October is almost over, and while I’m trying to hold on to every ounce of spookiness that I can get my (fake) blood-stained hands on this also means one thing – Halloween is almost here!

With Halloween being tomorrow, and me with all of this time on my hands now that I've finished season two of Stranger Things, I bring you a few costume ideas that require little to no effort. This is for all of my last-minute babes that need a quick and easy look to throw together for Halloween. These costumes can be achieved by combing a few items, most of which may already be in your closet or makeup bag.

First Look: Werewolf 

I couldn’t just put together a costume and not throw in some fx.

Things You’ll Need:

Black eyeliner

Eyeshadow (Brown, Black, and Red)

Eyebrow pencil or cream

Fake blood

For the face - I did a simple, dark smoky eye. Blend your crease color (use a shade a few shades darker than your skin tone) into the inner corner of your eye to deepen it. Then – blend the shade down from the inner corner and down your nose to contour. You’ll want to exaggerate the contour on your nose because we’re going for that wolf-snout look.

Add some winged liner and extend the inner corner to make your eyes appear more animalistic. Don’t forget to add the bushy brows!

Next - I used a brown cream paint to draw on the nose and the widow’s peak. You can also use a brown lipstick for this part if you don’t have any cream paints on hand.

Now for the fun part – the blood! For this part, you are more than free to just throw on some blood and call it a night. If you want to be a lil extra, take it a step further and add some claw marks with fx makeup. For this part, anything from liquid latex to 3D blood gel could be used to achieve your claw marks. I used a homemade gelatin to create the marks along my neck and chest and applied the Mehron Coagulated Blood Gel inside the wounds.

Now throw on a flannel and go howl at the moon.

Second look: Nancy Downs (The Craft)

Since I was a kid, I’ve been in love with The Craft. I was definitely that friend that was into witchcraft and wanted to play “light as a feather, stiff as a board” at the sleepover.

Things You’ll Need:

A white button-down Henley

Green/Navy plaid skirt

Black tights

Studded choker

Black Rosary beads

While Nancy has many iconic looks throughout the film, this costume was inspired by her school uniform. I lucked up on the studded choker at Walmart with the Halloween jewelry for $3.  THREE DOLLARS. I also found my skirt at a Plato’s Closet for $7. The skirt is entirely too big, but I digress. If you can’t find a green and navy plaid skirt, red would also look incredible. I found my rosary beads on Amazon for around $8. Throw on some dark eyeshadow and lipstick, grab your girls and call the corners. Blessed Be.

Third look: Wednesday Addams

Wednesday will forever be my girl. This is probably one of the simplest costumes on the list because all you need is the iconic black dress with the white collar and you’re good to go. I got my dress from Killstar, but you can find these dresses almost anywhere – especially this time of year. You could even pair a white collared shirt with a black dress and call it a night.

What I’m Wearing:

Dress- Killstar

Boots- Target

Fourth look: Pennywise (Stephen King's It)

Y’all knew this was coming. Like everyone else, I am still obsessing over the remake of Stephen King’s It. I’ve now seen it three times in theaters, and I still can’t get enough. Bill Skarsgard is phenomenal as Pennywise the Dancing Clown and his makeup was even better. There are a TON of makeup tutorials on Pennywise’s makeup that you can use as inspiration, or you can come up with your own interpretation.

For my own look - I did a dark smoky eye and used a black eyeshadow to create the lines going from above the eyebrow to the edge of the lips. Next, I took a dark red shadow and blended out the black. I continued to add red shadow until I got my desired look. For the lips, I used a black eyeliner and topped it off with a red liquid lipstick for an ombre effect. I added a bit of glitter using a silver glitter liner from Hard Candy because even Pennywise loves a bit of sparkle.

To finish off the look I did two small space buns and threw on some Harley Quinn bows for that extra something special.  

I think this is probably my favorite look that I’ve ever done. I never want to take this makeup off. Let’s go float.

Stephen King has been one of my favorite authors since I was a kid. When I was little, I remember looking through my mom’s books and I stumbled upon her copy of Night Shift and started reading. I was intrigued because I noticed that it contained “Children of the Corn,” which was one of my favorite films. Soon after, I was hooked and began searching for as many of his books as I could get my hands on. Years later, I still find myself re-reading through my favorites from King.

Here are my top seven favorites from Stephen King – everything from his novels to his short stories.

