DIY Clown Costume
A clown is mostly a face. Get the white base, the red nose, and a big painted smile right, and a baggy thrift-store outfit handles the rest.
The one thing worth buying is a clown makeup kit. A complete one runs about ten dollars and usually includes the red nose, so it covers most of the costume in a single box. A rainbow wig and a ruffle collar finish the look.
What you need
A baggy, colorful outfit you can pull from your closet or thrift, plus suspenders.
- Effort: Medium
- Cost: ~$11
- Time: 20 min
What to buy
The makeup
The face is the costume, so this is the one buy that matters. A complete kit beats buying white, red, and black separately, and the good ones throw in the nose.
Amazon Our pick
Rubies Clown Deluxe Make Up Kit · See current price at Amazon
Rubies' kit is the most complete for the money
- an 8-color tray
- a white cream tube
- five makeup sticks
- a sponge
- a classic red nose
The colors lean bright and classic rather than horror-movie.
See it at Amazon →Also checked
The wig
A rainbow wig finishes the silhouette, but it's optional. A thrifted hat, sprayed-in color, or your own hair all work too.
HalloweenCostumes.com Our pick
Rainbow Afro Clown Wig · $9.99
A rainbow afro, the classic clown shape big and bright, one size fits most — HalloweenCostumes.com's own wig, priced and shipped direct.
It's not returnable once you open the package, so treat it as a final purchase.
See it at HalloweenCostumes.com →Also checked
How to put it together
- Paint the face. Start with a white base over your face and neck. Add a red circle on the nose, or pop on the foam nose from the kit, then a wide red smile that runs past the corners of your mouth and black arches over the eyes. Build it up in thin layers so it doesn't crack when you smile.
- Make the ruffle collar. The collar is the most clown-ish piece and the easiest to fake. Gather a strip of bright felt or a cheap tutu around your neck and safety-pin it at the back, or run a loose stitch along a length of fabric and pull the thread to ruffle it. Ten minutes and a dollar's worth of felt helps pull the costume together.
- Build the outfit from your closet. Go baggy, bright, and mismatched. Polka dots, stripes, and clashing colors all work, and suspenders with rolled-up pants sell it fast. Raid your closet or a thrift rack before you buy anything.
- Add the hair. A rainbow wig finishes the silhouette in one move. If you'd rather not buy one, spray washable color into your own hair, or skip it and let the face carry the costume.
Make it your own
- For a kid
- Go lighter on the makeup, lean on a colorful thrifted outfit and a budget wig, and skip anything that needs to set or dry on the way out the door.
- For a group
- A few clowns make for a fun troupe. Vary the wig colors and collar shapes so it looks deliberate, and put one person in a ringmaster's jacket to tie the whole circus together.
- Make it scary
- Swap the bright palette for a cracked white face, a jagged blood-red grin, and a red curly wig, and you're in horror-clown territory.
- To level it up
- Thrift or sew a one-piece jumpsuit with oversized buttons and a ruffle trim, add white gloves and big shoes, and the closet costume becomes a built one. A clown sewing pattern is a cheap weekend project if you've got a machine.
Going for a specific clown? We've got full buying guides:
Best if you want a costume that's mostly a makeup kit plus whatever bright, baggy clothes you can dig up.
More easy DIY costumes
Prices checked September 4, 2026. Stores set their own prices and may change them. The “See it at” links go to the live listing.