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Skeletons & SkullsNo. 2424 · The 2026 edition

Skeleton Makeup How-To

Transform into a spooky skeleton with this step-by-step makeup tutorial.

Hard

Our own summary of the original — the full post and photos live at marthastewart.com.

Skeleton Makeup How-To
PHOTO · MARTHASTEWART.COM

Learn how to create a realistic skeleton makeup look from start to finish. Cover your face with white cream, hollow out eyes and cheeks with black, and paint detailed teeth and neck bones. Finish with mascara, cracks, and setting spray for a lasting Halloween effect.

Directions

  1. Apply a light coat of white cream makeup all over your face.
  2. Trace around your eyes with black liquid paint to start the hollow eye sockets, then completely cover your eyebrows.
  3. Fill the eye sockets with black, purple, and silver eyeshadow for definition, then line both top and bottom lash lines with a black eyeliner pencil.
  4. Decide where you want the teeth, then use a small angled brush and black liquid paint to draw each tooth individually, extending them past your actual mouth and angling the ends into sharp points like roots.
  5. Use black eyeshadow to draw curved hollow areas along your cheekbones and jawline.
  6. With a small angled brush and black eyeshadow, line, layer, and highlight each tooth to make them look realistic, then fill the cheekbone and jawline hollows with black liquid paint.
  7. Outline and fine-tune the details on each tooth using black liquid eyeliner. Draw your nose with a black eyeliner pencil and fill it in with black liquid paint. Fill your neck with black liquid paint down to your collarbone, leaving a triangular space in the center.
  8. Using white liquid paint, draw lines from your jawline down to meet at the bottom center of your neck. Add white bone lines across the empty triangular area, then fill the remaining spaces with black liquid paint. Add definition to your neck and collarbone by painting white lines over the black paint.
  9. Fill in the rest of your face with white liquid paint, then set all areas with either black or white eyeshadow using a shadow brush to prevent smearing.
  10. Apply dark black mascara to your lashes. Create skull cracks and lines above your eyes with black liquid eyeliner. For a glamorous look, dust highlighting powder over the white areas, then finish with setting spray to lock everything in place.

Open the original on marthastewart.com