Spooktacular Makeup Looks for 5 Top Halloween Costumes

Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Trick or treat! Halloween is just days away, and it's time to carve that pumpkin and ramp up a costume to look your maximum cool. You say you've looked in your costume box and you don't have a thing to wear? Several costumes are easy to create and strike a chord with pop culture, so everyone will know whom you are channeling. And you almost certainly have the makeup you need in your cosmetic drawer.

Mad Women

Sure, sexy Don Draper, the ad man partial to Old-Fashioneds on the hit drama "Mad Men," makes hearts flutter. But it’s the women of the show, with their perfect coifs and hourglass figures, we want to be this Halloween. Whether you prefer tortured Betty or vixen Joan, you can achieve a ringer look and transform yourself into a Mad Woman.
“Betty Draper [played by January Jones] is your classic '60s makeup [style] they called the doe-eyed look,” said makeup artist Rachel B. Griffin.
To get this look, she suggests using liquid eyeliner on the top only. It should be a thick, strong line extended out on the edges and swept up. Use mascara on the top lashes or try false eyelashes for more drama. You can use a traditional red lipstick or opt for a soft bubblegum pink color. And most important, be sure to groom your brows. “Nicely shaped brows are a must, ” Griffin said.
Using mostly the same techniques, you can embody Joan Holloway Harris.
“It’s my favorite look to even do on red carpets,” said celebrity makeup artist Allan Avendano of Christina Hendricks’ character. “It’s really simple and really classic beauty.”
Use liquid liner to make a precise line on the lid. Avendano, whose celebrity clients include Hendricks, Sarah Hyland and Eva LaRue, prefers using two to three coats of mascara, then going through with a pin or eyelash brush to get rid of clumps and make the lashes fluttery.
A key to both Betty and Joan’s looks is porcelain, matte skin.
“In the '60s, women worried about their makeup,” said Avendano. “Back then, they didn’t leave the house without ‘putting on their face’.”
Avendano said to apply your usual foundation and then add powder to get a shine-free, velvet texture. Brush on a pink or rosy blush just to the cheeks. Finish the look with a pink-red or an orange-red lipstick.
“It’s more true to character if the lips look stained,” Avendano said. “Apply the lipstick and blot it off. Do that a couple times so that it’s not so thick and absorbs into the lip. It should have a satin finish. It’s better to use a lipstick rather than a lip stain because lipstick creates a better texture.”

Feeling Blue

Who wouldn’t want to be a giant, tree-loving, blue creature? Now you can. To become one of James Cameron’s Na’vi from “Avatar,” you need to make one investment. Blue paint.
“You can get blue face paint,” Avendano said, “but an alternative is MAC’s blue paint stick. It’s great because you can use it later if you want to have fun with your makeup, like using the paint as blue eyeliner.”
After painting your face blue, reach into your makeup bag for two items -- black eyeliner and silver and/or gold eye shadow. Avendano suggested having a picture of Neytiri, Zoe Saldana’s character, handy as a reference.
Use the black eyeliner to re-create the lines on her cheeks, bridge of the nose and forehead. Smudge the lines out with your fingers. Apply the silver and gold eye shadow to highlight the lines you created. Then use the same shadow to create the spots that glow on the Na’vi’s face.
To add more depth to your painted face, blot off some of blue paint from your lips to create a different hue. The lips should look tinted blue rather than painted blue. Then dust some of the shadow on the lips. To bring out the eyes, line the eyes with the black liner. Smudge it out to give it a smokey look. Voila! You are Na’vi.

Coquette Flapper

Bring some roaring fun to this Halloween by dressing up as a 1920s flapper a la "Boardwalk Empire." The two most important features for this costume are lips and brows.
To create the cupid’s bow or heart-shaped lips,start with the perfect line.
“The lipstick is specific,” Avendano said. “It needs to be a matte, dark burgundy lip color. Take a lip pencil in that color and create a cupid's bow on the top. Make the two points rounded and undercut the top lip with a line that comes down drastically. Don’t follow the natural line. This creates a heart shape.”
For the brows, Avendano suggests gluing down the brows with a nontoxic glue stick, and then covering your brows with foundation and powder. This creates a blank canvas to draw in a thin brow. Griffin, whose film and TV credits include "Once Upon a TIme" and "Sucker Punch," describes the perfect flapper brow as a dark one that extends down past the outer corner of the eye.
Finish the look with dark, blended shadow, rose-colored cheeks and mascara on the top lashes.

Sparkly Superhero

If you are feeling a bit sexy this Halloween, “X-Men’s” Emma Frost is the perfect costume.
Start with the eyes. Avendano said to use a silver or white frosty eye shadow all over the lid. With a pencil brush, line the under-eye with the same eye shadow. Then take a light purple eye shadow and lightly define the crease in the eye to give just a little contrast. Use white eyeliner on the waterline to really open the eye. Finish the eyes with black mascara on the top and bottom lashes. To add more textures, Avendano suggests shaving off some of the frosty shadow and using it to dust the lashes and brows.
For the cheeks, use a baby pink cream blush on the apple of the cheeks. For the lips, use a baby pink stain or gloss.
To really add sparkle, Griffin suggests buying silver glitter glue at a dollar store for your face.

Blood Suckers

If you want to channel the true ghoulish spirit of Halloween, go for the vampire costume.
“I think this year we should see more modern vampires,” Avendano said. “The old white face with blood dripping down wasn’t what I first thought of with 'Vampire Diaries,' 'True Blood' and 'Twilight.' ”
The most distinctive feature of the vampire is the skin.
“Just take the lightest foundation you have and go to town covering up all exposed skin to create that dead, lack-of-sunlight complexion,” Griffin said.
To add drama, contour your cheeks. Avendano said not to use blush for this. Instead, take a dark brown shadow and contour under the apples of the cheeks to create a little chisel.
Then focus on the eyes. "I think you should emphasize the eyes because there is this seductive thing vampires have to lure people and turn them into vampires,” Avendano said.
Start by creating a subtly smokey eye. Griffin says to line the eyes “for a bit of evilness” with upward little wings on the outer corners of each eye.
Finish the look with a matte, blood-red lipstick.
To pay homage to the vampires of yesteryear, she said to pick up fangs and blood at a dollar store.