Need an Easy, Last-Minute Halloween Makeup Look? We Got You!

Let’s set the scene. It’s the morning of October 30th and you’re one of two types of people. The Halloween-obsessed party planner with your entire look laid out from head-to-toe (we’re talkin’ shoes, nails, accessories, makeup and head-turning hair to top off your look). Or, you’re one of those “I’m not that into Halloween but I’ll throw something together at the last minute,” lost souls. Either way, a killer costume and easy halloween makeup idea go hand in hand just like Jack and Sally.

Whether you’ve got your look perfectly planned out, or want to wing it at the last minute, a little bit of inspiration can go a long way. Luckily, you don’t have to be a skilled makeup artist or look far to find endless how-to’s: cue your favorite party hopping celeb for costume ideas, and get ready to scroll through #halloweenbeauty on IG, and the millions of TikTok Halloween makeup tutorials.

Read on for 46 Halloween makeup looks. With a teeny bit of practice (and maybe a few drops of fake blood), these looks will help you nail a DIY Halloween. So grab your face paint, a red lipstick or two, all the rhinestones and purple eyeshadow you can find, and maybe some cat ears? We got you covered for your BFFs Halloween party or if you’re handing out candy to Trick or Treaters. Get ready for the best Halloween ever!

1. Ware-Woof

She’s scraped; she’s out for blood; she’s been through some things—but still came out looking fire.

2. Glitter Pixie

Load on all your glitters and purple shadows, and you’ve got an instant garden fairy glam.

3. Pretty in Pink

This SoCal queen has officially entered the Halloween chat along with her ‘80s eyeshadow and perky pony.

4. Circus Chic

With blotted red lips and a cheeky flush (with red nose to match), this cute clown is giving French girl vibes.

5. Space-a-Gogo

Part Western, part galactic, this space cowgirl costume will have you ready to lasso in all the compliments.

6. Alien Mami

Facts: Aliens are here—and thanks to their space blue eyes and iridescent lips, they’re totally gorg, too.

7. Sandra Dee

“Tell me about it...stud.” Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves. Channel your inner Sandy (and Gigi Hadid) with this look that’ll swoop up all the attention. Swipe a bold matte red lip with staying power—you’ll need it to outlast all your dance moves. Keep your cheeks light on the blush and bring up the focus to your eyes with a set of extra long, curled false lashes, like MI BEAUTI Magnetic Eyelashes + Eyeliner. Consider this an easy Halloween makeup look that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser!

8. The Wickedest Witch

Feeling a little witchy? Halima Aden knows that there’s no time better than spooky season to show off your dark side. Sculpted cheekbones are the key to pulling off this Maleficent-inspired look so get ready to sculpt those babies sky high. Grab a contouring palette (such as CITY COLOR COSMETICS Contour Palette), suck in your cheeks to find the hollows and contour upwards towards your ears. And don’t be light handed. Drama here is a major vibe. Top off your look with an exaggerated smoky eye to emit all the Grimm fairytale vibes.

9. The Rock n’ Roll Devil

When it comes to last minute costumes, a devil may be the most common go-to, but it also never fails. If you’re rocking a pair of horns for the night, set your look on fire with some easy red eye makeup and smudged kohl-lined eyes, like Adam Lambert. For your eyes, reach for a creamy red eyeshadow (we love SURATT BEAUTY Shu Iro Lid Lacquer in Red) and layer, layer, layer.

10. The Modern Marilyn

Creator Mykie proves that a classic, fiery red lip and a killer wing is all you need to portray this iconic beauty. Use large rollers for bombshell volume, slightly overline your lips, and keep your skin matte to bring Marilyn’s classic old Hollywood glamor into 2021. And if you’re not blessed with a short blonde bob—just wig it.

11. ‘90s Grunge Babe

Nineties nostalgia is hitting us hard lately—and we’re looking to channel our favorite decade any way we can. Give a nod to the grunge trends that influenced everything from makeup to hair to fashion, and more with his bold, black eye, and lip look. Keep your skin matte with minimal makeup and bronzer, smoke out your eyes (and don’t hold back!), and coat your lips in the darkest lipstick you can find (such as BELLE EN ARGENT Auteur Matte Lip Color in Light and Angles). Then, slick your hair to one side and throw it back to the 90s, baby.

12. Total Angel

Bailey Sarian’s Insta feed will give you enough Halloween and beauty inspo to last through the afterlife. This easy-to-create angel wing points for wow factor and simplicity. Reach for your most shimmering shadows and add some stick-on gems (you can use eyelash glue to secure them) across your brows, lids, cheekbones–anywhere you want to shine. Then, top it off with some wings and/or a halo and grace everyone with your ethereal presence.

