Halloween Make-Up Fun!: Once Again, With Feeling

My third and final costume, and the one I actually wore for Halloween since my work had our official dress up day and costume contest on Wednesday, October 30, was a last minute idea.  I was actually working from home on Halloween because I was fighting the creeping ear/nose/throat crude. 

Costume Number One: Mystic Falls Vampire

I've always used a vampire as a fallback costume because it requires nothing more than fangs, but since I was on a fancy make-up roll this year, I decided to look at different vampire looks on Pinterest. I was surprised by the varied approaches to doing vampire make-up (though I noticed absolutely no one was covered in sparkly glitter).  One that appealed a lot to me, though, was surprisingly simple when I started looking at how-to videos.

What really appealed to me was the messy wet mouth look, the one that says, "Hi, don't mind all the blood, I was just eating." I would never have thought to get all crazy smear-y before looking through photos, but once I did, my immediate presumption was that it would require some costume make-up.  Given that I was more or less housebound due to unwell feelings, I did not have the inclination to go out to buy anything.

Luckily, it turned out it was a pretty easy look to do with what I had on hand. But first! The face. Once again, I used  MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Microperfecting Primer in Mauve to move my natural paleness even further toward ivory. Then I mixed on my normal base, MAKE UP FOR EVER Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation in Ivory, with some of my leftover MAKE UP FOR EVER Aquarelle in Pearly White. Thanks to the amazing powers of the BEAUTY BLENDER, possibly the greatest single improvement in make-up application ever, I ended up appropriately and wonderfully pale without feeling coated with make-up even though I was, in face, covered.

For my cheeks, I used URBAN DECAY COSMETICS Naked Flushed to add in shadowing under my cheekbones and some contouring around my hair and jawline.Lastly, I added an extremely light coating of MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Microfinish Powder to set my face.

Now that I was thoroughly and deathly pale, I went to work on my mouth.  It turns out that if you want a crazy, "Don't mind me, I was just feeding on the blood of the innocent" look, it's actually surprisingly cheap and easy to obtain.  

The first thing I did was outline my lips and then fill them in with the bloodiest lip pencil I could find.  I tried a couple but the real winner was the cheap but surprisingly creamy and luxurious MILANI Color Statement Lipliner in True Red. Seriously, this $4.00 lip pencil kicks serious butt. 

Then I applied a healthy layer of WET N WILD GLASSY GLOSS Lip Gel Through the Looking Glass, a clear glossy gloss that cost me a whole $3.00. Next -- and this was the crazy, hilariously easy part that never would have occurred to me if I hadn't seen a how-to video to prove it -- I took the pads of my fingers and dragged them through my freshly done lips, down my chin and even over a little to my cheek. Then I reapplied the lipliner and gel and did it again! Yep. That was the secret.  Fill, cover, drag your hand over your mouth until you reach desired disgustingness.

Once I was appropriate covered in smears I outlined by lips one last time, added a light coating of MAKE UP FOR EVER Rouge Artist Intense in Moulin Rouge, and then finished it off with one last coat of the lip gel to complete my wet lip look.

Moving to my eyes, I knew I wanted a dramatic look to match the eyes. I looked at red eyed looks and decided I would do one that was both heavy on the black and the red, because really -- when else does a girl get to rock that look on a random Thursday?  The first thing I did was use a  cheap black liquid liner, MAYBELLINE Eye Studio Master Duo Eyeliner in Black, to put down a heavy black base outlining my eye. I used a smudge brush to diffuse the line.  The I laid a layer of URBAN DECAY Crave over it, covering my lid.

In the crease, I laid down a layer of SEPHORA COLLECTION Colorful Eyeshadow in Cherries On Top, then used a brush to blend it up and outward with both, carrying the colors across the whole of my lid.  I then blended the crave into it, adding more as needed to fill in my crease but maintaining a defused red aura around it.

Next, I added an additional layer of Cherries On Top below my lower lid eyeliner, then used an angled brush to create a streaky veined accent down into my cheek. These reddish veins were a last minute impulse accent, and it wasn't until someone pointed it out to me later that I'd essentially done something similar to the vamp face on The Vampire Diaries that I realized that's where I'd pulled if from.  Subconsciously all I knew was that my eye look didn't seem 'finished' without them. I added a white eyeliner along the inside of my bottom lashes to bring up the contrast, which I think worked out nicely.

