Last Saturday, I held a Dark Side of the Rainbow party at my place.  A bunch of my friends came over to watch The Dark Side of the Rainbow.  For those who don’t know what the feck I’m talking about, The Dark Side of the Rainbow refers to the simultaneous playing of The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.  Supposedly, if you play the record and the movie at the same time, they synch up to create an eerie, music video effect.  You can read more about The Dark Side of the Rainbow in this post that I wrote last year, when I tried it out for the first time.

 

The night was a huge success.  Everyone had fun watching the film and eating delicious food.  I made a batch of vanilla and poppy-seed cupcakes and some spectacularly green cookies.  We also invented two cocktails – the Ozmopolitan and the Ruby Slipper.  For me though, the best part of the night was dressing up in costume.  I decided to come as The Wicked Witch of the East.  I was excited to create a costume for this character.  As you only see her feet in the film, I was able to take a fair bit of artistic licence with this costume:

 

 

I thought that the Witch of the East would be a bit more glamorous than her sister.  She certainly has better taste in shoes!  I kept the ruby slippers and stripey stockings as the starting point for the outfit, and added a flouncy, corseted black dress.  I opted for a raven-feather fascinator rather than wearing a witches hat.  I added a few silver rings with gothic accents and black velvet gloves.

I took a lot of my inspiration from the book Wicked.  The Witch of the East features a lot more prominently in that book, and her style is more sophisticated than Elphaba’s, the Witch of the West.  Also, in Wicked, the Witch of the East’s name is Nessarose!  How perfect is that?

 

 

My favorite part of the costume was the makeup.  Although Nessarose isn’t green in Wicked, I always imagined her as being green when I was a little girl.  I didn’t want to wear radioactive green makeup.  I wanted my skin to look as though it just had a green cast to it.  I mixed a green pigment powder with a waxy foundation and blended it all over my skin.  I even did my ears, my hands and my neck.  It was such fun!  I layered on red lipstick and dark eye makeup.  Purple glittery eyeliner completed the look.

 

 

 

All the other costumes looked fantastic as well.  We had two munchkins and a lion, plus Ross wrapped himself in aluminium foil and came as the Tin Man.  I used a silver pigment to give him a chrome-plated face.  The only problem was that his costume kept ripping every time he moved.  Mandie rocked the most gorgeous rainbow-coloured eyeshadow and sky-scraping beehive that you can possibly imagine.  It was a great night.

 

On Sunday, Ross and I went out for yum-cha.  I chose a more subdued outfit to wear to lunch.

I am wearing:

– White dress from The Costume Factory

– Nude fishnet tights from Razzamatazz

– Floral halter top from CKM

-Nude heels from Nine West (thrifted)

– Cream chiffon scarf (thrifted)

– Silver rope bracelet

– Amethyst earrings (handmade by my aunt).

 

I hope you had a great weekend too!