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This is after two layers of latex and one-ply tissue. The next step is I am going to add a base coat on top of that. And I like this undertone of green, and I’m going to add some gray to it. And with the tissue on the face, it will absorb quite a bit of color. So I’m going to mix a lot.

Now, when I have my color mixed, I’m going to take my foundation brush and just apply color all over. It’s okay if the tissue starts coming up and coming apart. We want that effect. This also can be extended down the neck a ways for a more realistic looking zombie. This absorbs so much color, but you want to poke at it. Like dab it.

Okay. So now we have a really basic layer of foundation on him. I’m going to add a little bit of highlight and shadow next. So, with an orange stipple sponge, I’m going to add a little bit of purple shadow, and I’m just going to beat that onto his face. And it will naturally go.

And that looks like I’m abusing him, but I’m not. It feels really good. And now I’m just going to tear away some of this excess.

And now we’re going to hollow out under his eyes. So I’m going to take some gray. And I’m going to add a little darker shadow to make his eyes look sunken in. Bring that shadow right in by the edge of the eye.

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All right. Now, I’m adding a red lip pencil to the waterline of his eye, so I’m going to have you look up, and I’m going right along that little tiny part of the eye. Okay, here you go. That’s the red around the eye. Now what I’m going to do is go around and rip holes in the tissue and put some shadow underneath. A really good place to do this is the nose. I’m just going to pull it up like it’s falling off, and you’ll see the actual skin exposed under there. We’ll just start adding shadows.

Just pulling that up a little and adding shadow underneath. You can get it so that it just kind of hangs there with something exposed underneath. That creates a really cool effect. The same around the mouth. It seems like zombies are always falling apart at the mouth. This looks this might be a good place on the cheek, and add shadow.

You can just do this all around the make-up. Find little places to expose the skin, put some shadow in there. This area around the eye can be super sensitive, so you probably don’t want to be tearing the latex off right there, but you can create a little illusion of depth right there. You can make this as complicated and detailed as you want by adding a little more color depth, adding some blacks and some lighter colors to create highlights. I’m just going to add a tiny bit of black in some of these.

The darkest spot will be where the latex has been ripped. All right, now, we’re going to stipple a little more color all over the make-up before doing the final touches. You can keep adding color or whatever you like, but to complete this look, we’re going to move onto the next step, which is adding blood and ooze.

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Now that the latex for the bullet hole is dry, we’re going to just add a little bit of base color on top of it. Just going to stipple some around there, and then I’m going to stipple the black on top. Make it look like it’s just part of the skin.

The next step is I’m going to add black right in the center of that bullet hole. Next, I’m going to add some chocolate syrup as zombie blood or zombie rot coming out of their head after you shoot them. I’m sure there’s a technical term, but we’re going to stick with zombie rot. So, I’m just going to fill that bullet hole, and there you have it.

That’s how to kill the zombie you’ve created.

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Now that we’ve created a zombie, I’m going to teach you how to kill a zombie. I have a little bit of dental floss that I’ve wrapped into a small circle. I’m going to take some liquid latex, dab it on the forehead where I want the bullet wound to be. Then I’m going to stick my dental floss right on that latex, then cover it in latex.

If you want to make bullet wounds not for killing zombies, but to look like you’ve been shot in the head, you can create these on a palette or on a piece of Saran wrap. You just put the little section of dental floss on the palette, cover it in latex and peel it up slowly. You need about four or five layers of latex, you peel it up slowly and powder the back of it, then apply it with latex.

The key to making it look realist is making it thicker in the center and then feathering the edges out, so that when you put it on your skin it kind of melts into your skin. Since he’s a zombie and he has a lot of texture, we’re not worrying about feathering out the edges here. Let me get that all covered and I’m going to do one extra layer, just to make sure it sticks. When that is dry we’re going to add some color and some blood.

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Hi. My name is Ciara Rose Griffin, and I am a professional makeup artist. I specialize in special effects, fashion, and my real passion is makeup as fine art.

