I dare you to get through this post without humming “that, that me espresso.” The line—and the song—was everywhere this summer, and with the launch of Sabrina Carpenter’s new album and Short n’ Sweet tour, the “Please Please Please” singer is hotter than ever. And her iconically retro-coquette aesthetic makes for a great costume.
Many of her looks are very lingerie-inspired, and if that’s a little too risque for your Halloween party, consider going the “Espresso” single cover route. That black-and-white tube top dress is easy to rewear long after October 31, and all you really need is blown-out hair (or a decent wig) and a red kiss tattoo to round things out.
Plus, with these Amazon finds, it’s a relatively cheap last-minute costume idea, too. To quote Ms. Carpenter herself, Isn’t that sweet? I guess so.
How to Create a Sabrina Carpenter-Inspired Costume
Optional: If it’s chilly where you are, why not throw on a pink fuzzy coat, like the one Carpenter wears in “Please Please Please?” (Like this one from Amazon, $55)
Lead Photo: Sabrina Carpenter/Island Records/YouTube
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A Quick Disclaimer: Life Between Weekends isn’t affiliated with Sabrina Carpenter or Island Records/Hollywood Records. We’re just fans, sharing costume ideas for other fans.
Moo Deng, you sassy internet darling. This pygmy hippo has taken the world by storm, with her adorable looks and feisty attitude (she’s been known to nip at zookeepers from time to time). People are flying around the world just to see her; there’s a livestream to watch her every move. She’s even inspired a makeup trend, given her glossy sheen. So, what better of-the-moment Halloween costume for 2024?
Given the hype—and the fact that prior to this year, hippo costumes weren’t so popular—they’re hard to come by, but not impossible. (Oddly, adult costumes are way easier to come by than baby and toddler ones.) Here are a few options to consider, as well as some easy ways for the rest of your crew to be zookeepers.
Note: I tried to choose costumes and clothing with the quickest turnaround times, but be sure to double-check estimated arrival dates before purchasing.
Just because Halloween is on a school day doesn’t mean that you can’t add a little magic to your morning. Or that you need to set your alarm two hours early to labor over an over-the-top meal. These Strawberry Pancake Monsters are an easy Halloween breakfast you can whip up in less than 10 minutes (seriously, I timed it). Pair it with our Spooky Jack-O’-Lantern Marshmallow Milk, and you’ve got a surefire way to surprise and delight your family…without exhausting yourself before noon.
Photos: Candace Braun Davison
The Keys to Nailing These DIY Strawberry Pancake Monsters:
Start with frozen mini pancakes. If you prefer homemade, whip them up the night before, place them between sheets of parchment paper and place in a resealable plastic bag in the fridge or freezer. (They’ll reheat in the microwave in 20-30 seconds.)
If your kids aren’t into pistachio butter, try adding a few drops of green food coloring to peanut butter or the nut butter of your choice.
For a faster shortcut, sub candy eyes for the mini marshmallows with mini chocolate chips. The latter option is tastier in my family’s opinion though. (The candy eyes often wind up in the trash in our house, but they are quick to toss on and look cute!)
Marshmallow “eyes”
How to Make Strawberry Pancake Monsters for Breakfast
Strawberry Pancake Monsters
These strawberry and pistachio butter mini pancake monsters make for a fun, easy Halloween breakfast you can whip up in minutes.
2tbsppistachio butter (or nut butter with green food coloring)
3strawberry slices
3mini marshmallows
6mini chocolate chips (plus more for monster "hair")
Instructions
Slather a light layer of pistachio butter (or nut butter of your choice) onto all six pancakes. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds, if pancakes are frozen.
Top three pancakes with strawberry slices. Add remaining pancakes on top, pistachio-butter-coated-side-up (so it looks like a green monster head).
Break each mini marshmallow in half and smoosh it with your fingers to flatten it. Stick a mini chocolate chip onto the cut-open part of the marshmallow (it'll be sticky and help the chocolate chip adhere to it). Stick the "eyes" on each monster.
