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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Week in photographs # 26

My week has consisted of: apps, comfort food, slacking on exercising, lots of sale shopping, getting a First for my degree and being ill. 

Well, it has been on interesting week - I will start with the main thing which is... I got a First for my Psychology (Bsc, Hons) degree! I am really happy! I got my result on Tuesday this week and I was so nervous leading up to the day. If you don't know, there are different grades for degrees such as 2:3, 2:2, 2:1 and a First - a First is the highest you can get. I received a couple of balloons and a bottle of champagne and a card from my parents. My friends/neighbours also got me a card and a bottle of Rose wine. I also received a cute money box saying 'shoe fund' from my auntie with some money. I am a very happy heather! 

Also this week I have been ill - I have had a horrible cold (which I still have) and a viral throat infection - typical that I had it when it was results day! So I have been slacking on my Jillian Michaels 30 day shred but I have been ill (that's my excuse). I have been comfort eating too (naughty, naughty, I know). The main thing I have been loving, apart from cheesy pasta, is the new Ben and Jerrys Core Peanut Butter Me Up Ice Cream - LOVE IT! It is half vanilla, half peanut butter ice cream with raspberry jam and peanut butter caps *heaven*. 

Sale shopping has taken up a lot of my week too - almost everywhere is having a start of summer/mid season sale on. I have bought some bits from H&M, The Body Shop, Topshop and House of Fraser as you can see from the photographs above. The blue H&M nail polish is called 'Blue My Mind' and I think it is a dupe for Nails Inc 'Baker Street'. There will be some sale haul posts coming soon from Zara, The Body Shop, House of Fraser and maybe Etsy. Oh and I also won a Glamour Magazine competition this week - I won the Sleek Oh So Special Eyeshadow Palette, love it. Get on the House of Fraser, Debenhams or Harrods websites for amazing makeup/beauty sales!

My favourite things this week: The photograph app from A Beautiful Mess (I highly recommend the app and their website/blog). I also love the Dumb Ways To Die app too. My favourite song of the week has to be 'Diana Young' from Vampire Weekend - I cannot stop listening to it! My favourite tv shows this week have been: The White Queen (bbc), Da Vinci's Demons, Benidorm (available on youtube) and The Simpsons! Favourite book this week - Miranda Hart, is it just me? - highly recommend it!

I hope everyone had a great week and don't forget to enter my international giveaway - it ends soon! x

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