The Boogeyman (Night Shift). In this tale, we follow a man named Lester Billings, as he explains the murders of his three children to his psychiatrist. He seems a little “off” as he shares his stories of how each child died. Their deaths were diagnosed as “crib death” and “convulsions.” Which are very plausible – except - each child cried “Boogeyman” before being left alone. When the children were found dead, he noticed their closet doors were left ajar even though he swears they were closed. It gets even weirder from there so I won’t spoil the ending. As a kid, reading this terrified me to the point that I couldn’t be in the room if the closet door was left in a crack. It was worse when the doorknob on my closet door broke and it wouldn’t fully close. I would stick a shoe in the door to ensure that it wouldn’t come open while I slept.

Carrie. This book is one I hold near to my heart. Being able to get back at those that tormented you was a dream that every misfit has ever had. Carrie was the ultimate misfit; awkward and shy, didn’t quite fit in, and not to mention her mother was a religious nut-case. It seemed like everyone had it out for Carrie and prom night was the last straw. Word of advice: maybe don’t dump pig’s blood on a girl that has telekinesis.

Sometimes They Come Back (Night Shift). Okay, picture the Greaser’s from Grease – but instead of breaking into song they’re all murderous punks from beyond the grave. Nine-year-old Jim and his twelve-year-old brother, Wayne, had an unfortunate run in with the local gang of greasers back in 1957 that ended with Wayne being stabbed to death. In 1974, Jim, still haunted by his brother’s death, moves back to his hometown for a teaching gig where he gets some unusual new students admitted to his class. One by one, the greasers from his childhood show up to his class, all appearing to be the same age they were in 1957. Each time one shows up, a student suddenly disappears or dies.

Pet Sematary. The body without a soul is just a meat suit. The loss of a loved one is never easy, but what if someone told you about a place where they dead walk the earth after being buried? Would you go to such lengths to be reunited with your loved one? The Creed family find out in this novel that sometimes, “dead is better.” I used this film adaptation as a babysitting tactic when my cousins would start fighting. You’d be surprised how quickly kids will sit down and cooperate when a horror film is playing.

The Road Virus Heads North (Everything’sEventual). This tale is about a successful horror writer as he drives back to his home in Derry, Maine. If you know anything about Derry, you know nothing good ever happens in Derry (just ask the Loser’s Club). As he’s travelling, he notices a quirky, little yard sale where he stops and finds an odd painting. It’s of a sinister-looking man with filed teeth driving his car on Boston’s Tobin Bridge. The painting, titled “The Road Virus Heads North,” was painted by a troubled artist who killed himself but not before burning all of his paintings. The artist left a note stating he “couldn’t handle what was happening to him.” Since he’s into weird shit, the writer bought the painting and that’s where it gets interesting. As he continues to travel north, he starts to realize that certain details in the painting keep changing. Obviously, he did what any rational person would have done in this situation and he tosses it at a rest stop – except when he gets home, he discovers the painting has now popped back up. I don’t want to ruin the ending but let’s just say, if you stumble upon "The Road Virus", just forget you ever saw it and turn the other way.

Strawberry Spring (Night Shift). This short story is about an unnamed man who sees the words “Springheel Jack” in a newspaper and reminisces on his time in college when he was first introduced to that name. A “strawberry spring” is similar to an Indian summer, it brought a thick, rolling fog that covered the area, making it the perfect time for a serial killer named “Springheel Jack” to strike. He claimed several victims during the strawberry spring, causing a lot of chatter and confusion as the community scrambles to find the killer’s identity. A man, Carl Amalara, is named the killer, but while in custody another victim is found, causing the police to let him go. They never found who the killer was. Now, eight years later when a new strawberry spring arrives, “Springheel Jack” makes his return. For some reason, the narrator can’t seem to fully remember his whereabouts the night before. Well, whatever’s in his trunk might tell him.

Survivor Type (Skeleton Crew).  Stephen King once told Monsterland Magazine, “As far as short stories are concerned, I like the grisly ones the best. However, the story "Survivor Type" goes a little bit too far, even for me." In this tale, we meet a surgeon who finds himself stranded on a tiny island with almost no supplies and no food. Keep in mind that this is the result of him trying to smuggle a very large amount of heroin onto a cruise ship so like…maybe don’t do that and this won’t happen to you? He keeps a journal of his experiences and as the entries go on, you can read his slow decent into madness as he struggles to survive. Things get worse after he breaks his ankle, ending with him amputating the foot. It’s in that moment that he realizes that in order to survive, he’ll have to eat the foot. The entries begin to become even more incomprehensible as he slowly begins to cut more pieces of his body for substance.  

There are honestly so many other stories I could include but for now, I’ll leave you with these. As far as King’s writings go, I love his novels but I adore his short stories. I encourage you to check out these stories, I’ll try to link PDFs of the short stories if I can find them. Got any favorites of your own? Leave them in the comments.