Add remaining chocolate chips as "hair" along the top of each monster, if desired. Serve as-is or with a drizzle of maple syrup.
Spirit Halloween stores may be best known for breathing life into decaying strip malls (at least for two-ish months of the year) and being a go-to for last-minute costumes, but its nimble nature makes it a prime source for All Hallows Eve inspo. The company moves lightning fast on trends (seriously—they have a line of licensed Hawk Tuah costumes, based on the girl who went viral this past June), as they scour what’s zeitgeisty in pop culture year-round.
That naturally makes them a prime spot for Halloween costume trend spotting: What’s the 2024 version of Barbie mania? Are people going all Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Is it a Skibidi Toilet world and we’re just living in it? (Please, say no.) I attended a press preview earlier this month to get the scoop—and it did not disappoint. Here are some of the standout findings.
Photos: Candace Braun Davison
1. Blinged-Out Costumes Are A Big Deal
Almost every category of costume at Spirit Halloween had a rhinestone-studded or sparkle-coated option, from Minions to Ghost Face to a football purse (which seems ideal for Travis and Taylor looks).
As popular as Deadpool costumes are, a Spirit Halloween rep said Lady Deadpool costumes were flying off the shelves even faster. It makes sense: Not only does it feel timely—Deadpool vs. Wolverine was one of the biggest movies of the year!—but it’s a figure-framing costume that doesn’t feel too revealing (because no one wants to be shivering in a pillowcase-sized dress, honestly). And it represents a character who doesn’t take herself too seriously, so you can have fun with the look.
Ghost Face from the classic Scream series has always been a popular Halloween costume, largely because it’s so easy to throw together—and so immediately recognizable. But the interesting thing is how many variations exist for Ghost Face these days (140, according to Spirit Halloween’s search results). There’s a blinged-out version; versions for babies, kids and pets; bleeding masks, pink masks, devil-meets-Ghost-Face masks, you name it. A Ghost Face for all seasons, if you will.
I’ve been recommending Bluey-inspired costumes for years now—and in fact, when I first suggested the idea, Etsy denied me from their affiliate program for promoting “Blue Heeler” costumes people were selling online. But, back then, there weren’t any officially licensed costumes in the States. Things have changed now, and these days, the whole family can dress up as the Heelers, from full-body costumes to tutu and poncho variations. Your kid can even channel their inner Muffin (though that one is only sold online).
5. Halloween Crossbody Bags Will Replace Your Lululemon Belt Bag
Belt bags and crossbody bags have been a wardrobe staple since 2020, and now, they’ve gone seasonal. Spirit Halloween has all kinds of spooky and playful riffs to complement your costume, though I could see people rocking some of these year-round (or at least from mid-September through October).
6. Chipotle’s Booritos Have Taken on a Life of Their Own
Chipotle’s attracted a cult following for its annual Boorito promotion, which lets you snag an entree for $6 if you show up on Halloween in costume. It’s become a tradition for many, and for diehard fans, you can actually dress up as a Chipotle burrito, bag, water cup or fork to really get into the discount-dining-at-the-chain spirit.
Want to keep your kids busy for five minutes while you get breakfast on the table this Halloween? Bring out the Jack O’ Lantern marshmallow milk. What’s Jack O’ Lantern marshmallow milk, you ask? Great question, since I totally made it up after seeing people create Marshmallow Creme ghost ciders on TikTok.
While I’m demoing this on a trendy lil’ glass can, if you’re making this for kids, clear plastic cups are your BFF. That way, if a cup is dropped, no harm, no foul. I recommend adding the orange Marshmallow Creme circles to the inside of the cup yourself, then handing the cup to your kid with a dry erase marker and letting them go to town, decorating their pumpkins as they see fit.
Ready to whip some up yourself? Let’s do this.
Add Marshmallow Creme pumpkins to the inside, decorate the outside, fill, sip, repeat. (Photos: Candace Braun Davison)
In a small bowl, combine about 2 tablespoons of Marshmallow Creme with 2-3 drops of orange gel food coloring. Stir, adding additional drops until you’ve gotten the shade you like.
