If you’re like me, on Halloween you grab a colorful wig and call it a day for when the trick-or-treaters come knocking on the door. It’s not that I don’t love the holiday (because I do), I am just far too intimated by the endless possibilities for costumes and makeup; I throw my hands in the air and opt for the easy way out.
But some people — some glorious people — take Halloween to epic levels. They spend hours learning FX makeup through YouTube tutorials. They buy fun palettes and putty and fake blood. They practice on their willing friends. They consume countless slasher movies to get ideas. And then they show up on Halloween with some of the most incredible, gory, and outrageous makeup imaginable.
Here are some who have put their brilliant work out there. And yes, many of these talented souls have actually done their own marvelous makeup.
8. Skeleton Face
Sometimes a good old skeleton face is all you need to celebrate the holiday. If you think you can handle some extreme contouring and penciling-in teeth over your mouth, you might pull this one off.
7. Day of the Dead
If you celebrate Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos), which happens right after Halloween, you can opt for something equal parts creepy and beautiful. The public multi-day holiday in Mexico remembers family and friends who have died. The makeup for the day isn’t necessarily supposed to be scary — so save the gore for Halloween itself.
6. Creepy
Want to completely scare the pants off of everyone you encounter? Start with some colored contact lenses, and then proceed from there. The makeup here is good, but it would never have the same effect if the woman pictured had any eyeballs to speak of.
5. Creepy-Crawly Eyes
You can opt to focus just on your eyes this year. If you figure out how to create 3-D spider legs emerging from your eyeballs, no one will fault you for not applying lipstick. Yes, this is all makeup. You start with a black smokey eye and then have some fun from there.
4. Who Ate Your Face?
If you really want to take it up a notch (and devote several hours and cotton balls to makeup removal after the fact), you should consider an all-encompassing makeup scheme. You will absolutely be the talk of the Halloween party if you nail this one. And if you don’t, you’ll have a mess of black makeup everywhere.
3. Cracked Face
Not only is the cracked face effect cool here, but the comic book feel of the makeup is excellent. And all it took was some pretty basic cosmetics. (Ok, it takes a bit more than that. A quick look through the Instagram photos from this self-taught FX makeup artist shows that she knows a thing or two about applying cosmetics.)
2. Melting Skull
https://www.instagram.com/p/Boqit1YHPxn/?tagged=halloweenmakeupideas
One of the really cool things about this Halloween face is that the video acts as a tutorial. So if you find that you’re in the market for a melting skull, you have an incredibly steady hand, and a fair bit of patience, you might want to give this one a try. Or in the very least, you can post your #fail to Instagram and be in good company with countless people who aren’t quite as talented. Win-win.
1. Bleeding Cuts
https://www.instagram.com/p/BorUH6blveU/?tagged=halloweenmakeup
If you don’t want to stop at makeup and want to fully dive into the world of special effects this Halloween, you can completely gross out your friends and neighbors by giving yourself a bleeding gash or two. The makeup artist in this video makes it look simple, but chances are your take on it won’t be so easy to create. But it still might be worth a try.
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