Tab Tutorials: HALLOWEEN HORRORS

It’s time to throw away those dusty old devil horns, that slutty dead-schoolgirl tie and the rest of your last-minute-larry Halloween clobber.

Whilst your pumpkin-carving skills may be tragic, and your Halloween house decor well below par, you have a chance to redeem yourself and wow the crowds when it comes to fancy dress. We’re giving you the heads up for Halloween with our fabulously freaky face paint tutorials.

First on the list: Freaky Doll.

What you’ll need: White, black and pink/purple face-paint, one brown eyeliner, a long-lasting red lippy, a couple of paintbrushes and two hairbands. Simple.

Step 1

Paint two white semi circles under your eyes and cover your brows with white paint.

Step 2

Carefully paint your entire eyelids in your chosen bright colour and draw on your eyebrows above the white brows to create a surprised doll-like expression. If you happen to have a white eyeliner hanging around, outline your bottom eyelids with this so the whites of your eyes meet up seamlessly with the white semi circles beneath.

Step 3

Ensuring that the white semi circles are now dry, using a thin paintbrush (or eyeliner – works just as well), carefully outline the bottom of the semi circles and draw a line like you would with your usual eyeliner on your top lid only. Then add a few eyelashes, making them longer towards the outer corners.

Step 4

This is where it starts to look super scary. Block out the colour of your lips with a foundation or concealer, then apply your red lippy to the middle section of your lips only to create a little doll-like mouth. Using your thin paint brush and black paint, draw a long smile line either side of your mouth, criss-crossing sections to make it look as though your mouth has been stitched up. Here I also added a black diamond shape which I outlined and dotted in the middle with white to create a cracked skull look.

Step 5

Tie your hair up in two high pigtails for the ultimate effect. If you have any ribbon lying around, pop a bit of it in each pigtail. Et voila, you have your FREAKY DEAD DOLL look. The best accompanying outfit for this look is a girly skater dress, white tights with frilly ankle socks over the top and dolly shoes (bien sûr!).

Our next look takes a little more time to perfect but looks absolutely amazing one it is finished!

The second look, we’ve tried and tested is: The Joker.

What you’ll need: Black and white face paint, a face-paint sponge, a black eyeshadow, two paintbrushes and a vampy red lipstick.

Step 1

Using the sponge, paint the entire face/neck white except from the eye sockets. Using a thin paintbrush outline the eyesockets all the way around including the eyebrows. If you have a black eyeliner and can sit still without poking your eyes out, outline your eyes and smudge the liner with your finger.

 Step 2

Now you need to messy up the black eyes by smudging sections outwards. You can do this by dampening a clean paintbrush and flicking the black circles outwards or by using the black eyeshadow to create a more subtle smudge. It needs to look like the black paint is bleeding out to grey in a jagged fashion. Using the black eyeshadow and a thin brush, create shadowy grooves in the cheek hollows, either side of the nose, on the bridge of the nose and between the eyebrows.

Step 3

Continue to create the shadowy skin wrinkle effect by smudging the black eyeshadow in several grey streaks across the forehead. Next it’s onto the mouth. Draw an extended smile line from cheek to cheek with the red lipstick – you’re aiming for a deep vampy red colour, so if the red lipstick is quite bright like the one shown below, you can go over it with a darker colour later. The mouth should retain the smile shape but can be messy so go wild!

Step 4

To finish off the look, I went over the lips with a more plum-toned lippy, and neatened up the parts where I got a bit carried away above the top lip. If you want to go all out in JOKER attire, nab yourself some green hairspray and a purple top or blazer.

Where to buy the bits: Everything used in these tutorials was purchased in good ol’ Portswood! Most of the items used in these tutorials (including Snazaroo facepaints/sponges) were purchased in the local Fancy Dress Shop, (25 Portswood Road near Mango Thai Tapas Bar). The lady in the shop was extremely friendly and helpful so this place gets a big thumbs up for customer service. The set of paintbrushes used were purchased from Portswood Hardware Store for a mere £2.50!

We hope you’ve found these tutorials useful, be sure to stay tuned as we’ll be bringing you MORE scary tutorials in the lead up to Halloween. Get creative, tweet us and tag us on instagram @sotontab with your spooky get-ups!