Use the back of a spoon to spread a very thin coating of the orange Marshmallow Creme in a circle on the inside of the cup. (If you slather it on thickly, it will start to run.) You can add as many pumpkin circles as you’d like, or just opt for one giant one along the side, to make life easier on yourself.
Use a dry erase marker to decorate those pumpkins as you see fit, then fill with chocolate milk (or regular milk, a milkshake, cold brew, Dr. Pepper—whatever you’re into) and enjoy.
Your Marshmallow Milk FAQ’s, Answered:
What Does Marshmallow Milk Taste Like?
The Marshmallow Creme very gradually dissolves into the chocolate milk. At first, you can’t taste it, but if you let it fully dissolve, you’ll start to get a slight, marshmallow-y taste to the chocolate milk, kind of like a chilled hot cocoa.
Do the Dry Erase Markers Make a Mess?
As you touch the cup, you’ll start to rub off the faces, sure. But even if you do, you can easily wipe your fingers clean on a napkin. Or just stick to one pumpkin on one side of the cup, so you know where to avoid touching it.
When it comes to bangers, “The Floor Is Lava Dance” gets all the attention, but my kids and I are really all about “Brand New Day.” And honestly, “Gorilla Smash” deserves more love for the earworm that it is. If you understood even one of these references, you must be a parent. Or teacher. Or babysitter. So you know that when it comes to kid-friendly Halloween costumes, Danny Go would be pretty zeitgeisty—and get everyone pretty hyped.
Not to mention that it’d be fairly easy to throw together (even if you don’t have a Mindy Mango in your life to custom-dye your aqua shorts suit). Better yet, you can dress up your kids as their brain break icon.
Amazon sells button-down shirt and short combos in just about every color of the rainbow; I tried to vet ones that had solid reviews and were available with a quick turnaround. (Because some of you may be reading this because your kid decided on Oct. 28th that they’re all in on dressing as Danny Go, and not the Catboy costume you picked up weeks ago.)
My one-year-old may or may not be dressing up as DG this Halloween.
Faux cobwebs and jack-o’-lanterns help set the Halloween vibe, but nothing creates an enchanting, multi-sensory experience quite like a mantle full of candles. Classic white pillars can create a moody tone, but it’s worth taking things a step further. How about smoky, sultry scents that fill a room with a sense of mystery? And fun shapes and vessels that capture the spirit of All Hallows Eve?
Though I make most of my own Halloween candles, there are a few designs I love from other makers (and big brands) that I had to share. Just don’t let a virgin light them.
OK, it’s technically part of their holiday collection, but you should start burning Apotheke’s Firewood candle as soon as the first bursts of crisp fall air hit. It has such strong smoky, campfire notes that it feels like you should be telling spooky stories around a fire pit. Or, at the very least, making s’mores.
I’m a sucker for Siblings’s sustainable, microwave-and-pour candle kits—and their range of Forever vessels, which you can reuse again and again. One of my favorite scents as the weather turns cool is No. 13, a mix of palo santo, marshmallow cream and burnt sugar. It’s a nice candle to channel the trick-or-treating feels of Halloween, without being cloyingly sweet. (You can thank notes of cedarwood and palo santo for keeping things balanced.) Plus, it makes for a fun, five-minute craft that leaves you feeling oddly accomplished when it’s finally time to burn.
Sculpted candles double as art, but I never want to burn them because of the potential mess they make (and, admittedly, it’s a bummer to lose that design). But this find is nicely contained within its apothecary jar, and it’s only going to look more macabre as it melts. It’s unscented, and LED lights in the base of the jar give it an extra haunting effect, as they flicker between a red and yellow glow when the wick is lit.
When it comes to unexpected fall scents, Found Notes wins. Anthro’s take on fig is more earthy than fruity, and when paired with coriander, it creates a warming, slightly spicy take. It’s kind of what you’d expect the Witches’ Road to smell like in Agatha All Along. Or Taylor Swift’s Folklore album, honestly.
