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I think we can all agree that one of the best days of our collective lives was when Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé dropped the “Feeling Myself” music video that they filmed at Coachella. With their epic hair, makeup and costume changes, my first thought when I watched the video was THIS HAS TO BE MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME. In this tutorial, Anj and I are channeling their fierceness into the best “couple’s” costume you’ll see this year.
dressed up as these two
VMAs Beyoncé and Maggie was Nicki from the “Anaconda” video. With makeup help from Miss Misty, Anj and I turned into these fierce stars for the day — keep reading for the full tutorial. You are going to want to grab your BFF for this one.
Materials + Tools:
Nicki Minaj “Feeling Myself” Halloween Costume
– cardboard
– Sharpies and paint pens
– pencil
The first step in becoming Nicki Minaj is to draw girly accessories onto the white leo. Pull up a picture of her actual leo for inspiration. Make sure you take it slow — break down each object into basic shapes instead of trying to draw the whole object at once.
Once you have covered the leo in all things girly, color in each object. Outline the shapes in black to make them really stand out.
Gold chains, a big diamond ring, high heels and a pink clutch – yes please! We might even wear this on a day that is not Halloween.
Materials + Tools:
Beyoncé “Feeling Myself” Halloween Costume
– Bulls jersey
– Velcro
– fabric scissors
– chalk
– sewing pins
– sewing machine
We picked up a large sized jersey from a local shop here in San Francisco. It was the perfect length for me to turn into a leo but the sides were way to big. Turn the leo inside out and slip it onto your body. Pin the sides in to make it snug. Once pinned, sew down both sides.
Time to turn this jersey into a leotard. The key to this alteration is putting it on your body and altering after each step. To begin, slide the jersey on and mark where it hits your hips. Have someone help you draw lines where it will run across your upper thigh and around your butt cheeks. These lines should end about two inches from the end of the fabric. Then draw a two-inch line perpendicular to the hem of the jersey. This area will be the tab that will connect both ends of the leo together.
Match up the side seams and cut both sides at once. By matching up the side seams you will get an even diagonal on both sides.
Pin the edges of the leo and then sew to create a hem.
Attach no-sew velcro to the base of the leo.
Nicki and Bey say HEYYYYYYYYY!
To finish off this costume you will need huge faux fur coats, tons of gold jewelry and gold tattoos. Nicki is rockin’ amazingly large gold hoops, which we picked up at H&M, along with gold chokers that we stacked on top of each other. Beyoncé has a large gold flash tattoo around her thigh, huge triangle earrings, stacks on stacks of colorful bracelets and a long pendant necklace.
How to Do Nicki Minaj’s Hair: Throw your hair up into a high ponytail — the kind with no bumps, sprayed to the nines with a strong hold hairspray to keep the look in place and provide a high-shine finish. Wrap a strand of hair from the ponytail around the base of the ponytail to disguise the elastic. That’s it!
How to Do Beyoncé’s Hair: Simply add a few random waves to your hair, spray in some beach sea salt spray and scrunch your waves into a disheveled, unkempt ‘do. Playfully sexy as per usual.
How to Do Nicki Minaj’s makeup: Notice the major winged cat eye and smokey eye with a pop of light shadow on the eyelids. You can replicate Nicki’s shadow perfectly by going with a chunky winged eyeliner applied with liquid eyeliner, blended out into a smokey crease. Then add a pop of creme shadow on your eyelids. With Anj, we added a little pop of silver shadow to really take her look to a glamorous, playful level. Remember, ladies — there aren’t many rules when it comes to Halloween makeup, as long as you feel pretty!
How to Do Beyoncé’s Makeup: The trick here is to go really natural and soft. Her makeup is so light but still gives her a flawless finish. On your lips, go with a slightly orangey-red matte hue.
For a little more coverage, we added some red booty shorts underneath the bulls leo. Each look also has a pair of tights, because face it — that’s a lot of skin, so you might want tights. Don’t forget to grab a kiddie pool for a photo prop.
I was in my apartment in Boston getting ready to pack up and move to SF for six months. The next day I listened and watched her album on repeat for the whole six-hour flight.
“I’m with some hood girls lookin’ back at it, and a good girl in my tax bracket.” — Nicki Minaj
