How to zombify yourself. Making a zombie costume in a few easy cheap steps.

So you want to be a zombie?


Great! Join the hoards of seething undead, embarrass your family and do ANYTHING for free brains. But what will you wear?
I'm hear to show you how in a few easy steps you can look your Zombie best for ZombieCon or any other undead occasion.

Here are a few things you may need:
Serrated Knife or Exact-o blade
Face Paint (white, red, black)
Acrylic Craft Paint (about 60cents a bottle at Michaels)
Old clothing or costume
Bloody Scab ($4 at Ricky's)
Fake Blood


One thing to consider is when a living person is transformed into a Zombie, or infected, they will stuck forever wearing the clothing they were wearing at the time of their infection. So for example if one were a sexy nurse or a sexy construction worker, they would simple become a sexy zombie nurse or sexy zombie construction worker. Sexy is a given here. Start with your base clothing or costume. Hit up the thrift store or the back of your closet for items you do not want to wear in a "normal" situation again. Remember to dress for the weather too. Just cause you are no longer human doesn't mean you can't get a little chilly out there! Then let the fun begin!

Do not just use a scissors and cut zig zaggy shapes on the edges of your clothing. This is an amateur move. The clothing has to look like it has been ripped and shredded from chasing innocent people through the woods, stopping at nothing to devour their brains! Anyway I use a serraded knife or Exact-o blade and also rip the clothing by hand. Caution: if you go too crazy with the deconstruction of your clothing it will not stay on you anymore and the police will be more likely to bother you for unintentionally exposing yourself. Cut and tear a little bit at a time, trying it on, looking in the mirror and deciding where you need more damage.

Then begin the bloodying process! Get some cheap acrylic craft paint at the store in dark red and black. Don't get a bright fire engine red cause real blood does not look like that when it dries on clothing. Take the item of clothing in your hands, add two drops of red paint and one of black then rub the fabric together like you are scrubbing out a stain. This will give a natural dirt plus blood effect. DO add LOTS of blood around the tears in your clothing because this makes sense. DO add LOTS of blood down your chest as if it has been dripping there from the brains you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. DO allow plenty of time for your outfit to dry before the event you are attending. Nobody likes wet paint in their car or on their couch.

Now your outfit looks good time to work on your makeup.
Watch the Sexy Zombie Makeup Tutorial here.
Start with a white or light grey base because after all Zombies are dead bodies. Add lots of black makeup to your eyes and a fair amount on your cheeks to make them look more sunken in. Fake blood - I have tried some however most are too sticky and never dry. I much prefer to use red and black face paint around my mouth and then add this magic stuff called "Bloody Scab". It looks like just that. Add it sporadically around your face and neck for optimum results. I think a detail that people overlook is that zombies have really dirty hands. Take the black face paint and rub on the backs of your hands as if you're just dug your way out of a fresh grave!


Congratulations! You are ready to go terrorize some civilians! Don't forget to stagger, gasp, groan, roll your eyes, get distracted by shiny things, let out a terrible scream for no reason and reek havoc in general. However try not to intentionally scare children, thats just not nice.



OXOX, Kostume Girl

My first paid Zombie gig

Voodoo Zombie

I'm very excited to report that I actually made money from my costumes!  For some time my friends have been pushing me to start making and selling costumes and accessories. Well I didn't do that, but I did get hired to dress as a zombie for a live promotion in New York City!
I received a call from a casting company looking for zombies who own their own costumes to promote a new zombie mobile game app. I am over qualified in that department. I responded with "Here are your choices: Street clothes, Beetlejuice style dress, Marie Antionette dress, Street Peasant dress." In fact I have a whole section of my closet dedicated to boxes and bags labeled "ZOMBIE". But I digress, the point of this post is I was hired to be a ambling zombie on the streets of New York City.
The day of the event, I got up nice and early for my 7:30am call time in Soho. As I walked in the door I was surprised to see my Kostume Kult friends Rocket, Tom and Mercury John were there as well. I guess I shouldn't have really been THAT surprised. If a call for costumes goes out, we are gonna hear about it. Anyway our staging location was set up in the offices of OMGPOP. They are the company behind a ton of mobile games including a personal favorite of mine, Draw Something. Needless to say being a fairly new technology company their office was super cool. It was clear that they let their employees express themselves at work to aid the creative process. Some of the earlier call time zombies were done with makeup and were practicing their zombie shuffle and groan around the office. After helping myself to some coffee and danish, it was my turn in the makeup chair. A lovely makeup artist who works at Abracadabra during the Halloween season did a fabulous job making me utterly undead. She did a great job with just a few simple sponges, making it look as if I had totally been feasting on brains. I watched her every move carefully so I could try some of her techniques at the next zombie event. TIP: Ripping a sponge makes a great tool for textures. That is how she did the blood around my mouth. After makeup it was time to zombie up my hair. Some costume hairspray in white and green with a generous amount of teasing had me looking like Rob Zombie's girlfriend in no time. I loved it. I pinned my top hat on and after some instructions from our director we were ready to go.

