Special effects makeup, a skill previously reserved for film sets, has gone mainstream. Across Instagram, countless self-taught artists have been blessing us all with insane looks lately, from fang faces [1] to neon skeletons [2] to ripped-off eyebrows [3].
If you've never attempted SFX, it can be intimidating. To help you get started, we worked with the Halloween [4] masters at Make Up For Ever [5] to come up with eight looks you can try this Oct.31. Two of the brand's pro makeup artists — Lijha Stewart [6], director of education and artistry, and Nick Lujan [7], pro educator — broke down how to achieve seemingly impossible looks for us, from the Game of Thrones Night King to the classic skeleton. Best of all, they did it in five steps or fewer and with no fancy tools or products.
Ready to win Halloween? Keep reading.
SFX Look 1: How to Create an "Unzipped" Face
Step 1: Measure the zip to your face. Then use a white pencil to lightly mark its placement.
SFX Look 1: How to Create an "Unzipped" Face
Step 2: Brush on liquid latex [9] to the back of the zip and the lines you drew on your face. Hold the zip in place for 60 seconds.
SFX Look 1: How to Create an "Unzipped" Face
Step 3: Apply any desired "glam" makeup look you'd like. Here, we went with a vampy lip and dark-rimmed eyes.
SFX Look 1: How to Create an "Unzipped" Face
Step 4: Start painting inside of the zip with any bright colour. We mixed together blue, green, and teal and set it with powder.
SFX Look 1: How to Create an "Unzipped" Face
Step 5: Finish off with loose gold glitter applied using a sponge. Have tape handy to remove excess glitter from the rest of your face and clothing.
SFX Look 1: How to Create an "Unzipped" Face
The finished look! You can also keep the same technique for a gory look and replace the colourful paint inside with fake blood [10].
SFX Look 2: How to Make Yourself Look Like a Comic Book Cartoon
Step 1: Start off with your everyday beauty look. We went with a pink pout and black winged liner.
SFX Look 2: How to Make Yourself Look Like a Comic Book Cartoon
Step 2: Use black eyeliner to outline your lips, cheekbones, collarbones, neck, jawline, and nose and to bolden your brows. Lay the black on thick in the hairline, painting brush-like shading on one side to give more of a 2D effect. We had a cream liner for creating ink "strokes," but you can also try a liquid liner.
SFX Look 2: How to Make Yourself Look Like a Comic Book Cartoon
Step 3: Fill inside the lines on your lips and the tear drop, using white paint as highlight.
SFX Look 2: How to Make Yourself Look Like a Comic Book Cartoon
The finished look! Now you can re-create your favorite Roy Lichtenstein painting or pay homage to Wonder Woman and other superheroes.
Key product: Make Up For Ever Aqua Black Cream Eye Shadow [11] (£17)
SFX Look 3: How to Do Skull Makeup
Step 1: Cover up your brows using glue stick (here's a step-by-step [12] on how to do that) and let it dry completely. Then, use black cream eye shadow to cover your neck and fill in your eye sockets, nasal cavity, and the entire mouth (all the way up to your cheekbones). Paint white paint everywhere else.
SFX Look 3: How to Do Skull Makeup
Step 2: Intensify the white paint.
SFX Look 3: How to Do Skull Makeup
Step 3: Blend the edges using a brush packed with black eye shadow.
SFX Look 3: How to Do Skull Makeup
Step 4: Grab a lip brush to apply white paint over your lips and create the illusion of teeth. Stretch each streak with a light hand so it looks like the "roots" of the teeth. Set the whole look using a generous amount of matte loose powder.
SFX Look 3: How to Do Skull Makeup
Step 5: Finish off by lining the teeth with liquid liner and a little white mascara. Now you've got the complete look! For a little something extra, draw vertebrae down the neck and add cracks to the skin.
SFX Look 3: How to Do Skull Makeup
Optional: let your hair down to look even more like you've stepped out of a horror film.
SFX Look 4: How to Do the Game of Thrones Night King Makeup
Step 1: First, cover up your eyebrows using a glue stick. Then, pick white paint to start painting the base of "wrinkles." We copied the wrinkle pattern of the Night King here by looking at a photo, but one pro tip for creating faux wrinkles is to scrunch your face up and see where lines form naturally as a guide.
SFX Look 4: How to Do the Game of Thrones Night King Makeup
Step 2: Fill in what will be the deeper parts of the wrinkles with blue-grey paint. Apply black paint on the eye sockets, forming a furrowed brow.
SFX Look 4: How to Do the Game of Thrones Night King Makeup
Step 3: Use a clean lip brush to lightly blend between the contour and highlight of each wrinkle. Once you've done the whole face, set it with matte loose powder. Draw thin black lines inside the lips and vertically down the lips. Put on black shadow to enhance the wrinkles and create more depth.
