stunt_muppet

Oh maaaaaan costume makeup is so much fun (if you like makeup stuff)! And honestly, with all the material that’s out and available because of the contouring fads, it’s easier to get right with less effort than it used to be? If you’re in the habit of wearing a full face or know how to wear a full face of makeup on the regular, you can mostly apply the same concept to doing makeup for cosplay - so primers, concealers, shades, setting powders, highlights and accents, lip and finishing spray. The biggest difference is instead of working with your natural skin tones, you’re using something else -coughgraytrollskincough- and so your own skin becomes a highlight or shade beneath the makeup. It’s honestly really cool to see what happens to the lines of your face when you put something so different on it?

If you’re not sure where to start, consider the makeup you DO use, and how sensitive your skin is, and if you’re prone to dry or oily skin. Ben Nye is nice stage makeup and a lot of cosplayers like it, but it’s expensive and it makes me break out in hives - so just keep m mind it’s not always great for sensitive skin?

If you want to start easy, I would suggest picking up some basics for layering from e.l.f. Because they have a lot of gentle products and their primer and setting spray is really really good (and everything is on sale on their website, and the prices are low anyways so you don’t feel like you’ve spent an obscene amount). I do recommend snazaroo because their products are gentle.

Something you might consider if you’re doing all over coverage in a certain color - mixing a pale/white foundation with softened/watered snazaroo to make a nice foundation in a weird color. It wears a little longer that way, and it’s a good base to put a stronger color on top (even if it’s ostensibly the same color). Basically your face is a canvas on an episode of Joy of Painting and Bob Ross is about to layer the colors on your face - except you are the Bob Ross.

Also, consider going to we love colors and converting a pair of tights into a ‘neck’ to wear for the day instead of doing full makeup on your neck - so you would blend the base color down into the collar of the tights for a clean look. You can protect the rest of your costume that way and not feel itchy because wearing makeup on your neck gets uncomfortable (to me).

If you can’t tell by this ridiculous reply, I’m all in support of wearing makeup instead of a mask.

I hope that helps? I mean, other than the makeup itself you should get some dedicated sponges and brushes that you only use for cosplay makeup, and definitely apply the full face coverage with a sponge and not a brush. It really is just like applying fancier contour makeup nowadays though.

Edit: oh! Make sure that you bring a face paint down to the seams of your lips, or even cover the lips. Whether you apply some sort of lip shape later, or expand the mouth further than your natural lip, you need to cover it for a more (paranatural? Supernatural?) natural look.