You might be asking yourself how this cosplay costume came to be... well let me take you on a little journey. It all started out with this young lad in the photo above with me, my big brother Daniel. Every year I attend New York Comic Con I cosplay different characters, I told him to pick one for me to do this year. He replied back with Marvel's Ghost Rider. I'm familiar with the Ghost Rider back story and all but it's not like I was a crazy super fan or anything. My immediate reaction was "Be Realistic" How am I going to get those flames going? I didn't want to use plastic or foam because I didn't like the way it looked. He stuck to his guns though with Ghost Rider AKA Johnny Blaze, so I decided to figure it out.
Enter this young lady below, My sister in law Kaori.
Hair
Cool kid ain't she? Besides being my sister in law (married to my other brother Dean) she's a woman of many talents. She has a beauty license from Japan and can do awesome things with hair. Kaori suggested I try to do fire hair! I must admit, I wasn't very confident at first but she painted a pretty picture and I figured anything is better than foam. I purchased a regular wig with the colors orange and red, the one below to be exact.
I was BLOWN AWAY and highly impressed. It was everything I wanted and more. If you're wondering, there's nothing inside of the wig holding the hair up... all hair, molding, and layering. It's a work of art. If you ever need a wig or your natural hair done for cosplay or any special event, you should reach out to Kaori at kingyo.m28@gmail.com or kaori_m28@hotmail.com. I promise you, you wont find a lot of people that can do what she does in the time she does it. The was the center piece of the Ghost Rider cosplay and a VERY important part of the character.
Outfit
After I got my main concern out of the way which was the flames, I still had to make the outfit and makeup look good. For the outfit I started out checking what I had in my own home (This should be your first step for any cosplay, you'd be surprised). I was about to throw out this faux leather jacket I purchased at H&M a few years back because it was peeling. I'm so happy I didn't because it was perfect for my Ghost Rider cosplay. I also figured the peeling could look like pieces of the jacket were burned through so I didn't worry about that. I went to a few trim stores in Manhattan and picked up a handful of spikes to add on the shoulders of the jacket. I also found the chain at a trim store because I decided to not use aluminum or plastic. The chain ran me about $20. I already had a pair of Dr Marten boots because well... every fashionista does. I was hunting for a pair of faux leather pants but I couldn't find them anywhere surprisingly. I walked into Walmart and found a pair of leather leggings that looked like pants for about $12. I purchased medium instead of small because I didn't want them to look skin tight... I wanted them to look masculine and have a bit more of edge to them. Lastly, the gloves I found at a random little gift shop for 5 dollars.
Makeup
After the clothing was settled, the day I wore the cosplay I had to wake up a bit early to do my makeup. It's not that hard BUT I didn't use stage makeup so it was a bit annoying to layer. I purchased some regular Halloween makeup from Walgreens and I had to do a few layers to get the white face paint looking bold and evened out. I recommend putting on your regular primer and/or foundation under first for quicker results before applying the makeup. Before I started looking evil I looked like a Panda! Haha it was kind of funny. After searching the web for images, I took a little inspiration from everything and ended up looking like this. I think it came out nicely.
After the makeup was done, I applied the wig which was definitely the WOW factor and BAM! (Emeril Lagasse voice) my 2015 New York Comic Con Ghost Rider cosplay was done.
I had so much fun at the convention this year. This might be my favorite cosplay look I've done yet. The hair, makeup and outfit are all on point. The reactions I got on this look were amazing! I think this cosplay finally beat out my X-Men The White Queen from a few years back (which was pretty popular). I would absolutely wear this again. Not to mention it's probably the most comfortable look I've done. No heels or exposing too much flesh. The impact this had on people even left me surprised. I was very pleased. I took photos with a lot of people and had a lot of photos taken of me too.
Ghost Riders Meet.
Ghost Rider and The Joker.
Who knew Ghost Rider likes dogs.
Behind the scenes.
I guess there's a lot you can take from this post. Like always, life will show you anything is possible. I know it sounds silly to say something like that about a costume, BUT my first reaction when my brother mentioned it was something along the lines of "Get real, I can't make that look good or legit" and now I think it's my favorite cosplay I've done. There you have it kids, Cheers!
If you have any questions for me about the look, drop them in the comment box below.
Xo Nubia Xo