SFX Look 4: How to Do the Game of Thrones Night King Makeup
You're almost done . . .
SFX Look 4: How to Do the Game of Thrones Night King Makeup
Step 5: Paint on the Night King's terrifying ice-blue irises on the lids of your eyes for a chilling finishing touch. We promise this will be a great party trick.
SFX Look 5: How to Do It's Pennywise the Clown Makeup
Step 1: Cover the eyebrows using a glue stick. Using a sponge, evenly apply white paint all over the face. Let it dry completely and press on mattifying loose powder. Pick soft matte brown and charcoal eye shadow shades to sculpt sharp cheeks and the forehead, chin, jaw, and perimeter of your face.
SFX Look 5: How to Do It's Pennywise the Clown Makeup
Step 2: Cover the eyes in black eye shadow so they look sunken in. Extend the sculpt to the side of the nose and connect the inner corner of the eyes to the brow bone for a more sinister look. Make sure to line the upper and lower lash lines with black eyeliner to blend it all together.
SFX Look 5: How to Do It's Pennywise the Clown Makeup
Step 3: Use a matte red lipstick to draw an exaggerated lip shape. Take the same shade to draw lines upward from the corners of the mouth to above the centre of the brow bone.
SFX Look 5: How to Do It's Pennywise the Clown Makeup
The "teeth" were just made from a cut piece of paper. Now, put on your creepiest smile.
Key product: Make Up For Ever Artist Liquid Matte Lipstick in 401 Red [13] (£17.50)
SFX Look 6: How to Fake Frost and Ice
Step 1: Use white grease makeup on the face, eyelids, brows, and neck. Set with powder, leaving some skin tone coming through under the eyes and around the nose and the corners of the mouth. Dust a shimmery highlighter all over.
SFX Look 6: How to Fake Frost and Ice
Step 2: Sculpt cheeks, forehead, lips, and chin with grey shadow. Follow with blue shadow to look "chilled."
SFX Look 6: How to Fake Frost and Ice
Step 3: Add depth to the eyes using grey eye shadow. Apply false lashes and paint them white.
SFX Look 6: How to Fake Frost and Ice
Step 4: Put on an ombré lip using a berry colour and highlighter in the centre. Shade the lips' inner corner using a grey eye shadow and blend.
SFX Look 6: How to Fake Frost and Ice
Step 5: Layer on liquid latex using a sponge and press sea salt crystals to the chin, temples, and forehead using a spatula. Mix in different sizes of salt for a multidimensional effect.
SFX Look 6: How to Fake Frost and Ice
Just add a wind machine. You could try this technique to channel more Game of Thrones White Walkers or be the Snow Queen or an intense version of Elsa from Frozen.
Key product: Make Up For Ever Star Lit Powder [14] (£14.50)
SFX Look 7: How to Create Doll "Cracks" in Skin
Step 1: To create the base look, cover up the brows using a glue stick and draw on exaggerated, highly arched brows. Overline the lower lash line with white liner and apply false upper and lower lashes to create "doll" eyes. Brush on pink blush to the apples of the cheeks, keeping it round and tight. Finish with a red lip and powder your face all over with highlighter to look porcelain.
SFX Look 7: How to Create Doll "Cracks" in Skin
Step 2: Use a black liquid liner and create any thick "crack" shape. Anything goes!
SFX Look 7: How to Create Doll "Cracks" in Skin
Step 3: Start drawing thin lines with sharp ends from the big crack. Apply with softer pressure to create thinner lines.
SFX Look 7: How to Create Doll "Cracks" in Skin
The finished look! Dolls are inherently creepy, so you wouldn't really need much else for your costume (but if you'd like to put in a pop culture reference, try the bride of Chucky).
Key product: Make Up For Ever Aqua XL Ink Liner M10 [15] (£17.50)
SFX Look 8: How to Create Ghost-Pale Vampire Skin
Step 1: Start with your usual shade of foundation.
SFX Look 8: How to Create Ghost-Pale Vampire Skin
Step 2: Using a sponge, mix your foundation shade with white grease makeup. Mixing the two together will give you a shade that is not pure white or too ashy.
SFX Look 8: How to Create Ghost-Pale Vampire Skin
Step 3: Highlight and contour your face.
SFX Look 8: How to Create Ghost-Pale Vampire Skin
Step 4: Create your own eye shadow look — deep violet, purple, and black give off a ghoulish, goth vibe. Finish the look with black lipstick.
SFX Look 8: How to Create Ghost-Pale Vampire Skin
The finished look. You could enlist this technique to transform into Morticia or Wednesday Addams, one of the Cullen vampires from Twilight [16], or even the monsters from The Grudge or The Ring. The possibilities are endless.