{"id":65921,"date":"2020-08-22T03:10:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T03:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=65921"},"modified":"2020-08-22T03:10:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T03:10:33","slug":"best-halloween-makeup-according-haunted-house-performers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=65921","title":{"rendered":"The Best Halloween Makeup, According to Haunted House Performers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asking a beauty professional\u2014whether it’s a celebrity hairstylist, makeup artist, or Instagram influencer (hi, 2019)\u2014for advice is always a safe bet. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find there are plenty of other women out there who are legitimate authorities in their own right. In our column,\u00a0Unlikely Experts, they’ll give real reviews and recommendations. Whether it’s\u00a0surfers on the best conditioners,\u00a0bikers on the best cleansers, or\u00a0ballerinas on the best foot creams, it’s fair to say these women know best.<\/p>\n

Every\u00a0Halloween\u00a0around\u00a03 million\u00a0Americans willingly pay money to be scared shitless at a haunted house. No longer just a Halloween hobby, haunted attractions have evolved into a million-dollar industry and full-on experiences, including covering guests in blood, strapping them to hospital beds, or promising\u00a0$20,000 to those who survive. While I personally will never understand handing over your hard-earned cash in exchange for being traumatized, there’s certainly an art to creating a truly terrifying experience. The set and scenery play a crucial role in creating the environment, of course, but the real scare factor is courtesy of the actors doing the lurking, grabbing, and spooking, all with a face of\u00a0makeup\u00a0that’s the stuff nightmares are made of.<\/p>\n

Creating a successful monster goes beyond simply creating a horrifying look (although that’s definitely a huge part of it), but the makeup also must last through several hours of sweating and screaming,\u00a0and\u00a0be easy enough to remove at the end of the night. While some scare actors (as they’re called in the biz) do their own makeup, most large haunts have a whole team dedicated to creating dripping wounds, rotting flesh, and terrifying teeth night after night.<\/p>\n

\u00a0
<\/div><\/div>\n

While\u00a0scrolling through Instagram\u00a0is a great way to get inspired, if you want to know what products really get the job done, turn to haunted houses. We spoke to six scare actors and makeup artists from the best haunted attractions in the country on the products they rely on season after season.<\/p>\n

All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“This a classic exorcist meets ghoul face that is the base of a lot of our more human looks,” says Aryn Fox, makeup manager and actor at\u00a0The Dent Schoolhouse\u00a0in Cincinnati, OH. Fox is a self-taught makeup artist who got her start playing with special effect makeup as a goth kid, but has being doing makeup at the Schoolhouse for 10 years now. For the above look, she uses\u00a0Mehron Celebre Cream Color\u00a0in alabaster for a “ghoulish base,” and she loves that it stays on through heavy sweating. For the veins and texture she mixes the\u00a0European Body Art SFX Alcohol Palette\u00a0with 99% alcohol, and to create the black drip she mixes\u00a0Ben Nye Character Powder\u00a0in charcoal with the alcohol to “mimic black ooze and blood.” To finish off the look she adds colored contacts and tooth color, “nothing makes me more ready to scare than some added tooth rot!”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s so fun to dress up as something that isn\u2019t particularly the norm, and making monsters out of regular people is an art form that I think is vastly underrated,” says Bailey Gettemeier, an actor at\u00a0Creepyworld Scream Park\u00a0and\u00a0The Darkness Haunted House\u00a0in St. Louis, MO. “I\u2019ve been playing with special effects makeup for years, but really got into the more intense and dramatic looks about a year ago. A really amazing makeup artist in the haunted house industry, Bryce Alexander, helped teach and inspire me.” For most of Gettemeier’s looks, she depends on an airbrush,\u00a0European Body Art Airbrush Paints\u00a0in white and black, and\u00a0Wolfe FX Water Based Makeup\u00a0in black. “The airbrush white is my base, followed by contouring around the entire face with the airbrush black,” she says. For the drips and splatters, she simply mixes the Wolfe Water Based Color with a little water, and drips it on.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nicole Weaver, makeup artist and scare actor at\u00a0The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park\u00a0in San Diego, CA, has loved Halloween since she was a kid, but decided to make it her career 13 years ago. “I was hired on as a scare actor at first, but one day I came into work with a full makeup look I’d applied myself, and the boss saw me, and offered me a dual position as actor and makeup artist. The rest is history. Bloody, gory, fun history.” For her Bloody Mary look, Weaver starts with\u00a0Mehron’s Clown White Lite, which is a more lightweight texture than traditional white bases but still packs a punch when it comes to pigmentation.\u00a0The Skin Illustrator American Horror Alcohol-Activated Palette\u00a0is a must-have in her kit. “I learned early on in my scaring days that most makeup wouldn’t stay on me all night since I sweat enough for three people,” she says. “Alcohol-activated paints are very near waterproof and don’t run when you’re dripping sweat…or rain….or blood.”<\/p>\n

To set her makeup, Weaver mixes\u00a0Kryolan Translucent Setting Powder\u00a0(for staying power) and\u00a0Coty Airspun Powder\u00a0(it “smells nice”) to add a little depth to the stark white base.\u00a0PPI’s Green Marble Sealer\u00a0also helps keep her makeup on all night by beading sweat on top of your makeup instead of smudging it. She uses\u00a0NYX Full Throttle Lipstick\u00a0on an eyeshadow brush to shade after her powder, which she loves so much she wears it even when she’s not scaring. She adds an extra creepy touch with the\u00a0Gothika Contact Lenses in Scarecrow, which she swears are the comfiest contacts she’s ever worn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bethany Michel started doing makeup while working for the Defense Intelligence Agency over nine years ago, but didn’t start doing haunted house makeup until five years ago when she moved to Atlanta to pursue special effects. As a makeup artist at\u00a0Netherworld Haunted House, she now creates looks like this one on the regular during the Halloween season. She always has\u00a0ProAiir Airbrush Paints\u00a0on hand, which she loves for their staying power, but notes are easy to get off at the end of the night. For the above look she used various\u00a0MAC\u00a0and\u00a0Ben Nye\u00a0eyeshadows and applied them with\u00a0Bdellium brushes, which she “absolutely lives for.” For any look she does, she uses\u00a0Skin Prep Pro by Mehron, and\u00a0Ben Nye Final Seal. “Using these as bookends to makeup really helps keep everything on throughout the night. Actors get really sweaty!”<\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n