To start off I made my face pale with some light foundation, but i think it would be fun to go all-out and use a white cream foundation to make all the other details pop. Be careful with the white cream stuff though. I've used it for another costume and I just got the cheap Wal-Mart kind that was in the costume section. It can be really hard to work with, especially if you're putting other makeup on top of it, so keep that in mind. On top of my pale foundation, I used a shimmer powder to give my entire face a nice sheen (which is the reason for the weird glare in some of the photos, my face isn't really that greasy--promise :P).
I wanted to make sure that my eyes really popped, so I used some dramatic fake eyelashes to get that effect. From what I noticed, most people did an oval around their eyes (maybe reminiscent of a skull?) and then filled them in with red, blue, black, or some combination thereof. In fact, Those seem to be the three main colors typically used in Dia de los Muertos makeup, so before you go shopping for supplies, think about what you already have and what you'll need to make the look you want. I've also seen emerald green and gold/mustard yellow used too. I filled my ovals in with a blue eyeshadow I already had, and that was the only place I used shadow as opposed to liner. For the rest of it I used blue and black eyeliner and red lipliner.
After you've outlined your eyes with ovals and filled them in, add some kind of embellishment to the ovals and above your brows. I decided to go with a scalloped edge along the bottom/side and the dots above. I threw in the upside-down heart between my eyebrows and the point gave me a starting place for my webbed forehead. The web was actually really fun to do and ended up having a cool effect. I started by drawing lines that fanned from the tip of the heart to my hairline. I then did the scallops in between to complete the web shape. Finally I did some smudging to create a shadowed effect and give the web some dimension. After that, I decided to keep the rest relatively simple. I did a triangle on either side of my nose in black (also reminiscent of a skull) and just finished up by adding some swirls on my cheeks. Looking at these pictures, I really wish I had done a dramatic red lip as a finishing touch.
And that's how I did my Dia de los Muertos makeup! I hope this was helpful. I completed my look with curled hair that I twisted and pinned back and I wore a black shirt and skirt with a red belt at my waist.
So, funny story--I went to dinner with my family (at a nice restaurant) all decked out like this. I had to go straight to a Halloween party afterward, so that's just how it worked out. I got a lot of funny looks, and some people there even came up to me to comment on how much they loved my makeup. Also, I feel like I should mention that this was a couple days before Halloween even.
This here is my amazing sister Ashley. Honestly, she did 80% of the work on my makeup. She's amazing. Also, she has an amazing fashion blog with a few recipe and party decor posts here and there. She does it all. You should definitely check it out. :)
Love you, Ash!
And this is the party I went to after dinner. My friends kind of rock. Katie (left) was a punk rock star and Cassie (middle) was Professor Trelawney.
Love those two!!!
Overall, this is a really simple, cheap way to dress up for Halloween. I had a lot of fun getting creative with the makeup and you could easily do more or less than I did, depending on what you're going for. I even think that just a black and white look would turn out awesome and be really dramatic.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in a comment. :)