13. Watermelon Sugar

What’s more refreshing than a watermelon—especially with cold weather around the corner? Take a cue from Beauty by Tay and create a makeup look that’ll bring everyone back to their favorite season. All you need are three eyeshadow shades: pink, green, and black (or black eyeliner), plus your prettiest pink lipstick. Don’t forget to dot those seeds onto each of your eyelids and cheeks for a look worthy of a thousand likes. This VIOLET VOSS Fruit Sorbet Mini Palette has pretty much everything you need.

14. Butterfly Beauty

Butterflies are one of our favorite Halloween makeup looks because they can be accomplished at almost every skill level. Go all out with butterfly elaborate wing eyes, or get playful with bold colors and add butterfly accessories to your hair. There’s no wrong way to channel this gorgeous creature—you’re metamorphosis awaits.

15. Serpent Queen

Whether you have a love of snakes or they trigger your flight or fight mode, you can’t deny they’re perfect for Halloween. When you don’t have time to go full serpent mode, a couple of eyeliners will do. Use white, black, brown, yellow, green—any shade you like and paint winding shapes down your face, then fill them in with color and shapes for a ssssuperb (we couldn’t help it), makeup moment.

16. Glam Tiger

Take a walk on the wild side with a tiger-inspired eye look that’ll put you in the spotlight. And the best part? You’ll be Halloween-ready before you can say roar. Just blend your sparkliest eyeshadow across your lids, then blend brown and orange shadows above your eye crease. (COLOURPOP COSMETICS Pressed Powder Shadow in Tangerine Dreams is the perfect hue). Use an eyeliner pencil or liquid liner to draw on triangular shapes and lines up to your brow bone, and add mascara for some flutter.

17. Daring Dalmatian

We’ve got 101 reasons why we love this Dalmatian-inspired eye look, but we’ll stick with the basics: it’s super fun, eye catching, and easy to achieve. Reach for white eyeliner or creamy white eyeshadow, blend it all over your lids, then use black eyeliner to draw on spots wherever you want. Precision isn’t necessary to make them look natural. Pop on a black lipstick and you’re ready to go.

18. Harley Quinn

Of all the Harley Quinn-inspired costumes we’ve seen, this one wins our hearts because you can literally create it with anything in your makeup kit. Seriously, if you have a combo of blue, pink or red eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, eye pencil—you’re set to start swingin'. Just blend color like crazy (from a palette like NOMAD COSMETICS Berlin Underground Eyeshadow Palette) over each lid to create a wash that goes from below your cheekbones to above your brow bones. Keep your skin super matte. Add some pigtails and ribbon, or dust color onto your hair if it’s light. Then, accessorize as you wish.

19. Garden Fairy

Sure, a Tinker Bell costume is expected. But what about a garden fairy? This look is so easy and it can be a ton of fun sourcing props and accessories for. You can focus on easy makeup, grabbing the pinkest of blushes, pearlescent highlighters, and maybe some pearl or rhinestone accents too. Likely, you’ll have all the essentials in your makeup bag. For the finishing touches, you can go to almost any craft store or scoop up these floral pieces from Amazon to adorn around your ears. Attaching with lash-glue works best!

20. Marge Madness

One word: Hilarious. Go as Marge Simpson and you’ll have the crowd in fits (just like us). This look is a surefire crowd pleaser that requires minimal effort. Once you’ve got the blue wig down, reach for some yellow body paint (try MEHRON Makeup CreamBlend™ Stick in Yellow. Then, top your cheekbones and collar bone off with NYX SFX Creme Colour in Gold or any hold highlighter for some extra dimension. And, don’t forget to define your brows so they don’t disappear into the background.

21. The Cosmic Unicorn

Face it - we’re all magical unicorns on the inside. That’s why we’re beyond obsessed with this ethereal look that’s everything we wish we could wear to our 9 to 5. Load up on the shimmer (we’re talkin’ all over your bod) and opt for eyeshadow shades in the pastel range to emit those “I’m riding above the clouds,” vibes. We recommend IBY BEAUTY Enlightened Eyeshadow Palette to skill this like a pro. Sweep the “Haiku” shade across your eyes, and blend Dragon Fruit around your cheeks, temples and forehead with a dense-bristle makeup brush for this unicorn inspired flush.

