Our resident makeup expert walks us through the steps to become everyone’s favorite clairvoyant kid.

Japan usually has its Halloween celebrations on the weekend closest to October 31. That means we’ve got just a few days left to get our costumes ready, and luckily our Japanese-language reporter Natsuki Gojo is here just in the nick of time with an idea for an easy crowd-pleaser: Spy x Family’s Anya.

One of the things that makes Anya a good Halloween costume choice is that since Spy x Family is set in a world more or less like ours, you can wear just about any clothing you want as long as you get the other elements right. One of those, of course, is Anya’s distinct pink hair, which Natsuki got thanks to a wig she ordered off of Amazon Japan here for 2,550 yen (US$17.50), which included the character’s conical hairclips.

But Natsuki, who’s also a stage actress, knows that no costume is complete without the proper makeup, and so she’s going to walk us through the steps for this Anya look.

Step 1: Cheeks

Because Anya’s hair is such a vivid color, adding some pink, especially to your cheeks, is a good way to tie the look together. To Natsuki’s trained eye, there’s a bit of yellow in the color of the wig, so for her base makeup color she blended pink and yellow liquid foundations and powder.

Anya is a cherubic kid, so after applying the base, Natsumi added circles of light pink makeup to her cheeks to accentuate them. Then she added lengthwise ovals of darker, more noticeable pink along her cheekbones to visually widen the look of her face, creating a visually more childlike proportion to her facial features.

Step 2: Eye shadow

For the eye shadow, Natsuki worked with pink and brown shades, and started by applying a light pink to her upper and lower eyelids. Next came a darker pink/brown color, applied to the upper eyelid and wrapping around to the lower outside corner, with a bit of blurring of the eyeshadow in the middle, followed with brown eyeshadow applied in the same area. After using a highlighting pencil that matched her natural skin tone for the remaining area under the eye, Natsuki added some extra brown pink/brown eye shadow to give the eyes a better-defined shape.

Step 3: Eyelashes and eyebrows

As a manga character, Anya has some pretty big eyes. Obviously, you can’t make your eyes physically larger, but you can make them appear bigger through eyelash and eyebrow techniques.

Visually widening the space between your eyes will also add to a childlike appearance, so Natsuki chose fake eyelashes with more volume on their outer edges. Rather than using them as eyelash extenders, she applied them where she would eyeliner, making her eye appear larger, wider-set, and in the endearing ever-so-slightly drooping manner known as tareme in anime character design jargon.

You want to go easy on the eyebrow makeup, since longer eyebrows will give you a more mature look. Once again, Natsuki chose a shade with pink to it to complement the wig, and she also applied just a bit of glitter makeup underneath her eyes as a callback to all the times Anya’s eyes fill with sparkling stars when she’s excited in the anime.

Step 4: Shading and highlights

For the finishing touches, Natsuki used some shading strategies to further de-age herself towards Anya. Some extra brown color under her eyebrows helped make her eyes look even bigger, some over her nostrils helped visually slim her nose down closer to that of an anime character’s, and the additional shading on her chin again helped shorten and widen the perceived shape of her face.

And when it was all done, the overall look worked perfectly for the myriad moods Anya displays throughout the series!

So now Natsuki can add “Anya” to her growing list of awesome transformative makeovers.

Of course, should you already have other plans for your Halloween costume (like turning into a Daiso zombie), Natsuki’s tips will work just as well for cosplay at the next anime fan event you’re attending, so there’s no need to rush, unless you’re planning to dress as Anya for a visit to the real-life Spy x Family Burger King that opened in Tokyo.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]