Halloween Countdown

The countdown in on to one of my favorite times of the year, HALLOWEEN!  Its basically like Christmas for Makeup Artists.

My whole family has always been into the Halloween spirit, we would be that house on the street with scary music, fake tombstones and strobe lights that everyone wanted to go to for trick or treating.

And most of the girls in middle school would choose to be a cute animal or their favorite cartoon character while I would come to school dressed as Freddy Krueger complete with his trademark metal-clawed glove on the right hand.

Maybe that is part of the reason why I became a makeup artist.  I have always loved to dress up and create different characters through costumes and makeup.

Every year Halloween ends up being a bit of a right off for me because I am always booked solid to do everyone else’s makeup.  By the time I am done I end up just going home to bed because I am so wiped.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun…so I always set aside some time before the craziness of Toronto Fashion Week and Halloween to do a fun makeup on myself.  Last year I created a scary makeup that included an illusion of hallowed out eyes and a large demon mouth.  I didn’t have a lot of time to create this look because my son was about 10 months old and I had to quickly do this makeup while he slept.  I also had to so a photoshoot and take it all off before he woke so that I didn’t scare the crap out of him!

Here is a visual step by step of how I created this demon-like character:

 I started by outlining the design with a light coloured eye pencil.

Next I added a white base to anywhere where my skin would be visible.

I used a pinky/red eyeshadow around my eyes, leaving the center white.  You could also use a blush or even a matte red lipstick to create this effect.

Using a deep wine colored lip pencil I created veins all around the eyes.

I used a waterproof black eyeliner all around the eye including the waterline.  Again I left the center of my top lid white to create that hollow effect.

To really ‘pop’ that center ‘hollowed’ eye I tapped a stark white eyeshadow on top.

 

I used a black face paint to create the extended mouth from my bottom lip down to my neck.

And lastly I went around the outline of the mouth using the same pinky/red I used around the eyes and added some veins.  I then used the same white facepaint that I used as my base to draw on the sharp scary teeth.

And of course you need to add in some accessories to finish the look…a sketchy black wig, a spider web table cloth draped across the shoulders and some dripping fake blood completed this look perfectly!

I hope this makeup inspires you to create your own ghoulish character.  I can’t wait to pull out my special FX makeup kit to get all my clients ready for this Halloween!

BOO!

XO J9