How to Make Inside Out Characters for an Epic Group Halloween Costume
Pixar’s latest animated film, Inside Out, has been deemed by critics across the board as one of their most innovative conceptual masterpieces of all time, and I agree! If you have yet to see this flick, you are missing out on an emotional, witty and thought-provoking experience. We loved it so much here at B+C that we got a crew together for another Halloween costume extravaganza to recreate each character IRL, and we’re passing along the ins and outs of how you can too. There’s a good chance that you already have a lot of materials you need to dress up as each character at home. That means all you’ll need are an extra piece here or there to buy or DIY (that should make you jump for Joy).
Inside Out DIY Anger Costume
Bryan, our Director of Video, is channeling his best scowl and slouchy posture. To get the foundation of this look, all you need is a pair of brown pants, a white button-down dress shirt and a gray tie.
The Tie: To get the design on the tie, use painter’s tape to lay a zigzag pattern across the tie, then spray paint the tie red. If you happen to find a tie that has a similar color scheme and print and you would rather keep it simple, then you can skip this step.
How to Make an Inside Out Anger Costume
Flaming Headpiece: Measure the circumference of your head with a piece of tape, then use that tape to cut out a headband made of glitter foam paper. For Bryan, I used two pieces glued together, and then trimmed off the rest. To create flames, cut out flame shapes on gold glitter foam paper as your base, then add a few red glitter foam flames on top in whatever fire pattern you like.
Makeup + Eyebrows: You could use face paint if you want, but I actually just used red eyeshadow on Bryan, which feels way more comfortable and tends to be easier to wear without smudging it. The eyebrows are also made from the red glitter foam paper and stuck on using eyelash glue.
Our Associate Editor Sean can’t be any cuter! I mean!?!? To recreate Fear, grab a pair of dark purple skinny pants, a light blue dress shirt, a red bow tie and a pair of black or dark gray dress shoes.
Inside Out DIY Fear Costume
Houndstooth Vest: If you can find a vest or sweater that you can cut into a vest, that’s the best route. I couldn’t find one anywhere, so instead I had to make it. Good news: It’s super easy to do. Grab houndstooth fabric, fold it in half over your body (be sure to cut out a place for your head!) and then draw lines on the fabric with chalk to mark the width of your body. Take the fabric off, flip inside out, then sew a half inch beyond where you marked — and leave room to make holes for your arms! You can always find a pattern to DL if this sounds really challenging to you :)
How to Make an Inside Out Fear Costume
Hair Curl + Eyebrows: Use glitter foam paper to cut out the curlycue hair piece. To keep it standing up straight, glue a toothpick on the backside of the swirl and attach to your hair using bobby pins.
Makeup: First, draw circles around your eyes using white eyeliner, then fill them in with white face paint. Add a little dark gray or black smudgy eyeliner and some mascara to make your eyes pop. Then grab a purple eyeshadow that has red undertones in it and stipple (aka gently tap) the product onto the rest of your face with a kabuki makeup brush. Make sure you’re careful not to get shadow on the white makeup. Again, you can use face paint, but it tends to be a little more high maintenance to keep in tact all night.
Marisa is the perfect Joy! Our Junior Designer is always walking around the office with the biggest smile on her face, and it didn’t stop here. For the base of this costume, grab a yellow dress and a pair of nude shoes. We found this dress at a thrift store!
How to Make an Inside Out Joy Costume
Inside Out DIY Joy Costume
The Dress: Nab a couple teal blue and dark blue paint pens from your local art store to draw the flowers. I just eyeballed the design from the cartoon and drew the flower pattern on the dress using teal for the petals and then dark blue to outline then for a more defined, professional finish.
THAT Hair: Now, you can buy a wig that is similar to this cut, but I am always an advocate for styling your own wig because it looks more natural. This originally was a light teal bob wig — I used a hair razor (you can find one at your local beauty supply store) to hack the sides off and to create the little stand-up hairs on the top of her head. Use a little wax on the ends of the hairs on top and on the side of your face to really drive up the look.
Makeup: Simple: Go with a heavy teal eyeliner or eyeshadow to help the wig pop.
I was not sure if it was a compliment or tease when Anj, our Creative Director, told me “OMG you will be the BEST at being Disgust” (hmmm… haha). Regardless, it was SO fun to wear this outfit for the day! The dress is from a thrift store as well as the belt (I got SO lucky finding almost an exact match). You can always get a green belt and add a white or lighter line down the middle with paint if you want to be really true to details.
How to Make an Inside Out Disgust Costume
Inside Out DIY Disgust Costume
The Dress: You can use white fabric paint and a paint brush or paint pens to draw on the splattered, floral-like pattern.
Hair + Makeup: I found this sparkly green wig at a costume shop and cut a couple of inches off so it was the same length as the character’s. Green eyelashes are clutch — grab ’em while you’re at the costume store, too! For your eyebrows, use white eyeliner to fill them in and then use an angled eyebrow brush to brush on green eyeshadow so they match your eyelashes and wig. Finish off the look with orchid lipstick and practice your most gnarly facial expressions and you are set!
Scarf: Buy a quarter yard of a sparkly light purple tulle and cut it to the right length to tie around your neck.
Shoes: I could not for the life of me find fuchsia shoes anywhere, so I bought a pair of flats and spray painted them.
This is MY personal favorite character from Inside Out without a doubt, and I think a fan favorite across the board IRL as well. Sadness steals your heart in this amazing flick, and our DIY intern Brittany (aka BGriff) stole mine with her perfect channeling of this charismatic little gem of a character. All you need to recreate the look is blue tights, flat shoes and an oversized gray cowl neck sweater (super stoked to have found the perfect one at a thrift store — score!).
Inside Out DIY Sadness Costume
The Hair: This wig is the blue version of the green wig Disgust is wearing, only it needed to be cut much shorter to fit the look. Use hair wax to style the bangs over to the side and along the ends of the wig so it looks more natural.
How to Make an Inside Out Sadness Costume
Big Glasses: Use a small glass to trace circles on black glitter foam paper and another slightly smaller glass to make the center circle. Cut them out and attach using eyelash glue at the bridge of your nose.
Makeup: This makeup is really simple: only add mascara and blue lipstick. The most important part here is to practice your pout! It is too good!!!
We couldn’t resist!
Obvs this is the perfect set of costumes for groups of all kinds. You can get all your girls, boys (so funny) or parents in on the action — get a group of the neighborhood kids together and be the show stopping group of the ‘hood with your minis rocking these looks, too!