The Budget Series: Halloween Sugar Skull Make-up

Hello! So I've already had my Halloween celebrations - a little bit early, but I tend to do the weekend rather than the actual day if it doesn't fall on a weekend. So this year I'm actually quite poor so I didn't have the money to fork out on something expensive, and went for the Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skull. Apparently its quite a popular look this year with a DIY tutorial in Company magazine, but they're quite individual designs so its good fun to experiment and create your own look.

Photographs apart from the first one are courtesy of my friend Joanna, I took all my Halloween pics on a disposable (tradition is tradition) and I haven't had it developed yet!

So honestly, this is quite an easy  look to create without having to buy anything, and its quite hard to write a how to because I just googled pictures of sugar skulls and made a mix of them on my face.

A lot of sugar skulls work from a white face, but I decided I didn't want to go with that and used my usual makeup with heavier contouring to define my face more.

BASE

Elf mineral infused face primer
Mac Studio Fix Foundation in NC15
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection  Concealer in Fair
Rimmel Stay Matte Face Powder in Peach Glow
The Body Shop Bronzer (discontinued)
2true True Colour Blusher in Shade 1

So I used a heavy foundation instead of my usual one, the mac studio fix foundation is perfect for those times when you need flawless coverage. I don't wear it every day as I find it can be very drying on the skin. I also used the Elf mineral primer as it provides that little bit of extra staying power, and its a bargain at only £6. I used my bronzer to heavily contour the hollows of my cheeks and under my chin to chisel out my face a little.

EYES

MUA Brow Pencil in Brunette
The Body Shop Liquid Eyeliner in Black
Bourjois Smokey Eye Pencil in Black
The Body Shop Special Edition Kajal Eyeliner in 02 (discontinued)
Barry M dazzle dust in 72 (I couldn't find a link for it so I think its been discontinued? Its a dark green)
Barry M dazzle dust in 79 (I couldn't find it either - discontinued?)
Sleek True Colour Lipstick in Cherry

Soooo this bit is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I filled in my brows with my MUA pencil first of all, then I lined the tops of my lids with liquid eyeliner and the bottom with a khol pencil. Then with my Body Shop Kajal eyeliner I drew two circles around my eyes and filled them in, and set it with the barry m dust in 72. I used my black liquid eyeliner to define the circles, and put a gold sparkly line around this with the dazzle dust in 79. I then used the liquid eyeliner again to draw petal shapes all around, and filled in with my sleek true colour lipstick (applied with a thin brush). Thats it!

I also used the liquid eyeliner to define my nose by drawing a line around the fleshy bits of my nose and pulling into a point at the top and bottom, and filled in.

I used the khol pencil to draw a spider web on my forehead some lines around the sides of my nose to define my face structure a little. I should of used liquid for these too as you can see it smudged a little in the warm atmosphere of a pub!

LIPS

Sleek True Colour Lipstick in Cherry
Bourjois Smokey Eye Pencil in Black

In the middle of my lips I put a little kohl pencil, to black out the middle of my mouth a bit and add a bit of definition, and went over the rest of my lips with the sleep lipstick, blending the two together slightly.

To define my cheeks I used the khol pencil and felt the outline of my cheekbones, and drew a thin line underneath the cheekbone and joined it up at the corners of my mouth, and then drew "teeth" lines across my lips with the same pencil.

...and that was it!

In hindsight I should of used the liquid eyeliner for most things instead of the khol as it did smudge a little bit on the places I didn't expect it to (forehead!) but didn't on my lips...weird!

I did quite like this look and it was especially great that I didn't have to buy anything new for it as I had most things, and I used colours that complimented my complexion and eye colour, but it could be changed to anything!

This isn't much of a tutorial I realise - but I'd rate this as super easy so its quite easy to pick up as you go along!

(I will also be doing a post on the Jester look that I am pictured with as I helped create it, this is a much harder look though, and very time consuming!)

What did/are you wearing for Halloween this year?