I love Halloween…mostly for all the leftover sweets. If you’re like me, you never think you’ll dress up until the very last minute. Now, there’s no need to rush out and spend tons of money on a costume when you have a plethora of options sitting right in your makeup bag. Here are five last-minute Halloween costume ideas that you can pull off by using the makeup you already own.
1. Robert Palmer Girl
Channel your 1988 self and transform into a Robert Palmer girl. Start by packing on more foundation than normal. Rim your eyes – top and bottom – with black eyeliner. Apply a medium to dark brown eye shadow from lash line to brow bone and two coats of black mascara. Contour your cheeks with a reddish-brown blush, sweeping the colour upwards towards your hairline. Use an intense, orangey-red glossy lipstick. Slick your hair back into a bun with a generous amount of hair gel. Slip into transparent black nylons, black heels and your LBMD (little black mini dress) and you’ll be simply irresistible!
2. Cleopatra
If you’ve always wanted to feel like a queen, Cleopatra is the Halloween costume for you! Fill the entire lid space between lash line and eyebrow with a blue or grey eye shadow. Using a black liquid eyeliner, trace your lash line from the inner corner of the eye outwards and upwards to the middle of your temple, making the line thicker at the end. Do the same along the bottom of your eye joining the first line. Darken and define your eyebrows with a black eye pencil. Apply lots of black mascara and a peachy-gold lipstick. Wear a long dress and decorate yourself with lots of gold – try placing a gold necklace around your forehead like a headband – and you’ll feel like the Queen of Egypt.
3. A Clockwork Orange
If you’re really strapped for time and supplies, Alex DeLarge from the film A Clockwork Orange is the easiest costume to recreate. Grab those false lashes you’ve never used and affix one row along the top lash line and the other row along the bottom lash line of the same eye. If you don’t have falsies, use a black eye liner to draw fake and exaggerated lashes along the top and bottom of one eye and finish that eye with mascara. Wear a white button down shirt, white pants, a black hat and some suspenders and you’ll be transformed into one of cinema’s greatest villains.
4. Black Swan
For those of you feeling ambitious, use Natalie Portman’s Black Swan character, Nina, for some Halloween inspiration. Start by powdering the face white. Using a black liquid eyeliner, draw a line starting at the side of the bridge of the nose. Draw up the bridge of the nose to the top of the eyebrow and trace the top of the eyebrow past the end of the brow and upwards onto your temple, ending at the hairline. Draw another line starting at the same spot on the bridge of the nose but this time move up to and along the lower lash line past the outer edge of the eye and upwards into the hairline. Draw four horizontal lines between the lines you just drew to represent feathers. Fill between the lines with a metallic white, green or blue eye shadow. Apply a matte, dark burgundy lip colour. Tie your hair back into a bun, pop a crown on your head and slip into a black strapless dress. If you happen to have a tutu lying around, it will add the finishing touch!
5. David Bowie circa 1970/Aladdin Sane
Want to emulate the king of cool, David Bowie, circa 1970? With a bit of patience and good hand/eye coordination you can rock a colourful lightening bolt across your face, á la his Aladdin Sane album cover. Start by contouring your cheeks and temples with a pink blush. Then, using a blue eyeliner, draw diagonally downwards from the centre of your hairline through the peak of the right eyebrow to the cheekbone. Start a new line with the blue from just below the inner corner of the right eye to the jaw line. Using a red, orange or pink lip liner, draw a line parallel to the blue line, starting at the left side of the hairline to the inner corner of the right eye (where the second blue line starts) and then up between the centre of your eyebrows to the peak of your left eyebrow and then down to meet the bottom of the second blue line at the jaw. Fill the lightening bolt with an orange or pink cream blush or lipstick and go over that with a shimmery orange or pink eye shadow or blush. If drawing the bolt freehand is way too difficult, use masking tape as a guide but be careful not to rip out any hairs when removing.
Are you going to get creative with your makeup this Halloween?
Louise Griew is a Toronto-born makeup artist whose second home is Melbourne, Australia. Her work can be seen in national and international advertising campaigns, magazines, music videos and on TV.