Lastly, I added a set of SEPHORA COLLECTION Fringe Benefits Lashes along my top lashes, filled in with a little extra eyeliner, and then swept them up with a lash curler and a healthy coating of BENEFIT COSMETICS They're Real! Mascara.

I added a fake bite on my wrist and neck as final make-up touches.  It was surprisingly easy to make the bites look a little bloody.  I made two heavy dots with BENEFIT COSMETICS Benetint, a rosy lip and cheek stain that I adore, and let the stain run a little, then added a teensy dot of the aforementioned black eyeliner in the center. 

For a costume, I wore a short sleeved, floor length maxi dress, which was very comfortable and a pair of dangly rhinestone earrings to add some bling.  The whole thing was comfortable, easy, and meant that I looked like I'd put a lot of effort into a costume that took me very little effort.

Sadly, we didn't have a single trick-or-treater this year. By the end of the evening, I was feeling a little better, and David took me to the local 24-hour diner to get soup and pie. It wasn't an ideal holiday this year, but it was plenty enough for me.

And thus wraps our Halloween make-up review!

I have to say, one of the great things about this Halloween was how much I got to experiment with make-up.  Growing up today must be so different for girls without mothers. My grandmother was never one much for getting creative with the beauty products, and though my mom was an adept hand with a make-up brush, she was gone by the time I could have really used her help.

Nowadays, there are blogs and articles and even whole YouTube channels where talented amateurs and even professional make-up artists will teach you everything you need to know.  I love that.  I love that this crazy community of people can come together through the silent electric pulses down the wire to provide the kind of guidance I never had on a whole host of topics, including how to do your make-up so you don't end up with a lot of unfortunately teenage photographs.

I love that they will tell you how to do it on the cheap, and which drugstore lipsticks are duplicate colors for the expensive kinds I could never have afforded as a girl. I love that competence in blending in can come a little easier for some girl out there like me.

And, as a feminist, let me say this: I like make-up. I like the art and artistry of it. I don't feel compelled to wear make-up. In truth, since I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I've been made fun of more often for wearing make-up than not.  I wear it because I like it. I like the costume aspects of it. I like the way it allows one to acknowledge the constructed nature of gender.  In that way, perhaps my attitude toward make-up is something akin to that of someone who enjoys drag.

As Ru Paul once eloquently pointed out, “We're born naked, and the rest is drag.” Perhaps one of the nicest things about the how-tos of cosmetics in the digital age is that has never been more apparent how much of what women are being sold is constructed, which not only makes learning to control and vary our own physical appearance easier, but also allows us all to see more clearly just how fake it all was to begin with.

Halloween Make-Up Fun!: The Sequel

My second costume and second make-up day this year was a quick costume I threw together to attend an evening event several days before Halloween. I needed something I could wear during the day because I did not have time to run home after work to change, something that was kid friendly, because this was a kid oriented event, and something that fit the theme of entertaining kids at a party.  Necessity being the mother of invention, I grabbed this glass globe I have from Ikea and declared myself a fortune teller.

Costume Number Two: Fortune Teller


This costume came about primarily based on a scarf I bought that features an awesome skull (right). As I was looking at it, it just seemed like the perfect thing to build a costume around.

I skipped the primer this time, and went straight to my normal base, MAKE UP FOR EVER Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation in Ivory.  I didn't mind my undertones coming through here since I knew I was going for a dark pink and purple palette.


For my eye color, I turned to URBAN DECAY's Ammo Palette. I love Urban Decay. I used to think that all eye shadows were more or less created equal. Within the last year or two, though, thanks largely in part to my friend Thu, who has this great blog you should check out.  Part of the magic is definitely URBAN DECAY's Eyeshadow Primer Potion.  However, having tried other shadows with it a shadow primer, I have to say, it's more than that. Urban Decay shadows have great pigment and staying power. 

At this point, I have a couple of Urban Decay palettes, most of them relatively small.  I have a couple of Sephora palettes, some Wet & Wild palettes, and a few other items, but nothing beats those UD palettes. (I don't have the Vice or Naked Palettes, but I soooo want them.)  Anyway, between Grifter and Last Call over a URBAN DECAY's Naked Basics base of Walk of Shame and Faint made for a very nice eye.  

