4 Halloween beauty looks inspired by the catwalk

At this season’s catwalk shows, there was a dark romance unfurling backstage as the hair and make-up artists set a decidedly eerie mood. References included ‘grungy goth girls running across the moors’ at Simone Rocha while at Prada, emo poster girl Wednesday Addams was referenced to arresting effect. Elsewhere, ominously dark lips and moonlit skin were conjured up at shows such as Yohji Yamamoto, Versace and Marni – MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour in Caviar is your dark lip go-to. So which Halloween look will you be sporting on the 31st? We have all the tricks – and treats – to help you decide.  

A healthy dose of sultry is the order of the day for this vampiric siren look, based on the Louis Vuitton show where make-up artist Pat McGrath paired a stamp of blood-red lipstick with a slash of fierce inky eyeliner. The look is an ode to the high glamour of the 1980s but with extra bite. For the lips, apply Nars Powermatte Pigment Lipstick in Don’t Stop using a lip brush for precision, taking the colour just beyond the natural lipline to exaggerate your power pout. For the eyes, choose a liquid eyeliner such as Dior Diorshow On Stage Eyeliner in black and apply by holding a credit card against the outer corner of your eyes for a perfect graphic wing. Play up with a volumising mascara such as Lancôme Hypnôse Drama Waterproof Mascara. For cheekbones that could slice through garlic, opt for a bright-pink blusher such as Bobbi Brown Blush in Peony applied at a hard angle. To finish, just add fangs. 

‘They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky…’ This may as well have been the theme tune playing backstage at Prada as Pat McGrath set about transforming the models into the Addams family’s youngest member. To recreate at home, start by applying a full-coverage foundation such as Urban Decay All Nighter Full Coverage Longwear Liquid Foundation a couple of shades lighter than your natural skin colour for a ghostly pallor. McGrath bleached all of the models’ brows backstage for that slightly off-kilter, otherworldy effect but if that’s too much, use a heavyweight concealer such as Benefit Boi-ing Industrial Strength Concealer to cover over them instead. She also eschewed any kind of prettification such as mascara or blusher so instead, swoosh some flat brown/grey eyeshadow like Yves Saint Laurent Couture Mono Eyeshadow in Exces around the eyes for a slightly up-all-night, haunted effect. Add a touch of contour with Nars Contour Blush just below the cheekbones. Spooky but chic.

Over at Gucci, make-up artist Thomas de Kluyver accessorised freshly scrubbed complexions with freaky accents such as creepy contact lenses. But it was the prosthetic tears he had fashioned from silicone that made the most hardened beauty editors a bit emotional. For a Halloween version, simply swap the silicone for red glitter. Start with a bare complexion – or cheat using bareMinerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream – brush up the brows with Laura Mercier Eye Brow Gel then, using some lash glue – try Benefit REAL False lashes Invisible Lash Glue – create three to four ‘tears’ starting as close to the bottom lashline as you can get. Wait until the glue becomes slightly tacky before loading an eyeshadow brush with MAC Galactic Glitter in Ruby and gently applying it to the glue. Use a hairdryer on a low setting to blow away any excess glitter. Crying has never looked more beautiful.

Dolls hold a strange fascination for many of us as they span both creepy and beautiful. The life-size iterations at Junya Watanabe were perfect for grown-up kids. Make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench slathered the models in sickly sweet pink lipstick and larger-than-life lashes for a bizarre twist on Barbie. Luckily you don’t have to be a make-up artist to recreate this look as imperfection is the key here, especially when it comes to the erratic eyeliner and off-kilter lashes. Start with a matte foundation such as Clarins Everlasting Compact Foundation for a porcelain finish. For lips, we love MAC Amplified Crème Lipstick in Saint Germain which is a raucous bubblegum pink and should be applied as generously as possible. No steady hand needed for the eyeliner either – line the waterline with Clinique Quickliner For Eyes Intense in Intense Black then add in haphazard flicks and slashes wherever takes your fancy. And as for the oversized lashes? Urban Decay Urban Lash False Lashes can be applied – preferably slightly askew – on the top and bottom lashline.