Ever since I was young I loved to dress up in a costume and pretend to be someone–or something–else. My toy box was always filled with costumes when I was younger and when my friend (and fellow church worker’s child) Erin and I used to spend days at our parents church during summer, we’d raid the costume closet that the church had for their musicals and play on the stage in the gym. So I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays as it gives me the opportunity to dress up as someone–or something–else.
Erin and I like to throw Halloween parties and scare our friends, but we haven’t had a party for two years so I haven’t had the opportunity to dress up. If I had, I would have been a banshee. My idea of the perfect costume would be a white, flowing dress with a high-low hem. But the make-up? That would be my favorite part of the costume.
This weekend Erin, our friend Sarah and I went to a haunted forest. Sarah and I decided that we would do fun make-up in order to be extra festive. So of course I had to try out my idea for banshee make-up.
For me, it’s all about the eyes. I didn’t want to go with a nude eye, but I didn’t want a dark smoky eye either, so I went with a mix of grey tones. I also wanted to mix in some red with the black tear tracks for extra spookiness. See below for detailed instructions on how I put the look together.
Find out more about the look that I put together under the jump.
1. First, I primed my face with Benefit Porefessional Primer (although it doesn’t look like it in the picture!).
2. I followed the primer with Maybelline’s Fit Me foundation, going one shade lighter than my skin tone. I also put some of the foundation on my eyelids to act as an eyeshadow primer. I didn’t pick up a lighter concealer but I wished I had as I put it together. I was able to build the foundation to take out some of the redness in my cheeks, but if I ever dress up as a banshee for Halloween and do this look again, I’ll definitely use concealer.
3. I set the foundation with Rimmel’s Stay Matte powder in translucent.
4. I used the NYX Winter in Moscow eyeshadow palette and used a grey shadow on my eyelids.
5. I blended a greyish violet shadow from the same palette into the crease.
6. I put the white in the palette on my brow bone.
7. Next, I used the Star Looks Obsidian Kohl eye pencil on my waterline and to tight line.
8. I used a pencil brush to pack the black shadow from the palette along my lower lash line. This shadow had a slight shimmer. You couldn’t see the shimmer once I had it on, but if I were to recreate this work I would use a matte shadow.
9. I lightly lined my upper lash line with NYX Collection Noir Liquid Black Liner.
10. I used the same liner to draw the tear tracks. Be creative here! Draw them as short or as long as you want. Because I wasn’t fully in costume, I went for shorter tear tracks, but I’d love to play around with the lengths of the tear racks in the future.
11. I used an angled brush and the black eye shadow to go over the tear tracks.
12. I used a clean angled brush and Lime Crime’s Red Velvetine Liquid Lipstick to add the red to the tear tracks, and then I went over them one last time with the black eye shadow.
Not pictured:
13. I contoured with the grey shadow that I used on my eyelids because I wanted to give myself a grey pallor.
14. For the lips, I lined, defined and filled in my lips with MAC’s Cherry Lip Liner. I followed that with Revlon’s Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Romantic. I topped it off with Lime Crime’s Red Velvetine Liquid Lipstick. I went with this lip combination because the Velvetine Liquid Lipstick is a fantastic lip product. It applies like a lip gloss, dries to a matte finish and stays put once it’s on. If I attended a party with this look, I’d probably go for a nude lip or a deep, vampy lip color.
15. I topped it all off Skindinavia Finishing Spray.
What did/are you dressing up as this year? Do you have any fun make-up to go along with it?
I went to a Halloween party last weekend and dressed up as a Zombie 🙂
Fun! I bet you put together a great costume. I would love to do zombie makeup sometime. 🙂
I LOVE the look! So cool! Thanks for sharing your tutorial. You did an amazing job.
Thank you, Tara!