Happy Halloween! Love, Marie Antoinette XOXO

I can’t help but go to Versailles every time I visit my in-laws in France. The sun-faded paint inside the Petite Trianon is the wall color of my dreams. I love the gardens in winter, still perfectly manicured and peaceful, with hibernating ivy scaling the sleeping plane trees. I adore the pastel pinks and faded, minty, greens of the patterned wall coverings throughout the palace. During a visit last year, I ate a decadent éclair in front of Antoinette’s clubhouse, paying homage with a little excess of my own.

So when the idea to dress as Marie Antoinette for Halloween popped into my head a few weeks back, I couldn’t resist. Combined with the lingering joy from my Paris wedding this summer, it seemed like the perfect costume.

I soon found myself in the craft store, assessing faux flowers to place in my hair.

She's So Bright - Marie Antoinette Halloween Costume

Years ago I read this fascinating and humanizing Marie Antoinette biography, which Sofia Coppola based her delightful movie on. I couldn’t put the book down, devouring it page by page until completion.

I suppose we’re all a little attracted to the beauty, tragedy, and glamour of this legendary French queen.

My costume was as fun as it looked, and I made quite a stir with passing neighbors who stopped by to take a closer look.

If you haven’t guessed, I’m wearing my wedding dress (it seemed appropriately extravagant). I’m looking for as many reasons to wear it again, even if it means being a tad overdressed for Halloween.

To get my hair up so high, I MacGyvered a hair piece out of various craft/beauty store products. I placed the structure on the crown of my head and pinned it tight. About five minutes into this challenge, I was shaking my head, thinking: this is never going to work. But I held on, section, by section, teasing and pinning my hair up, and dousing myself in hairspray along the way. After a short while I started to see the Antoinette emerging!

I used this temporary white hair dye to give my hair the powdered wig look, then I pinned in a few flowers I picked up at Michael’s. I wanted my hair to be the focus, so simple accessories like the pearl earrings and a black ribbon completed the look.

My makeup was mostly my own, but I added NYX Translucent Finishing Powder to whiten my face, and used L’oreal’s Glossy Balm in Innocent Coral for a pink lip. The tip of a liquid eyeliner was all I needed to add the black beauty mark.