Q&A for How to Dress Like an Ancient Egyptian

They didn't have commercially produced eyeshadow like we do now, but they did use natural sources like plants and minerals to create pigments to use as makeup. Green pigment made from malachite was widely used as eyeshadow.

You can make a lot of it yourself. The best place to start is in your own closet! See what you have that is white and gold. Thrift stores, dollar stores, and yard sales are good places to find jewelry. Look for anything gold in color, or large and triangular (pyramid shaped). You can also use poster board to make large cuff bracelets by painting or using crayons to draw designs. Glue on plastic "jewels" (if using crayons, the jewels won't stick very well to the crayon parts because of the wax). Make details with a black marker as seen in the illustrations. You can tape them closed once on your wrist. For the dress, you can use a large, oversized t-shirt with a belt at the waist.

To do this as a school art project is a great idea! You'll need fabric scraps, poster board, plastic jewels, and lots of gold-colored items for the jewelry and head dresses. For the costumes themselves, an economic way would be to use oversized white t-shirts cinched at the waist with belts. They can even be worn over pants or skirts.

For the headdress you can take a headband and add a homemade asp (snake), as seen in the illustrations, made out of poster board. The headband can be made of poster board as well. Cut a strip that fits around your head and tape it closed in the back.

Yes! A bed sheet can be used as a tunic. Search up "ancient Egyptian tunic fold" and you will find a few images detailing the steps.

That doesn't change anything, so you can just follow the same steps. If you really wanted your hair to be darker, you could wear a wig or use temporary dye.

Find clip-on earrings, or just follow the other steps and omit the earrings, they're not that important. People will still get the idea.

Yes, sure you can! It shouldn’t make a difference, both costumes would be really cool.

You could use some cardboard, gold and brown acrylic paint, and two large gems of any color. Cut the cardboard into a rounded triangle shape with a slit in the back and make sure there is no cardboard in the middle! Now get to painting. You can easily stick the gem on if it has a sticker back or use some white school glue.

Many women of lower class in Ancient Egypt did not wear make-up. But, if you are cosplaying as a person of a higher class, such as a Pharaoh, then try materials that are not reactive to your skin. If modern day makeup does not suit you, make pigments from natural materials which you can use.

Ancient Egyptians used to make their clothing out of linen. But it probably isn't the same way we have linen today.

Yes, that would look Egyptian with the right accessories. Accessorize based on the class you are dressing as.

Silver can work too. If you have any other silver jewellery, you can style it up with those too.

You can use belts, old fabric and ribbon. Look for them, too, in local stores. Check your closet. You never know what you can find!

Use face paint.