I first became interested in makeup in my undergrad years at the University of Montana where I was studying acting. In our BFA program we had to take a makeup class which was taught by this amazing woman named Denise Massman. And it was so fun that I always continued my interest in it and eventually started teaching little kids stage makeup classes. When I came to New York I decided that while auditioning that I wanted to be working in the industry, so I went to makeup school and learned how to do special effects for film and television.

My favorite thing about doing makeup is the character transformation. I really love the way people look naturally. I really love people as characters. The job itself, I love travelling, I love that I get to see the most bizarre little nooks and crannies of the city that I would’ve never seen, that I’ve got to travel out of state, as well as it’s a challenging job in a different way every single day.

Sometimes it’s just putting lipstick and powder on somebody which isn’t necessarily creatively inspiring. But, at that time you’re having to deal with actor egos and how you as the makeup artist can best support actors, and talent, and models so that they can do their job to the best of their ability.

Also, coming up with different designs and being thrown something brand new, thinking I don’t know if I have the skill set to actually do that. Then having to practice, practice, practice until it’s the day of shooting and you’re on. So I love the challenges that it presents. I really love doing something different every day.

If you’d like to see some more of my work, my portfolio, you can check out my website www.ciararosegriffin.com as well as my Tumblr blog www.ciararosegriffin.tumblr.com.

Now I’m going to show you some special effects that you don’t have to be a professional to do that you can do inexpensively in your own home.

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Now I’m going to add a little KY jelly to these holes that we ripped in the makeup just to make them look like they’re oozing. So, I have the KY, and I’m using a concealer brush. You can use your finger or Q-tips if you prefer. I’m just going to fill those so that they’re seeping, pussing, disgusting wounds. All right.

For the very last step we’re going to add some dry blood around the mouth and then some chocolate blood sauce inside the mouth. First, I’m going to smear just a little bit of a red base around the mouth. Then, I’m going to add the thick blood from Ben Nye.

Now, this is a chocolate blood that I made with chocolate sauce and food coloring. I’m going to have you put this in your mouth, swish it around, and just let it drip down your face. Just disgusting. Yeah, and we’ll just smear.

And there you have your homemade, easy Halloween zombie.

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I’m going to apply the base of the zombie make up now. I am using some cream makeup that I got from the local Halloween store. Most of these products are also available in regular drug stores. So I’m going to take a little bit of this green cream makeup and I’m going to mix it with white and gray to get the color of the base that I want. So that’s the green you can to add a little bit of white in there and some gray.

Typically when you’re doing a latex makeup I would not put anything underneath the latex, but because we want this to decay anyway and kind of fall off, I am going to put the base makeup on first and the latex on top of it. I think this is about the shade that I want. It’s important when you’re doing the zombie makeup to do your whole body. I’m not going to be doing Nikos entire body I’m just going to do the face and the ears. But always make sure you extend the makeup down the neck and any exposed skin.

And I’m going to use my foundation brush to apply this makeup. It’s a really sick color, move over the lips. And I’m basically just going to try to cover his entire face with a wash of this color. Going to get up on those ears. When you’re doing it at home you’ll remember to extend it down your neck and cover any skin that’s going to be showing. Go over the top of his eyes. Now I’m going to do the other side of the face.

We’re going to be adding a lot of layers on top of this so typically I wouldn’t want my zombie personally to be so green. But we’re going to have a lot of layers on top and this is sort of the bottom layer that will show through. I’m going over the eyelid on this side, then I’m going to get on his ears. All right and there we have the first layer of makeup foundation.

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We’re going to begin a zombie makeup application. There are several different types of zombie, but we’re going to be doing the flesh falling off the face zombie. These are simple things that you can do to create a really cool effect with things that you have around the house and some liquid latex. You want to first make sure that you’re not allergic to liquid latex by putting a little blot on your wrist or on your neck somewhere to make sure that you don’t get rashy or itchy.

The first thing I’m going to do for this makeup application is start with the teeth. I’m just going to dry the teeth out. I’m going to have you open your mouth and keep your mouth open. I’m going to lift up here and just dry these teeth out. Then I’m going to add some black tooth decay. This is a Ben Nye product, and I’m going to paint this right directly onto the teeth. Try to keep your mouth open until the paint has dried. You don’t have to worry because this is made specifically for your teeth. You don’t want to get it on your gums if you can avoid that. Just try to keep it on the teeth. Okay.

