Easy and Creative Halloween Makeup Ideas To Try This Year!

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Whether this is the first time you’re dipping your toes into the unknown of Halloween makeup mastery or you are a makeup pro looking for some inspiration, you’ve come to the right place.

A quick disclaimer that I am not someone who considers themselves “good” at makeup. The only time I put any makeup on my face besides mascara IS for Halloween. I have so much fun testing the limits one time a year, and I always look forward to trying out a new makeup challenge. I hope these easy and creative halloween makeup ideas and looks will inspire you to try something new in 2021!

You might pleasantly be surprised 😉

This post is all about easy and creative Halloween makeup ideas that anyone can do!

Where it all started:

Anyone who knows me, knows that I take Halloween very seriously. Ever since I was a kid, I would always look forward to dressing up (& eating loads of chocolate). However, what truly instilled my love for the spooky holiday was my incredible mama. My mom would make me and my sister all of our Halloween costumes herself. When we were really young, my parents couldn’t afford buying costumes for us. And as we became older, my mom continued this tradition. Any Halloween ideas we had, my mom would make them a reality. She would put so much love into our costumes. My mom has the most incredible attention to detail, and is extremely talented when it comes to design and fashion, and I am so grateful to have been on the receiving end of her gift.

A Russian Princess: My mom went above and beyond on the crown & costume!

I was always so excited to show off my halloween costume to my friends. It made the experience much more special knowing that I wouldn’t see anyone else trick-or-treating, or at my school Halloween party with the same costume. Once I became old enough to create my own Halloween costumes, I focused on making the makeup stand out since my design skills weren’t too great. Fast forward to the present, and just thinking about Halloween still lights me up!

Before I get into it… SOME MAKEUP TIPS

When using Halloween makeup, I recommend applying it with a makeup brush first. Once your first layer has dried, apply a second layer with a beauty blender/ sponge. This will help give you more flawless and even coverage.
Watch a few different youtube videos for the makeup look you want to achieve. I do this for all the halloween looks I do. The first reason being that I learn and pick up different valuable nuggets from different videos that I watch. The second is because I don’t want my costume to be a mirror copy of anyone else’s. I love the creativity and expression aspect of halloween, and always strive to make a costume and makeup look original.
Anytime you use liquid latex to create a cut or wound, you’ll also need tissues. To create the most realistic effect, make sure to use a single ply for each layer. If you’ve never worked with liquid latex before, check out this quick and helpful tutorial!
Do a test-run of your Halloween makeup look the day before. I genuinely enjoy calmly trying out the makeup ahead of time to see how it will look and how much time it will take me to do. I would definitely recommend to do this if your look includes liquid latex (& if you’re new to liquid latex, you’ll catch on quickly)! This step allows me to see what worked well and what I love about the makeup, and also what I want to tweak when it comes to doing it again on Halloween!
Have fun! Turn on some groovy jams, light a candle, and enjoy the process!

Queen of Hearts

This bloody Queen of Hearts makeup was one of my favorite Halloween makeup looks ever. You are guaranteed not to see anyone else rocking the same makeup. It is soooo creative and a show stopper for sure. The coolest part about this makeup is that it looks like the card is sliced through your skin. The Queen of Hearts is really creative, fun, and gives off both a spooky and sexy vibe – the perfect halloween combo!

What you’ll need:

A deck of cards, with a queen of hearts (of course). I actually recommend getting two decks of standard playing cards just to be on the safe side. I bought two decks for this costume. This way, you have 2 queen of hearts in case something goes wrong when you cut the card for your makeup.
For any halloween makeup newbies out there, hearing about using liquid latex may scare you, but I promise it is super easy to use and get the hang of. I recommend watching a youtube video, which will make it even easier in the long run. The best part about liquid latex in Halloween makeup is that it’s very hard to mess up – especially with a bloody halloween look. I recommend this Mehron liquid latex or this l arger bottle of Mehron liquid latex, if you’re worried of potentially running out. The color of the latex will most likely be white, but this doesn’t matter since you’ll be covering it with foundation and blood!
Fake blood of course! You want to get coagulated blood so it looks even more real. This is another Mehron halloween essential that I love!
Red cream lipstick – this could be a super affordable one (this NYX Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick in the shade of Kitten Heels is PERFECT!). Having several shades and textures for the blood makes it even more realistic and scary. I use this trick in all the Halloween looks that involve a dramatic bloody look.
The cape blazer from my Queen of Hearts costume has been sold out for a while, but I found another option that would make this costume come together beautifully. This red cape blazer is sooo beautiful and the color is perfect! You can dress it up with a mini skirt, or wear black jeans if you’d like to be more casual and comfortable. The makeup alone is a statement enough 😉
This one’s completely optional, but you could also add a tiara/ crown!

Bloody Dragon

This bloody dragon idea was one of my more recent Halloween makeup ideas! If you’re wondering whether I was in some way inspired by Game of Thrones for this makeup, you are most certainly right. I was very late to the GoT party, and I binged watched the entire series over the course of a few months (or weeks…). Initially, I thought it would be super cool to try out my take on the Night King. However, I was spending my Halloween at a very chill party where my friends and I spent the night playing board games so I thought the Night King makeup look would be a bit too over the top. This is how I ended up with my bloody dragon halloween makeup – a cross somewhere between Khaleesi, her dragons, and the Night King.

How did I achieve this look? I used press on nails and liquid latex! I tried to make it look like the dragon spikes grew out of my forehead and pierced through my skin, making it all bloody. This may be too scary for some (hi mom!), so you can absolutely try this without the blood, and add glitter instead.

