3 Best Day Of The Dead Makeup And Costumes Ideas In 2021

It’s the time of the year when we will mostly see around the skeletons, skull face paints, and lots of sweet treats. No, we are not hinting towards Halloween. Rather, what we are going to talk about is everything related to the preparations for celebrating Dia de Los Muertos or the day of the dead. Here we will explain the day of the dead, how to do the day of the dead makeup, and how to prepare the last-minute day of the dead costume.

What Is Dia de Los Muertos?

If you have seen Coco, you must already know what this event is about. For those for whom the idea is still foreign, Dia de Los Muertos or the day of the dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated in Mexico and some parts of central and south America to honor and commemorate death. On this day, people dress up, wear the special day of the dead makeup, and decorate the streets with flowers and candles to guide spirits to their homes. And here, we will talk about how to do the popular day of the dead skull makeup and prepare a Dia de Los Muertos costume.

3 Best Day Of The Dead Makeup Ideas

The best way to celebrate the dead is to transform yourself to look like them. Thus, the famous day of the dead makeup style associated with this festival is to do a sugar skull face paint. And since the holiday is all about celebrations, one thing that is a must for every Dia de Los Muertos makeup is an explosion of colors on the face. Here we have gathered three different sugar skull designs for ladies, men, and kids.

1. Catrina Day Of The Dead Makeup For Women

In the present day, Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe’s La Catrina has become the symbol of Dia de Los Muertos. People like to transform themselves with La Catrina’s makeup on Halloween and the day of the dead. It is a sophisticated makeover that can make even the skeletons look alluring (interesting, huh!).

So to do a catrina day of the dead makeup, you have to paint your face white and contour with a brownish-black shade. Then do a black smokey eye and blend the shadow to form circles around the eyes. Then draw some details and designs on your face with a black gel liner and embellish it by putting on self-adhesive rhinestones. Now add the day of the dead color to your sugar skull face makeup by pasting small petals to draw boundaries of the circles drawn around the eyes.

Finally, put on popping lip color and draw skeleton teeth lines on it with a black liner. You can further complement this beautiful day of the dead makeup with loose curls around the face and a huge flower headpiece. Perfecta!

2. Day Of The Dead Makeup Male Version

The best part of the day of the dead makeup is that it is for everyone. Men also dress up and go for the skeleton face makeup to celebrate the holiday. Here is a little tutorial on the day of the dead makeup for men. It is time to add colors and sparkles to the festivities of Dia de Los Muertos with a fun neon sugar skull face paint.

To do the colorful day of the dead skull drawing:

1. Begin by putting on white face paint.
2. Contour the face with neon shades.
3. Draw circles around the eyes and fill in with smokey black eyeshadow (for an ombre effect).
4. Add some details on the face like drawing a web on the forehead, circles, diamonds, spirals on the cheek, etc.
5. Finish off by applying neon lip color and mapping skull teeth with a black gel liner.

3. Dia de Los Muertos Face Paint For Kids

Kids are the ones who have the most fun dressing up for festivals. So, the day of the dead makeup for kids that we have in mind is to go for rainbow pastel colors. Start by applying white face paint on the face. Apply pastel green eyeshadows on the eyes. Map two circles around the eyes with colorful self-adhesive rhinestones. Draw flowers, spirals, and various colorful patterns on the face and cheek.

However, some parents are not comfortable with putting makeup on their kids’ faces. No worries, your kids can still get their day of the dead makeup done. If you don’t want to put any paint or makeup on your kids’ faces, you can always go for the colorful face tattoos. They are temporary and can be removed easily by rubbing it with baby oil on cotton. Moreover, these tattoos are super fun and easy to use. With different patterns, you can still do a zero-makeup sugar skull design on your kids’ faces.

Okay, enough with the day of the dead makeup tutorials. Now it is time to talk about the costume. To shape the complete sugar skull costume, we will first talk about headpieces and then the dresses.

Day Of The Dead Costume Ideas

It is not enough if you do a fantastic day of the dead makeup. Your costume needs to be on point too! And don’t worry, for we will not ask you to run to the costume shops and buy or rent dresses at high prices at the last minute. Contrarily, we will help you manage your Dia de Los Muertos costume with everything you have at home.

A nice floral headpiece is all that you need to complement your day of the dead makeup. After all, the holiday is celebrated with flowers and treats. So, you need a headpiece to complete your look. And you can DIY one with simple things from the shelves of your storage rooms. Here we will talk about three different headpieces that you can make at home.

1. The Spiked Halo Headpiece

To create this beautiful headpiece, you will need a simple spare plastic headband, hot glue gun, some wooden skewers (about 40), golden spray paint, some glitters or rhinestones, and fresh or artificial flowers.

How to make the spiked halo crown?

Cut the wooden skewers in different sizes and glue them to the band with hot glue to ensure that the band is sturdy. Then paint it in gold with spray paint. Glue the embellishments on the spikes. Finally, glue the flowers at the base of the spikes. And the exquisite crown is ready to accolade your day of the dead makeup look.

2. The Flower Crown

If you don’t want to take a lot of pain and keep things simple, you can go with this basic floral crown. To make this headpiece, all that you will need is an old headband and big artificial roses. Just glue the roses to the headband to prepare the crown. In case you do not have the plastic headband, you can also tie or glue the flowers to a string and tie the string around your head. This is a very simple Dia de Los Muertos crown but elegant enough to give extra colorful booze to your day of the dead makeup.

3. Dia de Los Muertos Floral Veil Crown

You will need a headband, hot glue, big artificial roses, a piece of net to make the veil, a ziplock, and some embellishments (optional).

First, glue the net to the headband and let it dry. Roll over the band once to secure the veil. However, to make it more sturdy, secure the net in place with a ziplock. Then glue the flowers on top of it. Now you can leave it like this, but if you want to add more glamour to your day of the dead makeup look, then you can glue some rhinestones to the veil randomly too.

Day Of The Dead Dress Ideas

Seriously, you can wear anything with a simple day of the dead makeup. Or you can get a proper skeleton costume from the market and rock the festival. Alternatively, you can also buy a traditional Mexican dress to compliment your sugar skull face makeup and colorful headpiece.

But if you want to level up your makeover game but are low on budget, we can guide you on how to prepare a last-minute costume. Women can pair a black shirt with a colorful or black skirt and tie a colorful scarf around the neck to add a punch to their makeover. On the other hand, men can go for two-piece suits or dress pants complimented with leather jackets. And there you have a simple costume ready without spending anything.

When it comes to celebrating any holiday or a festival, the costumes really don’t matter as much as the spirit of celebrating does. So, go with anything that you are comfortable with. But don’t forget to put on a vivid day of the dead makeup to bring excitement to your celebrations. Feliz Dia de Los Muertos!