I’m going to move on to another color. This is decay. Open. These are dry, so you need to close and swallow. Okay. I’m just going to paint that over the top. Just pretty much an overall totally disgusting look. You can tap that out. Okay. Relax. Then I’m going to add nicotine on top of that. Okay. Leave your mouth open for a minute.

Now that we’ve got some pretty disgusting teeth we’re going to start to add the base of the makeup.

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I’m going to teach you how to make scars using a product called rigid
collodion. It looks like this and it’s from a company named Kryolan. And,
you can get it at Halloween supply stores and professional specialty make
up stores, such as Alcone in New York City. Or, you can also get it at the
Make-Up Designery.

So basically what this is, is a product that pulls the skin together. So,
it’s pretty chemically. It smells a little bit like nail polish. If you
have super sensitive skin, I recommend not using this. But, if you don’t
have super sensitive skin, like Mico, we can use it.

So basically what’s going to happen is, I’m going to brush this on and I’m
going to have him pull his face taught. Like that. Can you do that for me
with both hands? Perfect. And, I’m going to make a Jokeresque scar, kind
of like, Keith Ledger’s scar in Batman.

So, I have a little bit and I’m just going to apply that here in the shape that I want.
Can I have you move your fingers back off your face a little bit, a little more.
It dries pretty quick and the more layers you add, the more severe the
scarring will be. This you definitely don’t want to get it in your mouth,
but I’m going to put it right up to the lip to create that effect.

Okay, we’re going to do this on both sides, but we’re going to let this side dry
first. And, it’s going to take, maybe, two to three minutes.
So, the scar should be a little shiny, usually scars are. But, I’m going
to powder this one down just a little bit. So, I have powder on my powder
brush and I’m just going to tap it out on both sides. And there we have
the start of the Joker scar.

If you use rigid collodion, you can make very subtle scars on pretty much
any part of the body. Especially arms. It’s good for arms. Depending on
what brush you use and how much you apply, you can get very real looking
scars. If you want to add a little bit of pinkish color underneath it, you
can start with a little bit of make-up underneath, very, very, light, and
subtle, and add that on top for a variation.

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I’m going to add a little bit of red color to this blackened charcoal that I already have on my hand and mix a lipstick color. That’s kind of a deep red. I like that color. So, I’m going to take my lip or concealer brush, it’s the same shape, and I’m going to just brush this over his lips kind of very haphazardly. I’m going to extend it out to those scars.

I kind of want the center of that to be a little more vivid, so I’m going to add just a bright red. I’m going to add a little black on the outer edges. Then I’m just going to tie it together. This is the fun part where you can play around. It’s a messy makeup.

And there you have a super quick, really simple Joker makeup.

I’m just going to wet his hair and gel it back. If you have something like some kind of shine product that makes it look greasy that’s even better. In fact, you can literally add grease or oil to your hair if you want, a little olive oil or something like that.

And that’s the quick and easy Joker.

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We already applied the scars for this Joker makeup and now we’re going to add the white color of the face. So, this is a simple palette that I bought from a drug store or a Halloween store and I’m going to use a little bit of white and I’m going to add in just a touch of grey. I’m going to mix these two together with my palette knife. If you don’t have a palette knife at home you can use a butter knife.

Once that color is all mixed in I’m going to get my foundation brush, also use white latex sponges that you can get at the drug store, or your fingers if you like. And I’m just kind of going to make this even. It’s not going to be perfect makeup because the Joker’s makeup was a little messy, all over the place, erratic, and wonderful. And then go over the lips and it’s okay to paint over the scar as well. I think it’s important to get part of the ears if not all of them. And I’m bring the makeup down onto the neck.

