For witchy and paranormal experiences as well as last minute costume shopping, here are three local businesses to help you get into the Halloween spirit
Metaphysical Mojo - 4 Hatt St.
Metaphysical Mojo is a local business that caters to their customers’ spiritual and metaphysical needs. Most of their products and services, such as psychometry and channeling as well as trance medium readings, are offered in collaboration with local artisans. Psychometry readings involve trying to read the energy of items by touching them. Channelling and trance medium readings involve an individual entering a trance-like state, in search of answers to their deepest life questions. Throughout the year, Metaphysical Mojo hosts events and workshops, such as Mojo Sunday Fundays, Meet you Spirit Guide classes, How to Astral Travel classes and paranormal investigations. They are currently offering ghost walks in which they tell tales of the most haunted places in Dundas. They also offer a “not so scary” ghost walk in the afternoon.
Penny Pincher Costumes Inc. - 529 Concession St.
Penny Pincher Costumes Inc. was established in 1980 and offers affordable, high-quality Halloween costumes for people of all ages. They also offer rentals, alterations and repairs for costumes and they strive to ensure their business is as accessible and affordable as possible. Penny Pincher Costumes Inc. is a great place to check out for last-minute and affordable costumes!
The Witch’s Fix - 78 George St.
The Witch’s Fix is a magical gift shop that aims to provide their customers with simple, unique items to live an enchanted and magical life. They want customers to discover the power within themselves and challenge how they view the world around them. They sell various mystical items, such as supernatural remedies, curious oddities and mysterious gifts, such as crystals, divination tools, candles and pendulums. The Witch’s Fix also offers tarot readings and events and workshops at an affordable price, including Samhain and Halloween Fire Ritual (involves calling back on ancestors and witch powers with offerings), Tarot Learning and Practice Night and Drink and Paint Night.
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By: Gizelle Panton
#1 - Emoji
Simple, cute and funny. All you need is a yellow dress or t-shirt and a matching skirt or pants, black shoes and fabric markers. Simply choose an emoji face and draw the face on your shirt with the markers (try to make it look as close to the iPhone emojis as possible). However, if you are not confident with your drawing skills, simply print out your emoji on an iron-on transferable sheet and iron it directly onto your costume.
#2 - Netflix and Chill
Affordable, easy to make and guaranteed to draw a chuckle from your friends. Costumes that embrace puns are especially useful for all you lazy folks out there. A popular one this year is the simple “Netflix and Chill” costume idea. All you need is a red t-shirt with the Netflix logo printed on it, a pair of black shades and a bag of ice that you can carry around to really heighten the punch line. Bonus: If you don’t want to carry ice around all day, you can use an old stuffed pillowcase, and label it “ICE.”
#3 - Pumpkin Skull
For those who are skilled in art and are willing to do a costume that is equal parts horrifying and economical, this is for you. The materials needed for this costume include an entirely black outfit, gray eye shadow and black and white face paint. Start by covering your face in white face paint, leaving circles around the eyes (you can set your paint by lightly dusting it with white face powder). Fill in the eye sockets with black face paint, making the black circles wide enough to reach the tops of your eyebrows and to the top of your cheekbones. Create a triangle outline with black face paint on the nose, creating two peaks at the top instead of one and fill it in completely. Now it’s time for the jagged smile! Extend your smile by drawing two black lines that start at the opposing mouth creases and end along the same line that your eyebrows end. Draw and fill in medium-sized triangles along the top and bottom of your line, covering the lips. With gray eye shadow, draw a set of frowning eyebrows above the area where your real eyebrows are to emphasize the serious look of your face, and dust-grey eye shadow along your hairline to add depth to your skull. Voila! You’re ready to go out and scare the town.
#4 - Throwback Hippie
It’s always nice to bring back old fashion statements and embrace where our current trends have come from. Whether you choose 20s fashion, 70s hippie fashion or retro fashion from the 90s, throwback costumes are always easy to recreate and fun to do. Just break out the old bellbottom jeans, a tie-dyed shirt, platform shoes and a bandana to tie around your head and pull the entire look together. Go out there this Halloween and prove that the past styles haven’t been forgotten.
#5 - Super Mario Bros
These costumes are best for a group of friends. You’ll need multicoloured t-shirts and hats (red for Mario, green for Luigi, pink for Peach, etc.) and a set of denim overalls for each character. For Princes Peach and Daisy, you can either choose to wear overalls as well, or wear a pink/yellow pleated dress or a matching t-shirt and skirt. Bonus: if you are travelling to your destination with your friends, you can choose to travel on bikes with balloons that match your colour tied to the back to help enhance the effect.
Photo Credit: vrpowell2000 on Imgur
By: Daniel Aruz
Last year, the McMaster Campus Store was forced to remove controversial Halloween costumes from its shelves that were stocked as part of a pilot program. That partnership with costume retailer Party City will not continue this year, and as a result, the Campus Store will not be stocking any costumes this year.
