Good Monday! Can you believe it is already November? It seems like just yesterday we were turning the corner to Fall. October is my favorite month and it always flies by. Oh well. what are you going to do? As the last weekend of October came to a close we celebrated with a bang! Derek and I love Halloween. Derek loves all things scary and spooky and I love an excuse to dress up. Each year we think "this is the year we are going to be super creative!" and each year on October 29th we're like "what is left at the Halloween store?" This year we thought relatively ahead, however we had two parties to go to. As much as I like Halloween, I don't like to pay a lot for costumes so I was in no mood to buy two. We rummaged through our old costumes, picked out the ones that might actually still fit, and tried some on. 

We settled on our Catwoman and Batman Dark Knight Costumes. I have loved Catwoman since I was a little kid. I went at Michelle Pfeiffer era Catwoman when I was really little. What's not to love about her? She's super smart, clever and can to toe to toe with Batman when necessary. It's also a pretty easy costume. Slap on a bit of smokey eye and red lip and BOOM! Catwoman. (Stay tuned, I am going to give instructions on how I pulled off the look). Derek's costume was a bit more complicated at first. When he originally bought it a coupe of years ago the mask was a joke. It looked exactly like Abed's costume from Community. (P.S. if you have never seen that show stop what you are doing and go watch it). It looked more like a joke than a serious costume. So he bought a better mask and it made the whole look more believable. Unfortunately it was really hot so he kept getting overheated at the party. So mostly, he looked like a a guy in a bad costume with two black eyes. Oh well.

photo cred




Flashback photo from 2012.


We kept it light on Friday because we knew we had another party on Saturday. This was the new costume night.  We settled on Steampunk characters. They were actually some of the better quality costumes we have ever had. Plus mine had pants. No mini skirt, not behind hanging out. Glorious pants! I was in. I tried to find some make up tutorials online until I decided to reach out to Candice, from She's Leaning In. She sent me an idea, however I failed miserably and last minute she Face Timed me and gave me a 1:1 lesson. Praise for her help I looked like a mess.


The finished product! Nice huh? I won't do a tutorial for this because honestly it was all from Candice's beauty brain and I can't take credit for it. The rest of the costume was really fun. Derek made Oreo balls and put ghost faces on them as well as monster finger cookies. They were pretty delicious and creepy looking. My friend and Derek decorated his basement and it was super creepy and cool! We played fun games, danced had a blast. The day after Halloween is always a sad day because I want to do it all over again. At least I got to enjoy it twice this year :)





Now on to the tutorial. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself for this one. I layered the shadows to get the shading effect  and used a new BB cream to get a more porcelain skin tone.  I took a few close up shots after I completed it so you could see exactly how it looked. I googled some pictures of Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises  to get an idea of how she looked and tried to replicate it.




Below are the pictures of all the make up items I used to create the look.




Here is what you will need:


I am going to use the below picture to guide you through the shadows. I have used my palette A LOT so it looks pretty beat up. :) Ready Freddies? Here we go!
photo cred: Maybelline
Assume the colors at the top are 1-6 and bottom are 7-12


  1. Use Urban Decay Eye Shadow Primer on both eyes. Let dry for a few seconds.
  2. Using a lid brush place number 1 up on your brow line. 
  3. Take a smaller brush to color 11 and brush it all over your lid. I am choosing these colors because they are more sparkly and less  matte. 
  4. Then take a small brush and use color number 2 about halfway on your lid and brush out toward the corner of your eye. We are going to layer a few shadows here.
  5. Use another small brush and number 8. Start to brush about 1/4 of the way on your lid and out to the corner. 
  6. Do the same only closer to the corner with color number 6 and blend the colors together to create a gradient effect. 
  7. Take your thin or angled brush and use color number 10. We are going to use this color to create a V-shape just a bit outside of where your lid stops. The V should be about mid-way, horizontally, on your lid. I like to essentially draw the outline first, which keeps my line more precise. I start by creating the V shape. I place my brush where I want the point to be and draw down first towards my bottom lid. Then, having already a guideline I put the brush just above my crease and line up with the mid part of where my eye brow is more bushy. From there I draw out angling up just slightly to create a crescent shape as I draw back down to meet the point of the V. You now have an outline and the space within needs to be filled.  Fill it in with this same color.
  8. To complete the eyeshadow I use color 12 and dot it on the outside corner of my eye. This highlights this area and draws your eye out.
  9. As Candice would say at this point "blend, blend blend." You want to blend so it looks like it is gradually darker but not so much that you keep the integrity of the V-shape.
  10. Next eyeliner. Use the eye studio and the eyeliner brush to create a thick, clean line. You want it to be thick for more drama and the cleaner the line the better, so take your time.
  11. Next use the eye liner pencil and put the black color on your waterline. I like to make it thicker on the outer corner of my eye and thinner close to the inner corner, but do what you like.
  12. Use mascara and put several coats of mascara because you want your eyes to pop.
  13. Next I used the BB cream to make my skin even and lighter than my natural color. Catwoman has pale, porcelain skin and I wanted to create that effect.
  14. Next I put concealer under my eye(again with a fairer color) and then brushed on the powder foundation to finish it off.
  15. Then use bronzer and highlight your cheek bones and start low and cut up. Instead of putting it on my cheek bone I put it just beneath to make my face look thinner and highlights my cheekbone.
  16. For lips I used my favorite Infallible lip color. I use this type because I assure you, it will not come off. Red lipstick can be fickle so I don't want to mess around.
  17. Lastly, I brushed on eyebrow powder in dark brown. Instead of simply filling in your brows I hold the brush vertical on the brow and draw over to create a thicker, square shape. Then I drew a bit outside the outer part of my brow to create a greater arch.
That's it! It looks like a lot more and I hope it made sense. What do you think? I would love to hear how it worked for you! How as your Halloween? Leave a comment below!