Okay, close your eyes and we’re going to brush foundation over the top. I love this makeup in the movie. Some of his skin tone is actually going through and it looks so wonderfully haphazard. It looks like the character applied it and not the makeup artist. We can leave it at that. I’m going to powder it now. If you really want to give it a cakey, crusty look, you can add way too much powder and that’s kind of a fun look as will. Close your eyes. And that’s our foundation.

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I’m going to add some Ben Nye stage blood now. I like this blood because you can put it in your mouth. You can also make homemade blood if you like, that you can eat.

So, basically, I am just going to dab this blood all over.

It’s kind of beading up on top of this stage makeup from the injury wheel that we put on, which gives a really cool effect.

We are just going to keep dabbing the blood all over.

How’s it taste?

Another thing I am going to do, last step, is to put some K-Y Jelly on top of that to make it look really oozy, like it hurts really bad to get your face zipped off.

And, there you have a zipper face.

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Now we are going to give Amanda a “zipper face”. This is a really
cool effect that makes it look as if your skin is being zipped open. I
have this zipper and I am going to fit it to Amanda’s face. You can use
the flesh tone or you can use a black zipper, if you want. But I am
choosing a more subtle approach and I am going to use this beige, nude.

So I’m going to open it up and what I want to have happen is I want this part
of the zipper to lay up a little bit. So we’re just going to
measure that. And I think that’s about fine.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to powder. That will give me an outline of
where to place the zipper. You don’t need too much powder, but just
enough to see it on her face. All right. Keep your eyes closed. That will
give us an outline.

Now what I’m going to do with the zipper is I’m going to take and cut off these
edges. I’m doing this so it looks like the top part of her head is where
the zipper starts. And then we’re going to do the same on the opposite side so
it looks something like that. And we’re going to try this on once again
and that creates a really cool effect right there.

So I am now going to apply spirit gum. This is spirit gum, you can get it at Halloween
stores. Make sure that you’re not allergic to it first of all. You can do that by
dabbing a little bit on your wrist or the back of your neck, making sure
that you don’t get blotchy or itchy. And just dab it along
the outline that we made with the powder. And I’m only going to go about
here, and then I’m going to place the rest of the zipper and pat the
spirit gum as we go. This has to hold material, so I’m going to add a few
layers so that it is a little more sticky than usual. Close your eyes.

Once again to activate spirit gum you need to either let it set or you
can tap it out. What you want are these stringy little fibers. When it gets sticky like that,
you know it is time, to place the zipper on. I’m just going to hold that firmly.

So I’ve glued this section down with the spirit gum and held it in
place. And what I’m going to do now is just glue the rest of it all the way
down.

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I’m going to show you how to create a sliced neck. Now there are a few different ways you can create this look. One of them would be with latex. The other, you can use mortician’s wax or scar wax. I’m going to show you today how to use a silicone compound. This compound is called Third Degree, and you can get it at professional make-up stores and online. It’s a really amazing product and tool for special effects make-up.

There is an A component and a B component which are labeled and marked. It is really important that you do not contaminate the A and the B because it will start the chemical reaction that makes this material set and cure. So what we’re going to do is take equal parts of A and B and we’re going to use separate spatulas to not contaminate them. We want about the same amount so the right chemical reaction takes place. So with this spatula, I’m going to use the A. You don’t need too much. I’m going to use about this much. I’m going to put it onto my palette. If you don’t have a palette, if you have a plate at home, that’s fine. With a separate palette knife, I’m going to measure about the same amount. I’m going to put that on the opposite side of my palette. I’m going to keep my palette knives with each container.

Now we can add a tiny bit of foundation into the silicone to make it match the skin. So, I am going to grab her foundation color and put just a little tiny bit onto my palette. It doesn’t take much at all. Now, I’m going to combine the two using a separate knife.

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I’m going to mix the two in with the foundation. Now, you want to work these up really well. Work them in together so you can get the A and B component to really mix. See how colored that is and I used hardly any foundation at all. Another reason you don’t want to use too much foundation is because it can offset the chemical reaction.

