Dia de los Muertos – Sugar Skull

Simple Sugar Skull

Sometimes, parties come up without much notice, or you’re short on change – what should you do if you are without a costume?

Makeup to the rescue! Today I’ll be sharing a special look done in celebration of a beautiful event; the Sugar Skull for Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

I’ll show you a simple sugar skull tutorial that can be embellished upon however you would like.

Creating your mask

• Some people use white face paint for the base, but I was using what I had available in my makeup box, so I went simple and just used foundation.
• For this look, I did the sugar skull on one side, and a regular makeup look on the other. I also exaggerated my features a bit with a light brown eyeshadow for contour. I specifically focused around my temples, cheek bones, and on my chin, right under my bottom lip. Creating a circle around my eye, I filled it in with a black pencil eyeliner and smudged it all in using a brush after applying it. I also filled in the opposite eyebrow with the same color pencil.
• Then I used that same brush to create the general outline of where I wanted my “nose” to be. The easiest way to explain the shape is to make an upside down heart, the fullest parts reaching the edges of the nostrils, the pointed part at the center of the nose. I filled that in and smudged a bit under the tip of my nose as well.
• Onto the mouth – I started by drawing thin lines toward my cheeks, beginning at the corners of my mouth. I used a felt tip eyeliner for more precise lines. After that, I created dots above and below my top and bottom lips that line up with each other using either eyeliner. Connect these dots vertically with a thin line. I had my dots extend past my lips at the corners, and up the cheekbone on the Sugar Skull side. I also blended a little gray under the cheekbone line to create a shadow.
• Back to the eye, I did small petals around the eye using the felt tip liner and filled them in with white eyeshadow. I blended just a little on one side of the petals to create a shadow and add some dimension to them. I finished off this look by adding liner and mascara to my unadorned eye.

Making it Unique

Personally, I liked doing this version of the makeup because I find it to be an ideal representation of the Holiday. It is an expression of the beauty and mystery of life and death. It is a time of introspection; and at its most potent, it is a balanced blend of the two. This look blends both a personal, everyday style and the Sugar Skull – a blending of life and death.

As I mentioned, you can get creative and add designs to your forehead, chin, cheeks, basically anywhere you so desire.

Another great thing about this look: you can always go simple and just wear black or yellow. Or, check out this list to see what the colors represent and put your costume together that way! For accessories, I threw on a wig, one blue contact, a black choker, and a veil.

Now for some totally necessary ridiculous faces made while in costume…

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and the second costume for October 2014!