This is the last story I can think of from our first Dragoncon; my body paint issue. I’ve talked about it before, but here it goes again.
So I’d been wanting to do my Ocha costume for a while by that point. I finally decided to dig in and do it for Dragoncon, since it seemed a better fit for that con than the anime cons I’d previously been going to.
I read up on different kinds of body paint, since I’d never done it before, outside of some white foundation for Lulu. I decided on liquid latex, since it sounded like it worked pretty well and since parts of my costume was white, I needed something that absolutely wouldn’t rub off. I ordered a jar of green online, and when it came, I immediately had to scrape the very-NSFW label off the front before my parents saw it, LOL.
I also stopped by our local costume shop and got a tube of green Mehron as a backup.
So – by the time I go to put Ocha on at the con, I’m already in a stressed out mood for some reason. I don’t remember why. I had a costume malfunction as I was putting the boots on, which stressed me out even further – though my dad came to my rescue with a quick fix on those.
So once I was as dressed as I could be, I proceeded to start painting myself. Ash came in to help, because I quickly discovered that the liquid latex was not drying very fast at all. I’d read up all kinds of tips about using it and had followed them as best I could, but it just wasn’t going to the way I planned. As it did start to dry on my neck, I could feel it tightening up and realized I could not move my neck very well at all. It felt very claustrophobic – and that’s coming from someone who never feels claustrophobic at all.
So I decided not to use it on my face and used the mehron, mixed with some white I still had in my makeup box, for that. I got them matched to the latex as well as I could (not great but not terrible) and painted my face while Ash finished up my arms for me.
As it “dried” we quickly discovered that if the latex touched latex elsewhere, they would stick. Generally not a problem – except for my fingers. They would get stuck together so badly I couldn’t pull them apart, and when I tried, it ripped the makeup. So Ash carried scissors with her to cut my fingers apart when they got stuck.
I could only stand wearing it for about an hour. We walked our favourite little circuit around the Marriott and Hyatt, took some photos, and then I was done with it. Had to get it off. It was too frustrating.
Once we got upstairs, I put my fingers together and pulled them apart just to show what that did for the camera:
It was pretty much a disaster; but I was happy with the photos so I never considered it a massive failure – just a lesson learned. Really, besides the finger problem and the face/neck makeup not matching 100%, it had looked ok. I figured I could read up some more on it, maybe ask for some tips, and try again at a different con. I hopped in the tub to scrub it off… and that’s when I vowed I would never use this stuff again.
It stuck to my arm hair. BAD. I’d followed every instruction beforehand like suggested to prevent this, but it didn’t do crap…. I was basically sitting in the tub with tears in my eyes scrubbing frantically at my skin. It was like pulling off 1000 bandaids! LOL.
And you want to know the kicker? The rest of the liquid latex spilled in my suitcase on the way home.
