Dia de los Muertos // Halloween Makeup

I know I just posted about how I don't dig super creepy Halloween decor, but truth be told, I have always liked dressing up as something on the scary side when it comes to my costume. When I was 6 or 7, I was the coolest vampire you've ever seen. My mom hunted down this slinky blue sequin evening gown at a thrift store for me, teased my hair all big and crazy, and painted my face sooo intensely. I still think that was my coolest costume to date. 

Now that I'm basically an adult (though I'm obviously still in denial), I have a new theory about Halloween. I figure, if I'm going to spend a bunch of money on a costume of some kind, I'm going to want to wear it again. So now I just try to come up with a costume that gives me an excuse to buy a pretty dress! I have also been smitten with the dia de los muertos (day of the dead) skeleton costumes since last Halloween, so my getup was a pretty easy choice this year.

Boyfriend was scary zipper face (ahh!), and the photos of him were taken after the bar party we went to, so his "blood" is a little smeared. Maybe I'm silly, but I like that mirror pic with the giant flash, haha. Sometimes I like a good lens flare. 

I found this tutorial on CraftGawker, and read through it a few days before attempting my makeup. Day of, I just sort of winged it, and had limited time to get ready. 

I used white grease makeup as the base, and just some advice, using a sponge took forever and looked crappy. Once I started using my fingers for the white, my life got a whole lot easier. I used two shades of purple eye shadow for the eyes and to fill in the little flower on my chin. I did my nose with black eye shadow, and used black liner to draw the designs. I was disappointed that the liner didn't turn out that black, but it didn't really matter in the end. I used a crappy old shadow brush for the eye shadow, and it worked a lot better than a shadow sponge applicator.

I snagged the gems and the black pearls from the scrapbook section at Michaels, and stuck them on with eyelash glue. I also added some intense false lashes, if you couldn't tell. ;) 

For my floral headress is a DIY I whipped up real quick. I bought some faux flowers from Michael's, cut the stems off, and hot glued them to an old plastic headband. I teased my hair and pinned it up in two messy buns before adding the headband, not that you can tell. I got my dress from JC Penney, and I loooove it! My first peplum... I'm a fan. :) 

What are you dressing up as for Halloween? What do you think about my makeup? I think it was a bit too scary for my grandma... Her response was: "Oh! But Monica... You're such a pretty girl..." Ha! 

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