Eye-catching costumes

October 30, 2009

Are you throwing together a last minute Halloween costume? Applying some dramatic eye makeup can take your look from ho-hum to eye-popping in a just a few minutes. Avoid cosmetic contact lenses, which can be dangerous to your eye health, and paint on your own special effects.

Because many of the specialty make-up available in stores this time of year can irritate your skin and eyes, stick with traditional cosmetics like eyeliner, eye shadows and mascara.

For a classic costume like a vampire, play up your eyes with a lot of heavy black eyeliner. This can work for men and women. Make sure to apply some brown or purple eye shadow under the eyes to create dark shadows.

Witches can go all out with green eyeliner and loads of green eye shadow, while a fairy could stick to sparkly, iridescent eye shadows and white or champagne colored eye liner.

Still stumped? Go as a zombie! Throw on a tattered shirt and pants, and paint your eyelids with white eye shadow. Then, using black liner, draw a pupil in the middle of each eyelid. When you blink your zombie eyes will appear. Apply red eyeliner to complete the look.