2 complete guides to awesome Halloween make-up

Because it’s pointless planning the perfect Halloween costume (whether from one of Shanghai's best costume shops or Taobao) if your face looks like you let a two-year-old loose with a paint brush, the face and body paint experts at Face Slap gave us two step-by-step tutorials to show you how it’s done. Details on where to find these paints at the bottom.

Get to know Knuckles

You’ll need White, black and pink 

face paint; foundation; black, green, 

brown and pink eye shadow.

Step 1 - Base

To create the plastic-looking, cartoonish skin that forms the base of this look, mix white paint together with some foundation and use a kabuki brush or sponge to apply it over the face, leaving a cone shape around the mouth clear. Paint the remaining space white – this will become the mouth.

Step 2 - Shading

To create the haggard, aged look use a light eye shadow to trace over the natural lines of the face – paying especially close attention to particularly age-sensitive areas like the eyes and the forehead. When you’re happy with the lines, trace over them with a darker brown eye shadow. To emphasise the tired, droopy-eyed look of the eyes, use a pink eye shadow directly beneath the lower lid and draw dark bags in the circles under the eyes using brown eye shadow.

Step 3 - The mouth

The most complex feature of this design is the mouth. First: the gums. Use a thin brush to draw a pink line around the edge of the extended mouth area. Next, draw a line going horizontally across the mouth for the gap between the teeth.

To mark out the teeth, work from the mouth’s new centre line tracing where you want them to be. To create the teeth shape, you can use a ‘teardrop’ painting technique (the line looks thicker at the base and thinner at the top) – you do this by firmly pushing down the base of the brush, while keeping the tip nice and light (you might want to practice on your hand first before applying to your face). To finish off, add definition to gums with ridges around the gum area and a yellowy-brown eye shadow across the top of the teeth for a discoloured look.

Step 4 - Finishing touches

To really emphasise the look, use black paint and black eye shadow to go over the already-shaded areas and to add new, cartoon-like definition lines. The bolder the better.

Meet Mildred Von Stein

You’ll need White, green, black and yellow face paint.

Step 1 - The base

For the best coverage use a sponge or kabuki brush to paint the majority of the face white, leaving the area around the eyes free. Eyes closed, paint the left eye green, leaving the right eye for now (black can get messy).

Step 2 - Shading

You want to make facial features look sharp, angular and stark for this design, which is where the shading comes in. Use a contour brush to apply black eye shadow around the eyes, cheekbones, chin and mouth. Squeeze the tip of the contour brush to make the lines thinner and thicker as needed.

Step 3 - The sunken eye, nose and mouth

Use a sponge or kabuki brush to add the black base layer to the unpainted eye. With a medium-sized brush paint the lips and tip of the nose black. For the line detail, switch to a fine brush. Starting at the top of the eyelid, keep the brush perpendicular to the skin and drag it up towards the hairline, twisting it as you go for a thicker base and thinner tip. Repeat the same motion underneath the eye, over the tip of the nose and around the lips.

Step 4 - The spiral eye

The key to getting the spiral right eye is to sketch it out before you block it in. Starting near the hairline, trace a circle of dashes around the eye area to create a rough template of where you want the spiral to sit. For each dash, trace a line each side in towards the eye until you have a spiral shape. Once you have the outline, use thicker, black paint to block it in, bringing the ends to pointed tips.

Insider Tips

Whatever look you’re after, heed this advice from the experts:

1. Before you start any painting remove all old make-up. You want to be working with a clean palette or old and new colours might merge.

2. Avoid applying one base colour over another as the colours will merge.

3. As much as possible, apply lighter colours before darker colours.

4. When adding shading or make-up, go heavier and bolder than you usually would. Remember, you’ll more than likely be wearing it in the dark. Extra make-up can also help define features.

5. After painting over creased areas (like eyelids), go over the paint with a similar coloured eyeshadow to cover cracking paint.

The kit

Face Slap sells a wide range of high-quality face and body paints through its WeChat shop (FaceSlap) from 45RMB a pot. For smooth coverage use synthetic make-up brushes.

Leave it to the pros

For the artistically challenged, Face Slap’s painters are available for hire from 400RMB per hour. Head to their website faceslap.net, email nina@faceslap.net or add Face Slap on WeChat for more information.