Once this sets, depending on temperature and humidity, you have about five to seven minutes to work with it. So I want to make sure that the area I’m applying is clean. I’m just going to spritz a little alcohol here. And with my knife, I’m just going to lay it on. You want it to be thicker in the center and to feather out towards the edges so that it blends in to the skin. So now it’s on I’m going to use my palette knife which I’m going to clean. I’m going to use my palette knife to spread this out. Right now, it’s a nice consistency for sculpting, but I can feel that it’s starting to cure.

You want to be careful not to get this in hair. It will come out eventually, but it kind of bonds into hair. All right. So now that that’s kind of blended into the skin, I’m going to take my palette knife and create the slit, just cutting that. The excess product I have I can wipe away on my hand. The cut will probably be thicker in the middle and feathered out towards the end. So, make the edges thinner on either side, and this can be a lot thicker.

Okay. Now that I have a shape that I like, I’m going to take a stipple sponge and add a little bit of texture over the top. I’m just barely going to tap this. One thing to know about using silicone is that latex inhibits it. You cannot use white latex sponges, the over-the-counter kind you get at the drug store. You cannot use that on this product until this product has completely set. All right. Now that it’s on, we’re going to wait for it to dry.

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This is the last part of our blood slit, and it’s the most fun. This is when we get to add the blood. So I’m going to go ahead and use Ben Nye thick blood, which is like a gelatin consistency. And I take a little bit of that up, and then using my knife I’m going to smear it inside the wound. I like this because it has a little bit of a shine to it, and it’s nice and thick. I’m just going to fill that wound with the dry, thick blood.

Now if this were a fresh wound, it would be bleeding. So the next step is we’re going to add blood, a thin stage blood. So I’m going to put some stage blood on my brush, and then I’m just going to stick it right in that wound, and let it drip down. If you only have thick blood and you want to make it look fresh, but like the blood isn’t dripping out, one little makeup artist secret is that you can add KY Jelly, or any type of personal lubricant, it gives it a really gross, wet look. We’re just going to keep loading this blood in here until it drizzles down, there it goes. You can see the natural flow, and that is a sliced neck.

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Our silicone has set, so now I am going to fix it with some fixer spray. Close your eyes. I’m just going to spritz. That helps seal it. Okay. Now, I’m going to take a little bit of powder, load my brush with it, and then gently powder it. Especially around the edges, we don’t want it to look too shiny. Okay. Now, I’ve mixed up more of her foundation color, and we’re just going to try to blend this into her skin. So I’m going to put a little bit on a foundation brush. You can use a sponge.

Now that this has set, you can go ahead and use a latex sponge. I’m just trying to make this match the rest of her skin. I’m going to go all the way around. You don’t need to really color the wounds since we already added foundation in with the silicone. And that’s blending in nicely with the skin. Since we’ve added that color, you just want to blend it down. I’m going to use my orange sponge. You can use any sponge you want to just stipple some more color, give it a little texture. Great.

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Now that we’ve applied our base coat of red, I’m going to add a deep maroon red color, also from the Ben Nye Bruise Wheel. I’m just going to go over that initial layer that we had, especially on the outer edges. I’m just going to deepen that color a little bit. We’re trying to create some depth in the face. The way I’ve glued this on with the spirit gum, I’ve left some open flesh flaps. And so the farther into the flaps, the darker the color should be. All around those edges. Be really gentle when you’re doing this. And then I’m going to go up along the sides of the nose as well. And now I’m going to go in along those edges, deep into there with a black. And then I’m going to blend the color in toward the mouth. You want kind of a gradation of color coming in toward the center of the face. Once that’s done, we’re going to add the blood.

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The zipper has adhered to Amanda’s face now, and so it took a little while,
a lot of spirit gum, tapping off, pressing down, making sure that it’s nice and stuck on
there. So when you do this, be patient, it takes a while.

Okay, now I’m going to add a base to try blend the zipper into her complexion a
little bit. I have her foundation color already mixed up, and now I’m just
going to cover her face, except the middle part. We’re going to do
something different there, so we don’t need to apply base. We’re going to
let the base come onto the zipper. And we’re just covering her whole face.
I’m going to go over her eye here. The zipper will absorb a lot of the makeup,
so just know you may have to put a few layers on it.

