My inspiration for this Halloween look was a fall fairy prancing home through a damp, leaf-covered forest floor early in the morning after an all-night dance party with her fairy friends.
To really sell the fairy angle better, I even got some elfin ears, but, uh, getting those suckers to peek through when your hair is teased out “to here” and there are leaves and berries all over the place is really hard!
Hey, man. I tried.
My goals for this look were to…
- Make my skin look both muddy and shimmery, like I’d been prancing around in wet leaves. I figured that fairies partying all night long in the forest would tend to get a little dirty, but being magical creatures, they’d still retain their elfin glow.
- Wear fall leaves in some big-@ss hair
- Wear autumnal colors on my eyes
- Freak out my neighbors — because that’s how I roll 🙂
It’s weird, but I think that even with the dirty skin, the look still ended up kind of bridal/Victoria’s Secret.
Too bad about the elf ears, because I think they would have taken the look to the next level.
If you’re on the market for Halloween makeup-based ideas, this one was actually pretty easy to achieve, as far as the makeup goes.
The (muddy) skin
Even though I wanted my skin to look dirty, I still started with my regular foundation, MAC Face and Body, to smooth everything out.
Next, for the muddy/glowy effect, I mixed MAC Monster FX Tinted Mixing Medium in Dirt from the Rick Baker collection ($22) with shimmery MAC Old Gold Pigment ($21), and then stippled that randomly around my face, neck, shoulders and arms with a MAC 159 Duo Fibre Brush (although any skunk brush should do).
When it was dry, to create sort of an earthy feel, I contoured my face with MAC Give Me Sun Bronzer.
Then, because I really wanted a noticeable glow, I highlighted my cheeks, nose and cupid’s bow with a bronze highlighter, MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Perfectly Poised ($33), from the new Divine Night holiday collection.
The big-@ss hair
Today marked three days since my last shampoo/conditioner session, which I did because I wanted my mop to actually look a little dirty and “lived in.” I think that made it easier to go bigger with the hair.
I also used hot rollers yesterday, so I had some leftover curls.
To lift my roots and boost volume, I applied a dry shampoo to the roots and teased the top layers, then sprayed hairspray all over everything to keep it big.
Next, the leaves and berries, which I snipped from a couple of plastic garland strands I got from Joann (on sale for $4!), and tied them into pieces of my hair with some brown paper jewelry cord ($3), also from Joann.
The autumnal eyes and lips
