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30 Easy Halloween Makeup Looks That Require Only a Few Products

person with cat ears and halloween makeup
Stocksy | Design by Zackary Angeline .

When it comes to Halloween, there are two types of people—those who live and breathe all things spooky, and those who don't. The candy, the pumpkins, the all-black moody décor gets us in the cooler weather mood for sure, but what about the looks you'll need to put together for upcoming parties? Whether you've been planning your Halloween costume and manicure since last year, or are dreading the very thought of having to create something, we've got you covered.

The truth is, you don't need a head to toe costume to pull off a look worthy of spooky season. As little as three products can transform your face into something festive. We reached out to a few makeup artists for their tips and tricks for some scary good (and cute!) makeup this Halloween. Keep scrolling for some easy Halloween makeup ideas that will take you minutes to recreate.

01 of 30

Oh, Deer!

Woman with deer makeup look and paper ears

Here's a look people will be sure to fawn over. Start by using any face paint to apply dots throughout the face, along the forehead and cheekbones. Then, use a brown eyeliner such as the Burt's Bees Nourishing Eyeliner in Warm Brown to heavily line your lips, shade the sides of your nose, and overdraw your brows. Finish the look with some pink shimmer eyeshadow, like NYX's Shimmer Down Pigment in Almond and a pink lip gloss.

02 of 30

David Bowie

Woman with David Bowie red lightning bolt makeup over eye

From the cover of his Aladdin Sane album, David Bowie's lightning bolt makeup is an iconic look and a fun way to show your fandom. All you'll need is Makeup For Ever's Flash Color Case to create the red and blue bolts, then simply separate them using a black liner and apply a subtly metallic lip. You'll be paying homage to Ziggy Stardust himself in no time.

03 of 30

Morticia Addams

Sophie Turner wears a black and white Halloween makeup look with red lipstick

@sophiet / Instagram

Sophie Turner did it, and so can you. While it may require a long black wig, the Morticia Addams look is pretty simple to achieve. Apply a foundation about three to four shades lighter than your typical color to make sure you achieve that undead sort of look. Then, use a black eyeliner such as Rimmel London's Exaggerate Liquid Eyeliner to heavily line your eyes, and darken your eyebrows to match your hair. Finally, apply a super-glam, cherry red lipstick like MAC's Retro Matte Liquid Lip Color in Feels So Grand to finish off the look.

04 of 30

Cat

Woman with cat Halloween makeup look and leopard ears

@mandyjbeauty / Instagram

Becoming a feline only requires black liner, fake lashes, and two shadows. After all, cats are all about the eyes. Draw on your whiskers, nose, mini freckles, and line your top lip all with the same black pencil. (We love the Fat Liquid Eyeliner by Eyeko London, $22, for this). Use a bright white shadow or liner for the inner corners of your eye to make them pop, and add a tawny hue to the creases up to the brow line. Pop on a set of cat ears and possibly a tail, and voilà!

05 of 30

Vampire

hailey bieber vampire costume 2022

@haileybieber / Instagram

Hailey Bieber dressed up as a Versace vampire, and while her costume included the iconic gold medallion, her makeup was more subdued. A juicy red lipstick of your choice, purple eyeshadow, and mascara is all you need to recreate this look. As for blood, you can create your own using liquid lipstick or gloss, or buy a bottle of fake blood to make it look more authentic. Oh, and don't forget your vampire teeth.

06 of 30

Cute Spider

Makeup artist wears white spider web eye makeup with spider design on cheek

@make.up_kit / Instagram

Does anyone really like spiders? Doubtful. But, this is a perfect Halloween look that's achievable in minutes with just two eyeliners you probably already have in your arsenal. Simply do your makeup however you typically do, then use a white pencil or liquid liner such as Stila's Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner to draw mini webs around your eye(s). Finish with a tiny black spider down your cheek, or to kick the glam up a notch, use a glitter liner instead.

