ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
It is peak spooky season, time for mischief and make-believe, and not just for kids. On Halloween, adults also get an opportunity to dress up in character as anyone or anything. But life gets busy, and you may not have a costume yet. Marielle Segarra, host of NPR's Life Kit, is here to help.
MARIELLE SEGARRA, BYLINE: OK, let's say you're starting from zero, no clue what you want to be. Sophie Strauss is a stylist for regular people and a Halloween enthusiast. And her first idea?
SOPHIE STRAUSS: Recent pop culture, thinking about shows, movies, celebrities, you know, trending news stories or topics or phrases or memes, like, that can always be a fun place to start.
SEGARRA: So maybe you'll dress up as the "Wild Robot" or Anxiety from "Inside Out 2" or somebody very mindful and very demure. Is that still a thing? If none of that appeals, think about a character from a show or a book who you admire or maybe think is kind of dangerous, right? - somebody whose energy you'd like to embrace for an evening. Maybe you want to be a classic Disney villain, like Cruella de Vil.
STRAUSS: There's a sort of delicious wickedness that the spooky season gives us the right to, like, tap into without actually needing to be, like, a bad person. And it doesn't take very much effort to nail that costume. Like, if you get a little bit of black-and-white hair spray and a fake fur jacket, like, that - you're more than halfway there.
SEGARRA: Alternatively, what about being a random household object - a baked potato, a bottle of Windex? I saw a video on Instagram of this really cute girl dressed up as a washing machine. You could do that with some cardboard boxes and scrap plastic. Then there are the classic costumes - you know, ghost, witch, vampire, pumpkin. And there are some fun little variations on those.
STRAUSS: Totally, like, I mean, you know, there's lots of good pun costumes. You know, you can be a witch, but you can cover yourself in sandwich bags and you can be, like, a sandwich.
SEGARRA: Or you can also look through your closet. Do you have any items of clothing that might lend themselves to a costume? I have a denim jumpsuit. And one year I wore that with a red bandana and red lipstick, and I was Rosie the Riveter. And that's the thing - for a Halloween costume, a few accessories go a long way when it comes to signaling who you are.
STRAUSS: And I think it's really tempting to, like, try to run out and buy something, like - that's, like, a full outfit head to toe. And accessories do a lot of heavy lifting and are more versatile, cheaper, tend to be, like, easy to find secondhand or maybe are something you can borrow.
SEGARRA: And she says you can always add details with makeup that you already have or that you borrow from a friend.
STRAUSS: I think makeup is always overlooked as a huge and relatively, like, non-wasteful way to access, you know, a character.
SEGARRA: You could use an eyeliner pencil to draw whiskers on your face or an eyeball in the middle of your forehead or to write some word down your arm that identifies you. Really, you can do a lot with what you already have at home. That saves you money, and it also gives you a chance to play and create something. And that, to me, is the spirit of Halloween. For NPR News, I'm Marielle Segarra.
SCHMITZ: For more tips and life hacks, go to npr.org/lifekit.
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