I've got three incredible last-minute costume ideas that aren’t Barbie or Wednesday Addams
All you need is your regular make-up bag!
If you’ve left your Halloween costume idea until last minute, shame on you. You should have been making mood boards in April like I was. Why are we even friends?!
I jest of course. I know I’m extra about Halloween, and that spooky season seems to just happen upon us without warning which means scrambling for a fancy dress outfit at the last minute. So as a Halloween AND beauty lover, here are three ideas for Halloween outfits that you can essentially create with stuff you already have at home. That’s better for the planet (Halloween crap that’s thrown away/one use makes a lot of waste) and ideal for those who want to make a minimal effort for maximum impact…
1.You can be a zombie ‘anything.’
No really, you can. What outfits do you already have? Could you be a zombie Bollywood star and wear your party lengha? Can you be a zombie ballet dancer? A zombie Real Housewife? (is that morbid…maybe.) The easiest one to do is a zombie version of your own job. Be a zombie teacher, zombie barista, zombie scientist, zombie artist, zombie accountant - and get creative with the props too, using some stuff from work. Whatever your job is, you can likely zombify it. Here’s how to do the make-up….
Whatever your skin tone, you’ll need a foundation that is 2–3 shades lighter for some realistic corpse pallor. So you can either mix in some lighter foundation or white face paint to try and lighten it, or you can even try adding in a little white/light eyeshadow to the mix to lighten it too. Apply powder to set and repeat. This little potion below is designed to make your foundation lighter, and is helpful to have on hand even just to change the colour of your own foundation in winter when your skin might be a tad lighter etc.
Next, contour underneath your cheekbones with a dark greyish shade of eyeshadow. Also contour your temples and the side of your nose with the grey shadow too so you look like you’re actually decaying. Add this anywhere else you’re feeling it like collarbones etc. There’s no zombie rules…
Now apply shades of burgundy and darkest brown eyeshadow to ‘hollow’ your eyes, by swirling them in circles around your eyes until you do look like the undead. It doesn’t have to be neat - just quite dense. This palette might be useful.
Beauty Bay Earth 42 Palette, £12.50 Get a brow pencil in black and draw on some putrefying broken veins where your skin is cracking and falling off.
Add a little red lipstick to the centre of your lips and then grey shadow to the outer corners - like you’re decaying from the sides of your mouth. Cute!
Finish with fake blood, natch. It comes in different colours - you’d want dark old blood for this because you’re dead.
Kryolan Supreme Blood Internal Dark - £3.99
2. Find your most cutesy dress, put your hair in pigtails and find some knee-length socks. Congrats - you’re now a creepy doll…
There’s not much more to this outfit than that, honestly. Yes you can be a specific doll, but that’s hard. So I’d go for a generic doll, and just go with the flow and see where your creativity takes you…
This is the hardest part - you need to make your eyes really oversized and round. To do this take a heavy white face paint/foundation and apply it under the eyes so that it’s almost a semi circle shape making your eye look cartoonishly round. Set with white shadow, then draw in fake lashes with liquid liner and add in actual huge lashes if you can too. This palette is very useful for halloween make-up.
Revolution SFX Palette £5.99 Do your foundation base now and make it matte by powdering it afterwards. Add in some round doll-like cheeks with a bright pink or red blush (or lipstick if you don’t have blush.)
Get rid of your brows by covering them with concealer, patting on powder and repeating this until they’re barely visible. Then use liquid liner to draw them back in, but in a very rounded and arched way - like you’re very surprised!
Add some freckles for doll-like appeal using a brow pencil.
Optional extra - add in some ‘cracks’ using black liner, around the mouth and forehead. Don’t overdo it though - you want to look like a broken doll, not a drunk beauty vlogger.
