As you can see from the blog title, this week I’m throwing it back to this time last year’s pre Halloween blogpost. It’s actually the first Halloween in I can’t even remember how long (maybe 16 years??), that I’m taking off and not doing makeup for (up until now haha, you never know)…who even am I?! I can’t resist a spook season look or two on myself though, so (hopefully if I’m in the mood/ inspired/ get chance) keep an eye on my Instagram for that! Anyway I wanted to resurrect this post from the archives because at this time of year sometimes you just need a few quick, easy Halloween makeup ideas…maybe you have a last minute invite, maybe you’re going somewhere straight from work or maybe you’re just not in the mood for a full costume situation. All of these looks are for any skill level and no special products needed…you’re likely to have everything you need for these already! Here it is…
It’s spook season again…Halloween…the perfect excuse (not that you need one!) to go all out and crazy with your makeup! Even with a Halloween full of making clients’ spook makeup visions a reality…I still love to get creative, have a play and create some Halloween looks on myself! What I’m often not in the mood for though…costumes! Not even from a not in the mood point of view actually, just a cant be bothered or would rather just put more effort in to the makeup instead…and that’s where these ideas come in to their own! My wardrobe’s pretty much exclusively black anyway, but who couldn’t put at least one black outfit together?? With some simple but effective makeup and a black outfit of your choosing, that’s you done! Perfect for a last minute invite or if you just can’t be bothered with the stress of finding a costume!
Even though it’s a passion and a profession for me (I trained in, teach and love me some SFX!) there’s a time and a place…sometimes it’s just nice to work with what you have to hand/ your makeup bag favourites and keep things a little more simple. You can still get a super effective spook result from regular makeup products. Working for MAC for as long as I did and working many a MAC Halloween gave me invaluable experience at getting the most out of basic business/ regular line makeup products which is what we had to hand on counter to create everyone’s Halloween looks. Even though SFX products are pretty easy to get hold of now for all (Revolution/ Revolution Pro have a great range of basics that are widely available/ easy to get your mitts on…really affordable and cruelty free/ Vegan too!), I thought I’d show you a few relatively simple but effective Halloween ideas to get your creative juices flowing regardless of skill!
Lip art is a great place to start! Go as simple or detailed as you dare/ your skills allow…I have 2 of my favourite more simple lip looks here as an example for you. Keeping it simple and using long wear products will also mean your lips’ll last all night. I created the red spiderweb lip using Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Outlaw (UK*/ IE*) for the base shade and then drew on the web detailing with Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper (UK*/ IE*). You can customise these kind of lip looks and use whichever base colour you fancy…you could mix it up and go for a darker base colour with white or metallic webbing too!
The bat design bellow has a little more detail and shading, but still easy to recreate. Start with your base shade first, add shading and then build the detail. Lip art like this looks great as the sole focus or with a grungy smokey eye look of your liking…also perfect if you don’t want to redo the rest of your makeup and are going from desk to party!
If you fancy trying something more detailed (not so great for wearing, but great for photos) and need some more inspo or just want to peep some incredible lip art…check out 2 of my favourite artists on Instagram (specialising in lip art) Vlada Haggerty (@vladamua) and Jazmina Daniel (@missjazminad)…their work is insane!!
You can create equally effective spook eye looks too if you don’t want to go full Halloween face or feel like keeping it a bit more Glam-oween! Here I did a simple winged liner with lashes and a smoked out lower lash line (this could even be built on top of a wearable eye look like this if you were wearing makeup earlier that day and were short on time). To achieve the blood splatter cut crease I just took a small piece of sponge which I then used to stipple on a red liquid lipstick…you don’t even have to be too neat about it, just build it up to the depth you want…and then using concealer and a firm flat brush, cut the crease leaving the skin tone eyelid and blood splatter crease. I added a cut piece of bottom lash in the centre and a fake blood tear to pull the eye look together, but you could leave that bit out if you preferred. Again you could mix it up and add your own detail…what about adding web instead of splatter or a few carefully placed tiny bats here and there (the bat on the lip above is a good bat shape guide if you’re stuck).
Next up (always a Halloween favourite ‘go to’ of mine) the skull! Everyone loves a skull! You see so many skull makeups and I’ve done many in my time, but it’s always a great choice and I never get sick of doing them as it’s such a customisable makeup! You can switch up the design, add colour/ embellishments, go super realistic or super simple…whatever you want!
These are some of my favourite skull creations from last Halloween, inspired by Jordan Liberty’s work (@jordanliberty)…check out Vanessa Davis (@the_wigs_and_makeup_manager) too, another amazing artist to follow if you’re skull obsessed! I used a mixture of Kat Von D Beauty Lock It White Out Concealer (UK*/ IE*), Shade + Light Palette (UK*/ IE*) and the Sauce Box Cosmetics Etude Palette eyeshadows for the base and then added detail using the Inglot AMC Gel Liner in 77. Using a mixing medium to loosen the gel liner (like Inglot’s Duraline) will make it loads easier to spread and control with your fine brush too!
You might have seen this already if you follow me on Instagram (if you don’t…come join me on there, it’s where I’m most active apart from here and where I post makeup looks and all that good stuff) and at the top of this post actually, but this is the current nature inspired skull I came up with. Inspired again by some of my favourite artists work (specifically @sstrazzere and @ida_elina on this occasion) and also Autumnal leaves…the colours and textures of nature are so beautiful at this time of year! I made a leaf headdress from leaves collected and some mesh…so easy but really added to the look. Although this one looks more intricate…it kind of is, but I’ve still used regular makeup products and based the look around a smoked out eye. I used the Melt Cosmetics Gemini Palette for this look…I’m obsessed with all the swampy greens and yellows in the palette. You could use anything, neutral or colourful…that’s the joy of skulls, something for everyone!
What are you doing for Halloween this year??
Lyd x
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