I’m not big on pumpkin-y scents, but Snif made me a convert. Rather than smelling like straight pie—or cinnamon, as many pumpkin candles do—this tempers the expected fall scents and elevates them with notes of maple, chocolate and whiskey. It makes for a more complex, beguiling scent that quickly fills the room. (Seriously, the hot throw on this candle is impeccable.)
If you’re into candle making, you should check out Winding Wick Candle Co creator Tiana Coats’s YouTube channel. It’s a fascinating peek at what it takes to launch and grow a creative candle company. Coats specializes in dessert candles, and this butterscotch-scented one is nothing short of magical. As it burns, it changes color, revealing the wizarding house you’re meant to be in.
What better time for a tarot card reading than All Hallows Eve? Each jet black candle has a tarot card charm hidden inside, which is gradually revealed after about 2-4 hours of burning. I tried the whole trio—past, present and future—and let’s just say my reading left me floored. (You’d think a brand would stack the decks in the love-and-happiness favor, but nah—my past, present and future turned out to be death, the devil and the fool, respectively.) Thankfully, the cards don’t mean what you’d immediately think, per the booklet that came with the trio. All in all, it makes for a fun Halloween candle to burn that you shouldn’t take too seriously.
(It comes with tiny tongs to remove the charm.) Photo: Candace Braun Davison
Bonus: Right now, the trio is 41 percent off ($85, down from $145). But if you just want one, you can order it individually via Amazon.
Editor’s Note: Due to the popularity of Carmy-inspired costumes, I had to update an old favorite, just to ensure everything was still in stock and available.
The Bear, FX’s show about a fine dining chef who heads home to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop, has been one of the buzziest shows since its debut in 2022—not just for its plot, but for its fashion as well. (Seriously, the costume designer has said she received 10 DMs a day from people wanting the exact white shirt its star, Carmy, wears.)
“It was never the intention to be ‘stylish’ per se—a white tee, black Dickies and Birks is a common look amongst chefs,” Cristina Spiridakis, the costume designer for The Bear‘s pilot, told GQ. “Carmy is a person that appreciates quality and classics, items that last, that aren’t fussy or trendy—things created with a respect for the item itself.”
The look itself is easy to replicate, making for a quick, practical, last-minute Halloween costume.
Watching The Devil Wears Prada causes me to involuntarily spiral into maniacal laughter. Sometimes, it’s genuine snickering at the quips and actors’ comedic timing; other times, it’s an “all you can do is laugh” moment meets recognition of, to quote Taylor Swift, the asylum where they raised me.
Certain moments are such a spot-on representation of working in magazines pre-2014. The recession and digital revolution changed so much (from the changes in ad revenue to innovations that made scheduling—and rescheduling—cars, meals and travel so much easier). It flattened a lot of the hierarchies and demands placed on assistants. But, all that to say, more than a decade and a half later, the movie endures. It’s such a time capsule of that era, especially the Cerulean Sweater Monologue (yes, it deserves capitals).
It’s iconic, so if you’re looking for an equally amazing—yet understated and totally wearable the rest of the year—Halloween costume, choose this Devil Wears Prada-inspired look.
The Andy Sachs, Devil Wears Prada-Inspired Costume
Photos: 20th Century Studios/YouTube, JC Penney, Amazon, Redbubble
The Cerulean Cable-Knit Sweater: St. John’s Bay Pullover ($18, JC Penney) or Classic Cable-Knit Sweater (Gap, $55)
The Button-Down Shirt: Women’s Oxford Shirt ($26, Amazon)
One of the most fun Easter eggs of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Guts’ tour has been seeing what will be emblazoned on her tank top during her encore set at each city. In Minnesota, she rocked “You betcha,” in New York, she was “Carrie Bradshaw AF,” and declared (sartorially, at least) that “It’s Always Sour in Philadelphia” when in the City of Brotherly Love. “Just a Girl” was a major favorite among redditors, but those are only a few examples.
