Rarity cosplay for MLP Cosplay competition

Finally uploading this! This image is for the contest. I have taken photos especially for this competition when I wore my Rarity at Aninite in Austria two weekends ago, but when I looked over them I discovered most were really dark and blurry, so I had to give up and use only the back view photo, which was more decent. So, in the end I ended using photos I had already had. So here goes:

The whole costume is made by myself, except for the wig, which was bought and styled by me and for the shoes which were bought and painted by me.

When I thought of the concept for the dress, I wanted something not very revealing, because I see this too often in rarity cosplays. I wanted something that would fit Rarity's style and character. I drew the concept (link here [link] ) thinking that a dress with a longer "tail" on the back fits the type of dresses that Rarity usually makes. I added the frills to give the dress a bit of volume and I chose to make them in the same way that I will (hopefully next year) make the frills in the back for Rarity's Gala dress ( link here : [link] )
The dress has actually two layers. A white one of the outside and a purple one on the inside. I attached the frills only to the outside one.
The shoulder straps are made out of two pieces of fabric. One is white and the other is purple. I put the purple part over the chest and turned to the white part over the shoulders. This was made because having my shoulders covered suits me and I wanted good final result with the dress. I ended up puting the straps in a X shape in the back, because it holds them better on my shoulders.

I bought the shoes and they looked like this ([link] ), but I painted the dotted part with regular acrylic purple paint. It took a few layers to get it to look nice and I am happy to see it doesn't come off, even though I wore them more than 5 times already. I wanted something elegant and with high heels for the shoes, because Rarity always wants to look elegant.

I made the horn and the ears by myself. This is how I made the horn and I made the ears in the same way: [link] . I painted them with acrylic paint (shades of white to gray for better in depth look) and covered them with transparent laqueur. I drilled some holes on the base of the horn and the ears and I attached them to my head with bobby pins. This also helped to hold the wig on my head and prevent it from falling if I make sudden moves.

For the jewels I wanted something glamorous, but not over the top. I wanted the whole ensemble to look natural, not like out of the circus. That works for a cartoon, but not for a real life costume. What you see as the necklace, the bracelet and the ring are actually an old belt of my mothers' that I transformed years ago for my personal use and I found them perfect for this outfit. Basicly it's made out of shiny diamond-like fake gemstones. I also added a small purple Swarowski gemstone right where the cleavage starts. It used to be a necklace of mine.

The wig: I bought it from ebay, it was abit wavy, but not enough, so I curled it up myself, using mostly hair products (foam and hair spray) and a hot air curling iron. It took me around 2 hours to do it.

The cutie mark: I considered that Rarity deserves a special cutie mark and I decided to make it out of gemstones, of course. I made a prototype out of regular clay, made a mold out of silicone and casted it in clear resin. Then I coloured the back with different shades of nail enamel. I used blue, silver and golden sparkles. Then I glued them to my stockings with transparent nail enamel.

The make-up: First of all foundation and blush. I coloured my eyebrows a bit with purple so that they go with the hair. I had blue circle lens to make my eyes bigger and fake eyelashes (there is no Rarity without facke eye lashes!!!). I coloured my eye lid in light blue, the same colour as the cutie mark. For the lips I only used a pink-ish lipstick, because I wanted the eyes to get all the attention.
I coloured my fingernails and my toenails with purple nail enamel.

Now what you should see in the photos:
1. the dress seen from the front.
2. the shoes, the cutie mark, the purple layer inside of the dress, the straps over the shoulders.
3. the shoes, the cutie mark, the fall of the dress.
4.the dress from the back, the shoulder straps seen from the back.
5. the hair, the, make-up, the horn and the ears, the bracelet, the ring.
6. the hair, the, make-up, the horn and the ears, the necklace, the shoulder straps.

I hope I didn't bore you to death with so many details!