How to Apply Scary Halloween Makeup

Guide Note

Is your skin too healthy? Your hair too thick and shiny? Do you despair of never being able to create a scary Halloween look? Never fear! Follow the tips below to learn how to apply scary Halloween makeup to even the prettiest of faces.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What You'll Need
• The Basics
• Special Effects
• Don't Forget the Hair
• Removing the Makeup
• Additional Makeup Effects
• References

Scary Halloween Makeup Tips

1. Start with the skin.
2. Add creepy teeth and a bloody mouth.
3. Add spooky eyes.
4. Add special effects.
5. Finish with dramatic hair.

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• by April Sanders

Introduction

• You look awful. Your skin is a strange hue of greenish-white. Your eyes are sunken in their sockets. Your red, bloody lips stretch back in a ghastly smile to reveal missing teeth. In fact, you look great. You look great because your Halloween makeup has been applied to perfection! Read on to see how you can apply scary Halloween makeup--and look awfully perfect.

Scary Makeup with Mahalo Daily

• 
  
  
• YouTube: Heath Ledger's The Joker, Vampire Kiss, & Zombie Makeup (Time: 8:16)

What You'll Need

• Use high quality brushes, paints and other supplies for best results!¹

Materials

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Toronja Azul)
  Face paints (greasepaint) of various colors (black, gray, green, white, red, brown)
• Black eyebrow pencil
• Tooth blackner or fangs (available at most Halloween stores or craft stores)
• Moisturizer
• Fake gel blood (available at most Halloween stores or craft stores)
• Soft wax (available at most Halloween stores or craft stores)
• Water and soap
• Dry towel
• Baby Wipes
• Spirit Gum (available at most Halloween stores or craft stores)
• Flour
• Corn Syrup
• Coffee

Tools

• Small, fine-pointed soft brush
• Medium, fine-pointed soft brush
• Large brush
• Fan shaped brush
• Sponges
• Small spatula (used for applying wax)

Step 1: The Basics

• It's not scary if your skin is healthy and glowing, your eyes are sparkling or your teeth are white and shiny.

Pale or Sickly Skin

1. Mix a small amount of gray and a tiny amount of dark green greasepaint together with a lot of white.²
2. Continue to add gray, green or white greasepaint until you get the pale color you desire.²
   • -The color you create can be the foundation for many different looks: add more green for a zombie or a witch, use mostly white for a vampire or play around until you find the perfect sickly shade.^{3 4}
3. Use your fingers to blend the color into the skin on your face, ears and neck.⁵
4. Apply a small amount of gray greasepaint under the cheekbones and at the temples.²
5. Use the fan brush to blend this into shadows, to create a gaunt look.²
6. For an extra sickly look, use a blue pencil to create thin veins on your face.³
7. Use translucent powder to set the makeup.⁶

• TIP: For quick and easy sickly skin, simply use pale face powder, makeup foundation, or baby powder. This is a more subtle look that works fine if you just want to look dead or dying.^{7 5}

Spooky Eyes

• Follow the steps below to create eyes that sink back into their sockets, and eyebrows that are slightly sardonic.²

1. Put black greasepaint on your upper and lower eyelids.²
2. Shade the greasepaint so that it is darker along the eyelashes and along the contours of the eyeball, but not beyond it.²
3. Use a black eyebrow pencil to draw in small hair lines on the eyebrows, arching them upwards to a point so that they are in a ^ shape.
   • For angry eyebrows rather than sardonic, slant them upwards only in a / shape.²

Lips

1. To look sick or dead, you want your lips to look lifeless. Color them with the same mixture or shade you used on the rest of your face.³
2. You can also use bluish lipstick for a bloodless tinge.⁷
3. To make your lips appear bloody, color them dark red with lipstick or face paint, and add some drops of fake gel blood at the corners.²

Teeth

• For scary teeth you have a few choices depending on the look you are going for.

1. You can insert a set of fangs for a scary vampire visage.⁴
2. Add crooked false teeth.³
3. Blacken out a tooth or two using tooth blackner or a black tooth cap.⁸
4. Tint your teeth yellow.³

Step 2: Special Effects

• It's one thing to paint your face for Halloween, but take it to the next level by adding gruesome special effects!⁹

Scars and Wounds

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by daveiam)
  To create realistic scars and wounds, you'll need wax, red face paint and gel blood.

1. Use the small spatula to scrape a small amount of wax from the jar.¹⁰
2. Place the wax on the heel of your hand and use the spatula to work it until it becomes soft and pliable.¹¹
   • -To keep the wax from sticking to your hands, rub a little makeup remover over your finger tips.¹⁰
3. Mold the wax into a long oval shape.¹¹ You want it to be thick in the middle and thin around the edges.¹⁰
4. Use a brush to put spirit gum exactly where you want to apply the wound.¹⁰ Stick the mold to your skin.
5. Use the spatula to smooth the edges around the length of the scar.¹¹
6. Now you want to cover the wound with the base color you used on the rest of your your face. This way the wound will blend into your skin.¹⁰
   • -If you started with clean skin, now is the time to use foundation to create a natural, blended look.
7. Cut lengthwise through the center of the scar using the edge of your spatula.¹¹
8. Dip a sponge into red face paint.¹¹
9. Dab lightly around the scar and over the top of it.¹¹
10. Add fake gel blood through the center of the scar (where you made the cut).¹¹
    • -Gently move your head to guide the bloody drips.¹⁰

Skin flaps/torn skin

• Here is a great way to make old, torn or wrinkled skin.

