Green Options » costume

Natural Face Paint for Safe Halloween Costumes

Julie Knapp — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:38:56 +0000

Whether your child wants tiger stripes or just a few drops of vampire blood, the best Halloween costumes often come with a painted face. That’s a good thing in the eyes of safety experts who caution against masks, which can restrict breathing and obstruct vision, but not such a good thing when you think about what’s inside many face paint formulas.

Like many color cosmetics, face paints can contain parabens, phthalates, synthetic colors, fragrances and other potential toxins or allergens — even lead — and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t have the power to regulate them.

Earlier this year 43 Girl Scouts at an event in Ohio were left with red, bumpy rashes after using Shanghai Color Art Stationery Co. Ltd. face paint. This Halloween the FDA is cautioning parents. “Most of these products are completely safe, but there have been reports of adverse events and allergic reactions,” Linda Katz, director of the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Color told USA Today.

Eco-Ween

Kelly Rand — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:30:29 +0000

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love thinking about what my costume is going to be and how to create my perfect look for that year. I think I’ve only purchased a complete costume maybe once or twice in my life. Half of the fun of Halloween is making your own costume.

You too can make your own costume and make it more environmentally friendly with the resources that we here at Crafting a Green World have given you throughout our blog posts. It’s not that scary, just remember these three tips:

Use what you have first
If you don’t have the perfect item to create your outfit, then Thrift it.
If the first two tips have not produced all the items needed for your ghoulish garb, use eco-friendly items such as yarn or fabric to create your monster personality.

Green Style How-To: Supermarket and No-Sew Halloween Costumes

Victoria Everman — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:29:02 +0000

Ghouls, goblins, and tasty goodies are just around the corner. That’s right, Halloween is now just a month away - have you decided on your costume yet? If not, your green style maven is here to help with two collections of affordable, easy-to-make outfits for both adults and kids, care of Ms. Martha Stewart. For the younger tots, 7 Grocery Getups features hula dancers, a cheerleader, cowboy, princess, flapper girl, space invader, and a knight and dragon duo (perfect for close-aged siblings hitting the sidewalk together). A number of the "ingredients" for these costumes are ones you already have around your house, thanks to your last trip to the grocery store, helping to save you both money and the planet’s resources. These designs were first published in 2004, so some of the elements aren’t as green, such as the 55Styrofoam cups needed for the space invader get-up. With the process of sustainable dinnerware (hello, potato starch!), finding a eco-alternative for most pieces is a snap.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget us adults - we deserve to have as much fun as the kids, right!? The 8 No-Sew Costumes feature, first published in 2005, still has a host of great ideas and unique ensembles: "with supplies from the craft store, supermarket, thrift shop, and your closet, you can create fantastic disguises without a stitch." The great guises to choose from include a bubble wrap jellyfish, spider web mother and sock spider baby, garbage bag witch, tulle ghost, coffee filter godmother, umbrella bats, silk leaf swamp couple, and a feather and felt raven. Just reading the names of the costumes springs to life a host of green options, such as those socks in your drawer that you never found a match to (sock spider baby), that broken umbrella that you don’t know what to do with (umbrella bat), and the last must-have item that you ordered online that came with [gulp] plastic packaging (bubble wrap jellyfish).

What as your favorite past Halloween costume?

Can you think of a way to make it more sustainable or easily recyclable?