I’m going to take a center brush and go up under her eye. This is a really
cool look, if you have, like, full blown eye makeup on. And so once the zipper
is applied, if you want to add eyelashes, liner, eye shadow, all of that.
It makes the look even cooler. On this side, again, I am going to add a lot
of makeup to the zipper.

I am going to add wax to kind of smooth out these edges here. So taking my
mortician’s wax or your nose putty and scar wax, and I’m warming it up on
my hand with my palette knife so that it’s really easy to use. I’m going to
take a little bit of it and just run it along that edge. I’m just trying to
fill in that gap a little. That way we can kind of hide that seam. I’m
going to do that on both edges.

If you ever need help smoothing out the wax, you can use a little bit of
alcohol. That will help smooth it. Yeah, it looks better already. We don’t
see that seam so bad. I’m going to do the opposite side as well. Once
that’s done on both side, I’m going to feather those edges again to blend
it even better into the skin. So I’m just going to add some foundation over
the top of the wax that we just added.

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I’m going to add just a little bit of blush now to make her look more normal on the outside, kind of more of a beauty makeup on the outside. Like I said, you can add a full blown eye makeup to this look. It creates a really cool juxtaposition of what we’re going to do in the middle. So, we’re just going to blush it up.

Now we’re going to add kind of a bloody middle to this. I’m going to take my Ben Nye colors from my bruising wheel, and I’m going to add the lightest red, the brightest red. I’m just going to fill that entire center in with red. We’re trying to give the illusion that the skin has been zipped away and we just have this bloody, messy inside.

You can leave these flaps on if you like the way it looks, or you can cut them off during the application. I kind of like the way it looks like skin hanging down, so I’m going to leave mine. Just going to gently lift these flaps to get the color underneath the zipper. Make sure you get in the nose. Down the sides. I’m going to lift that zipper up and try to get in there.

If you don’t have fancy makeup brushes, too, in your own collection you can always go to the paint store or to a craft store and get cheap brushes. They’re easy to use. They’re not expensive. Then you can throw them away, or you can clean them and reuse them.

Alright. So, that is the first step to the inside of the zipper

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Now we’re going to add color to the sliced neck. I’m going to start out with this deep, purple-y red color, and I’m going to fill in the wound with this color. I’m going to use a concealer brush, but you can use any brush that you have, or Q-tips of course always work well. So I’m going to start in the middle and work my way out. I’m just filling in that little gap that we’ve created with our knife, the little indentation in the silicon. Great, and now that’s how it will look. I’m going to add a little darker color right around the edges to make it a little bit more deep looking.

So I’m just going to take a little tiny bit of black, and I’m going to mix that in with my purple-y red. Now I’m going to take a thin angle brush that looks like this, and add that just around the edges, fill in these thin little parts, and I’m just going to hug each edge when it gets a little bit thicker. I’m going to do that all the way around the cut, and then down on the bottom. And if you put this on and you decide that it doesn’t look contrasted enough, you can add just pure black right around the edge. Just want to make sure that the color stays inside of the wound and not out on the raised part of the silicon. All right, I like the way this looks, but right in the middle here I feel like it could be a little bit deeper, so I’m just going to do straight black. That will make the wound look deeper. There we are.

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I’m going to show you how to prep long hair for a wig. The first thing we are going to do is section out the hair into two parts. Her hair is already amazingly sectioned by color. So we’re just going to follow that. We have two sections now. I’m going to take this first section and split that into two. I’m going to start up at the top, smoothing, and I’m going to start twisting. I’m just going to keep adding a little bit of hair as I twist around, and you want this twist to be as flat to the head as possible.

Now I’m going to have you hold onto this while I do the opposite side. Just smoothing that hair back again, and I’m just going to start twisting, slowly adding hair in from that section. There’s a lot of different ways you can prep hair, but I find this one to be really quick and easy. There’s of course, pin curls. And then I’m going to have her hold this section as well.

Now, we’re down to our last two sections of hair. Same thing, I’m going to start up here at the top and twist. Just keep adding in hair. You want to try to get as many of these little baby hairs in as you can. Just gathering and adding hair in until we get to that part. We’re going to add this to the pile of hair that we’re holding and move on to the last section. You get all of those little baby hairs in.

