Dressing up for Halloween is so much fun!
Enjoy it even more knowing that you and your little goblins prepared their faces for the frightful night. Face paint is inexpensive when you make it yourself, and it's safer than a mask that can obscure vision. Try these ghoulish recipes yourself!
Homemade Face Make Up
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp water
1/2 tsp cold cream
food coloring
Stir together starch and cold cream until well blended. Add water and stir, then add food coloring.
APPLICATION
Wash your face and any area that you will be applying the makeup to. Dry thoroughly. Use fingertips to spread onto large areas. Use a small paint brush to paint designs on face. Removes with soap and water. Store in airtight container.
Homemade Bruises
You will need: deep blue powder eyeshadow
charcoal or smoke gray powder eyeshadow
shimmery green powder eyeshadow
make up brush
Using a blot of deep blue powder eye shadow, apply with a wet make up brush. Use your fingertips to add blots of charcoal gray and blue shadows. Touch up the edges with a shimmery olive green. Smudge the bruise to complete.
Homemade Blood
You will need: 1/2 bottle of light corn syrup
very hot water
squirt of liquid soap
red food coloring
blue or green food coloring (optional)
Pour light corn syrup into a bowl and add hot water sparingly, adding and stirring until you have the right consistency. Add a squirt of liquid soap to make it the blood easy to clean off later. Tint with red food coloring. You may add a drop of blue or green if you like to make the blood a darker color. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Smear on as needed!
Celebrity Spooks Dress-up Ideas
DRACULA
The "real" Dracula was an evil 15th century ruler of Wallachia, part of what's now northern Romania, where his horrific deeds went down in the annals of history. The very first appearance of "Count Dracula" is in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. Stoker named his count after he read that "Dracula" in the Moldavian language means devil. Vampires, though, had existed for hundreds of years before that and Stoker came across some information about vampire beliefs in Transylvania which he used in the novel. So what makes Dracula famous? His fangs, for one thing - along with his appetite for the blood of young girls and a penchant for sleeping in a coffin all year.
MUMMIES
The ancient Egyptians practised mummification, the art of preserving dead bodies. They believed that a dead person's spirit could remain there as long as they could recognise their own body in the afterlife. Famous mummies include Eva Peron and Russian leader Vladimir Lenin, whose mummified body is in Moscow's Red Square. In TV and film, mummies are always heavily bandaged spooks, forever getting involved in strenuous chases.
FRANKENSTEIN
Mary Shelley's literary classic about Dr. Frankenstein, who constructs a simple creature from various body parts then rejects his creation, who in turn becomes a monster, has spawned over 40 horror flicks and numerous cartoon capers. The macabre tales of this green faced, bolt-necked, grotesque monster are guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine.
WEREWOLVES
Mythology tells of people possessing the power to transform themselves into wolves by donning a wolf belt. Once in the form of a werewolf, they'd roam nocturnally, attacking their enemies on the way. There were ways of recognising these demonic creatures. Obvious signs were hairy palms, a left claw-like thumbnail and a tattoo of a crescent moon. An American descendant terrified and tormented both Paris and New York in the big-screen shockers, Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer fell foul of the werewolf ways in the '94 production, Wolf, and more recently Dog Soldiers clawed it's way onto the big screen.
ZOMBIES
The 1968 Night of the Living Dead scared the living daylights out of audiences confronted for the first time with the spectacle of the zombies, who were physically identical to humans, but lacking feelings. Practitioners of voodoo believe in these creatures, though they bear little resemblance to the Hollywood version. In Resident Evil, a recent movie based on the game of the same name, a whole bunch of them arose from a virus in an underground genetics laboratory.
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK
In the film of the same name, three beautiful single women (alias Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon) turn to witchcraft to beat the small town blues and find themselves a man. When the trio come together they possess magical powers and succeed in conjuring up the most wicked man around - namely, the devil (in the form of Jack Nicholson). He proceeds to turn everything topsy-turvy, but it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, and the threesome decide to rid their hometown of this enigmatic stranger, regardless of the weird consequences.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
The Addams were a family straight out of Strangeland. The original TV series spawned two Hollywood blockbuster productions as well as numerous cartoon spin-offs. The popularity of sweet-talking Gomez, his luscious wife Morticia and their collection of family hangers-on kept many a mind captivated during its heyday.