1. Rip up paper towels or facial tissue.⁶
2. Dip paper towels in cold coffee and let drip dry.¹²
3. To stick the paper to your face, you have two choices.
   1. Mix up a simple paste consisting of:
      • -2 tablespoons flour
      • -1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon corn syrup
      • -brown face paint or makeup¹²
   2. Or use liquid latex. Liquid latex is great because as it dries it shrinks pulling the skin together and creating a wrinkled effect.⁶
4. Apply mixture or latex to your face.
5. Press paper towels onto your face.¹²
6. Let a piece hang off to create a skin flap.¹²
7. Use face paint to blend in with rest of skin.¹²
8. Finish the look off by dabbing with face powder. This will set the makeup.⁶

• If you think staining paper is too much trouble, PNTA will show you how to use highlights and shadows to create the appearance of old, wrinkled skin.¹³

Bruises

• Create bruises by layering shades of red, dark blue, purple and green.¹⁴ You can use eyeshadow or face paint to form these painful bruises.

1. Place a dab of dark blue eye shadow on your skin using a wet brush.¹⁵
   • -If you are using face paint, apply with a makeup sponge.¹⁶
2. Add a bit of gray and more blue with your fingers, until it looks like a bruise.¹⁵
3. Put the most color in the center of the bruise, then gradually lessen the color and blend into your skin for a natural looking bruise.¹⁴
4. Set this layer with translucent face powder.¹⁴
5. Add a shimmery olive green to the edges of the bruise.¹⁵
6. Smudge the bruise until it looks nice and painful!¹⁵
7. Finish with a light dusting of translucent face powder for a long lasting bruise.¹⁴
8. For fresher looking bruise, alternate dark red and purple layers. Skip the green.¹⁴
   • -Fresh bruises look great around an open wound effect.
9. Bruises come in all shapes and sizes, so use your imagination and have fun!¹⁶

Step 3: Don't Forget the Hair

• Your hair should be the "crowning glory" of your costume. The following are some ideas for creating creepy, Halloween hair.

1. 

   (Creative Commons photo by Lexie)
   Use a temporary color dye.¹⁷
   • -Red, white and black are always popular shades for Halloween.¹⁷
   • -Try colored hair spray for a quick and easy shot of color.¹⁸
2. Use hair gel to shape your hair into amazing shapes.¹⁸
3. Use a straightener and crimper to alternate between very wavy and straight sections of hair.¹⁷
4. You can also crimp all your hair and shape it into a cone. Hold the shape with massive amounts of hair spray and finish with streaks of white for a truly terrifying look.¹⁸
5. Tease your hair dramatically for a wild and crazy, zombie look.¹⁷
6. Using a heavy gel, slick your hair completely back from your head.¹⁷
   • -For added effect, color it jet black first.¹⁷

Step 4: Remove the Makeup

• You perfected your scary Halloween look and had a wild night. Now, it's time to take it all off.

1. Use baby wipes for removing the makeup around sensitive areas, such as the eyes, then wash the entire face with soapy water.¹⁹
2. Finish with a moisturizer, or a soothing lotion if the skin has been irritated by the paint.¹⁹

Additional Makeup Effects

• The following are some step-by-step instructions for creating specific face-painting looks and designs.

For Older Children, Teens or Adults

• Fabulous Living: Halloween Makeup Instructions - Scary Witch Face 
• Fabulous Living: Halloween Makeup Instructions - Scary Skeleton Face 
• Fabulous Living: Halloween Makeup Instructions - Cat or Feline Face 
• Mahalo: How to Do Vampire Makeup

For Younger Children

• Face Painting Designs: Cute Witch Face Painting
• Face Painting Designs: Butterfly
• Face Painting Designs: Pirate
• Face Painting Designs: Spiderman

Other Effects

• Anytime Costumes: "Old Man", "Zombie", and others.

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References for How to Apply Scary Halloween Makeup

1. ↑ Face Painting Designs: Starting Out
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} Halloween Online Magazine: How Vampires Are Created
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Make-Digital.com: Macabre Makeup: The Zombie  
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Mahalo: How to Do Vampire Makeup
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Third Eye Health: Gothic Makeup Tips How Vampires Are Created
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3} YouTube: Halloween Special Effects Makeup Tips and Ideas: How to make a Fake Wound
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Yahoo Answers: How to create a sick, pale look for Halloween?
8. ↑ How to Face Paint Blog: Halloween Make Up Ideas - Scars and Teeth
9. ↑ Martha Stewart: Halloween Costumes: Scary Makeup
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5} MonkeySee.com: Molding Wax and Preparing the Forehead
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6} Face Painting Designs: Special Effects Scar
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4} Martha Stewart: Scary Makeup pg 2
13. ↑ PNTA: Tips: Age and Character
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4} YouTube: Halloween Special Effects Makeup Tips and Tricks: How to Make Fake Bruises (Time: 2:35)
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3} Family Corner: Homemade Halloween Make-up, Bruises and Blood
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} Expert Village: How to Make Fake Bruises for Halloween (Time: 1:05)
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5} Beauty About.com: Yikes! The Creepiest Hair for Halloween!
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1 18.2} CBS.com: Horrific Halloween Hair (Time: 5:18)
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Face Painting Designs: Starting Out