Best Of

Hi everyone! This is my entry for the 2025 SWSCA Halloween Costume Contest 🩷

Concept: Plush Gone Psycho – Gloomy Bear 🧸🩸
A feral-cute plush toy who’s snapped — blending horror and sweetness into a handmade pastel nightmare. My goal was to create a character that feels cuddly from afar, but unsettling up close — a broken and battered toy with a story behind every stitch.

Build & Makeup: I hand-placed cotton using eyelash glue to form a realistic plush-fur texture, sealed it with barrier spray for structure, and layered pink tones from the Athena Water-Activated Palette and Mehron White Cloud for a soft yet dimensional base. I added a black plush-style nose with a white highlight on the bulb for toy realism.

On one side of my face, I created torn-plush SFX with sculpted “ripped fabric” detailing and fluffy cotton spilling out, paired with an eyepatch for asymmetry and character storytelling. On the opposite side, I used Mehron Professional Spray Blood for contrast and movement — giving the illusion that one side of the plush had endured more “damage.”

The wig — a WildCos Short Pink Cosplay Wig for Women (Two Ponytails) — was fully hand-styled into side space buns, secured with bobby pins, lightly straightened, shaped by hand, and finished with hairspray for a smooth, plush silhouette framing the face.

Products Used:
• Athena Water-Activated Palette
• Mehron White Cloud Makeup
• Mehron Professional Spray Blood
• ColourPop × Pokémon Shadow Palette (for pastel lids + mauve contour)
• Cotton & eyelash glue (faux-fur texture)
• Mehron Barrier Spray (sealant)

Focus: Creating a believable “stuffed toy come alive” illusion using practical, skin-safe materials and precise asymmetry — emphasizing handcrafted texture, color layering, and wig styling to tell a visual story.

Credits: Photos shot by my boyfriend Chase McFann 📸; all makeup, SFX, and hairstyling by me.

Theme: Plush toy turned feral — kawaii horror meets Y2K sleepwear, a soft-scary dream that blends childlike nostalgia with handmade menace 💕

Photos attached.

Thank you so much for viewing my work — I love the SFX and character-arts community and would be honored to continue learning with SWSCA 🎭