Easy Halloween Makeup You Can Do With What You Already Own

You can do a convincing cat, skeleton, vampire, witch, doll or zombie with a normal makeup bag: black eyeliner, a concealer or foundation a shade or two lighter than your skin, matte eyeshadows in brown and black, a red or berry lip product and a white or nude eye pencil. Those five things carry every look below. Face paint only earns a place when you want full-coverage color like green skin or a solid white face, and even then you can fake a lot of it. The trick is shape, not product. Halloween faces read from across a room because of hard lines, deep shadow and one exaggerated feature, so place contour where a skull’s hollows would be, push liner past where you’d normally stop it, and set everything so it survives a party.

Check your bag first

Dump the bag out and sort it into jobs: a light base, a dark line, a shadow color and a pop of red. Your lightest concealer is the white of a skeleton or the pallor of a vampire. A matte brown eyeshadow (the one you use for your crease) is your contour, and a matte black one deepens it into a hollow. Liquid or gel liner draws whiskers, stitches and teeth. A red lipstick doubles as blush, a bruise tint and, with a little gloss over it, fresh blood.

Use each product where it’s meant to go. A red lip color isn’t necessarily meant for the eye area, so keep lipstick on the lips and cheeks and use shadow near the eyes. Anything sold as craft paint, acrylic or glitter for crafts stays off your face entirely. Our post on whether face paint is safe for skin covers the labels to check.

Cat: the one you can do in ten minutes

1. Draw a winged liner and take the flick longer and higher than usual, angled toward the tail of your brow. Our winged eyeliner guide covers placement for hooded eyes.
2. Extend the inner corner down and slightly toward the nose in a small point.
3. Fill the tip of your nose with liner in a soft upside-down triangle.
4. Draw a thin line from the bottom of the nose to the center of your upper lip.
5. Dot three or four whisker points on each cheek, or draw short curved whiskers with a light hand. Flick outward and lift off fast.

Skeleton, the half-face version

A full skeleton takes white face paint. The half-face version gets the same impact from concealer and shadow.

1. Pick one side. Apply your lightest concealer over it, from the hairline to the jaw, and blend the center edge so it fades rather than stopping in a line.
2. Pack matte black shadow into the eye socket in a round shape that reaches the top of the brow bone and the top of the cheek.
3. Suck in your cheek, then sweep matte brown into the hollow and deepen the center with black. Keep the top edge crisp.
4. Fill the nose tip on that side with an upside-down heart in black.
5. Draw teeth: extend a line from the corner of the mouth to the middle of the cheek, then cross it with short vertical strokes.
6. Run a white or nude pencil along the cheekbone and brow bone to make the bone look raised.

Setting powder over the concealer before you add shadow stops the black from muddying into gray.

Vampire: pale, sharp, a little tired

Mute your warmth and let the lips do the talking.

1. Skip bronzer and blush entirely. Use a foundation or concealer a shade lighter than yours, and set it with a translucent powder.
2. Contour under the cheekbones with a cool gray-brown shadow, higher and sharper than daytime contour.
3. Smudge a little red or burgundy shadow along the lower lash line and into the inner corners.
4. Draw a sharp, short wing.
5. Line the lips in a deep berry, fill, then blot so it looks stained rather than glossy.
6. For blood, drag a red lip liner in a thin drip from one corner of the mouth, then add a dot of clear gloss at the bottom so it catches the light.

Dark shades need a liner first. Our lip liner guide has the steps.

Witch: smoky, green-ish and slightly sinister

You don’t need green skin. A green or plum smoky eye and a dark mouth read as witch once the hat goes on.

1. Lay down an eyeshadow primer or a thin layer of concealer on the lid so the color stays saturated.
2. Pack a green, plum or deep teal shadow on the lid and smoke it into the crease with brown.
3. Smudge black pencil along both lash lines and blend it out. The smoked-out liner method is the same one here, just heavier.
4. Arch the brows higher by drawing on the tail slightly upward.
5. Go dark on the lips: black, plum or a deep brown.
6. Add a small mole on the chin or cheek with a brown pencil, then press it with a fingertip so it’s not a perfect dot.

Porcelain doll: bigger eyes, smaller mouth

Everything above the nose gets bigger, and the mouth shrinks.

1. Line the lower waterline with a white or nude pencil to open the eye.
2. Curl lashes hard and apply mascara to the top only.
3. Draw lower lashes on the skin with a fine liner: short, evenly spaced strokes an inch or so below the lash line fading closer to it.
4. Apply a round circle of pink or red blush on the apples, blended only at the edges.
5. Cover the outer edges of your lips with concealer, then draw a small, rounded cupid’s bow in the center and fill it with red.

Zombie: bruised, not bloody

No latex, no fake blood. Just shadow placement.

1. Even out the skin, then set it with a light powder so it looks flat and a bit lifeless.
2. Blend a purple-brown shadow under the eyes and into the inner corners, deeper than any concealer ad would allow.
3. Hollow out the cheeks and temples with matte brown.
4. Tap a little red shadow into the outer corners of the eyes and around the nostrils for rawness.
5. Conceal the lips so they fade into the face, then press a gray or mauve shadow over them.
6. Stipple dots of brown and red shadow with a sponge along the jaw to look like scrapes.

What each look uses

The few things worth buying

If the table flagged a gap, these fill it, and every one works in regular makeup too. These are affiliate links, so a purchase may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Prices move constantly, so we link to live listings instead of printing a number that is wrong by the time you read it. Links go to Amazon, which is where a referral gets credited.

Want solid color on the whole face? That’s when a water-activated palette makes sense. Our Buy, Dupe or Splurge on the Mehron Paradise AQ palette compares one against a cheaper and a pro option.

Making it last until midnight

Costume makeup fails when the black migrates, the white creases or the lip wears off. Set in layers. Powder any concealer base before shadow goes on, then mist setting spray at the end. The setting spray vs setting powder breakdown explains when to use one, the other or both. For dark lips, line, fill, blot, then apply a second layer. Put the white or light base on thin; two thin layers crease far less than one thick one.

Carry a cotton swab. Dipped in micellar water, it fixes a smudged skeleton tooth in seconds.

If I Were You

If you have ten minutes before you leave do the cat. It’s the only look here that works with just liner.

If you want the biggest reaction in photos do the half skeleton. The contrast between the made-up side and your bare side reads instantly on a phone screen.

If your skin is sensitive or reactive stick to products you already wear and know you tolerate, and patch test anything new on your inner arm a day or two ahead. Talk to a dermatologist if you’ve reacted to cosmetics before.

If you’re dressing up with a kid choose matching cat faces. The steps are simple enough to do on a wiggling five-year-old, and you can use the same liner.

Questions people ask next

How do I make white concealer look white instead of beige?
You can’t make it truly white. That’s fine for half skeleton and vampire, where “very pale” reads correctly. If you want stark white, a white cream or water-activated paint is the honest answer.

What if I don’t own black eyeshadow?
Scribble black pencil liner onto the back of your hand, pick it up with a brush and press it into the area. It’s messier than shadow, so set it with powder.

What’s the best way to get it all off?
Start with an oil or balm to break down the pigment, then follow with your regular cleanser. Our post on removing heavy makeup walks through it, and the double cleansing guide explains why the second step matters. Don’t sleep in it.

One feature, pushed hard

Every look here works for the same reason: it takes one thing your face already does and exaggerates it. A longer wing. A deeper hollow. A smaller mouth. You don’t need a haul, just a clear idea of which feature you’re pushing. For more ideas and removal help, the Halloween makeup guide pulls it all together, and there’s plenty more technique in our makeup archive.