Pumpkin Nights LA 2018 [picture heavy]

 Truly, Halloween is the best season~ For the first time I decided to visit a pumpkin patch/festival. I decided to go to Pumpkin Nights, a seemingly nationwide pumpkin extravaganza hosted in different cities in the US. I was definitely drawn in by it's instagram marketing, I'm a sucker for pretty pictures and good advertising! Pumpkin Nights showcases pumpkins and sets created by local artists, and also hosts food and activities also by local vendors and business'. As I live in SoCal, I went to the one located in LA, situated in Pomona.

[Tickets need to bought beforehand, just a small fyi.]

 The main foyer did look slightly barren and underwhelming, which did give me a moment's doubt if this was the same place as advertised. (My group and I shared some concerned glances amongst each other). After some wandering and eventually turning into a small alleyway people were seeming to ignore and avoid, the true entrance into pumpkin Wonderland was revealed.

The Pumpkin Passage was a great entryway into what reveals itself to be a mysterious and magical pumpkin land. The rows of what could almost pass as infinite floating pumpkins look ethereal and made me feel like I was transported into a Halloween dimension. I've never experienced such a feeling of intense Halloween immersion, even taking into account Disneyland Halloween nights.

I usually feel guilty asking my friends to take photos of me, but I just HAD to have a picture taken in this Halloween heaven. 

Every pumpkin the the passage was unique and it was so fun to look at every pumpkin.
 (I also found my favourite pumpkin~) 

Once though the pumpkin gates, the entrance into the Pumpkin Path opens up. At the start of the path, there is an optional game to play which involves finding the hidden symbols and finding out the Wizard's secret word. The game is open to all ages and was a fun activity to do. It even had our whole group actively searching for every symbol pumpkin and getting quite excited every time we spotted a new one (some were actually hidden in odd areas of the map, at least for us adult height people). I found the symbol pumpkins so pretty, and they came in so many colours, so I loved seeing what the magic pumpkins looked like every time!

The path was separated into themed sections, the first being creatures. The trees had winding gigantic caterpillars hanging off them which glowed wonderfully in the dusk, my favourite one had little bunny ears that looked so precious! There were even giant pumpkin dragonflies hovering around the area.

 There were adorable carnivorous watermelon plants in their own little patch too~

 Also, in one small overlooked area were a pair of tiny pumpkin hedgehogs!
There was so many things to take in, and I'm sure I missed even more little jems.

A creepy corner I quickly bypassed was full of pumpkin arachnids. I found it a bit intimidating and was scared something would start moving, haha...

 Around the next bend in the road, opened up into a sky of floating pumpkins and magical music lilting through the air.

Every pumpkin decorating the area was themed in fitting Harry Potter flair. As the night was growing darker, the candles inside flickered and glowed beautifully enhancing the magical feel. I'm not even a big Harry Potter fan (I just watched the series quite recently;;) but even I was blown away by the aura emitted by this section.

At the end of the Harry Potter section, near what I think is a version of Hagrid's home? was a real owl!! It was so pretty and it's caretaker was educating everyone on owls and keeping owl habitats intact. It was a nice addition and a wonderful surprise!

 The next segment of the path was decked out in pumpkin Chinese lanterns.

The pond in the area was surrounded by a extremely large serpentine dragon wrapped around the area! It was awesome, especially taking into account the detail and absolute size of the creature! Also, in the pond it was guarding were little pumpkin turtles scattered about.

 ^^ an example of one of the magical pumpkins with a secret symbol

 Approaching a small hill, a large ship could be seen atop it. It looked monsterous, but it couldn't compare to being up close to it.

 Once next to it, towering probably at 30 feet tall a pirate ship rests right in the tree line! Such an impressive size~ and it looked amazing! I thought the cannons made of giant tubs was so inventive!

The Pumpkin pirate's lair was so cool! Also, the addition of the Goonies soundtrack was well appreciated.

The deeper into the pirate cave, the more beautiful it became.

After the cave, the sea floor opened up to a absolutely breathtaking spacious Pumpkin Reef! I think this was the stand out moment in the whole pumpkin experience, at least for me. The lighting, music and theming was absolutely superb, the pictures do it absolutely no justice! Also, the whole place had bubbles dancing through the air adding another layer of fantastic surrealness to the grotto.

