Help - halloween costume makeup for Poe's Lenore?

October 28, 2012 12:23 PM

For Halloween, I'm dressing up as Edgar Allen Poe's Lenore. I have a really nice black dress and accessories (necklace, veil, etc.) somewhat Victorian/semi-formal style, but decent makeup continues to elude me. You wouldn't think finding a decent makeup tutorial would be so hard, and yet after days of googling, I've found practically nothing that looks good/appropriate.

Lenore's dead, but I am looking for something that is somewhat representative of death while not looking like I came from a horror movie - more elegant dark beauty, not a skeleton or rotting corpse. I've image-googled victorian makeup (oh god, no), goth makeup (most results about current teen goth style, not helpful), and dead makeup (lots of skeletons and zombies - again, not helpful). I also have blackout contact lenses I was thinking about wearing, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to accent those with makeup as well. (I'm normally not totally clueless, I swear; I think either my search terms are off or this is just an unpopular makeup idea).

If anyone knows of any good images or tutorials, I would LOVE some help!!!

posted by snarlsbarkley to clothing, beauty, & fashion (10 answers total)

Try doing a Google image search for "my chemical romance Helena" - the title character in the video is both dead and has amazing makeup. Watch the whole video while you're at it, it's melodramatically awesome.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 12:28 PM on October 28, 2012 [3 favorites]

How about Edward Scissorhands?

I would think that, or another Tim Burton movie would be the right place to look.
posted by chiefthe at 12:32 PM on October 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Perhaps something like this? Morticia Addams makeup.
posted by misha at 12:32 PM on October 28, 2012

I agree that Tim Burton is the right inspiration. Here's a Corpse Bride makeup tutorial.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:40 PM on October 28, 2012

I think the red lips (not bloody lips) version of this tutorial would work well.
posted by insectosaurus at 12:44 PM on October 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I asked a question about ghostly make-up a couple of years ago that might be helpful.
posted by annsunny at 12:47 PM on October 28, 2012

How about something like this: Sexy Vampire makeup (don't let the title scare you off). I think that dark dimensional lip is really great for your idea.

I'd also try looking for "vamp" or black and white film star looks a la Theda Bara.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 1:17 PM on October 28, 2012

Heh, came in to mention Theda Bara too. You could do a modernized version, like this...
posted by Specklet at 1:44 PM on October 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you add the signs of consumption to smudged-out Victorian makeup, that would be radically accurate and creatively interesting.
posted by batmonkey at 2:51 PM on October 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

This girl was recently reported on in an Australian newspaper for her awesome make up skills. She does corpse bride... kind of close... along with a bunch of other things. It's pretty amazing what she does and she does these videos as tutorials.
posted by jojobobo at 12:31 AM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]