Party City’s decision to pull out of the campus market was supposedly unrelated to the removal of the offensive costumes. Donna Shapiro, Director of the Campus Store, assured that the volume of costumes sold in the previous year could not match the sales in the standard pop-up store locations, meaning Party City decided not to return. Sales for the costumes were slow, and only really began in the week leading up to Halloween.
“They had a ton of costumes so they could have picked different ones and we could have went with it again, just the volume wasn’t there,” said Shapiro.
The pilot program was started last year but was met with an outrage from a large group of students when images of offensive women’s costumes began circulating online.
The costumes, including “Cutie Eskimo” and “Sexy Indian Princess” were promptly pulled from Campus Store shelves after numerous complaints online, from members of the First Nations Student Association and through a petition for their removal which garnered 500 signatures.
“We tried to seek out another partner with the thought that we would then go through Student Union and Human Rights to vet what the costumes would be that we bring in, but we weren’t able to find another partner,” she said. “We provided the sales from the previous year and nobody was really interested in pursuing it.”
However, this may not be the end to Campus Store costumes or similar partnerships in the future.
“We are always looking for pop-up stores and partners, be it that or be it some other organization so that we can offer some diversity and products to students, and we can use up some of our space that isn’t used in the month of October after rush.”
Amanda Watkins & Brianna Buziak
LifeStyle Editor & The Silhouette
If you’re anything like us, you’ve been planning what you’re going to be for Halloween since last Halloween. And again, if you’re anything like us, you’re a procrastinator and have, once again, left planning to the last week. If you’re the person who has a tendency to leave Halloween to the very last minute here are some last minute, easy DIY costumes that can be made in a few hours and are relatively inexpensive.
God’s Gift to the World
What you need:
-Wrapping paper
-Bows
-Bristol Board
-Ribbon
Many people say someone is “God’s gift to the world” in a bad way, this Halloween actually be God’s gift to the world. Over top of your regular clothes wrap your chest in wrapping paper from the dollar store. Get an oversized bow or a handful of small bows and stick them to the wrapping paper. From a piece of Bristol board, cut out the shape of a gift tag and write on it “To: The World, Love: God” and attach with ribbon.
Chick Magnet
What you need:
-Bristol Board
-Baby chick figurines (if not available, keep reading for alternative solutions)
-Yellow feathers (optional)
-Safety pins (optional)
Halloween is the one day of the year to be something you’re not. If you’re not a chick magnet, or are and want to show it off, be playful and try out this easy Halloween option.
Get some black Bristol board and cut it out in a horseshoe shape. Get small pieces viagra with no prescription in britain of white and red Bristol board to add to the bottom of each end of the arc as the North and South Poles. Dollar stores generally have toy figurines of farm animals, if available, get a handful of baby chicks and hot glue them onto the magnet. If you can’t find these figurines, pick up some different sized yellow pompoms and glue them together so there’s one small pompom for the head and a larger one for the body. Glue the “baby chicks” onto the magnet along with some yellow feathers to finish off the look. Wear the magnet like a boa or attach it to your shirt with bobby pins.
By: Arnav Agarwal
While many couples like to match up for a spooky Halloween celebration, the idea of complimentary couple costumes does not settle well with everyone. A costume duo might be cute to some, but many find the combo a little bizarre and too much to handle.
“We trick-or-treat together every year,” said one young couple in Mississauga. “It only makes sense to costume-code. It keeps us feeling young. And getting candy, of course. Who doesn’t like candy?”
From Peanut Butter and Jelly twosomes to NASCAR match-ups, and Air Pilot and ‘Sexy Flight Attendant’ duos, shops are stocked with just the right couple-related Halloween gear to draw some serious attention (and candy, for those who never tire from trick-or-treating). If the classic pairings don’t suit your taste, feel free to throw in some contemporary mixes like Zoolander and Mugatu, Gwen and Amazing Spiderman, Red Foo and Skyblu from LMFAO, or Red and Yellow Angry Birds, and that should be enough to get any party on the road!
And although many a couple pairing may be cheesy and weird, matching costumes can up their perks under the covers. The fun doesn’t have to stop on the streets and dance-floors, couples can often take their role-plays one step further: All Hallows’ Eve need not spare the bedroom setting.
“What’s Halloween without a little bit of spicing up?” said a Hedden Hall McMaster student in response to the costume ideas. “If we’re dressing up, let’s dress for double trouble. By the way, this is kept anonymous, right?”
For all the femme fatales and Prince Charmings out there, a chance to dress up might be far more than a Halloween costume stunt; it is a chance to step up the intimacy in the bedroom with their significant other even after the festive night has passed. While having fun with role-play, the heaps of candy and the spooky tunes of Halloween might be drowned out for many couples, for whom the attention will be on the “afterparty” of the traditional celebrations.
By getting creative with intimate attire, frisky fantasies and holiday excitement is just one step away. Who needs the candy when there are plenty of goods already waiting at home?
