Halloween is just around the corner and picking out the perfect costume can be a difficult process. 

This holiday seems to sneak up on the best of us, leaving many people in a panic, making a last minute decision of what to dress up as. 

It’s easy to get caught up in deciding what to wear, but sometimes it can be fun to create a costume based on the makeup instead of the clothes.

When searching for Halloween makeup ideas on Pinterest, a couple of the most popular looks were mermaids, skeletons and clowns. 

Each of these costumes have endless clothing options, but the most important aspects of the looks are the makeup.

Mermaid:

To achieve this mystical mermaid look, start with the basics by applying your everyday foundation and concealer. 

One side of your face will be covered by the scales. But if you feel the need to, go ahead and apply blush, contour and highlighter to the opposite side of your face. 

Mermaid makeup doesn’t have to be blue and purple; it can be tailored to the colors of your costume. 

One important tip to recreate this look is to use a pair of fishnet tights to create the scales. 

By holding up a pair of fishnet tights against your face and packing the eyeshadow on using tapping motions, the pattern will transfer to your skin and resemble the look of fish scales. 

The eyeshadow look for this was created using the Jawbreaker palette by Jeffree Star Cosmetics and the Riviera palette by Anastasia Beverly Hills. 

Start by applying a lavender shade into your crease and blend thoroughly. The shade used in this look is Gumdrop from the Jawbreaker palette 

Next, using a smaller blending brush blend a neon pink shade on top of the purple shade into the crease and extend that shade to the lower lash line. Shade Bahamas from the Riviera palette was used in the crease.

Pick up any deeper purple shade on a small crease brush and blend that on the outer “V” of your eyelid to create a deeper shadow. The shade used here is Cannes from the Riviera palette. 

Lastly, for the eyeshadow apply any glitter shade on your lid. The shadow used in this look was a blue shimmer shade with purple reflects called Mediterranean, also from the Riviera palette. 

If you fill in your eyebrows, another helpful tip is to make sure you do your brows before applying the gems above your eyes. The gems used in this look were purchased on Amazon. 

Most gems found in stores are big to use on the face. A good tip is to buy nail gems because they are much smaller. 

Finish the look off with some lashes and a nude lip and you are ready to shake your fin all night. 

Skeleton:

The same rules apply for all these makeup looks; start with foundation and concealer and in this case, brows. 

Once you have blended your base, take a dark brown eyeshadow and begin creating a cat eye effect over the eyelid. 

It can be helpful to lay some tape down on the side of your eyelid at an angle to create a harsher line with less mess. 

Black eyeshadow can be difficult to work with, so it’s easier to start with a lighter shade and progressively blend in a black eyeshadow. 

The most important thing to keep in mind when working with black eyeshadow is to blend, blend, blend! 

Once you’ve blended the black shadow into the crease pick up a metallic liquid eyeshadow and place it on the inner corners of the eye. 

The shadow used in this look was the gold Essence Metal Shock Eyeshadow and the Stila Glitter and Glow Liquid Eyeshadow in the shade Gold Goddess on top. 

Next, take any black eyeshadow or face paint and begin contouring your cheekbones using a large blending brush. 

In order to gauge where to begin the contouring, suck in your cheeks and begin placing the black shadow where the shadows fall on your cheekbones and extend the contour down to the jaw line.  

Then grab that same liquid eyeshadow and a black liquid eyeliner to begin drawing the skeleton teeth and nose. 

Apply that same gold liquid shadow as a lipstick before drawing on the skeleton details. 

Start by drawing a black line through the center of your lips and then evenly space out three more lines on both sides of the mouth. 

Use flicking motions while extending the liquid eyeliner lines above and below the lips. Then run a line of eyeliner across the cheek leading into the corners of the mouth. 

Finally, you should use those same flicking motions using the tip of the eyeliner applicator to create the fine tips on the nose and fill in the rest of your nose with black liner. 

This look was finished off with some mascara on the top and bottom lashes and the gold Stila glitter on the eyebrows. 

Glam Clown:

Start by applying your base makeup. 

For this look you can fill your eyebrows in before or after eye makeup, it does not make a difference.

To start off the eye look, begin with a baby pink shade and slowly build to darker pink shades. The eyeshadow used in this look is shade Bubblegum from the Jawbreaker palette. 

Next, blend a brighter neon pink shade to deepen the crease. The shade Bahamas from the Riviera palette was used again for this. 

To darken the crease just a little more, add a cranberry colored shadow into the outer “V” of your eyes. The shade used in this look is Cherry Wet from the Jawbreaker palette.

To add a bit of sparkle, use a metallic silver shade all over two-thirds of your lid. The shade Divine from the Jeffree Star Cosmetics Thirsty palette was used for this.  

Lastly, apply three crystals to the inner corner of your eyelids. Make sure you are using very small crystals for this. 

A tip for applying these in the correct area is to look straight ahead at yourself in the mirror and placing the crystals above your crease rather than in your crease, that way they’ll still be visible when your eyes are opened. 

Apply any false lashes that you like to finish off the eye look. 

The clown lines up the face, nose and lips were all done using a liquid lipstick. 

Jeffree Star Cosmetics’ liquid lipsticks are vegan and safe to use on the eyes and face. Shade Prom Night was used for this.

Try mapping out the lines going up the face using small dots of glitter eyeliner to create the shape before going in with the lipstick to make sure both sides are even. 

Then using the lipstick applicator and a steady hand trace the glitter trail up the face and create the lines running up and down the face. 

The shade Cotton Candy from the Jawbreaker palette was used with a small angled brush to trace the lines and add some pink glitter. 

Create a small circle on the nose with the same lipstick shade and applicator and apply the lipstick on the lips as you normally would. 

To finish off this look, glue on some false lashes of your choice and apply a clear glitter lip gloss on top of the lips. 

These looks are a great way to have fun and experiment with makeup without the process being too complex for beginners.