobe to find out what you have readily available. If an idea doesn't instantly come to mind for your costume don't worry. Take a deep breath and start sorting out like colors and anything that stands out as different. Choose things that you haven't worn in a while or haven't found an occasion to wear yet. These pieces will have the greatest possibilities.

Once you've picked out your pieces see if any ideas come to mind. If not, pick up a pen and paper and start brainstorming. Think of costume ideas by color. A little black dress, a staple in most women's closets, has the possibility to transform the wearer into a myriad of costume. This piece can be used to create a cat costume, Day of the Dead costume, or even a pirate costume. What it can be come is only limited by your imagination.

Pair the black dress with a flowing pattered shirt, black tights and boots. Or utilize any silk scarves into your wardrobe to create colorful belts and head scarves. This will help you create a pirate look.

For the cat and Day of the Dead costume you can just use a plain black dress. You could also had colorful embellishments to give your costume more character.

Unicorn

Materials Needed: Head band, cone to hot glue to head band, dress

Minion
Materials Need: Yellow shirt, denim overalls, yellow hat, and silver cardboard circle to act as an eye

Football player

Materials Needed: Football Jersey, black eye make up to go under the eyes

80's Aerobics Instructor
Materials Needed: Head band, body suit and leggings, leg warmers and arm warmers

Rainbow

Materials Needed: Colored Hair spray or wig, colorful clothes, bright colorful make. Remember the colors of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Nerd
Materials Needed: pig tales, big black glasses with masking tape in the center, shirt and sweater vest, high waist skirt or shorts, runners and knee high socks

Red Riding Hood

Materials Needed: Red hooded sweatshirt and a skirt.

Princess Costume

Materials needed: elegant dress and tiara

Black Widow Costume

Materials Needed: black or dark toned dress, black plastic spider, false lashes and costume jewelry. Main bulk of this costume is done with makeup. See the Spiider Makeup Tutorial.

Beauty Queen

Materials needed: elegant dress or swim suit, sash and tiara.

Bride of Frankenstein

Materials needed: wedding dress or white dress, and veil. Hair will need to be styled and make up applied. Check out the Bride of Frankenstein make-up tutorial video and the Bride of Frankenstein hair styling video.

Image to right: Reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0 license

If you have a blue icy dress hanging out in your closet you could transform yourself into the Snow Queen from Frozen. All you need for this look is a blue dress and Elsa's over the shoulder French braid hairstyle. If you are not naturally blonde you will need a color spray for your hair.

Additional last minute costumes to help you put together an original costume this Halloween. From a Canadian Girl to a College Student you will find costumes to make out of your closet.

The easiest way to get a fast costume is to apply makeup. You can always start with your makeup and find clothes to support the look you are trying to create. You can combine your makeup pallets or pick up costume make-up cheaply to shape your look.

You will need a good set of makeup brushes to get the look you want. The right tools make it easier to get the look you want.

Not comfortable with makeup application? Check out Best 10 Tips for Face Painting and the Snazaroo Beginners Guide to get started. The internet also offers many makeup tutorials designed to help you create a myriad of costume faces.

Working with face paints to create your last minute costume can be fun. Just remember to use a hair band to keep hair off the face.. Use brushes for small details, and sponges to cover larger areas.

Face Painting by Shezamm, on Flickr, reproduced under Creative Commons SA 2.0 license.

Snazaroo face paints are non-toxic. They can be used on delicate skin and are free of fragrance. Face paint is water based so face paint comes off easily with soap and warm water. These products work well because they dry fast making it possible to complete a design in about 5 minutes.

Butterfly Face Paint Design

3 step illustrated guide to create a basic butterfly design

Snow Flake/ Winter Princess Paint Design

Snazaroo provides an illustrated guide to turning your face into a winter wonderland using their Girls Face Paint Kit. Pair your face paint with a light blue dress.

Cat Face Paint Video

Video instruction on how to turn your face into a canvas for a cat face design.

Classic Cat Woman Face Paint

Get the classic Cat Woman inspired face paint. The tutorial shows step by step out to turn yourself into Cat Woman with makeup. Pair with black pants and shirt.

Need more last minute costume ideas? These collections of last minute costume ideas will give you an Halloween costume idea to jump on.

Taking a look at your closet and pulling out your makeup brushes what costume idea comes to mind? Share your last minute costume ideas and experiences.