Halloween makeup tutorial - Succubus/demon/devil cut-crease look

As mentioned in my last post, here is a tutorial on my succubus/demon/devil makeup for Halloween 2011. From start to finish the whole look took almost 2 hours, but I will just focus on the eye makeup here.

I start by using Post-it notes to mask off clean lines on the outer edges of my eyelids. For a more detailed explanation on how to use this method, please refer to my Celestial Sparkle makeup tutorial. :)

I put red eyeshadow "wings"  along the socket edge of my eyes and blend it up and out.

Then I used a flat brush to trace fake creases below the red . I also joined the winged outer edge of the fake crease to my eye's outer corners.

I cleaned up the area below the black with a Q-tip, , then applied bright silver eyeshadow to the inner half of my eyelids, blending with dark silver in the outer half. The Post-it notes are removed, and I cleaned the edges with a Q-tip for definition.

I then lined my eyes first with black pencil eyeliner, winging the outer corners up. I also lined the edges created with the Post-it notes with white eyeliner pencil.

Black gel liner was traced over the pencil liner, and thinner details in the inner eye corners are added. I also added white eyeliner right in the inner corners of my eyes, as well as red and silver eyeshadow below the lower lashline. Silver eyeshadow is applied to my browbones above the red for highlight.

Heavily arched black eyebrows are added slightly higher than my normal eyebrows.  I also added silver glitter to the white line on the outer edges as well as in the inner corners of my eyes. They don't photograph that well though.

Finally, I put on a pair of false lashes that is longer at the outer corners on my upper lashline, and a pair of lower false lashes along my lower lashline. A fake beauty mark is added with pencil eyeliner as a finishing touch.

Here s the finished look. My lips are outlined and filled halfway in with black, then covered with red opaque lipgloss. Fake Bettie Page bangs were created using a cut-open hair donut pinned to my hairline, and the rest of my hair is curled. 

Here is a full-length shot of my costume. I made the horns and tail!

Quick post - Succubus demon makeup V2.0 for Halloween

Happy Halloween weekend everyone! Just wanna post this pic of the makeup for my succubus demon costume last night. I took a few progress pic along the way, and I will make a brief tutorial later!

A brief guide to wigs, part 2 - Putting on a wig

This week I will show you how to put on a wig properly if you have relatively long hair. With this method, you should be able to dance and jump around without your wig falling out, and look pretty natural unless someone poke your head. :)

The gorgeous cyan wig used in this tutorial is provided by KKCenterHK, by the way.

I have very long hair going all the way down to my wrist. That's not a typo, in fact I can actually sit on the ends of my hair! 

For people that don't usually wear wigs, this is what they usually do to prepare for wigs: make a bun at the back of their head, and then put the wig over it.

However, this presents a few problems: Firstly, little wisps of hair tend to escape the bun when you put it on, and will show along the hairline of the wig. Secondly, if you have remotely long hair, the wig probably won't fit over the bun properly.

 And lastly, the most important point IMO, is that you will look like you have a weird growth at the back of your head. :P

When I prepare my hair for wigs, here are the tools I use: Two hair elastics, bobby pins (the ones that has the two "legs" together), hair pins (The U-shaped ones), and a wig cap (An old pair of panty hose will do too). I also use combs and hairspray, of course.

I start out by combing out my hair thoroughly, which will help with later steps.

I then separate my hair down the back into two sides.

 The two sides are put into tight French braids and the ends secured with hair elastics. This video will show you how to do French braids.

As you can see, even with the tight braiding, my hair is still very long. 

The next steps are to pin the two braids to my head. I first take one of the braids, flip it up and cross it over to the other side of my head, then bring it around and make a "swirl" with the braid, pinning it down tightly along the way. 

I then take the other braid, flip it and cross it to the opposite side again, and pin it along the outside of the big "swirl" that the first braid made. This way, the braids are as tight against my head as possible.

If your hair is not as long as mine, you can just flip them up and pin them down without doing the swirl. After securing the braids, I tame any flyaway hairs along my hairline with hairspray.

 I then stretch out the wigcap a bit for a more comfortable fit, and put it on.

The wigcap will mess up your hair a bit, so it is important that you shove everything back underneath the cap, then pull on the top a bit so the elastic sits just below your hairline.

I then used hairpins along the elastic to fix the wig cap to my head. I use three on each side: One above my temples, one at my ear and one at the nape.

 The wigcap really help flatten down my hair even more, and prevent the braids from getting unpinned.

This is the time that I usually put on my makeup, as all my hair is out of the way. After that, I comb out and/or style the wig a bit before putting it on.

I bend forward and flip the wig upside down before pulling it over my head, stretching the elastics so it fits over all the braids at the back.

I make sure that the wig covers all my hair, especially along the nape and the front hair line.

I then secure the wig by pinning it to the wig cap and hair underneath using lots of hairpins. I usually do four around my face, two at the nape of my neck, and a couple around the crown.

This is how I use the hairpins:
1. Face the pin perpendicular to the direction that it should secure the wig. If you want to stop the wig slipping back, face the pin to the side of your head, for example.
2. Stick it in horizontally about half-way
3. Turn it 90 degrees so it twists a bit of the wig in its prongs, and is pointing at the direction that the wig might slip.
4. Push in the pin all the way.

After all the pins are in place, I comb out the wig again to get rid of tangles and hide the pins better.

And that's it! My wig is secure on my head, and I am ready to head out. 

Here's how the back looks. The wig is asymmetrical so the right side is a bit longer. 

No weird bump at the back for me! :D

I hope you enjoyed my wig-wearing tutorial, and thank you again KKCenterHK for the wig!

A brief guide to wigs, part 1 - Fiber types

Halloween is just around the corner, and I am sure a lot of you guys are planning your costumes already :) I figure that now is a good time to talk about something that I love as much as makeup: WIGS!

I am obsessed with wigs, and I own over 20 of them (not counting those that I threw away over the years!). There are different types of fibers that make up the "hairs" of the wigs, and I will talk about three of the big varieties today. 

The first type, which tend to pop up a lot around this time of the year, is your party-store variety nylon-like fibers. For folks that don't normally wear costumes, this is what comes to mind when they think of wigs: Shiny, coarse and fake-looking. Obviously I don't own many of this variety, as I really hate how they look, but I did get this fun punk wig for $1 that I plan to style extensively for a joke costume. 

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 As you can see in the above photos, party-store wigs look quite tragic in most lighting, and not like real hair at all. :\

The second type of fiber, which can be easily found in most wig stores and online, is Japanese Kanekalon. They are a lot less shiny and much softer than the party-store wig fiber, and looks quite good in most light. They also come in every color under the rainbow, and can be easily dyed using oil-based dyes like Sharpie markers.

This gorgeous cyan wig is provided by KKCenterHK, by the way.

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Kanekalon wigs are comparable to real hair in most light, but the fiber is not heat-resistant, and cannot be styled with hair irons and similar tools (the fiber will shrivel up and become kinky under heat).

The final type of fiber I am showing you today is Futura. It is a heat-resistant fiber that looks and feels like real hair, but they usually only come in natural hair colors. Similarly heat-resistant wigs in crazy colors can be found on eBay, but they don't have a specific name for the fiber.

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Futura wigs are sold in beauty supply stores and online, with plenty of everyday styles available.

Here are all three wigs side by side:

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Next time I will show you how to properly prepare your own hair for wearing wigs. I have long hair that goes all the way to my butt, and I can wear wigs with no problem, it just takes a bit of time and effort!