I’m a very smiley bloody dragon…

What you’ll need:

Two packs of press on nails in the color you want your dragon spikes to be in. These gold press on nails have the perfect shape so you could skip step two! I used more of the larger size nails, which is why I think two packs would be better than one.
Strong scissors to cut the nails so they have a jagged/ spikey shape
Mehron liquid latex & tissues to layer on in order to insert the press on nails inside
As mentioned in my Queen of Hearts costume above, you’ll need fake blood (coagulated blood looks and dries like real blood). You’ll also want red cream lipstick(NYX Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick) to add another shade and texture to make the blood look even more realistic.

Alien

Want to scare the living hell out of your friends? If the answer is yes, then this Alien makeup look is the way to go. No one will recognize you!

The Alien makeup might look intimidating, but I did this alien makeup in less than 20 minutes. What really does the trick for this makeup is also applying black makeup to your eyelids. When you close your eyes, it will achieve a seamless alien look that will have people doing a double take for sure!

While writing this post, I showed the picture above to Jay and he was convinced that I was wearing an Alien mask. Ah, the power of makeup!

What you’ll need:

Of course, some white and black Halloween makeup! This Mehron Makeup Fantasy F/X Water Based Face Paint Bundle is perfect!
This isn’t essential, but to give some more depth to the look, you can contour and shade the white parts of your face with some darker eyeshadow.
Watch this youtube tutorial for a very similar look to mine! It will give you the basic guidelines of what to do and you can see the makeup come together in minutes!
A black hoodie! The one I wore for the costume was a black hooded crop top with some black jeans. This is another halloween costume that could either be dressed up with a dress/ skirt or dressed down with a full on black hooded onesie!

Skeleton/ Half-Skull

While the Skeleton Makeup look may scare some away (with its “difficulty”), there are so many different looks you can do. The options include a full skeleton face of makeup, the lower half (like I did!), a half human/ half skeleton or just a patch. This is a really great and affordable look if you’re a college students… I actually wore this one when I was in college 🙂

What you’ll need:

The Mehron Makeup Fantasy F/X Water Based Face Paint Bundle is perfect for this Skeleton makeup look as well!
Since you’ll need precision, I recommend using a very thin angled brush for outlining the teeth.
For the final touch – the outfit. This long sleeve Skeleton Jumpsuit has printing on both the front and back. If you’re looking for something sleeveless, then this haltered and open-back Skeleton Jumpsuit is perfect! This jumpsuit is similar to the one I wore when I dressed up as a skeleton. As you can see in the photo, I continued the skeleton makeup down my chest so that my face makeup seamlessly continued into the bones of the jumpsuit. This is completely optional and up to you!
Lastly, if you want to be cozy this Halloween, then this adorable “Just Love” Skeleton Onesie Pjs will keep you feeling comfy and warm. I wish I got this one!

Robot

This is another look I loved creating! Maybe you’ve already noticed this with my other halloween makeup ideas, but I love doing a half makeup look. However with this one, I was going for more of “I’m a robot pretending to be a human, but half my human face just fell off and is revealing that I’m a robot” look.

What you’ll need:

This look requires very little! The product that will help create that perfect silver robotic look is this Silver Mehron Metallic Powder . Besides this silver powder, you may already have the other makeup necessities for this look in your makeup collection.
For the outline of the robot makeup and the lines, I used this Anastasia waterproof creme color in black. You’ll need a very thin angled brush to go along with it.
For the shading, any eyeshadow palette with a white(ish), silver and black color will do. If you don’t have one already on hand, these palettes will be perfect: Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Shadow & Liner, NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette (Smokey & Highlight), or this SHANY 12 Color Smoky Eye shadow Palette
For the finishing makeup touches, you’ll need a black liquid liner for the nuts and bolts
For the outfit, I wore black jeans and a faux leather crop top with a zipper

Mystique from X-Men

I love the X-Men movies. You can get really creative the characters – Mystique is definitely one of these characters. Since she has shape-changing power, you could even opt for a half-Mystique/ half-any other X-men character, since she has the ability to morph into anyone. I was originally going to go for a full face of blue, but last minute decided that leaving a tiny bit would give it the appearance that I was mid-morph.

What you’ll need:

It goes without saying that you’ll need Mehron blue face paint (this Mehron one is water based so it’ll feel much better for your skin)
For the reptilian scales, use a darker blue color (like this NYX SFX creme colour). If you want the scales to stick out even more, you could use liquid latex to help you create that effect.
For my costume, I slicked my hair back with some red hairspray to hold. I think going all out with some temporary red hair dye will only add to the costume!

Emma Frost from X-Men

I told you I love the X-Men characters! Here’s another creative halloween makeup look – Emma Frost. For this costume, I tried to recreate January Jones in X-Men: First Class. She had so many iconic looks in the movie, and I incorporated a little bit from each one!

What you’ll need:

Silver Mehron Metallic Powder and Self Adhesive Rhinestone Stickers to recreate Emma Frost turning into diamonds. I (obviously) did have my face 🙂
Shimmery silvery/white eye makeup
A wavy platinum blonde wig (if you don’t have blonde hair already) and a faux fur headband will really have you looking and feeling like Emma Frost
For the outfit, I combined pieces from all of her looks – the white leather jacket, white mini skirt & fur headband

Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction)

Mia Wallace is such a classic and easy Halloween costume! I went a bit overboard with the blood because without it, it felt a bit boring for me. I added the Sriracha bottle for comedic effect!

What you’ll need:

A black short wig with bangs, of course
If you want to be Mia Wallace in the end scene, then you’ll need some fake blood! You could also add some blood with red lipstick, since it’s not too bloody
Casual long sleeve white button down shirt & black pants

I really hope that these creative Halloween makeup ideas game you some inspiration and got you excited for this upcoming Halloween. Have fun with it!

Lastly, if there are any looks you’d like me to try out, add them in the comments and
I’ll be happy to take a stab at it in the future!