22. The Laid Back Vampire

Consider this the G.O.A.T of last minute Halloween costumes. We love this look because it's a ridiculously awesome excuse to spend the rest of the night in your PJ’s. You can pretty much pull it off by rolling out of bed, wrapping up our hair, and swiping some fake blood across your bottom lips. Shades and bloody fingerprints optional (but a must).

23. The Superhero

Who doesn’t love a powerful female character? This take on Marvel’s Storm channels serious superhero royalty (and is hella cool). Here, it’s all about the eyes. Reach for a mix of gunmetal grays and silver shimmer to create a deep smoky eye. Then, top off your look with long winged liner (we love KALEIDOSCOPE COSMETICS Obsidian Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner) for creating extra long flicks. Add some extra light highlight to your brow bone and exaggerate your brow arch for an icy look.

24. Hocus Pocus

The best part of Halloween season besides candy and costume parties? Movie marathons, of course. This Hocus Pocus inspired look conjures up all the childhood memories of the Sanderson sisters. Besides a killer wig, and a witchy ‘tude, all you need to make this work is a set of seriously plumped up lips. Grab a rusty brown matte lip lacquer such as NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Cannes) and draw an exaggerated Cupid’s bow that extends beyond your natural lip line. Use the same technique to swipe outside your lower lip line too.

25. The Pop Art Princess

Pay tribute to 1960’s pop art with this hella cool (and totally DIY friendly makeup). All you need is what you’ve already got in your makeup kit. Use a creamy black liner to pencil in lines of movement and outline all of your features (just like Shania here). Then top it off with a pink liquid lipstick and matching polka dots all over your face. The trick to this look is not to be too precise so your makeup looks like a moving sketch.

26. Spider Girl

Our spidey senses are tingling! This Spiderman inspired makeup is beyond cool and so easy to recreate with minimal effort. All you need is some blue and red shadow and a little creativity. Start by creating your webs with a thin liquid liner, then fill in your with a red and blue split shadow look.

27. Say Boo!

How cute is this ghost makeup look? Plus, it’s easy! First start with your normal makeup routine. Next you’ll need some white liquid eyeliner, a black liquid or felt tip eyeliner, and black lipstick. Don’t take drawing the ghosts so seriously, have fun with it! The more open you are to organic shapes, the easier the process with feel. Top your ghosts off with two eyes and a mouth using your black eyeliner and create the perfect pout with your lipstick!

28. Candy-Corn Crush

Do you love candy corn? Why not try this makeup look and really make your eyes pop! You’ll need white, orange, and yellow eyeshadows. MAKE UP FOR EVER carries their high impact eyeshadow in just about ever color. Next you’ll need to make all of your candy corn friends and sparkles. For this you will just need some colored liquid liners, we suggest this set from Amazon for all your Halloween makeup looks.

29. Nightmare on Elm Street

Obsessed with horror films? This Freddy Krueger look is perfect for you! To make things easy, grab every red makeup item you own! We’re talking red eyeshadow, eyeliner, and red liquid lipstick. Oh, you’ll need your brush collection too. To create all the ‘burns’ - this creator used red eyeshadow and shading techniques while making organic shapes that fit together almost like a puzzle. This will take some practice but you can definitely nail it. Just don’t forget setting spray!

30. Straight out of a Comic Book

If our Pop Art makeup suggestion felt a little too advanced, try this artsy comic book look instead. You’re basically sketching out your natural features while adding in exaggeration through color. If you needed an excuse to buy all of GLOSSIER’s new eyeliner pencils, this Halloween makeup look is it!

31. Cheshire Cat

This is by far the coolest Cheshire Cat makeup look we’ve ever seen. You’ll want to start with a light base of white face paint. This will make your purple colors really pop. Grab those purple and bright pink blushes you never get to use and go absolutely wild creating bold lines as you sculpt your cheekbones. Fill in your eyebrows with purple eyeshadow or liner. For the eyeliner, it looks like this creator chose to do pink and yellow on the top with a black lash-line. For the lower lash, a white lash-line outlined with black.

32. Frankenstein Girl

This makeup look thrives on looking irregular or not perfect. Grab your face paint again! You’ll mostly be using green for your skin, purple on your chest, and black to create any lines and iconic Frankenstein stitching. This creator actually used the Epic Wear Eyeliner from NYX.

33. Sweet Angel

Channel your inner Cassie from Euphoria with this look. Complete your makeup routine and really emphasize your blush for a nice swash of color. We recommend BENEFIT COSMETICS Benetint Cheek & Lip Stain. Draw mini wings and a halo of sky blue and adhere the pearls with lash glue on your eyelids. If you need rhinestone help or inspiration, check out Euphoria’s MUA Donni Davy on Instagram.