07 of 30

Rainbow

rainbow makeup

@danessa_myricks / Instagram

Even if you're not a fan of Halloween, you can still have fun creating a look. We're obsessed with this blended rainbow makeup created by makeup artist Danessa Myricks. The ColourPop She's a Rainbow Shadow Palette checks off all the boxes for a colorful look.

08 of 30

Euphoria

Makeup artist with blue and purple gradient eye makeup with pearls

@kattercy / Instagram

Capture the mystical, unique look of hit HBO drama Euphoria by embracing pastels, crystals, and glitter in an oh-so-easy look. All you'll need for this is a palette like NYX's Ultimate Shadow Palette in Brights, as well as stick-on crystals. The best part? There are so many variations that Euphoria characters rock, you don't have to worry about achieving one standard look and can have fun with it.

09 of 30

Clown-tastic

Woman wears clown-inspired makeup, blue winged eyeliner, and red curly low buns

@lxadonis / Instagram

This clown look is far from IT, but it's exactly the kind of easy, effortless look to go for this Halloween. Start with a clean base, then use colored eye pencils to fill in your brows. Next, apply black liquid eyeliner and draw triangles and circles under your eyes and above the brow. Use that same liquid liner to over-line the lips and extend the corners of the mouth, then apply a raspberry or purple lipstick. You'll want to use a lip brush (we love Sephora's PRO Lip Brush #85, to blend the lines between the lipstick and the liner. Finish with an electric blue winged eyeliner.

10 of 30

Sailor Moon

paris hilton sailor moon

@parishilton / Instagram

It's all about the doe eyes for this Sailor Moon look. Depending on your eye shape, your shadow choice should be anything to make your eyes appear larger. Playing around with a defined crease in a fun color or double-winged liner is an option for anime eyes. Rosy cheeks and a subtle peach or pink lip complete the look.

11 of 30

Comic Book Effect

Makeup artist wears a Roy Lichtenstein-inspired colorful comic book makeup look

@shardidthat / Instagram

Some of your friends will be superheroes, but why not look like your own comic this Halloween? Anthony recommends starting on a clean canvas with your base makeup, then focusing on the dots. "I typically trace shapes with a pencil before committing to paint, but for this look, I have found the best way to get the dots on in a uniform way is to find something in your house and use it as a rubber stamp. You can even use the end of a brush if the handle ends in a flat tip," he says.

Start by pouring some white makeup paint (try the Danessa Myricks Colorfix 24 Hour Cream Colors, onto a working surface. Dip the end of the brush into the paint, wipe off the excess, then dot away. "It’s also very helpful to have a handful of tightly packed synthetic brushes to use with the rest of your pop colors," Anthony adds. "I love the Make Up For Ever Flash Color Palette Multi-use Cream Color Palette for looks like this; it has every color you would need for this look."

12 of 30

Bride of Frankenstein

kylie jenner bride of frankenstein halloween 2022

@kyliejenner / Instagram

No color needed here. Kylie Jenner's Bride of Frankenstein look is easy to create, starting with a white base for the face (try MAC Full Coverage Foundation in White). Follow up with some black lipstick or lipgloss, an eyeliner pencil for the lids and stitches, and the darkest brow pencil you can find to overdraw your eyebrows.

Byrdie Tip

If you don't want to wear a wig and your hair is long enough, style your strands into a high bun, leaving four sections: one in front, each side, and one in the back. Then, sweep up, pin and spray the remaining loose sections over the bun to create the iconic high nest hairstyle. Paint the sides white with temporary hair color spray.

13 of 30

Flaming Hot

Makeup artist with yellow and orange flame makeup look and high space bun hairstyle

@chante_poppie / Instagram

This look takes Halloween hot to a new level. If you're comfortable with freehand drawing and shading, this look will be a great way to show off your skills. (And if not, be patient and give yourself plenty of time—we believe in you.;). "I would start with the orange and yellow, building a flame shape gradually and softly," Anthony suggests, recommending the MAC Chromagraphic Eye Pencils for this.

