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Activities

DIY Halloween Face Paint Templates

Written by Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte for Building Blocks.

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Are you ready to take your face-painting skills to a new level? These fail-proof Halloween face paint templates will have your friends wondering if you grew up traveling with a circus! Great results are really easy to achieve, even if it’s your first try.

Forget about messy wet paint—we’ll be using eye shadow, eye liner, a pinch of glitter, and a few basics shapes that are provided in the free downloadable PDF templates. Just about everything that you need for this project is probably already inside your makeup drawer. If not, a quick trip down the cosmetics aisle will complete your face-painting kit.

Let’s get started!

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Lion Cub
Pair with: Lion Costume

What you Need:

  • Black Eye Shadow
  • Dark Brown Eye Shadow
  • Gold Eye Shadow
  • White Eye Shadow
  • Black Liquid Eye Liner (or eye liner pencil)
  • Lion Face Paint Template (download here)

Step 1: Apply white eye shadow in an hourglass shape to create the lion’s muzzle. Start on the forehead, go around the inside corners of the eyes, and around the nose. Use the top of your child’s mouth as the base of the hourglass. Leave a spot open on the tip of your child’s nose for the lion’s nose.

Step 2: With your child’s eyes closed, cover the area outside the hourglass shape with gold eye shadow, going around your child’s eyes and then covering the rest of their face. Don’t go quite to the edge – leave roughly half an inch or so around the edge of your child’s face for the lion’s mane.

Step 3: Outline the gold eye shadow area with dark brown eye shadow to create the fluffy lion’s mane around your child’s face. Use short, inward “fur” strokes with dark brown eye shadow to blend the mane with the gold eye shadow area that’s covering the face area. For added effect, blend the brown eye shadow into your child’s hairline. Finish by fluffing out your child’s hair with stiff hairspray.

Step 4: Apply black eye shadow to the tip of your child’s nose, following its natural shape.

Step 5: Apply black liquid eye liner using short, inward strokes to accent the lion’s man around your child’s face, on top of the brown eye shadow.

Step 6: Outline the hourglass shape using black liquid eye liner. Use short, quick strokes at the top of the hourglass, and draw a small, inverted v-shape at the bottom of the hourglass (just above the lips). Use brushy strokes for an added fur-like effect.

Step 7: Using black liquid eye liner, draw a small v-shape on the outside corner of each eye, lines under the eyes, fierce eyebrow lines (following the shape of your child’s eyebrows), and a small black line under your child’s mouth to finish the muzzle.

Step 8: Using black liquid eye liner, add three dots on either side of the bottom of your child’s nose and three quick strokes on either side of the muzzle for the whiskers.

Step 9: Draw the outlines for fangs at the corners of your child’s mouth and fill in with white eye shadow.

Step 10: Finish it off by using short, quick strokes with black liquid eye liner to add fur-like embellishments. Add as many as you like!

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Jack O’ Lantern
Pair With: Pumpkin Fairy Costume

What You Need:

  • Black Eye Shadow
  • Brown Eye Shadow
  • Green Eye Shadow
  • Orange Eye Shadow
  • Black Liquid Eye Liner
  • Green Ultra Fine Cosmetic Glitter
  • Orange Ultra Fine Cosmetic Glitter
  • Jack ‘O Lantern Face Paint Template (download here)

Step 1: With your child’s eyes closed, create a triangle over each eye using black eye shadow. Create another small triangle on the tip of your child’s nose.

Step 2: Use black eye shadow to create the jack o’ lantern’s mouth. Extend the mouth of the jack o’ lantern about an inch on either side of your child’s mouth. Add three small squares above your child’s mouth for the jack o’ lantern’s teeth.

Step 3: Apply orange eye shadow to the rest of your child’s face. You can use the orange eye shadow to refine the shapes of the eyes, nose and mouth (try doing that with paint!).

Step 4: Use black liquid eye liner to outline the eyes, nose and mouth to sharpen things up a bit.

Step 5: Draw a line around the pumpkin and the lines inside the pumpkin using brown eye shadow.

Step 6: Rough-in the area for the stem and leaves with green eye shadow. Go over with black liquid eye liner to outline and refine the shape of the stem and leaves.

Step 7: Dampen your fingers and gingerly apply orange glitter over the face of the pumpkin. Apply green glitter over the stem and leaves.

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Butterfly Fairy
Pair With: Butterfly Fairy Costume

What You Need:

  • Pink Blush
  • Pink Shimmer Eye Shadow
  • Purple Eye Shadow
  • White Eye Shadow
  • Pink Liquid Eye Liner
  • Purple Liquid Eye Liner
  • White Liquid Eye Liner
  • Cosmetic Rhinestones/Gems
  • Eyelash Adhesive
  • Butterfly Fairy Face Paint Template (download here)

Step 1: Apply pink blush to your child’s cheeks.

Step 2: With your child’s eyes closed, apply the wing shape above your child’s eyes using white eye shadow (extending beyond the eyes on the sides).

Step 3: Outline the top and outside edge of the white wing shapes using pink shimmer eye shadow, meeting in the middle between the eyes.

Step 4: Apply an oval shape in the middle of your child’s forehead using pink shimmer eye shadow. You could use a teardrop, diamond, star or other favorite shape as well.

Step 5: Draw embellishments around the inside corner of the eyes, above the eyes, and the outside corner of the eyes using purple liquid eye liner. Don’t worry if the shapes don’t match perfectly on either side of your child’s face—asymmetrical, organic shapes will pull off the look just as well.

Step 6: Use pink liquid eye liner to outline the oval shape on the forehead and trace the other embellishments for added effect.

Step 7: Use white liquid eye liner to trace the other embellishments and shapes for added effect.

Step 8: Using white liquid eye liner, apply white dots around the oval shape on the forehead and white dotted lines under the eyes for dainty, fairy-like look.

Step 9: Apply a small dot of eyelash adhesive in the center and above the oval shape on the forehead as well as the outside corner of the eyes. Let the adhesive set for 10-15 seconds and then apply the cosmetic rhinestones/gems.

Tips & Tricks

  • Place one hand on top of your child’s head or under their chin to hold them steady as you work.
  • If you accidentally smudge an area with the wrong color, it’s an easy fix. Just go back over it and mix with the original color.
  • Large applicators will make the job much easier! You could also use makeup sponges, cut into quarters, or whichever size suits your design.
  • Substitute your own colors to match your child’s specific costume.
  • Apply with a soft touch – you don’t have to use much pressure.

Everything is very cute, you did a nice job explaining the steps. The only problem, is a major one. Craft glitter, even ultra-fine, should never be used for face painting. It has sharp edges that can cut the cornea of the eye and cause ulcerations. Not something a parent wants to do to their kids. Even placing it on the skin of the arm, kids can wipe it in their eyes.
Please advise parents to ONLY use cosmetic-grade glitter, it is what the FDA advises to use.
Have a safe and wonderful Halloween!

Thanks for your comment! We appreciate you mentioning this and have updated the above to suggest cosmetic grade glitter so there is no confusion about using crafting glitter. Thanks so much for being a fan!

Cheers,
The Pottery Barn Kids Team

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