For my 6th (and final) Halloween makeup (yep I reaaaally forced myself to level up from my 5 Halloween makeup looks last year Dios mio sawang-sawa na ako humawak ng makeup brush), I decided to go as a mermaid. I was actually planning to do a mermaid look last year, but a good friend of mine whose name rhymes with cat told me to wait AFTER my inaanak‘s mermaid-themed, 2nd birthday party last December. I of course obliged because apparently, things like that are crucial in girl world.

What I love about the mermaid makeup look is that it seems so otherworldly, when it’s really not that difficult…if you have the right materials though. Of course, the first challenge was to find a freakin mermaid crown in Manila. Unlike flower crowns, I haven’t seen any mermaid crown that’s mass-produced so I knew I was gonna DIY this thing. 

Googling for references can be disheartening…

…but then I realized, why do I need to overload my mermaid crown with jewels and pretty seashells and dead starfish? IMMA GO REALISTIC ON DIS BISH. Soo:

What I did:

1. 1. Tagay ka muna. 

      

      You’ll need it because the next 2 hours will be spent gluegunning a mermaid crown together, facepainting and taking selfies.

   2. For the mermaid crown: Find a thin plastic headband. Use a glue gun to attach the pendant & loose ends of a beaded necklace (I can’t remember where I got this because I’m not a huge fan of burloloys) to the headband’s center and ends. Find a house that decorated for Christmas way too early and swipe one of these glittery, coral-looking ornaments they’ve stuck to the Christmas tree. Cut into bits, stick to the center of your crown. Cover the headband with seashells (find a Filipino store that sells sungka and you’ll get your seashells). Hang the remnants of your dinner around the glittery corals of your crown–candy wrapper, ketchup sachet, plastic bag that carried your lumpia, etc. (I told you Tagay was needed and no, I didn’t eat a cotton bud, it’s for erasing makeup mishaps!)
   3.  For the face: Use a damp brush to cover your face with the Rural blue facepaint (aka Cerulean if you have to be Miranda Priestly all about it) from the Flash palette. Wear a hair net over your face before contouring scales to your forehead and cheekbones with a matte purple eyeshadow from the Coastal Scents Creative Me palette, and a shimmery purple eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Shadow Box palette.
   4. For the lips: Mix a bit of blue with two bits of pink from your Flash palette. Use your new purple facepaint as your lipstick. Dab a bit of glittery purple eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Moondust palette all over your purple lips.
   5. For the eyes: Use the same purple facepaint you mixed for your lips to draw your eyebrows, add transition shade for your smokey eye makeup, and define your lower lash line. Use a matte black eyeshadow (also from the Urban Decay Shadow Box) to cover your lids and lower lash line. Blend blend blend blend blend. Wing it with Maybelline Hypergloss black liquid eyeliner, use reaaally long falsies with Nichido eyelash glue, then set the falsies with your naturally short lashes with Benefit They’re Real black mascara.
   6. For the extra stuff: Do you remember the jewel stickers people used to stick to their Blackberry phones that’d make Paris Hilton say, “That’s hot”? Yeah, use a few pearl-looking ones and stick them to your face. Feel glad that you made a mistake the other night by mixing a batch of DIY fake blood (hair gel + a pinch of cocoa powder + food coloring) that’s way too runny and had too much blue food coloring when you were preparing for your Stranger Things makeup look so you might as well use that green blood by attaching a plastic lid to your neck with Graftobian Liquid Latex and let your green fake blood drip all over it.
   7. Borrow your housemates’ plastic fork and take a selfie.