Forest Elf

I couldn’t resist adding in a little etherial and soft look to the challenge, so here she is! A little Forest Elf for Day 30 of 31 days of Halloween! You need very few products to complete this look. It is another great one for last minute costume ideas. I wore it to the Stylehaul Los Angeles Halloween Event this year, and it was definitely a hit. Here’s how to do it:

Flowers

The body painting portion of the makeup was created by custom mixed colors out of the water activated body paint Mehron Paradise Paint Palette. The flowers on the chest were done with a small brush and a mix of blue and red mixed paint to create a mauve sort of purple for the petals on the chest. Blue and white was mixed for the petals on the face, and green and white were mixed to create a lighter green for all the stems/vines. Work in sections and use a reference photo if you have to. Don’t sweat making them perfect, flowers are not perfectly proportioned in real life anyway. Once they are dry, you can add in some details. For a bit of sparkle, I added in some highlights of the Stila Magnificent Metals liquid eyeshadow in the color Kitten Karma, threading in little streaks of shimmer throughout the green leaves. You can make everything super realistic with dimensional shading and highlighting using more body paint and eyeshadow, but I wanted to keep it more clean and simple. On various spots throughout the flowers, I added some little jewels by The Gypsy Shrine, which are self adhesive. However, if you wear this out like I did, add some stronger adhesive like Spirit Gum to help it stick better, for longer. 

For the flowers and leaves on the face, you can either work around the paint with your foundation afterward, or you can do foundation first, risking the color of that mixing with the body paint and affecting the consistency. It is really up to you. I did foundation afterward and didn’t have too much trouble with that method.

Face

Starting with foundation, I used the Hourlgass Vanish Stick Foundation in the color Porcelain all over the face. I then primed my eyes and highlighted with the L.A. Girl Pro Conceal in the yellow color. I set it all with the Becca Perfect Skin Mineral Powder in Porcelain and moved on to the powder products.

This next part will only go one one side of your face, as the other side will have a flower painted onto it. Choose wisely for the sake of selfies. To contour slightly, I used the color Sombre from the Kat Von D Shade and Light Palette under the cheekbones, around the temples, under the jawline, and on either side of the nose like usual. You can also shade your collarbones if you’d like. For blush, I popped on a shade from the Becca Jaclyn Hill (limed edition)Palette called Amaretto. Use any tone that suits you and makes you feel soft and angelic. Highlight of course, with the J Cat Beauty Bella Rose Highlighter to pack a nice pink-toned iridescent punch on the tops of the cheekbones.

I kept the lips pretty bold to tie in some of the beautiful colors within the flowers and jewels. Colourpop Cheap Thrills liquid lipstick, which dries to a matte finish and is super long-wearing was a great choice. If you are using a regular creme lipstick, do that last so that it doesn’t get in your way.

Eyes

The eyes are soft, yet still mysterious and striking! I decided to lay down a creme eyeshadow to give the shadow a better color payoff. I used the Santee Big & Smokey Eyes Shimmer Eyeshadow Stick (wow, say that five times fast) in the color Purple all over the lid, blended out. I then used some turquoise shadows from the Morphe Jaclyn Hill Palette on top. Over the creme base, I pat on the turquoise metallic shadow on lid and blended the matte turquoise shadow through the crease. Next, dipping into the Carly Bybel BH Cosmetics Palette I worked in some mauve shades. I created a halo effect to darken the outer and inner corners with the dark mauve. I also blended the lighter mauve in the upper crease to create a softer gradient between the bare brow bone and the rest of the eyeshadow. Feel free to pop some of the J Cat Beauty Highlighter onto the brow bone and inner corner to brighten the eyes and open them back up. Next, created a winged out line of eyeliner on the top lash line and coat the lashes with mascara. I added on the Blinking Beaute Mademoiselle lashes and Daiso lash glue.

Moving on to the lower lash line, I applied some purple pencil eyeliner in the waterline, then blending it downward. The one I used is from Nabi Cosmetics. The same dark mauve shadow from earlier looked great over top to smoke out the lower lash line a little bit more.

On the part of the under eye area between the tear duct and side of the nose, I decided to add in some tiny white spots with white body paint and a tiny detail brush. I used the Snazaroo white paint and made it nice and opaque. I also put these spots under the winged liner on the outside of each eye, fading down toward the cheeks.

I knew I would be wearing a lighter wig, so I just kept the brows natural looking with the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Pen in the Universal Deep Shade. Speaking of wigs, don’t throw yours on (if you use one) til after the little Elf ear prostheics!

Ears

The most adorable part of the look is the little Prosthetic elf ears! Mine are very very old and are from the Spirit Halloween store. My Dad bought them for me as a little girl and I’ve held onto them ever since. Perhaps that was the spark of my interest in creating characters through both Acting and Makeup Artistry. Thanks Dad! 

To get these bad boys to stick, you can either use Spirit Gum, which I mentioned earlier, or some Ben Nye Liquid Latex. You’ll need the latex either way. But first, measure the prosthetic on your ear and trim off any thick or unnatural edges with some scissors. Work on one ear at a time. Apply a thin layer of latex to your ears and slide the prosthetic into place. Let that set for a minute and pull out a brush that you don’t mind throwing away afterward. As I always say, make sure you know how to work with liquid latex before you use it. You can read more in depth about that in this post. Layer some of the latex over the edge of where the prosthetic meets your skin and build up the gradient for a natural, seamless blend. Mine were definitely not perfect, but its no big deal. It’s just makeup, not brain surgery, so don’t be too hung up on perfection. After everything is dry, go over the whole piece as well as the exposed part of your real ear with the same foundation used on your face. Make sure to set that in place with a translucent setting powder like the one I always use by RCMA.

That’s really all there is to it! Can you believe we are almost at the end of the challenge?! See you next time for the grand finale of 31 days of Halloween!