Once again, I busted out my KAT VON D Tattoo Liner in Trooper, which is really easy to do wings by the way. Then I layered with SEPHORA COLLECTION Glitter Eyeliner in Purple on top. I love the Sephora Glitter Eyeliners, and I am quite sad they appear to be discontinuing them. You have to give them a good solid 45 seconds with your eyes closed to let the liner dry so you don't get a weird crease line, but if you do it stays on all day. And I mean, alllllll day.

I finished off my eyes with BENEFIT COSMETICS They're Real! Mascara. As mascaras go, I like this one, but I also admit to not having tried all that many mascaras.  (I really want SEPHORA FAVORITES Lash Stash. I have for several years. Maybe I'll pull the trigger on it this year.)  I really like the wand that comes with They're Real!

For my blusher, I applied what has got to my be all time favorite bronzer, BENEFIT COSMETICS Duo Bronzer Ten. (Benefit has discontinued this particular bronzer because apparently they know I am in love and they hate me.) Then I added ORIGINS Brush-on Color in Mulberry.  I bought the Mulberry years ago on a bad recommendation from a sales assistant. It's really too dark for daily use but I find it comes in handy for dramatic looks like this one.

For the lip, BUXOM Full-On Lip Cream in Lavender Cosmo layered with SEPHORA COLLECTION Ultra Shine Lip Gloss in Shimmery Glowing Amethyst. I don't usually (or really ever) sport a lip in the plum family, but with the rest of the make-up, it really worked. I'm sort of excited it made the trend list this fall or I might never have tried it at all!

I also did my nails in Sephora OPI What a Broad, which has been discontinued in the wake the great Sephora/OPI split.  Sephora is now doing their own nail color line, Formula X, which I hope to god is better than their old Sephora line, which was some of the worst nail polish I ever used.  It was cheap, which was great, but it was so plastic that it literally peels away in one plastic sheet within an hour or two of putting it on.


In the end, everyone at work was, ummm, a little unclear I guess on whether I was in costume or just trying a new look.  I'm going to take this as a compliment to my make-up skills rather than an insult to my general fashion choices.  While the style was described variously as "gypsy vagrant" and "gyp-ster," I like to think that mostly means that my make-up, which I thought was quite dramatic, was something I could pull off on a normal day or evening out as long as my clothing was...less bohemian.

As for scents, I took a moment to consider what the inside of my fortune teller's den would smell like: incense smoke, herbals teas, lamp oil, and worn, aged paper.  In the end I settled on L'Artisan Tea for Two, which is both lovely and seasonally appropriate for Fall.

What about you, dear reader? Have you ever worn a costume only to find out that people couldn't actually tell you were in costume?

Halloween Make-Up Fun!

This year I had so many social obligations in October it made my head spin.  A lot of them were costume-related affairs -- parties, volunteering, work costume contest, etc.  While I admit it was initially daunting, it was also a great opportunity to stretch myself creative and, in terms of make-up, artistically. I started looking at costumes almost a month in advance and settled on sticking with costumes that used my own clothes and relied more on a little make-up magic to sell them than on buying anything.

In the end I settled on three completely different costumes, each with it's own separate make-up palette and scent profile.  I thought it would be fun to share these with you.

Costume Number One: Pop Art/Lichtenstein Girl


This was my big costume, the one that I wore to a costume party thrown by a coworker, and also the one I wore to work for the work costume contest. It was inspired by the artwork of Roy Lichtenstein, like this piece on the right.

I got the idea from looking at different make-up profiles on Pinterest and once it took root in my brain, it simply would not let go. I liked the bold colors.  I liked that I could wear my own clothes. And I liked that this costume did not require me looking like anyone else -- a celebrity or character -- just myself, but like a comic book version.


The most fun part of this Halloween costume was that instead of spending money on costume clothing that I will never wear again, I had an excuse to spend some money on fancy make-up from Sephora. Since this was going to be an intensive cosmetic effort, I knew it would take a lot of products, especially colors I don't normally wear from day to day.