34. Spooky Scarecrow

This look requires a little bit of drawing skills. All you need are gel eyeliners or facepaint and blush for this. Oh, and your signature red lipstick if you please. Start by creating the ‘patches’ on areas of the face where you want them to be. We suggest the one on the nose, one on the forehead, and another on your cheek. You can create wear with black eyeliner and add stitches with the white eyeliner. Don’t be afraid to dabble your brown face-paint to create definition.

35. Avatar

Avatar blew us all away with the amazing special effects in theaters. But you can create this makeup look yourself, it’s super easy. Grab a light blue, dark blue, white, and pink face-paint and a couple of makeup sponges. Don’t forget rhinestones and a flower (or leaf!) crown for the finishing ethereal touches.

36. Deep Sea Ursula

The Little Mermaid is an unforgettable Disney movie. What better way to pay tribute than being the wick sea monster Ursula? Her glowy purple skin and bold black eyebrows and mole are iconic! Plus, it’s a great excuse to wear sparkly red lipstick. This is another look where setting spray is an absolute MUST!

37. Bratz Doll

Tell us you’re a ‘90s kid without telling us you’re a ‘90s kid… we’ll go first. This Bratz Doll makeup from @shardidthat is giving us major nostalgic energy. Keep in mind, this special effects eye paint only works when your eyes are closed, so save this look for the Gram, not your Halloween party.

38. Wednesday Adams

We can’t talk about Halloween without mentioning The Addams Family (how excited are you for the new Tim Burton Netflix series Wednesday dropping later this year?!). To get us ready for Halloween—and the release of Wednesday—@makeup.lois went goth with pigtail braids like our favorite angsty teen.

39. Stars Align

For all those makeup minimalists out there, this celestial (and easy!) Halloween makeup was made for you. Well, technically it was created by @whos.katrina, but you get the point. The black and orange color palette keeps this makeup look on theme, while the geometric wings and star stamps give it a modern twist.

40. Minimalist Skull

We’ve all seen those photos of the elaborate skeleton makeup all over our feeds this time of year, but unless you’re a total makeup pro, that level of special effects is not realistic. Instead, this easy skull Halloween makeup can give you the same spook-tacular vibe. All you’ll need is a black eyeliner pencil (we recommend a kohl pencil, like ITEM BEAUTY Lucky Line Gel Liner in Black, rather than liquid for this look).

41. Devil Wings

Who says Halloween makeup has to be corny? This devilish winged eyeliner look is so glam, we’re almost tempted to wear it all year round. To make the devil tail above your cut crease super easy to create, use the same red liquid lipstick from your lips with a skinny eyeliner brush (think of it like an acrylic paint). Try F.A.R.A.H Matte Liquid Lipstick in Farah.

42. Giraffe Glam

Animal Halloween costumes will never go out of style, but we’ve all seen the cat whiskers and bunny ears. This giraffe rendition not only feels fresh and new, but it’s also super easy to DIY. Yes, even the giraffe ears. Use a brown face paint (or even a browny-nude liquid lipstick will work) to stamp on the geometric giraffe shapes, then still with deep neutrals over the rest of your face.

43. Jack-o-Lantern

Carving your cheekbones > carving pumpkins. There, we said it. Channel the former with this warm, bronzed jack-o-lantern look that requires minimal makeup skills to recreate. Pop on an orange smoky eye, then use your go-to black liquid liner (or black liquid lipstick if you have one!) in a zig-zag formation over your lips.

44. Webbed Wings

You probably know how to do a winged eyeliner look for your eye shape, and you might even experiment with double liner looks, but these webbed wings from @els___makeup take graphic liner to the next level. We’re not going to lie, this level of intricacy will take some practice. While you’re working on perfecting your spider web design, we love TRESLÚCE BEAUTY Line It Up Edge Corrector to quickly clean up any mistakes.

45. Twiggy

Twiggy: One word is all it takes to recall an image of the iconic ‘60s makeup look that is just as chic today as it was decades ago, as @baysapphire proves. The key to nailing this famous look lies with the lashes. Spiky lower lashes are a must as well as fluffy, full top lashes (fake the look with a set of falsies). You also get instant bonus points for a black cut crease and classic Twiggy side part.

46. Clown of Hearts

Somewhere between chic French clown and Queen of Hearts lives this makeup look from @stephmeroo. It’s playful; it’s mod; and it’s totally easy to recreate for Halloween. Just grab your favorite shimmery shadows and get to coloring.

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