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Handmade Costume Makeup Looks I Pull Off Every October Without Looking Cheap
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items Every Halloween I used to spend $40 on a cheap costume kit from the drugstore and end up looking like a melted crayon by 9pm. After years of crusty face paint and raccoon eyes, I built a lineup of actual quality makeup that works for costumes AND sur...
Sections
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Face Base That Survives a Sweaty Halloween Party
White and Pale Bases for Ghosts, Skulls, and Vampires
Bold Eye Colors That Actually Show Up on Camera
Liner and Graphic Details That Stay Sharp
Red and Dark Lip Colors for Blood and Drama
Contour and Highlight for Sculpted Creature Features
Face Base That Survives a Sweaty Halloween Party
Nothing worse than showing up as a skeleton and leaving as a smudged mess. These keep everything locked in place even when you're dancing in a crowded bar at midnight.
Grab this if your foundation always slides off halfway through the night — wore it under full skull paint last year and it was still perfect at 2am when I finally checked a mirror.
MAKE UP FOR EVER Ultra HD Invisible Cover Foundation
Use a tiny bit under costume makeup to cover any redness first — my friend who blushes at literally everything swore by this under her vampire look last October.
Vanilla Soft Matte Complete Concealer - NARS
Spray this like your costume depends on it because it does. Went through a rainstorm walking between parties and my cat whiskers didn't budge one millimeter.
Urban Decay All Nighter Waterproof Setting Spray
White and Pale Bases for Ghosts, Skulls, and Vampires
Drugstore white face paint is chalky and cracks within an hour. Took me three failed ghost costumes to realize I needed actual pigmented products instead.
Pair this with a lighter shade than your skin tone for that undead-but-still-cute look — perfect if you want porcelain doll vibes without looking like you dipped your face in flour.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder
Switch to the lightest shade for a creepy pale base that actually blends smooth. Wore it as a Tim Burton character and people kept asking if it was prosthetics.
Good Apple Skin-Perfecting Hydrating Foundation Balm
Dust the palest shade over everything to set your ghostly base — works especially well if you're someone whose skin eats makeup by hour two.
FENTY BEAUTY Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Powder 360
Bold Eye Colors That Actually Show Up on Camera
Half the point of a costume is the Instagram photo, and nothing is more disappointing than spending an hour on eye makeup that disappears in flash photography.
Try the deep burgundy shades for a demon or dark fairy look — showed up so vivid in photos that someone asked if I used a filter. I did not.
Natasha Denona Love Face Palette
Keep this around for any costume that needs warm smoky eyes — werewolf, pirate, witch, whatever. The bronze shades photograph like actual gold.
Bling Any Makeup Palette Austrian Crystals Urban Decay
Snag this if your costume needs otherworldly shimmer — the multichrome shades shift colors in different lighting and people will literally stop you to ask what you're wearing.
Celestial Divinity Eyeshadow Palette Ltd Ed
Liner and Graphic Details That Stay Sharp
Drawing on whiskers or stitches with regular eyeliner is a recipe for disaster. By 10pm you just look like you fell asleep on a newspaper.
Use this for drawing clean lines on your face — cat whiskers, doll stitches, spiderweb details. Drew an entire sugar skull design and it survived tacos and tequila shots.
Stila Cosmetics
Grab the white shade for dotting on fake stitches or lining your waterline for a possessed look — creamy enough to draw with but it actually sets and stays.
25+ Marc Jacobs Products Eyeliners for sale
Try the ultra-fine tip for tiny details like fake freckles for a scarecrow or thin cracks for a porcelain doll — my hands shake and I still got clean lines with this.
Lancôme Eye Makeup- UNUSED- 7 Color Palette, Sensational Eye Effect, Lancôme Rose Case, Vintage, SALE!
Red and Dark Lip Colors for Blood and Drama
Spent years buying cheap red lip kits that tasted like chemicals and transferred onto every cup I touched. These actually stay put and look like real blood when you need them to.
Wear this deep oxblood shade for any vampire or goth look — smeared some around my mouth for a fresh-bite effect and it dried down completely. Zero transfer on the wine glass.
Pink Matte Liquid Lipstick Shades, Vegan + Cruelty-free Lipstick, Long-Lasting, Makeup, Cosmetics, Light, Bright, Bold, Vibrant
Toss this in your bag for touch-ups because the applicator is precise enough to draw blood drips straight from the tube. Lasts through eating, drinking, the whole night.
Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint Uncensored 2 mL
Ditch whatever red lipstick keeps feathering on you — this one stays exactly where you put it. Wore it as a she-devil and it looked freshly applied six hours later.
Dupes for Powermatte Lip Pigment Starwoman by NARS
Contour and Highlight for Sculpted Creature Features
Making your cheekbones look like an alien or your nose look broken requires serious contour. Regular bronzer just makes you look tan, which is not the vibe.
Use this to hollow out your cheeks for zombie or skeleton looks — the shade is cool-toned enough to actually mimic shadows instead of just making you look like you went to the beach.
Kevyn Aucoin The Sculpting Contour Powder
Bring this along for quick blush effects — smeared it across my nose and cheeks for a creepy doll costume and it blended in seconds with just my fingers.
Lip + Cheek Blush Color Cream Stick
Dab this on your cheekbones and brow bones for any ethereal creature — fairy, angel, ghost bride. The glow is wet-looking and catches light without glitter chunks falling everywhere.
Rare Beauty - Enchant Positive Light Liquid Luminizer
Special Effect Details Without Actual SFX Training
You don't need a cosmetology degree to fake a wound or look otherworldly. These products do the heavy lifting while you just follow a YouTube tutorial.
Layer this on thick for spider-leg lashes — went four coats deep for my witch costume and they looked like falsies without the glue nightmare or the peeling-off-at-midnight situation.
Too Faced Better Than Sex Volumizing Mascara
Snag a metallic shade and paint it on your eyelids, cheekbones, or collarbones for robot or cyborg looks — it dries completely and doesn't crease or flake when you move your face.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Colorfix Liquid Metals Platinum
Grab a few shades and draw directly on your skin — wound outlines, stitches, cracked porcelain lines. Waterproof means your sweaty forehead won't ruin an hour of careful work.
Make Up For Ever Aqua Resist Color Pencil
Removal That Doesn't Wreck Your Skin for November
Waking up November 1st with irritated, broken-out skin because you scrubbed costume makeup off with a rough wipe is a rite of passage I'm done repeating.
Keep this on your nightstand for when you stumble home at 1am — it melts off even the most stubborn waterproof liner and face paint without scrubbing your skin raw.
Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm Makeup Remover
Soak a cotton pad and press it on your eyes for thirty seconds before wiping — gets off layers of eyeshadow and mascara without that frantic rubbing that gives you puffy eyes the next morning.
Sensibio H2O Micellar Water
Slather this on after removing everything — your skin just went through a lot and it needs a serious drink. Woke up the next day looking normal instead of flaky and angry for once.
Kojic & Alpha arbutin face cream, even tone cream, clear and glowing skin