I personally had the pleasure of sitting down with talented makeup artist Joshua Bosley of Beauty Collection in West Hollywood to get the complete zombie face transformation. Follow his simple steps below to recreate the living dead look yourself.
Brows
To make your eyebrows appear fuller, use a brow pencil and fill in any sparse areas or gaps.
Foundation
Apply a light foundation to your entire face and neck, and dab concealer underneath your eyes to help disguise any dark circles — blend in well.
Lips
Moving on to your mouth: Define your lips with a red lip liner, and paint your pout the same color. Always use a brush to apply your lipstick — you’ll be less likely to go outside the lines.
Cheeks
Contour and add a touch of glow to your cheeks with a coral powder blush. Sweep the color from the apple of your cheek up toward the top of your ear.
Eyes
To keep your eye makeup in place, prep your lids with primer first. Then, dust matte purple shadow over your entire lid, up to your brow, and blend with black eyeshadow to create a “bruised” effect. Remember to extend the color out past the corner of your eye , and line your upper lids with black eyeliner. Finish off by applying black mascara to your top lashes only.
Skin
The key to really nailing the zombie look is aging your skin. "It’s all about contouring and shading, to give off a sunken in/dead appearance,” says Josh. “Feel your face, and find the areas that don’t seem bony — these are the areas you want to shade darker.”
Shade
You also want to shade any areas where wrinkles would naturally occur, such as around the eyes, lips and on your forehead. "The best way to find these is by squinting your face, as if you just ate a lemon,” recommends Josh. Once you find them, dip a makeup brush in brown eyeshadow and extend the wrinkles out, like in the picture.
Blend
Don’t forget to blend your lines! You do want those wrinkles to look natural, don’t you?
Create red cat eye
To make it seem like you haven’t slept in weeks/aren’t actually alive, create a “red cat eye” using the lip liner you used in Step 3.
Cover up eyebrows
If you want to get really crazy, make a portion of one of your eyebrows disappear by covering it up with foundation!
Blood
Finally, grab some fake blood and squeeze a good amount of the product at the corners of your eyes — let it fall down naturally like real tears. To amp up the evil , add a faded black cross to your forehead.
Now you’re ready to scare the bejeezus out of people!
Products used
- Brows: Vincent Longo Brow Pencil in Brunette
- Face: SmashBox Studio Skin Foundation, Vincent Longo Crème Concealer, Stila Self-Adjusting Coral Blush
- Lips: Too Faced Lip Liner in Perfect Red, Too Faced Lip Color in Coral Fire
- Eyes: bareMinerals Prime Time Eyelid Primer, Stila Holiday Eye Shadow Set, bareMinerals Round the Clock Eyeliner in Midnight, Too Faced Size Queen Mascara
- Shading: Jane Iredale Purepressed Eye Shadow in Taupe and Dark Suede
Final touches
Complete your costume with these easy to get, last-minute must-haves!
Shopping online? Add this over the top Marie Antoinette Wig to your cart stat. Or, if you’re going for a more modern day look a la Kirsten Dunst, pick up this lovely blonde Victorian wig . Either way, just make sure you have it shipped to you overnight!
As far as your dress goes, we suggest you head to the nearest thrift store now and purchase a cheap prom dress that looks like something Marie would have worn! Splash fake blood on it to really get into character.
Discover more Halloween tips & costumes
Haute Halloween makeup tips
Spook up your nails with DIY Halloween designs
Ghoulishly gorgeous Halloween makeup: Sonia Kashuk shares her tips