Once you have drawn the desired shape of the flames, use a highly pigmented eyeshadow to fill in the orange and reddish color. As an added bonus, add some glitter. "For looks like these, I love using a small thin liquid eyeliner brush to paint little glitter highlights into the flames," Anthony says.

14 of 30

Black Swan

Makeup artist with Black Swan-inspired look, red contacts, and tiara

@vivian_hany / Instagram

It's been over a decade since Natalie Portman shocked the world with her Oscar-winning performance in Black Swan, but it still can make for a truly magnificent Halloween costume. Celebrity makeup artist and founder of Guide Beauty, Terri Bryant, walked us through how to recreate this iconic look. Start with your base: "Use Manic Panic's Goth White Cream/Powder Foundation and Manic Panic Vampyre's Veil Pressed Powder Virgin (white), either alone or together. Both are great cruelty-free and vegan options for achieving the 'all the color has been drained from my face' look. Make sure to bring the color down the neck and around the ears," she says.

Next, trace the lines of the feathers on your eyes. "The beauty of this look is that you don't want a perfectly applied line and is meant to be a little messy and "feathered" looking," Bryant explains. Once you have your outline, use your fingers to fill in the entire space above the lid and over the brow with the Guide Beauty Line eyeliner. Finish up by applying a white or silver eye product like NYX's liquid liner or loose pigment with a wet, fine-tip eyeliner brush to create little branches across the lid, and soft feathers at the tail of your wings. Finish up by filling in the lips with a deep blood red, matte lipstick.

15 of 30

White Breeze

Makeup artist with white graphic eyeliner, radiant makeup, and white hair with flowers

@makeupbymirvz / Instagram

This gentle, ethereal look is perfect for someone who just wants to feel beautiful on a spooky day. Stick with a liquid or cream blush to lightly stain the lips and cheeks. Bryant says for a luminous finish that catches the light, apply the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Ethereal Light, focusing on the cheeks and down the center of the face. Next, use your fingers to sweep the brand's Scattered Light Glitter Eye Shadow in Reflect across the eyelid. Create a graphic line with a white eyeliner above the lid, and sweep a white powder eyeshadow under the lower lash line.

16 of 30

Billie Eilish

Makeup artist wears Billie Eilish-inspired black tears makeup look

@makeupbysommermay / Instagram

Billie Eilish's visual branding is as good as her music, and this look is unbelievably easy to recreate at home. Bryant recommends starting with a long, loose-haired makeup brush and sweeping a little taupe eyeshadow under the eyes to create a deeper pocket. Next, line the top and bottom waterline and apply mascara to lashes. To recreate the drip effect, you'll need black body paint, water, an eyeliner brush, damp cloth, and lip gloss. "Wet the brush and pack the black color under the lash line," she says. "Then use a slightly damp cloth to very lightly pat over the color, which will lightly break up the pigment so it looks a little messy with some skin showing through. Repeat until you get the depth desired."

Next, re-wet the brush, draw your drips down both the face and neck, and allow it to dry. "To add more depth and texture to your wet-look, use a slightly larger lip brush to and working from the back of your hand, press a lip gloss over the previously applied eyeliner," Bryant explains. "I recommend Tower 28's ShineOn Lip Jelly in Fearless, a dark berry, or Chill, which is clear. These are two of my all-time favorite glosses in general—they deliver just the right texture without being sticky and offer that high-shine, wet look."

17 of 30

Fawn

Beauty creator Kailin Chase wears a baby deer-inspired makeup look

@kailinchase / Instagram

Baby deers are precious as can be, and this look by skincare and makeup creator Kailin Chase is both cute and super easy. Using an eyeshadow palette with a ton of neutral colors, start with a white highlight in the inner corner of the eyes, then go down the side of the nose in an inverted triangle shape. Using a blending brush, apply a light brown shadow on the outer side of the white triangle, blending out to give dimension to the look.

