Did You Howl At The Moon With A PAAS Halloween Make-Up Kit?

Werewolf, Ghost, and Vampires were only a few of the options a kid had with a PAAS Halloween Make-Up Kit – I should know because in 1984 I stalked the streets of my Grandparent’s neighborhood as a Werewolf. That is the same year that this particular PAAS Halloween Make-Up Kit commercial aired and while I normally chose a costume and mask from Ben Cooper or Collegeville – the transformation of the young boy in the ad to a menacing Werewolf influenced my decision that year.

This PAAS Halloween Make-Up Kit TV commercial covers a bit of the basics of that 1978 Peter Pumpkin PSA I shared a few days ago. About the benefits of wearing make-up over a Halloween costume – obviously so a child’s vision would be less impaired. Although not presented in the commercial itself the back of the kits would offer other make-up options – like with the supplied Vampire make-up you could paint an American flag on your face and go out trick or treating as ‘Miss America’. Or with the clown make-up kit you could go out as ‘Tread Face Boy’ and ‘Checkerboard Girl’ – I want to point out these were actual suggestions to Parents.

In all honesty, my Father turned out to be a fair hand at taking the three little make-up tubes provided in the Werewolf kit and making it look like I had a wicked case of five-o’clock shadow. The plastic fangs provided the opportunity for bestial snarls and thanks to some additional black plastic fingernails and some of the remaining make-up applied to the backs of my hands – I remember feeling pretty scary looking. The Werewolf PAAS Halloween Make-Up Kit also included a cardboard image of a moon (With a child’s face?!) you cut out and sort of clipped to your shirt – that is something that my Father couldn’t figure out how to keep attached to my clothing and was quickly discarded. In addition there were cut out ears to complete the Werewolf look… that also happened to be incredibly uncomfortable to wear – besides I felt it made me look more like a Werelynx!

Now here is the part where I would like to regale you with a story of how well received I was that Halloween night in 1984 – I might have impressed some of the earlier houses with how committed I was to the part of a Werewolf… actually howling when they dropped candy into my pillow case. But the truth is a rain storm killed my Werewolf a whole lot quicker than a silver bullet – destroying my cardboard ears almost immediately – plus the make-up started to run. The deluge of rain forced us to beat a hasty retreat to my Grandparents house – where I wiped off the ruined make-up and obtained an umbrella. The plastic nails were holding and I of course still had those plastic fangs so when we went back out into the rainy night for more candy – I just told the neighbors I was a Vampire.

Did you also use a PAAS Halloween Make-Up Kit in your youth? I would love to hear about it in the comments section!