At the end of the Pumpkin Reef was a wonderful Pumpkin-octopus sculpture guarding it's treasure. Really, the whole sea themed area was so wondrous that made the whole trip worth it! It could just be that section and I would feel completely satisfied!

The following section was a rest area that had a theatre that was showing Coco, and also sold popcorn and movie snacks. In addition, there was an awesome play section for kids AND adults. My favourite were the big teeter-totters lined up. They looked so fun and made me regret only owning mini skirts, I really wanted to take a spin!

The last section, celebrated Dia de los Muertos and it was just beautiful! All the coloured pumpkin lanterns and papel picados lining the area were absolutely gorgeous.

The path leading up to the alter was so pretty, as it was lined with candles and flowers! (they also had an area set up with soft box lights and a ring light for great pictures!)

*Also, at the end of the path we encountered the wizard. We whispered the secret word to him and received a small prize for our efforts, it was a perfect end to our time in the Pumpkin Path.*

Upon exiting the main attraction, the once barren area was filled with people eating, drinking and enjoying live shows. We managed to catch the fire dancer's set and were awed and slightly terrified by her prowess with flames. I wish there was better food and drink choices, but I seemed to justify it by guessing this event is still in it's infancy stage. I want to assume as it will grow in popularity, what's offered will definitely improve over time and with continued success (at least I hope). I did happen to try pumpkin lemonade, which was so weird but oddly okay tasting, haha;;

 The path to the exit was also so well themed and wonderfully spooky! A good ending to my first adventure into a pumpkin festival!

With this, I hope you were able to enjoy this adventure alongside me~ 

Also, as it's currently the 28th may your Halloween weekend be perfectly spooky!

(Though, I will extend my halloween festivities on my blog to next weekend! Saving the best adventure for last.) Mwuahahahahaha!

<3CarisseIris

Cute Brown Cat +Sexy Black Cat Filter Makeup~

A few years back, right before I had my new set up, I did a cute and easy cat makeup for a quick last minute Halloween look which I absolutely adored!

I really wanted to repeat it again this year and also share a mini tutorial on how I put together the look.

Products needed for eyes:

Primer (for longevity of the look)

Eyeshadow in colours; cream, warm brown, dark brown, black (preferably matte)

Eyeliner of choice (I use liquid eyeliner in brown)

Products for cat filters:

Brown Cat; taupe eyeliner + dark brown eyeliner

Black Cat; black eyeliner + black liquid eyeliner

(optional dark lipstick or lip gloss)

To create a cat filter effect, I found it helps to have a bit of dimension to the doodles. I created dimension by sketching a heart nose with a taupe eyeliner. If any mistakes are made it can be easily cleaned with a bit of concealer. Tapping on the line with a ring finger to fade it out will also make it look like more of a pixels fading out around the main line.

In the middle of the taupe lines, I made a cleaner line using the dark brown eyeliner.

I repeated the same easy steps with the whiskers~ 

Then, done. I drew on ears, but the effect's there! For in person wear, wearing little cat ears would be just perfect!

For the Black Cat look, I applied it on top of the Brown Cat eyemake. The only difference is I darkened and smoked out the winged liner with a matte black eyeshadow.

For the Black Cat filter I repeated similar steps as with the Brown Cat look. I created a light rough sketch of a heart nose with a black eyeliner. Tapping the edges with a light touch of the ring finger, will create a base for the look of blurring out pixels.

Darken the center of the lines with a liquid or darker black eyeliner. I decided to go for another doodled cat filter like nose which came out quite adorable!! I repeated the same steps with whiskers on the cheeks.

I ended up really disliking the gradient look (I may have been copying a cat filter I liked haha) and decided to apply my favourite deep red lip gloss instead, which was a much better decision. I like the look of plump vampy lips a bit more.

Then, DONE! Also, added extra doodle effects because, why not~

Meow! I really loved how these came out, simple but extremely cute! Ah, I'm already getting ideas for next year's look!! 

<3CarisseIris