A Step-by-Step Guide to Totally Doable Glam Skeleton Halloween Makeup
This Skeleton Halloween Makeup Tutorial Is Scary Good! You Go, Ghoul!
It is the time of the year when we spend the better part of our day thinking of ways to look spooky; looking up the hashtag #HalloweenMakeup on IG or scouring YouTube for Halloween makeup tutorials. You know that there is so much out there that can sweep you off your feet, yet so little that can actually be achieved sans artistic skills. But Halloween makeup doesn’t necessarily take perfection and needn’t take up much of your time for you to get the intricacies of perfect eye sockets to complement your ghoul makeup to look eye-catching eerie. I have learned that all the panic about Halloween Makeup needs to simmer down so that one can enjoy the holiday more and spend less time creating the look one desires.
Like you, I have lived most of my life thinking that DIY Halloween Character Makeup requires considerable skill and patience. But I was surprised to discover that it does not take as much hard work after all. This is why I have taken up the onus to transform the belief that Halloween makeup is impossible to get done just the way you’d like. Since skulls and Halloween are almost inseparable, I am going to take this classic costume and break it down for you from head to toe. The upside is that it takes under an hour to put everything together and you would be ready for your midnight Halloween soirée in no time!
For Halloween enthusiasts who want to go all-out ghoul with a touch of girliness, a Calavera, aka the sugar skull, complete with a flower crown and petal eye-makeup will help you achieve the right combination of spooky and glam. You may still be able to stir up an unexpected scream or two with this look and repeat the same scary charm the next day on Dia de Los Muertos. Follow my surprisingly easy step-by-step tutorial to get glamorously spooky this Halloween!
What you’ll need for the makeup:
- Light foundation
- Black eyeliner pencil
- Black liquid eyeliner
- Black eyeshadow
- Red/pink eyeshadow
- Eyeshadow brush
- White eyeliner pencil
- Angled eyeliner brush
- Red and pink face pigment
- Black face paint
- White Chromacake
- Translucent powder
- Flat brush
What you’ll need for the outfit:
- A black corset or long-sleeve top or blouse
- Black leggings
- Black booties
- Leather jacket {optional}
The Face
Step 1: Start by applying light coloured foundation to cover your entire face.
Step 2: Activate the White Chromacake with some water. Using water helps you get a matte finish for the makeup, and it also makes it easy when you return weary from your Halloween celebrations and have to remove your makeup.
Step 3: With the help of a flat brush, conceal your entire face including the lips in the white chromacake. Try to evenly spread the makeup so that the colour is the same all over your face. Once you are satisfied with the look, use some translucent powder to set it.
The Eyes
Step 1: Use your drawing pencil to outline the skull eye sockets around your eyes. The circle will go above your brows and below the under-eye area. You don’t have to be a perfectionist as the circles look best when they are carelessly done.
Step 2: Add black eyeshadow to the eye sockets with the help of an eyeshadow brush. As for the circles you just mapped, fill them with a mixture of black and red face paint. You can also use cream shadow instead of paint. Pick a flat brush for filling the circles. The side of the brush will make it easy for you to outline the circle while the flat middle of the brush can be used to fill the circles. If you remember your ghosts right 🙂 you would know that eye sockets don’t have to be perfect.
Step 3: After you fill in the circles, finish the eyes with a mix of red and pink pigments. The two colours together will add depth and shine, while also adding some glam to the spookiness of your makeup. If the pigments end up flying all over, a little makeup remover should tackle the problem.
The Petals {A variation should you choose a brighter/more metallic edge}
Step 1: Reaching the more interesting detailing of the eyes ~ let’s get the petals to roguishly fly out of the edges of your eye sockets. You will need a flat brush for this. Pick a size that you are comfortable with and dip one side of the brush in black face paint and use silvery grey face paint for the other side of the brush. Using a combination of these two colours will help you give dimension to your art and add some sparkle to it too.
Step 2: Use your brush with the side that has the colour you want to be more dominant, and press it onto your face like a stamp. Stamp the petals around the sockets of your eyes making sure that you dip the brush in the two paints after every two or three petals.
The Nose
Step 1: To create the hollow nostrils look, take liquid eyeliner and draw an upside-down segmented-V shape on the bridge of the nose. The sides of the V could wrap around your nostrils, depending on your preference.
Step 2: Extend the bend to outline the rest of your nose and fill up the area inside the bend with black eyeshadow.
Step 2: Add a geometric web detail on the top of your forehead.
The Mouth
Step 1: Use a white eyeliner pencil to colour your lips.
Step 2: You could also take black face paint on an eyeshadow brush and gently apply some of it on the inner areas of the lips. This will create a parched look which helps in intensifying the illusion.
Step 3: With the help of an ultra-thin brush dipped in black liquid eyeliner, draw a black line that starts from the corner of your mouth and is curled up a bit and elongated on both sides. Then connect the two corners by drawing a thin line from the centre of your mouth.
The Teeth
Step 1: With the skull almost complete, it is the teeth that need to be drawn out now. So begin at the centre of your lips. Use liquid eyeliner to chalk out a line from the middle of the lips down towards the bottom of your lower lips. The line should start roughly above the upper lip and end a little below your lower lip.
Step 2: In a similar manner, draw a few more lines towards the left of the first line you created. Each line should be around half an inch apart.
Step 3: Repeat on the right side to finish your teeth.
The Jaw and Cheekbones
Step 1: We are going to create two more hollows on your face to make the skull look a bit more realistic. Begin by mapping out a hollow area near your cheekbone close to one of the ears using liquid eyeliner. Outline a second hollow on the same side of your face but this one should be close to your teeth.
Step 2: Sketch out a curved line using the same eyeliner to connect the two hollows.
Step 3: Mirror this on the other side of your face.
Step 4: Fill the hollow areas that you just created with black eyeshadow. You should have two on each side underneath the cheekbones and above the brow bones. Filling the hollows will add depth and make it look more realistic. Make sure you darken the curved lines that connect these hollows, too.
The Devil Is In The Details
Charmingly frightening as you may look by now, a few more intricacies can make your glam skeleton look really pop:
- Freestyle embellishments go perfectly with this look. Paint a stray flower on the chin with a black centre or try some swirls and dots. Sugar skulls are more or less similar to hand-painted dolls, so imperfections will just make your look more perfect. I am not talking about turning your face into a crazy mess, but the hand-drawn effect can be beautiful.
- You could additionally use some black eyeshadow and shade underneath your jawline down to your neck. It will give your neck a more emaciated look which makes for a better fake skeleton. Use deeper shades on the sides of the neck and keep it lighter towards the centre leaving a small section of natural skin noticeable down the centre.
- Should you prefer, feel free to use fake eyelashes for added effect.
- Use some of the black eyeshadow to shade the area around your hairline, if you’d like.
- Take the help of an angled eyeliner brush to pull the surplus eyeshadow from the inner corner of your eyebrow up and into a curved line. Repeat on the other side.
Set the Look
Making sure that your look is set and stays put all night long is imperative. Use black eyeshadow over all the dark regions of the face, and then ensure the white areas are covered in translucent powder using a fluffy powder brush. Curl your hair to create soft waves; then add flowers and pin-up your curls on one side to keep it glam.
Such an easy and fun way to decorate your face for Halloween or a Day of the Dead celebration, isn’t it?! I hope you enjoyed this look and learned something!
Trick or Treat! Happy Halloween!
What other makeup tutorials would you like to see on Urban Diaries? Tell me in the comments below.