Tao Tao’s Halloween Vanity Mirror – Description, Materials & Progress

For my Halloween costume, I’ll be making a vanity mirror, as pictured above!

Update // October 25, 2023

Purchased/Acquired:

Costume Intention:
(1) Delight!
(2) Surprise!

The costume is meant to be instantly recognizable—bright, fun, lively, with the glowing ping-pong-ball-lights. The secondary element of UV lights and UV makeup adds a fun, unexpected additional twist.

Remaining To-Do List:
– Solder Gemma to battery pack (look at last year’s costumes/circuits)
– Set up code & make sure lights are working; test code
– Attach both sets of lights to mirror frame
– Add items to “counter”
– Choose make-up lewk

Tinkercad Code:
Fade in / fade out
Steeplechase

***

Materials:
– The countertop and mirror frame will be made from thick foam board (with the frame potentially being painted). I will cut the “countertop” in a U-shape to fit around my midriff and attach to a belt + suspenders mechanism, made using thick, sturdy cloth. For attaching, I’ll need glue and some needle & thread.
– To cover the LEDs, I will use ping pong balls. I’ll cut holes from the back for the LEDs to come up through. To cover the UV LEDs, I might try some type of clear resin, or leave uncovered?
– For the items on the counter, I will either purchase from the drugstore or make by hand with paper, clay, and plastic. (I’ll include the UV makeup on the counter so that others can try using it.)
– For an added element, I will get UV (blacklight) makeup that will glow when I turn a set of UV LEDs on the back of the mirror on.
– I will wear black pants on the bottom and a something more glamorous on top (maybe a feather boa, big earrings, and hair clips)

LEDs:
– UV/UVA 400nm Purple LED 5mm Clear Lens – 10 pack
– Adafruit NeoPixel LED Dots Strand – 20 LEDs at 2″ Pitch

I’ll wire together 2-3 UV LEDs for each side of the back of the mirror frame, that can be activated with a switch, whenever I want to turn them on and off to show off the glowing lewk.

Arduino Technique:
For the vanity mirror lighting, I’ll be using either fade in / fade out or running lights effect. Leaning towards running lights! This will look as though they’re chasing each other around the mirror in a circle.

Circuit diagram

The neopixels represent the dots that I’ll be using. My one question here is whether I can program the dots so that only every other dot lights up (4″ apart rather than 2″ apart).

I’ll need longer wires for the UV LEDs than pictured above, allowing me to send them to both the right and left back sides of the frame.

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