Vampire makeup looks are a staple for every Halloween, and the best part – its versatility! You can amp up the spooky factor by going extra pasty white and add fake blood, or go a super glammed up vampire who is living her best (after)life!
Vampire makeup quick tips
- Invest in contact lenses for this look: Twilight wasn’t kidding when they gave all the actors bright red eyes and made them turn completely black when they were hunting. Coloured eyes can definitely make the vampire makeup look more convincing.
- Don’t be afraid of black eyeshadow: You’re definitely going to need black eyeshadow. It may look intimidating at first, but here are our tips: when dealing with black eyeshadow, go slow, and pack the colour in! Black can be a tricky shade to work with, but a mixture of powder, glitter and liquid eyeshadow can help you build up the intensity you desire.
- Use red lipstick instead of fake blood: You do not have to splurge on fake blood just for one night! Be creative! Use a red blush, eyeshadow or lipstick to achieve that bloody effect.
Vampire makeup look 1: The Thirsty Vampire
Step 1: Put on your blackest contact lenses (optional) and prep your base.
Step 2: Use a foundation, ideally one shade lighter than your skin tone. (If not, your usual one would do!) The idea is to create a flawless base, because vampires don’t have blemishes.
Step 3: Instead of concealer, grab the reddest pigment you can find. We used a red blush and packed it on.
Step 4a: Use a dark brown or black shade to line your under-eye area and upper eyelids.
Step 4b: Remember to make sure it’s blended! Once it’s done, you should look like you’re hungover and haven’t slept for centuries.
Step 5: Here’s the fun part: use a brown eye pencil or liner to draw veins around the under-eye area.
Step 6: Use red liquid lipstick to outline the brown lines you’ve drawn. Try to keep the wet texture of the lipstick so it looks like dried blood.
Step 7: To finish up this vampire makeup look, apply your favourite red lipstick, and then proceed to darken your brows and cheekbones. Make your features look as sharp as possible! We’re guessing that a blood-only diet gives you sunken cheeks.
Step 8: Take pictures of your thirsty vampire makeup look!
Vampire makeup look 2: The Dinner Party Vampire
Step 1: Try blue contact lens for eyes that look less aggressive compared to the previous vampire makeup look.
Step 2: Set up a base with your foundation and concealer. Go a few shades lighter if that’s your preference!
Step 3a: Use a cool-toned brown eyeshadow and load it onto your whole eyelid to create depth.
Step 3b: Do the same for your under-eye area to create more definition.
Step 3c: Blend out the shadows. Your complexion should look pretty tired and pale at this point, kind of like… you’ve just come back from the dead. (Pun totally intended!)
Step 4: For the eyes, use a small brush to pack black eyeshadow on the inner and outer corners of your eyelids. Keep the middle portion empty, as we are going to do a “halo” eye.
Step 5: Connect the two portions to create an arch. Then, blend, blend, blend!
Step 6: Fill up the middle portion with black glitter eyeshadow. (Unfortunately, it didn’t show up so well in photos – but it should be more visible in real life!)
Step 7: Perfect the shape of the black eyeshadow by blending everything out (it takes time, so be patient!) and use a red-brown eyeshadow to further accentuate the under-eye area to make the eyes look more sunken.
Step 7a: Use the same red-brown shade to contour the outline of the black shadow…
Step 7b: …and contour your nose and…
Step 7c: …and the sides of your face.
Step 8: Line your eyes and top it up with your favourite eyelashes! We opted for a maroon-brown eyeliner and single-piece lashes below the eyes for a weird and creepy look.
Step 9: Conceal your lips with the foundation to hide your natural lip colour. This helps your lipstick show up more vividly.
Step 10: Finish the look with black lipstick. You can also add some specks of red if you like!
Step 11: Enjoy your completed dinner party vampire makeup look – bon appetit!
Vampire makeup look 3: The Chinese Movie Vampire
The easiest look of all, this is for those who want something that speaks dead, pun intended. Here’s how to look so dead, it warrants a talisman to keep you underground.
Step 1: Pull out your creepiest pair of contacts!
Step 2: The best part about this look is that the more tired you look, the better. So if you already have dark eye circles, let’s emphasise them. Deepen those dark rings with a cool-toned brown shadow and keep layering it on until you get the level of “dead” you prefer. After that, use the same shade on your eyelids to deepen the creases and make your eyes look more sunken.
Step 3: Vampires seen in most Chinese movies aren’t quite as sexy as the ones you saw in Twilight. Instead, they are quite simply evil. To achieve the evil vampire look, make your brows look extra arched and as dark as you’d like.
It should end up looking something like this!
Step 4: Use foundation to cover your lips to get rid of any final streaks of “human” colour from your face.
Step 5: Lastly, take your red liquid lipstick and blot only the insides of your lips, with streaks coming out at the sides. This should make you look like you just had a bloody feast! As an optional step, you can draw your own talisman on a yellow paper and stick it on your forehead as a final touch.
Vampire makeup: Products you can use to achieve these looks
For the full list of makeup used in these makeup tutorials, please see below:
- Stila One Step Correct Serum Primer, S$56 from Sephora.sg
- Benefit Cosmetics The Porefessional Face Primer, S$23 (7.5ml), S$56 (22ml), S$95 (44ml) from Sephora.sg
- Catrice HD Liquid Coverage Precision Concealer, S$6.90 from Guardian
- Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless Liquid Foundation, S$19.90 from Guardian
- Sunplay Skin Aqua Tone Up UV Essence SPF50+ PA++++, S$27.90 from Watsons
- Colourpop Nude Mood Eyeshadow Palette, approx. S$19 (US$14) from Colourpop
- Colourpop So Jaded Eyeshadow Palette, but it has since sold out. You can try BH Cosmetics Take Me to Ibiza 35 Color Shadow Palette, approx. S$27 (US$20) from BH Cosmetics
- Colourpop It’s a Princess Thing Eyeshadow Palette, but it has since sold out. You can try BH Cosmetics Opalescent 24 Color Shadow Palette, approx. S$32.50 (US$24) from BH Cosmetics
- Sephora Collection Retract Eyeliners – Brown Black, Deep Plum, and Shimmer Teal, S$18 each from Sephora.sg
- Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain – Always Red, S$20 from Sephora.sg
- Abduct Cosmetics Velvet Veil Setting Powder, S$32 from Abduct Cosmetics
- KVD Vegan Beauty Tattoo Liner Liquid Eyeliner, S$32 from Sephora.sg
- Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion – Original, S$20 (5ml) and S$35 (10ml) from Sephora.sg
- Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Matte Bronzer, S$30 (4g) and S$53 (8g) from Sephora.sg