Before the rain flattened my hair.

Unfortunately something that no event planner can organize is the weather. Almost as soon as the zombies were ready to move, the skies didn't want to cooperate. We had just finished shooting some group shots and footage of us pouring out of the subways when the clouds rumbled and really let loose. Zombies are usually impervious to weather conditions but this was ridiculous. Buckets of rain came down and we were forced to seek shelter in the Astor Place subway stop. Undeterred we simply scared any people getting on or off the subway there. We groaned, shuffled and passed out stickers and free "blood" pops (actually a very delicious hibiscus and mint popsicle) to the best of our ability but New Yorkers are pretty impatient when its raining a most wanted very little to do with a horde of zombies slowing down their power rain walking. The zombies powered through and returned to our start location completely soaked with zombie makeup running painfully into our eyes. Then came the fun part of riding home on the 7 train by myself looking like an insane person. Not my first or last time in this particular situation.
Lastly little more about the zombie game. Its from Zynga (Words with Friends, Farmville) and its called Zombie Swipeout. As far as I can tell, it is similar to Fruit Ninja but with Zombies and weapons. Pretty cool. Check out the promo video below.

Upcoming Zombie Event! Vancouver Zombie Walk 2011

Vancouver: a Canadian gem with mountains, beautiful waterways, hockey and *record scratch noise* ZOMBIES?!??!


Coming up on Saturday, August 20th you too can take in all there is to see in Vancouver while staggering blank eyed propelled only by your insatiable hunger for brains at the Vancouver Zombie Walk. Meet up with your hoard at 4 PM at the Vancouver Art Gallery downtown. At 4:30 start on the route which will loop around the Vancouver Art Gallery, then turn down Robson, continuing to Denman, turning left on Denman and continuing on towards the beach, then taking a right at Davie, ending in the beach park along the seawall. At that point feel free to socialize with your fellow undead. Perhaps share new tips on how to decay slower or the best way to corner the unsuspecting living.
As with many zombie walks try to refrain from bleeding on anyone else property public or private and don't intentionally scare children and the elderly thats just a dick zombie move.

Check out more details and fun photos/videos at the official site. If you need some hints on what to wear check out my How to be a Sexy Zombie post. The great thing about zombies is they could have been ANYTHING before they were infected with The Rage Virus. Do you have last years Sexy Nurse costume collecting dust in the closet? Throw some blood on it and BAM Sexy ZOMBIE Nurse!
So get out there and creep out the living Zombies! Don't forget what vegan zombies eat..... GRAAAAAAAINS!

Springtime: Blooms and Brains!

Ahh Spring is in the air. Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, there's a pack of ravenous undead monsters searching for brains to gorge on... wait.. WHAT the WHAT?!!??

It can only be The 4th Annual Spring Time NYC Zombie Crawl!!

As the ground thaws it becomes much easier for zombies to dig their way out of their un-final resting places and terrorize your neighborhood. You will see the area zombies assembling around 3pm on Sunday May 29th 2011 at a yet to be determined NYC location.

Check out Squirelle and Paul at last years event in the Village Voice. They are famous! Gore-tastic!





This zombie event is sponsored by Halloween Adventure. A truly terrifying and terrific resource for all you need to look your undead best. REMEMBER: Mention "Zombie Crawl" when buying makeup and props and you'll get 10% off your purchase all year long!



Check back at the Zombie Crawl NYC website for updates & sign up there for text alerts, which work well for keeping track of the roving mob on Crawl Day!

Also for helpful Kostume Girl tips on how to create the perfect zombie look check out my post How to Zombify Yourself. Making a Sexy Zombie Costume in a few easy cheap steps.