Catwoman

Wow… we’ve made it through 27 days of Halloween makeup looks so far! I can’t believe it. To continue the comic vibes from yesterday’s look, I had to include my version of Catwoman for Day 27. I’m obsessed with how striking it is, although it is pretty simple to pull off. Let’s do it, shall we?

Costume

The most difficult part about this look isn’t the makeup, its the hair. If you want to make your life easier, buy a headband with cat ears on it. I can’t think of an easier way to get a similar effect. BUT, if you want to go all out and be super extra like me, you’ll need yourself a set of hair extensions that match your hair (or whatever wig you are going to wear, provided you go that route).

To create my little kitten ears, I first grabbed some tin foil, packing tape (duct tape is fine), a plain black plastic headband, and my hair extensions. Keep in mind that if your hair is not black, you may want to go with a headband that will better blend into your hair. Mine are by Bellami and they are the Kahleessi Hair Extensions Set in black.

• Step1: Tear out a sheet of foil and roll it into a baby rolling pin shape. At this point, it is roughly the width of the box.
• Step2: Cut it in half so that you now have two baby rolling pins. These do not have to be super thick, but should be about as wide as the width of a standard eyeshadow brush handle.
• Step3: Fold each of those pieces in half, making a little V shape. These are the base for our ears. flatten the ends so that they will more easier fit onto the top of the headband.
• Step4: You guessed it, wrap the tape around the flat ends of the foil to tape it securely onto the headband.
• Step5: Wrap the tape around both sides of each “ear” to make little solid tape/foil triangles, sitting on top of the headband. It will look like a hot mess. That’s totally fine. It won’t matter in a minute.
• Step6: Take a large weft of clip in extensions (use one that is 3 or 4 clips wide), and start wrapping it around the ears! Leave the end with the clips out loosely so that you can later clip it to your head. You really just have to trial and error this baby til you are happy with the shapes. When they look sufficiently ear-like, pin them in place with bobby pins that match the hair. You may need more than one weft of hair to complete this. I needed about two 3 clip wefts.
• Step7: Once that was all done and all the ugly foil and tape were covered with wrapped hair, I fit my headband on and clipped in the extension part of the head piece. In the process of styling my hair, I combed and hair sprayed over the headband itself and had to bobby pin it down in a few places. You just want it to blend in as naturally as possible with your hair.

As for the rest of the look, stick to faux leather, vinyl, and anything else that is black, tight, and sexy. Definitely include these awesome Claw Gloves I found at Party City because they will make you feel instantly fierce, guaranteed. My contacts are from the Halloween store- which I normally do not recommend. They are by the brand Crazy Contacts in the style Reptile Green. Yes, these are technically lizard contacts, but they looked like badass cat eyes to me, so what the heck, right?!

Whew! The hard part is over. P.s. I HIGHLY recommend you use black hair for this step because the ultimate effect is for it to blend in as an extension of the mask we’re about to paint on the face. Since the classic Catwoman’s Vinyl Mask is connected over her whole head, we want the same concept of a cohesive head and forehead. Anyway, moving on!

Face

On the face, use your favorite glowy foundation. Mine is the L’Oreal Pro Glow Foundation. I concealed and brightened under my eyes all in one step with the L.A. Girl Pro Conceal in the color Yellow. This also serves as an eyeshadow base. For contouring, I used the Fenty Beauty Match Stix in the color Amber under my cheekbones, on either side of my nose, and under my jawline. After that, I set everything in place with my favorite translucent powder, the RCMA No Color Powder. Feel free to go over the contoured areas with a contouring powder, but I skipped that step and went for a bright blush. I used the La Femme Red blush, which will only be slightly showing once we have the mask painted on. For the brows, just fill them in as you normally would to match your hair. I used the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade in the color Dark Brown.

I’ll explain the lips now, but wait til after you’ve painted your mask on to do them so that you don’t risk it getting smudged in the process. Catwoman’s classic red lip is obviously a must for this look, and we want to keep it glossy as well. I used the Jeffree Star Liquid Lipstick in the color Redrum, topped with L’Oreal 303 Rouge Allegro.

Eyes

Now let’s move on to the eyes. This part is where you can let your creative juices flow and take all the liberties you want. I went for a shimmery champagne color to soften and balance all the hard black paint and hair, as well as the bright red lips we’ll have later on. Go over the whole lid and up to the brow bone with a slightly shimmery white/cream color. I used one from the Jaclyn Hill Morphe Palette. From the same palette, I also used one of the warm brown shades to blend onto the outer V of each eye, keeping the color nice and tight. To blend that upward slightly, I used the color Rowdy from the Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture Palette on the outer crease. On the inner two thirds of the lid that don’t have brown shadow, I swiped on some of the Stila Magnificent Metals liquid eyeshadow in the color Kitten Karma…how fitting. Blend some more brown over the transition of where that shade meets the warm brown tones on the middle of the lid. Feel free to add eyeliner, but I skipped it and went straight for lashes. I used the incredible Flutter Lashes in the style Crazed.

On the lower lash line, I smudged a black pencil eyeliner on and extended that line inward onto the tear ducts, creating a very feline shape to the eyes. I also blended some of the deeper brown eyeshadow in the Jaclyn Hill Morphe Palette over that. Go for top and bottom mascara once that’s done. I wanted this to look more blown out and less precise than traditional Catwoman. My take is a bit more edgy…except the edges are not harsh, they’re blended…you get it. I’ll stop with the bad jokes.

Details

This is my favorite part! The Gypsy Shrine‘s all in one face jewel sticker designs are absolutely perfect for this look to give it a fun little twist. They came in a package that shows you recommended placement, above the brow with one piece and below the eye with the other. I decided it would better fit my face if I made them into a semi-circle around the outer top and mid- part of my eye sockets. I did this after the mask paint job, but I actually recommend you do this first so that you don’t accidentally paint it too close to your eye without any room for the sticker on the paint-less part. You could always try to put the jewel sticker onto the black paint so that it looks like it is a part of the mask, but keep in mind that it won’t stick as well if there are multiple layers of product between the sticky back and the skin. Check my photos to see how I placed them and go for that style if you like it. P.s. you can save these awesome stickers and reuse them with a bit of eyelash glue if you can find yourself wanting to obsess over them over and over again.

Mask

The very first step is to lay down your black body paint. I used the Snazaroo black paint to create the overall shape of the mask. Start with the little eye cut-out shapes and then create the border of the mask: across the bridge of the nose, over the tops of the cheekbones, and upward toward the temples on the sides of the face. This next part is why I really encourage having black hair for the whole cat ear portion: we also need to blend that black paint into the hairline and scalp, all the way back to where the headband is. Follow my reference photos to help you out with the shape and placement of the mask. Next, go in with some Snazaroo white paint on a detail brush and make small little strokes to create the seams/stitches in the mask. Start with a long vertical, angled line, then make the smaller lines horizontally and diagonally along them. The placement of these doesn’t matter too much, as long as they seem evenly placed around the face. Feel free to shade under the mask slightly to make it appear as though it is sitting on the face and casting a little shadow. For this I used the dark grey color from the Saucebox Etude Palette.

Okay, I know that was a lot of steps, but at least you’ll look like a total badass if you recreate this look using my tips. I love the way it turned out and the little jewel details are a fun way to spice up the makeup. This way, even if you show up to a costume party with another Catwoman wannabe lurking around, you’ll stand out! Keep checking back each day for more 31 days of Halloween. We’re almost there!