Today is Halloween, the scariest night of the year, when ghosts and ghouls walk among us and the barrier between this earthly world and the supernatural ‘otherworld’ is at its thinnest, facilitating dark deeds, mischief and malice.
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barrier → walk → deeds
Dressing up as a spectral being, acting out bad behaviour or observing traditional rituals are all hugely appealing ways to celebrate Halloween, or Samhain as it was known in ancient Irish culture.
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it → dress → culture
Samhain symbolised an assembly of the living and the dead, a ghost or spirit night when the souls of the dead were expected to return to the family home and evil spirits were active.
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spirits → symbolise → home
The custom of wearing masks or disguises originated from the idea that camouflage could deceive these spirits and protect the wearers.
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camouflage → wear → wearers
People believed that malevolent spirits targeted humans, and if you were unrecognisable, then you were safe.
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you → believe → humans
In our childhood, dressing up was largely confined to a black bin liner or sheet and a sweaty plastic mask, which was uncomfortable to wear but great fun for children intent on trick or treating in anonymity.
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which → dress → anonymity
Nobody spent extravagantly simply because they didn’t have the money.
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they → spend → money
Today, Halloween is a huge festival with people ordering elaborate costumes weeks in advance and planning their ‘fits’ with military precision.
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people → order → precision
Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum’s annual outfit has become a newsworthy event and while once we may have thought our American cousins quite crazy for their extravagant displays, now we too make a major effort with our costumes and homes.
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we → become → costumes
However, if you are one of the lazy, disorganised or super-busy who hasn’t gotten around to planning your costume for tonight, we have some professional advice from make-up artist and Halloween fan Donna Morris about how to create easy, effective looks so you can hold your head high among all the other monsters, witches and zombies on the nocturnal prowl.
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you → get → prowl
Donna is a successful make-up artist who works primarily in bridal beauty and fashion but originally studied costume design and make-up, so crafting a Halloween look is her favourite flex.
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crafting → work → look
She adores Halloween and each year creates stunning looks for herself and her children, Lauren and Samuel.
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She → adore → herself
‘It’s my favourite time of the year,’ Donna laughs.
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Donna → ’ → year
Last year she made herself up as Frankenstein’s Bride, drawing on all the intricate stitches by hand.
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she → make → hand
Donna Morris has created some truly remarkable make-up looks
In a previous role she worked at Make-Up Forever in Clarendon Street, Dublin, and would create amazingly elaborate make-up looks for people going to Halloween parties.
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she → create → parties
Her work then included re-creations of characters like Freddy Krueger, Maleficent and Frankenstein, alongside various grisly death-head skulls, zombies and monsters.
So, what are the topical or trending looks this year?
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looks → include → skulls
‘The Traitors is really popular so you have Claudia Winkleman,’ Donna suggests.
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Donna → have → Winkleman
‘A black smoky eye and hair down – you could do something like that with like a black cloak or like a black hoodie.’
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you → do → hoodie
It is a very simple look to re- create simply with a dark fake tan, black eye make-up, and a wig or a clip-on fringe.
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It → re- → tan
Almost the opposite of that look is another popular one for this year, the recently-departed Dolly Parton.
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opposite → depart → year
‘A bit of backcombing of the hair, vibrant pink lipstick, vibrant metallic eyeshadows that people have never used,’ says Donna.
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Donna → use → that
‘They probably have them at home, but they’ve never touched them.
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they → have → them
‘So, again, glittery make-up and if there’s any diamonds that you can put on their face around your eyes,’ she says.
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she → ’ → eyes
Donna suggests.
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Donna → suggest → ?
‘The costume can be something that you have at home, like a black outfit, and using things like lipstick, black eyeliner and glitter.
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you → have → lipstick
'You could use a little bit of Vaseline or a little bit of moisturiser to lay down on the skin, and then add some glitter over it, and it will stay put.
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it → use → it
For a vampire, if you have red lipstick, use it as blood.’
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you → have → blood
‘You have Wicked, which is like Elphaba and Glinda,’ Donna suggests.
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Donna → have → Elphaba
‘One can wear all the pink clothes they have, the other all in green.’
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other → wear → green
The Kardashians are another great group costume project for a group of friends or sisters, especially with Kim’s new autobiography just published.
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autobiography → publish → friends
‘A lot of people are doing Alice in Wonderland, but a lot of the different characters from it,’ Donna continues.
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Donna → do → it
The Cheshire Cat is a really popular costume which can be recreated with a fun fur coat and cat make-up using black liquid eyeliner.
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which → recreate → eyeliner
‘People have so much that they can use now,’ Donna says of our packed make-up bags.
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Donna → have → bags
‘If you’re good at your make-up, and you’re looking for a last-minute costume, you might have a Christmas party dress and you can do a doll make-up,’ she adds as another easy yet effective idea.
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she → ’re → idea
Donna says your make-up bag holds most of the materials needed
Donna cites the independent supernatural thriller Obsession, which broke box office records earlier this year.
‘Nikki from Obsession is basically like a red top and a leather skirt and blood coming from your head,’ she says.
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she → say → head
‘That’s really topical, that’s one of the most Googled ones, and it’s easy to do.’
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it → ’ → ones
For generic horror characters, Donna suggests some simple tips.
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Donna → suggest → tips
‘Scrunch up some tin foil and then put some lipstick on it and press it on to your skin – it leaves a cool texture,’ she explains.
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she → scrunch → texture
Or fishnet tights can be used to achieve scaly, mermaid skin.
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tights → use → skin
‘Or if you have stuff like latex at home from last Halloween, then you can use that with a little bit of tissue to create a zombie make-up effect,’ she adds.
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she → have → effect
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