Then, run a white pencil along the lower waterline and use the same pencil to draw the lines in the brows. Using a black pencil, draw a partial triangle on the top of your nose, then run the line down the center to your top lip. Fill the top lip in with black pencil and the lower lip with a silver lipstick, like Maybelline's Color Sensational Metallic Lipstick. Celebrity makeup artist Mary Irwin suggests finishing off the look in one of two ways: "Either use white eyeshadow to make the white spots, or use eyelash glue to glue craft pearls to your face for the deer spots."

18 of 30

Sequin Mermaid

Makeup artist wears pink wig and mermaid-inspired makeup look with scales

@shardidthat / Instagram

This mermaid look can seem super complicated, but according to Irwin, there's a secret trick: fishnets. Using whatever complementary color combo your heart desires, do a smoky eye with the lighter color fading into the darker color, and add a dramatic lash. "Take some old fishnet hose, and stretch them over your head. Use the same colors on top of the fishnet on the places on your face where you would contour and give dimension," Irwin says. "Your application is the same, but you’re using the fishnets to give it the scales."

19 of 30

Ethereal Angel

Beauty creator wears a gold headpiece and gold glitter tears

@ekymeisarani / Instagram

Unleash your inner goddess with this perfectly low-maintenance look for Halloween, while also incorporating glitter tears. After doing your base as well as a gorgeous rose gold eye look (you can use a palette like Charlotte Tilbury's Instant Eye Palette in Pillow Talk, use a small eyeliner brush and a gold eyeshadow to outline the shape of the tears coming from your tear ducts to your cheek. To apply the glitter, carefully spritz your brush with setting spray, and dip into a shimmery glitter that's safe for eye use, like Sephora's Colorful Eyeshadow in Demanding, and let the tears flow.

20 of 30

Neon Skull

Makeup artist wears neon green skull makeup look

@lais.hensel / Instagram

Your Halloween will get a shock with this bright neon skull look that only requires the use of two products. Set your base and create a gorgeous smoky eye before gathering a white eye pencil as well as a green eyeliner like the Haus Labs Optic Intensity Eco Gel Eyeliner Pencil. Using the white eye pencil, outline the orbital bone around your brows and under your eyes, as well as tracing a line from the corners of your mouth, along the cheeks, and up around the forehead. Draw white lines on your lips, as well as tracing under the chin and framing your clavicle bones.

Once set, trace that same line with the green pencil, both on top and bottom of the lines, giving it a "halo" effect. Alternate the white lines on your lips with the green pencil, and you're a new type of skeleton.

21 of 30

Twiggy

Model wears simple makeup look with Twiggy-inspired lower lashes, white eyeshadow, and glossy lips

@mikado_bassaa / Instagram

Twiggy is a fashion icon, and the looks that make her famous are almost astonishingly easy to replicate. To create this easy Twiggy look, dust a white powder eyeshadow, like Kiko Cosmetics' High Pigment Wet and Dry Eyeshadow in Matte White Milk, all over the lids until it's nearly opaque. From there, take a black eyeliner pencil to draw a line in the crease of your eyelid, extending it into a wing. Use that same eyeliner to draw exaggerated "mascara" lines on the waterline, apply a nude lipstick, and your mod Halloween is all set.

22 of 30

Sabrina, The Teenage Witch

Makeup artist wears a Sabrina the Teenage Witch-inspired hair and makeup look and costume

@vladaae / Instagram

Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the perfect spooky vibe for Halloween, so why wouldn't you want to replicate the prep school witch for the most haunted day of the year? The key to this costume's brilliance is the deep, blood-red lipstick shade that complements a cat-eye wing sharp enough to make Salem worried. Maybelline's SuperStay Matte Ink Liquid Lipstick in Voyager is a perfectly bewitched color, as well as a Byrdie favorite.

23 of 30

Red Rose

Makeup artist wears red-toned makeup look with radiant skin and statement lipstick

@casuallyextra / Instagram

Make your own interpretation of a red rose stand out on Halloween. This look uses the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette, a stunning palette of pinks and golds, and blends them with a plum-toned blush that goes all the way into the temples to create a look designed to make the roses on The Bachelor envy you. Top it all off with a blue-burgundy red lipstick like MAC's Lipstick Matte in Diva, and you're bouquet-ready.

