How to be…The Little Mermaid!

It’s everyone’s childhood dream, right? To be a Disney Princess? Surely? I mean, comeeee ooooon.

Well, my wish was finally granted earlier this month when a university fancy dress event gave me the PERFECT excuse to dress up as Ariel from Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’. ARIEL. AS IN, THE LITTLE FREAKING MERMAID! I have never ever been so so excited about fancy dress. Ever. But how to go about it was the difficult part. I had less than 12 hours to create something spectacular. See the problem?

I mean, it’s not like I could grow a tail overnight. Or long hair. Or dye it bright red for that matter. So I was in a dilemma…

Still, I ploughed on with the dream.

I was going to be Ariel for this three-legged bar-crawl if it was the last thing I did. I was not going to let my fellow Sebastian the Crab (and third leg) down. So I made a trip to the local craft store to see if I could find any suitable materials to make a tail and shell bra. And I walked out with a couple of sheets of purple card, silver glitter glue, PVA glue, glitter and string.

Here are my instructions on how to dress up as the perfect Ariel. (Subjectively perfect, of course…)

1. Find a turquoise/green/blue maxi skirt to use as a tail. (I was going to add flippers to the bottom but I only had an afternoon to make the costume so time was against me, as was money and materials.) Trust me when I say a flowing skirt is all you need.

2. Trace the shape of Ariel’s shell bra on a piece of A4 purple card. Then cut out. Decorate with glitter glue and glitter as desired. Pierce holes on either side and thread through enough string to wrap around your chest. Tie in position. I wore this over a blue/purple crop top.

3. FIND A WIG!!!! I bought a beautiful red wig from Amazon for £12.00 which I thought was quite reasonable. It was absolutely stunning and didn’t look particularly fake. If you can afford to, it’s worth spending extra because the hair is Ariel’s identifying feature; if you nail the hair, you essentially nail the whole look.

4. Put it all together!

And voilà!

With some red eyeliner pencil, red lipstick and sea-inspired eye-shadow, you can’t go wrong!

Happy costume making, and good luck!! ❤

Frosty xxx