As Halloween approached, I was running out of time to put together a costume. As I was scrolling through Pinterest, I found a Kylo Ren cosplayer. I liked the way that her cosplay turned out and how she made the character her own. I pinned it to my cosplay board and used that as inspiration to put together my own take on the character. I’m proud of myself as I really liked how the costume came together and I wanted to share how it all came to be.

Once I decided to put together a Kylo cosplay, I went to Amazon. While I don’t love the idea of supporting Amazon, it’s so convenient to order everything in one spot. I bought a black body suit, a black faux leather belt, a black drapey skirt, a red light sword (due to copyright), and a Kylo Ren mask. The black body suit was okay. It looked the way that I wanted it to, but the fit was a little odd. It’s not something that I would wear outside of wearing it as Kylo. The faux leather belt was top notch and I could see it lasting for a long time. The black drapey skirt added to the look though the slits on the skirt are really high. There isn’t a way that I can wear the skirt on its own without leggings on underneath. The “light sword” that I bought was a happy surprise. I figured it would be cheaply made, but it was actually decent. The Kylo Ren mask wasn’t a hard helmet like I had originally thought. Instead, it was a floppy mask. It wasn’t the end of the world, it just wasn’t what I was anticipating.

One thing that’s important with Kylo is the scar on his face. I was mulling this around for a long time. I’m not a makeup expert, so I rely on makeup tutorials to help me out. I ended up putting my own spin on how I wanted the scar to be. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Kylo’s scar is there, but it’s faded. I wanted the scar to look fresh like Kylo just got hit with the lightsaber before putting on the Halloween costume.

To do this, I used: red lipliner, black eyeliner, brown eye shadow, and vaseline. The red lip liner helped lay out the foundation of the scar. I ran the scar from my eyebrow, all the way down to my neck. The black eyeliner added a charred look. The brown eye shadow was how I tried to blend everything together, so it would appear more blended with my natural skin tone. Finally, the vaseline was something I used to help give off that shiny coating. I did get a lot of compliments on it, but whether that means the makeup was good or not, is to be determined.

As I look back on the photos, I’m thrilled with how everything turned out. I think it was an accurate Kylo Ren depiction, yet I was able to put my spin on the character. I think that’s what makes costuming and cosplay so fun for me. There’s a baseline of what the character looks like, but everyone can interpret that in their own way. I’m looking forward to cosplaying as Kylo Ren in the future as this is one of my favorite cosplays that I have done.