Since I had a full day before the party, I took my time the first round, making sure I had a pretty good handle on the techniques before moving on.  I knew I'd have significantly less time when I tried again on the morning before work.  The following documents my process the first time through.

The first thing I did was thoroughly clean my face and moisturize.  I know that sounds simple, but if you're going to put on an epic amount of make-up, I wanted to make sure I wasn't all going to be going directly into my pores.  Then I put used MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Microperfecting Primer in Mauve to help reduce any potential yellowing in my already pasty skin.  I already owned it for doing Gatsby period make-up earlier in the year, so I had it on hand. Then I put on my normal base, MAKE UP FOR EVER Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation in Ivory.  For me, this creates a pretty flat, pale palette.

Then I started in on the outlines.  I bought a brand new KAT VON D Tattoo Liner in Trooper, then promptly set it aside and pulled out the one I already owned.  I decided I would kill my old pen, and since this is by far my absolute favorite black eyeliner, I wanted to still have one when I was finished.

What do I love about it? It's basically like using a Sharpie on your skin. It's easy to use, waterproof, and yet still comes off quickly with a little eye make-up remover. I actually tried doing this with a cheap liquid liner first, and let me tell you -- it was worth using up an expensive pen to get the lines right. Since the Tattoo Liner dries almost immediately, it helps you avoid the crazy smeary mess of using a real liquid liner. Also if you screw up drawing the lines like I did, it allows you to remove small sections without a lot of weird smearing.

For my eye color, I used MAKE UP FOR EVER Pure Pigments in Yellow. I picked it despite seeing a lot of blues and purples in the photos online because it seemed super cartoonish, and it was a color I would never otherwise wear. The red lip was courtesy MAKE UP FOR EVER Rouge Artist Intense in Moulin Rouge. I used a pop-up lip brush from Sephora to color in my lips and to leave the white spot, which was filled in with a cheap white eye pencil I had already.

For the white dots, which was by far the most time consuming part of the costume, I used MAKE UP FOR EVER Aquarelle in Pearly White. I chose this instead of white for the slightly reflective quality the pearlized white had.  I found a how-to online that recommended using the end of a brush or pencil to make the dots, and it was a great recommendation. 

This might be the one of the only products of the whole lot that wasn't 100% perfect for my purposes. It doesn't smear once it dries, but it does tend to flake.  This meant it tended to flake away and fade over time, but it was better than any of the smeary other make-up options I had looked at.

The other product that I wasn't thrilled with was ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS Hypercolor Brow and Hair Powder in In The Pink. I should have known it wasn't going to go well with the word "hypercolor" involved, but I decided to try.  Part of the reason I chose the teal sweater for the party is that it was a high contrast color for the pinked hair I was sporting.  The problem with the hair powder is that it got just everywhere, even with me using gloves and covering myself with a towel like a cape.  It took several days to get the pink off the back of my neck; it looked like I had a weird sunburn. Also, I did not feel like it made enough of a difference for the time it took to put in and take out, so I skipped it the day I wore this costume to work.

The final results?  I wore the teal sweater on Saturday to the party and the black and white polka dots (below) to work.  I ended up taking third in the company costume party in large part because most people had no idea who Lichtenstein is or what pop art is. This is not a new costume choice phenomenon with me, as I have spent most of my life explaining my costumes to everyone. 

In the end, I was beat out by a group Duck Dynasty costume and a very impressive Star Trek/Zachary Quinto Spock.  But I had a lot of fun doing all my make-up, and that was really the point of it.  Besides, for the people who did get my costumes? I was getting amazingly positive feedback all over the place.

I wore different scents for the two different events.  For the party, I wore the period appropriate Worth Je Reviens, which I really enjoy. It was nice to feel like I'd stepped right out of the pages of a '60's comic book.

For the work day Lichtenstein, I wore Prada Infusion D'Iris. I picked it because I thought it was a fun, light, flirty scent that seemed like an olfactory equivalent of pop art. Given that irises are so often serious, expensive, exquisitely beautiful scents, I felt like Infusion D'Iris was captured the fun equivalent that Pop Art is, and yet manages to be good in its own right.

So there it is! Costume number one (and three) of four total dress up days this year.  How about you, dear reader? What scents do you think fit the theme of Pop Art girl?