NYX Halloween Makeup

The best thing about Halloween (aside from the candy, obviously), is that you can be whoever—or whatever—you want to be. For an easy Halloween makeup look, try your hand at recreating our Kitty Kat makeup look using your favorite NYX Professional Makeup products, or go cute-but-creepy with our Clown makeup look. If you need more inspiration, head to our YouTube channel—we have countless tutorials to help you achieve your Halloween dream.

You can absolutely use your regular makeup collection to create a Halloween makeup look. The beauty of makeup is that there are no rules: You can customize, mix and match, and experiment with your go-to products to create a captivating look that’ll have heads turning all night long.

If you’re applying face paint all over your face, foundation isn’t necessary. But if you’re only applying face paint to certain areas—say, you’re doing a half-face look—then you can start your look as usual, with the foundation and concealer of your preference.

The foundation of any long-wearing makeup look is a comfortable, long-wearing makeup primer. At NYX Professional Makeup, we have several to choose from. If you want your Halloween makeup to have a smooth, soft-focus finish, try The Marshmellow Smoothing Primer, a 10-in-1 formula that smooths lines, blurs lines, minimizes texture, hydrates, provides a soft-focus finish, extends makeup wear for up to 16 hours, evens skin tone, softens skin, soothes, and keeps makeup fresh. For a glowier effect, reach for Plump Right Back Primer + Serum or Bare With Me Cannabis Primer. Similarly, spritzing your face with setting spray —either at the end of your Halloween makeup routine or between layers of product—can help extend makeup wear and keep your Halloween beat vibrant and fresh-looking.

If your look calls for a paper-white base, our SFX Face and Body Paint in the shade White Frost is a must. First, prep your skin with the makeup primer of your choice. Then, apply the pigment-packed paint to your skin, blending it out with your fingertips or a makeup brush. Continue adding product until you achieve your desired opacity, then pat a bit of translucent powder on top to help set the face paint. You can also mist setting spray onto your skin before continuing on with the rest of your Halloween look.

Undead or soon-to-be-dead looks (zombies! Corpse brides!) call for specific details—chief among them, wrinkles. You can draw wrinkles on with a gray-toned contour powder or cream (we recommend using a thin brush for this, as it’ll allow for the most precision). To complete the look, use red and purple eyeshadows to add in some veins, or use our Jumbo Eye Pencil in the shade Black Bean to draw dark circles under your eyes. Add details with a dark purple or grayish eyeshadow, and voila—your old, undead look is complete.

Yes! Eyeliner is one of the most versatile tools for Halloween makeup. You can use it to draw spiderwebs, stitches, cat whiskers, or dramatic smokey lines to enhance any costume. Both liquid eyeliner and pencil eyeliner work well for creating bold details or shading.

Easy Halloween makeup starts with simple, bold features that transform your look without needing hours of work. Focus on statement details like a dramatic black eyeliner for a cat eye, a deep lipstick shade for that vampire vibe, or a touch of face paint for quick skeleton or clown effects. Pair these with a little highlighter or glitter for extra impact. With just a few NYX Cosmetics essentials, you can create a spooky, fun look in minutes!