THE MUNSTERS
Poor Marilyn Munster, 'the plain one of the family' is the only hint of normality in this bizarre and absurd bunch. Dad Herman Munster had a hard start to life, but things have been looking pretty good since then. Dr. Frankenstein created Herman in a German lab (which explains his green hue and the bolts in his neck) but the Munster family adopted him, one he can fit right in with. His vampish wife Lilly keeps a close eye on Grandpa, the basement potion brewer who's likely to rope his young grandson/prodigy Eddie into any wild schemes he's planning - not that the lad needs much encouragement, with those genes!
CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST
This loveable lad defeats any preconceived notions about the wicked ways of spectres. Kindly Casper is determined to find some friends to chase away his loneliness, and when Kat and her 'ghost therapist' father move into his home at Whipstaff Manor she seems the answer to his ghostly prayers. Unfortunately, his mischievous uncles Stretch, Stinky and Fatso are just as determined to keep the 'fleshies' out, putting paid to poor Casper's plans. But, they didn't reckon on the power of friendship…
SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH
When Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) moves in with her weird and wacky aunts she discovers things aren't quite what they seem. Her aunts are witches and so is she! The movie was such a success that it spawned several series of a television show. Again starring Hart as the troubled teenage witch, she has to deal with her aunts, her powers and her social life with only the help of her cat Salem who was once a witch until he was turned into his fluffier form after his plans for world domination failed.
SLIMER
From the 1984 classic movie Ghostbusters came this slippery, slimy, cute little creature. Slimer, the green goblin, would give any dark being a bad name with his tendency to be either feeding or sliming, unless danger was imminent - then he'd be hiding behind his ghostbusting friend Egon. Nevertheless, the crazy critter became a cult favourite, reappearing in the cartoon adaptations.
FREDDY KREUGER
Nightmare on Elm Street is thought of as one of the all-time best horror flicks and with ferocious Freddy as its star, it's not difficult to see why. Sick slasher Freddy just couldn't be killed. He starred in six sequels where he'd appear in his victims' nightmares trying to, and usually succeeding, to make sure they never woke up. But, there was a way to get Freddy - engulfing him in flames would extinguish his evil. Which probably explains his less than perfect
CANDYMAN
When Helen, a University of Chicago student stumbles across the urban legend of the ghost-like killer with a hook where his hand once was, she doubts its authenticity. That's before she gazes into the mirror and calls his name five times. Once summoned, beware the Candyman who'll heed his call and come to kill the one who woke his from his slumber! The film is based on a short story by horror writer Clive Barker, also responsible for the Hellraiser epics.
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
In the bowels of the Paris Opera House exists a labyrinth of underground passageways. Deep in the heart of this secret place dwells the Phantom of the Opera. In Gaston Leroux's story, which made it onto the big screen and stage, the myth of the phantom terrifies artists and performers connected to the opera house. His existence turns out to be caught up in a tragic tale of suffering and unrequited love. Leroux claimed until his death that he had based his novel upon a real opera ghost. But any phantom worth his space on stage or screen needs an elaborate face mask, a rowing boat for cruising the damp underworld of the opera and, of course, a set of gold-plated tonsils!
ANGEL
Battling against his vampiric tendencies, Angel (David Boreanaz) became something of a heart-throb in the cult TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, eventually forming his very own series. After being taken in by a 'good' demon he was introduced to and formed a relationship with Buffy Summers, who ironically is the one girl in all the world, the Chosen One, born with the strength and skill to fight and kill the vampires. However, as they fell in love they discovered to their peril that if Angel ever experiences true happiness he loses his soul and turns into a vampire again…
PUMPKIN KING
Jack Skellington is the self proclaimed Pumpkin King and where he comes from EVERY day is Halloween. In Tim Burton's enchanting movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, he and his friends hijack the Christmas festivities adding a few little tricks of their own and unwittingly creating a real nightmare for good little boys and girls. Accompanied by a spooktastic score and superbly sung musical numbers, this was actually the first full-length stop-motion animated film ever created.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
Edward may have been created in a laboratory but he was no real monster! Johnny Depp played the unfinished creature who's creator died leaving him with scissors for hands. Lost and lonely, he is taken in by the local Avon Rep but falls in love with her daughter. Desperate to do anything for her, he blindly gets involved in some bad schemes and the neighbourhood that took such a shine to him start to fear him and drive him away.