Fantastic Homemade Miss Argentina from Beetlejuice Costume

HEY THERE!! My name is Heather and this is my Miss Argentina from Beetlejuice Costume.

I was watching Beetlejuice one night in the summer and the light bulb turned on over my head when I saw Miss. Argentina. I knew I wanted to be her for Halloween. I knew that if I wanted to do this costume I wanted to do it right. I knew the hardest part was going to be the body paint. I wanted it to match perfectly. I researched online for hours and hours for the different types of body paints out there but many of the reviews were troubling, saying it didn’t last it rubs off stained clothes and skin. I knew that the only pain that would work and stay would be airbrush paint which they use in movies all the time but it would have cost over 400 dollars for all the supplies I didn’t want to have to spend that.

Finally I came across a blog of a girl who did a cosplay costume for Comic Con where her whole body was light blue. She described the paint she used. She used a paint called PAX which basically is a Pros-Aide body adhesive in a 1:1 ratio with Acrylic paint. I bought the tube of adhesive online from a special effects store (you can get it really anywhere) an 8 oz tube was around 20 dollars with shipping. I then went to the craft store and bought some acrylic paint, Liquitex is the best brand to use. The color I used here was Bright Aqua Green.

Before I did any painting I had bought the fake wounds in the shape of slits and attached them to my wrist using some of the unmixed Pros-Aid adhesive and let them dry. I then mixed them in a 1:1 ratio and used a large paint brush and painted a thin layer on, the thinner the better. Once it was dry which took around 3 mins. using a hair dryer to speed along the process. **IT will be STICKY**. I took a larger powder puff and puffed some baby powder over the paint to secure it and make it not sticky. It took about 3 layers to make it all covered. In total I painted my arms, shoulders, face and chest in under 30 mins.

After the paint was all dry, I had bought a bunch of different shades of green and blue and purple eye shadows and took them and highlighted the eyes, cheek bones and neck and chest, to give it some dimension because it was all flat tone. The makeup was done to match hers from the movie.

For her hair I bought a red wing and pinned it up in an Updo myself. To match her hair I had to leave some down to hide my hair line, very easy.

For the Dress I searched the local fabric store for the closest fabric I could find to hers and eyeballed a dress pattern using a circle skirt and tube top type design. The sash I made using left over white fabric I had and painted on Miss. Argentina with black acrylic paint. and pinned it on with safety pins.

Lastly was the Handbook. I had made this as well using a small 8×10 canvas and painted it brown and covered the back with a piece of white card stock, painting it to match. Then I hand painted to picture and writing to match what the movie had.

Removal of the paint took a little effort in the blog the girl suggested buying the adhesive remover which I did not. I got all the paint off with soap and water and an exfoliation scrub it just took some scrubbing but it did come off and I would not suggest doing it in the shower it was a long cleanup process but it was worth it.

All and all that was pretty much the how to on my costume. I hope you all enjoy.