Given the hype surrounding the look, and that the rest of the outfit remained the same throughout her tour, giving her that easily recognizable “Cartoon Character Outfit“—aka easily recognizable, iconic look—revered on TikTok these days, it makes for a great Olivia Rodrigo costume (you know, if you aren’t going with her Sour album cover look).
If you have a Cricut, you could easily cut red heat-transfer vinyl or use Infusible Ink to create your own custom tank, using any one of her previous tour phrases, or creating your own (bonus points if it’s Halloween-themed). For those who don’t, Rodrigo sells a similar-looking tank on her official website, and I’ve hunted down a few more options below.
If you have access to an iron, you can grab individual iron-on letters and go to town yourself. Just note that if you stay true to Rodrigo’s style and choose a ribbed tank, the letters may curl up as the shirt stretches…but you really only need this look for one night, right?
The Tank: Olivia Rodrigo’s Official “Bad Idea” Tank ($35, OliviaRodrigo.com), or “I Heart Gossip” Tank ($9, Forever21) or “Hot Person” Tank ($13, Cider), or go for a cropped baby tee: Perfect All-American B*tch Tee ($35, OliviaRodrigo.com)
10 Encore-Style Tank Top Phrases to Try This Halloween
Bloodsucker
Vampire
I Know My Place, And This Is It
Eternal Optimist
Bad, Bad News
All-American Boo
Maybe I Can Fix Him
Ballad of a Homeschooled Ghoul
We Both Drew Blood
Teenage Dream
Add a red lip and a strong cat eye, and you’re good to go. Good 4 U, friend, for pulling this off ahead of Halloween, OR’s next tour date or…wherever you’re headed, really.
Disclaimer: Life Between Weekends isn’t affiliated with Olivia Rodrigo or Geffen Records. We’re just fans, creating costume ideas for other fans.
As far as Walt Disney World rides go, the Haunted Mansion is right up there with Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain. But despite how Halloween appropriate it is, it doesn’t get nearly the love that Captain Jack Sparrow does every October 31st. It’s about time we changed that—especially when there are such great Haunted Mansion costumes out there.
If you’re planning on paying homage to the ride’s characters at a Disney theme park, it’s best to double-check that your costume doesn’t infringe on its guidelines (no capes below the waist, no masks, and so on—find the rules for Walt Disney World and Disneyland here). All of these options are pretty safe bets, provided you don’t pose for pictures with other guests, sign autographs or act as if you work for the park (all no-no’s, per Disney’s rules).
The Best Haunted Mansion-Inspired Costumes to Try
Photos: Disney Store/Amazon/AliExpress
1. Madame Leota
She’s arguably the star of the show! All you need is a brocade caplet to serve as the “tablecloth” and the iconic blue wig, but if you really want to take things to the next level, you could wear a “crystal ball” helmet with some fairy lights strewn around it.
Chappell Roan has taken over the airwaves this year with her blend of synth-pop hits, so it’s only fitting that you pay homage to one of her already unforgettable looks. Every outfit is thoughtfully considered, often with a statement behind it. There’s the Governors Ball Statue of Liberty ensemble, her Joan of Arc-esque VMAs performance, her Midwestern Princess album cover…but a personal favorite of mine is one of her “HOT TO GO!” music video outfits. It’s like a glam band leader/majorette, and it’d be a fun one to pull off this Halloween. Here’s what you’ll need.
First, glean a little inspo directly from the music video:
(And make sure you memorize those dance moves ahead of the 31st.)
Second, Assemble Your Chappell Roan-Inspired Costume:
The Blue Eye Shadow: 9-Color Blue Eyeshadow Palette ($7, Amazon)
The Red Lipstick: Maybelline Stay Vinyl Lipstick in 25 Red-Hot ($10, Target)
Also, a quick disclaimer: Life Between Weekends is not affiliated with Chappell Roan or Island Records/Atlantic Records. We’re just fans, creating costume ideas for other fans.
