Hi there! I’m Ivy and I’m a makeup artist and beauty blogger from Iowa. I’ve loved and studied art my whole life and earned a graphic design degree, which lends itself very well to Halloween makeup artistry. I absolutely love Halloween and the power of dramatic transformation that makeup can create. I start thinking of what looks I’ll create in August, creeping my friends, family and cats out thoroughly all throughout the month of September and October.
One approach I take to Halloween makeup is to utilize as much makeup as you already have, or at least purchase products you could reuse again and again. How many of us have purchased those $20 greasepaint Halloween makeup kits only to throw them away after one night’s use?
I utilize a lot of cream eye shadows, liquid liners, craft rhinestones and OCC Lip Tars to create my looks. For example, the robot look was done with a silver cream eyeshadow, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Silver Strike. I love these shadows because they’re affordable, widely available, well-pigmented and blend able and totally reusable in your everyday makeup routine!
The fine lines on my cartoon pop art look were done with a felt tip liquid liner pen, Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper. It makes drawing on expression lines so simple! Because you can find many liquid liners in waterproof formulas, you can also rest-assured they’ll last all night!
The glitters I use are cosmetic glitters, which is very important as they’re much finer than crafter glitter and more gentle in the eye area. I use a glitter adhesive called Sally Gal Glitter Adhesive that works great.
In my zombie look, I did use store-bought blood capsules but the layers of “skin” are actually toilet paper, ripped up and glued on with false eyelash adhesive!
Wigs can really complete your look, but I don’t want to invest a ton so I just buy cheap ones at either Nobbie’s or Target. Be aware though that they are plastic so don’t put any hot styling tools on them. Unless you enjoy the scent of melted plastic!
Not every look goes quite right. For example, the vampire fangs in the top left were being held in with peanut butter! The tooth adhesive they came with just absolutely worthless so I improvised. Word to the wise-in the future, denture adhesive is better!
I hope you’ll attempt some adventurous looks this Halloween, knowing that you can totally do so cheaply! All look tutorial posts are linked below should you choose to recreate any. I’d LOVE to see your renditions! Happy Halloween!
True Blood Vampire Plastic Surgery Addict
Jennifer Brinkmeyer 
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