So, now that I have this final section, I’m going to twist it all the way around and I’m going to try to lay it as flat as I can at the bottom of her head while wrapping it all the way around. Where the hair comes to an end, I’m going to bobby pin it, stick that in there, and secure it. You can use however many bobby pins it takes. It should probably take only one or two depending on how thick your hair is. If you have super thick hair you might want to try multiple sections, more than four.

And then I’m just going to pin around that twist so that it’s nice and secure. I’m going to take this second bottom twist that I did from the other side of her head and wrap it the opposite direction, and I’m going to pin it on this side of her head. Now with the final two, we’ll have you hold that one, I’m just going to continue this around and pin that to the top. I’m going to do the same thing with the other side. You can play around with your hair and see which shapes go flattest to your head. This seems like a good shape.

Transcript

Let me show you how to contour up the cheeks a little bit, and also create the stitched lips. So, I’m mixing a little bit of my pale color with black to create a grey that I will use for contouring the cheeks. This can be as extreme or as subtle as you want. Again, I’m going for a more subtle look, so I’m going to do a light grey instead of a dark black. I’m going to make the contour a little bit softer.

So, I’m going to take my sponge or brush, and I’m going to get a little bit of that grey color on it and I’m going to put it along the cheek bone, the bottom of the cheek bone, just dabbing that in there. Once it’s in there, I’m just going to blend it up and down a little, so it’s a really subtle but beautiful contour. Just blotting that onto her skin, and I’m going to blend it up and down.

You can do a really sever contouring by doing a severe dark color here and then blending that out. We’re just doing a very gentle, gradual… Also here you can feel where your head indents into your temples. We’re going to do a little shadow there. Her eyes are right here. Everybody’s face is a little different, so it’s okay to touch to find those hollow spots. It’s easy, when you’re using a really light make-up, to see your fingerprints in it. So before we powder this, we’ll go over it to make sure we don’t have any major finger indents.

Looking at that, I’m really liking the way these shadows look, so I’m going to add a more severe shadow to her cheekbones. Now, onto the lips. I’m going to take my black color with my angle brush. If you don’t have these tools at home, it’s no problem. You can use Q-tips or anything else you might have. Now I’m going to create the stitched lip coming out and try to match it on the other side. Now, I’m going to go across the opposite direction with gentle, little marks. Now, depending on how you want your sugar skull to look, you can apply lipstick or a burst of color on the lips, or you can just add stitch marks across the lips, which is what I am going to do. If you want, inside the lip, you can add a little bit of dark color. I’m going to have you open a little. Close. And that creates the stitch mark across the lip.

Transcript

Now we’re going to do a Day of the Dead make-up. This is one of my most favorite make-ups because it can be so intricate or just a general, beautiful make-up. This make-up is based off of the Day of the Dead sugar skulls.

So the first step is we’re going to add a base. Because it’s a skeleton, it’s always a little bit lighter. Although, you can always take artistic and creative liberties. So I’m going to put a foundation on her that’s lighter than her skin color. You can do a stark white if you like. I prefer the aesthetic of something more subtle. I’m just going to take my Beauty Blender, my favorite sponge ever, and I’m going to dab this all over her face just to lighten her up. Just apply the base all over. I like kind of a thin transparent white, but you can do it however you like. And I’m going over the eyes. You’ll have a lot of different options. You can make it like a mask and end the make-up here, or you can extend it down to your throat, or you can do your whole body.

One thing that’s good to do is to paint the ears, just so they don’t look unfinished and like they’re not part of the face. So I’m just going to dab a little color here on the ears. Now, I’m going to go over the lips a little bit, too. If there’s any nooks and crannies you can’t get with the sponge, you can use a small brush. I’m going to use this little blendy brush, but you can use any brush you like. I’m going to go around the nostrils, up under the nose, and look up, I’m going to go under the eyes. Then I want this to come up into the hair line. Again, that’s personal preference. And that’s step one.