24 of 30

Eye'll Be Seeing You

Makeup artist wears face covered in googly eyes and burgundy lipstick

@claudiam__makeup / Instagram

Attending a party with a look like this on just screams "All eyes on me," plus it's an amazing reference if you loved Everything Everywhere All at Once. Recreating this eye-gazing look is easy: Once you've finished your base makeup and eye look, use a dark burgundy, purple, or even black lipstick for your lips.

Next, you'll want to grab an eyelash glue that dries clear and has a strong hold, as well as your bag of googly eyes—make sure they're the ones with flat backs and not velcro or even the pre-sticky ones. Apply a thin layer of eyelash glue to the back of the googly eye, and place on your face in the location that seems to fit it best. As seen above, larger eyes are placed on the larger parts of the face like the forehead, while the smaller googly eyes have been reserved for the nose. Look out, world: They won't see you coming.

25 of 30

Diamond Queen

model with crystals and smoky makeup

@vivis_makeup / Instagram

Makeup artist Avia Solomon brought all the diamonds and rhinetsones in for this look. Since the focus of this look is all about the gems, keep the rest of the face to a minimum. A simple icy white shimmer for the eyes and some liner and mascara will do nicely, while a rosy neutral lip won't be overpowering. You can find plenty of options for face crystals at Amazon, but we like this pick that comes with tweezers for easy application.

26 of 30

Pennywise

Creator wears Pennywise-inspired clown makeup look

@ialuca_b / Instagram

If you're a fan of IT: Chapter 2, this Pennywise look is too good not to recreate. Start by shaping your lips using a liquid lipstick like Anastasia Beverly Hills Strawberry or MAC's Retro Matte Lip Colour in Deep True Red. "You’ll have a better idea of where your lines should go, and how far your shadow should be winged out, as opposed to starting from the eyes and working down," celebrity makeup artist Justin Tyme, founder of Adveket Cosmetics, shares.

Starting at the lash line, take a red eyeshadow and blend up and out until you achieve the level of extremity you desire—symmetry isn’t important at this point, and imperfections can add to the authenticity of the look. Take your liquid lipstick and follow along next to the bright lines up to the eye. Once you've achieved the look you desire, blend using your liquid lipstick, set it, and blend more using the shadow over the liquid.

27 of 30

Spooky Spider

spooky spider makeup

@vivis_makeup / Instagram

For a spookier spider look, make your eight-legged creature appear three-dimensional with some furry legs and a shadow. Grab black and white liquid eyeliner to create your spider, a cream bronzer or brown eye shadow for the shadow, and a lip brush for painting precision. For an added touch, apply dramatic false lashes to give a more furry appearance to your tarantula look.

28 of 30

Raven

vanessa hudgens as a raven

@vanessahudgens / Instagram

If you're going to a party dressed as a black raven, you have to go for it with every aspect of your look. A black lip and heavy black eyeshadow are a perfect matched combo. We love Kiko Milano Wet and Dry Eyeshadow in Matte Black for its full coverage. Grab a pair of feathered false lashes to complete the look.

29 of 30

Inkblot

inkblot makeup

@danessa_myricks / Instagram

A doodle, an inkblot, writer's block, whatever you want to call it, this idea is super easy and only requires one product: black face paint. We like the Haus Labs Hy-Power Eye, Cheek, and Lip Pigment Paint. The messier and more freehand you do it, the better.

30 of 30

Golden Goddess

gold goddess makeup

@danessa_myricks / Instagram

Feeling regal this Halloween? Go for the gold, the bronze, the copper, and all the glam. Start off by applying your favorite bronzer before moving on to the eyes. It's all about creating warmth and glow, so think creamy taupes, browns and gold shimmer options. We think Victoria Beckham's Satin Kajal Liner collection would be perfect here (using shades Bronze, Gold Lamé, and Smoky Quartz). Finish off with some eye gems and a glossy nude lip color.

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