Take your Halloween look to the next level this year with everyday makeup and some tips from a TAFE NSW beauty therapy teacher.

We put TAFE NSW Beauty Therapy and Makeup teacher Ellen Lewis under the spotlight to tease out a few industry secrets and give you the edge on creating that professional makeup look at home.

While she normally teaches students advanced beauty techniques, Ms Lewis said a modern Halloween look can be achieved with everyday makeup, a light coloured face paint and some fun experimentation.

She suggests starting with a base of white face paint or foundation to the face and neck before working on the eyes, lips and cheeks.

“To create a skeleton style look, use eye liner to draw lines across the lips then slightly smudge the sharp edges of those lines out with a cotton bud,” Ms Lewis said.

For the eyes she said it’s a matter of building up to the colour you want to achieve.

“The aim here is to darken out to the edge of the eye socket. You can feel the eye socket bone around the eyes. Apply eye shadow right out to the bone and keep building up layers until you have the colour you need. Now smudge that out at the edges.”

Next Ms Lewis said to hollow out the cheekbones will require some contouring.

“A lot of people are now savvy with the basics of contouring, but if you want to know more, it’s one of the many makeup and beauty techniques we teach in Certificate III/IV Beauty Services at TAFE NSW Wollongong West.

“You will need to use a lot of dark eye shadow on the cheeks. Start on the edge of the cheek bone and then build on that colour moving down into the hollow of the cheek. Use a contour brush to feather the edges for that hollow cheek look.”

“Halloween is about having some fun, so don’t be afraid to experiment with your look.”

According to research by IBIS World, the hair and beauty services industry employs more than 76,000 people nationally. If you would like to learn more about beauty techniques or gain qualifications to work in the industry, visit www.tafensw.edu.au or phone 131 601.

What you’ll need to get the look:

• White face paint
• Light foundation
• Translucent powder
• Dark maroon eyeshadow
• Black eyeshadow
• Grey eyeshadow
• Red eyeshadow
• Charcoal eyeshadow
• Mascara
• Eye liner pencil and liquid.

Steps:

1. Mix white face paint and foundation and cover face and neck area.

2. Set face with translucent powder.

3. Fill eyebrows in with black eyeliner.

4. Apply maroon eyeshadow to eyelids and shade eye socket with black or grey blending with an eye shadow brush. Keep building this colour to reach the desired look.

5. Apply black eyeliner to the water lines of the eye.

6. As an option apply false eyelashes and mascara.

7. Contour cheeks with grey eyeshadow and a contouring bush.

8. Apply eyeshadow to the lips.

9. Draw the lines and smudge out with a cotton bud.

Media contact: Adam Wright, TAFE NSW Media Officer, phone 4421 9895, mobile 0466 375 552.