Easy Halloween Makeup: Skull

This is the third post in my halloween/fancy dress makeup series, I think there might be one or two more, if I have the time and the ideas! The other two looks were: Clowns and vampires - well the previous look could be adapted for a lot of outfits. The look today is a skull/sugar skull which is a mexican thing I think about the day of the dead.  As I have said before I am obviously not a makeup artist and these are just for fun. The makeup is also quite similar to jack skeleton from the nightmare before christmas film. 

Here is my skull/sugar skull inspired makeup, it is quite simple but you can add detail around the eyes if you want and with a costume it would look great I think. As with the other two looks I started this one with the trusty Barry M Foundation in the shade 'white' and I contoured my face with a matte black shadow as before from the Sleek Oh So Special Palette. I then added some black shadow to my brows to make them a bit thicker and longer. I also added matte browns and blacks around the eyes to add depth and shadow. 

I drew a small black scar on the cheek and I drew straight black lines down the lips and cheeks to form a smile - well the lines of a smile - a bit like the joker from batman. I made the smile/lines a different lengths and a bit crooked so it wasn't so perfect as halloween makeup shouldn't be. I use a small amount of the elf liquid liner in black before applying a matte black shadow over the top. You can add detailing around the eyes if you want like sugar skulls and you can make it quite colourful, although I love dark, monotone, macabre halloween makeup. Messy, shiny hair is also great, I used the Bumble and Bumble thickening creme contour which I love. 

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Easy Halloween Makeup: just add fangs!

This is the second part of my makeup halloween series, the first was a scary joker makeup and this time it is a lot less scary with a kind of sexy vampire makeup. This makeup would be great for a range of outfits. You could add a couple of beauty marks and some lashes and it would be a great pin up look - with out the 'blood' though! 

Here is a quite generic look - it would make a great vampire look firstly, in my opinion - just add fangs! I started with my Barry M Creme Foundation in the shade 'white' which I never thought I would use for a halloween makeup look but here it is. I use my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush to blend - it looks a bit caky on the skin in real life so if you have dry skin like me then you will have to use a good exfoliator and moisturiser before use. 

I contoured my face with a black eyeshadow from the Sleek Oh So Special Palette. I then moved onto the eyes and I use the MUA Undressed palette (the first one) and I used the matte brown and applied/blended it all over and around the eyes as a base. I then used a shimmery brown all over the lid, and you can make it as strong or as subtle as you like - I took it quite lower under the eyes as I wanted to make them look a bit sunken and anaemic to an extent. I also used a nude pencil by rimmel along the lower waterline. I made my brows a bit more dramatic than normal with a black shadow. I am using the Yves Rocher lipstick in the shade '101 framboise' all over the lips, then I added a matte black everyshadow over the lips to make a black/deep burgundy lip colour - I then added quite a lot of the Giorgio Armani Lip Gloss in the shade 404 over the lips and at the corners of the mouth to look a bit like blood. 

To make this look more dramatic you could add lashes, liner, beauty marks and of course fangs and fake blood! It is a great generic look that can be adapted to many outfits - such as pinup/retro, vampire, dolls, fairy/nymph and so on.

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easy halloween Makeup: The Joker

Here is the first of my halloween/fancy dress makeup look series and this first look is my female version of the joker from Batman - I love the batman films and cartoon, even as a child! I did show a preview photo of this makeup on my instagram (heathernixon4) and Twitter (ofbeautyand). I love makeup and this series was so fun to make but I am not a makeup artist obviously. 

This makeup is inspired by the joker from batman but it has a kind of frankensteins monster vibe too with the 'stiches' around the mouth - out of the makeup looks I have done for this halloween series, this is definitely my favourite - I love the smokey eyes, very strong brows and cartoon like lips. 

Firstly, I started with the Barry M Creme Foundation in 'white'. I layered it up a bit more with this look to make my skin look even whiter and a bit more perfect as a base to contrast with the dark makeup. I then filled in my brows with a matte black shadow from the Sleek Oh So Special Palette and I did fill them in quite a lot here and I thickened them and made the arch more promanent. Then onto the eyes, take a matte black and matte brown and just apply, blend, apply, blend, apply and so on until you get the colour intensity and smokiness you want. It is so easy, just blend well. I took  a matte brown quite far under my eyes. To finish the eyes, some black liner from Pixi.  

Now the fun part, the lips. I messily apply a red lipstick (101 framboise by Yves Rocher) then I smudged it at the edges onto the skin with my fingers as the joker always has messy bloody lips/makeup in the dark knight films - If I remember correctly, the cartoon joker and the older films have quite perfect red comical lips. Then I started just lining my lips lightly with a matte black eyeshadow and my Ecotools eyeshadows brush then extending the line outwards at the corners of the lips to make a smile of sorts. Then with the same matte black shadows make small crosses along the line, like stiches or barbed wire which give a new twist on the joker/batman look. To create a slightly bruised/purple lip, I patted some of the excess black eyeshadow on top of the red lipstick focusing at the edges and sides of the mouth. 

To finish the look I use the excess black shadow on the same eyeshadow brush in the hollows of my cheeks to create a contour and I blended it out well with the real techniques expert face brush which is the brush I used for the white foundation. I also use the Elf 'cool' bronzer which has a white shade in it to set the makeup. 

I hope you like this look! Stay tuned over the next week or two for the other halloween makeup looks in this series x

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Another sale haul? Yes...oops

Yes, another sale haul - since Christmas eve when the sales seem to have started I have accumulated quite a good amount of sale products...I don't know how that happened! Here are some of the bits and bobs I bought in the sales from Superdrug and Selfridges a couple of weeks ago. 

Firstly, Superdrug (a high street/ drugstore in the UK). The Superdrug sale was a little bit insane with some items at only 10p...yes, 10p and they were sold out but I did manage to get four UNE eyeliners. The UNE eyeliners were...wait for it...49p each! I think they retail for around £6 originally but they were 49p each. I also bought an UNE blush which was reduced to 99p, so I had to get it, right? I also bought a few gift sets in the sale as they were really cheap, with the most expensive one being only £2.99. Lastly from Superdrug, I bought the Barry M Creme Foundation in the shade 'white' which I have been wanting to buy for a while but it was only available in certain stores until a few weeks ago. The foundation wasn't on sale but I bought it to mix with my slightly darker foundations to make them suitable for my paler than pale skin.

I had a look on the Selfridges beauty sale on Christmas day and I saw that the Shu Uemura limited edition Karl Lagerfeld Eyelash Curler was on sale for only £10 so even with shipping it was only £14.95 - I think it retails for at least £20. I have been using the eyelash curler everyday since I bought it and it makes such a differences to my lashes - I love it! I full review of this product will be coming soon. 

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