“I’m the ghost with the most babe!”
I honestly don’t think there’s a better quote to nutshell this grossly vulgar character. Michael Keaton excelled as Beetlejuice in my opinion and if anyone else had played this part, the movie would not have been as widely successful as it was. The film came out in 1988 and the special effects makeup was and in my opinion, still is phenomenal. Ve Neill is one of my SFX makeup idols and She’s a large part of the reason that I have always had a fascination with it and why I do what I do. She created the visual character of Beetlejuice and Micheal Keaton put it on and made the character come alive, well undead would be more accurate in this situation.
The green haired, bad-mouthed, undead urchin of a guy is a large part of my infatuation with SFX makeup and the use of larger prosthetic pieces. Another reason is because it allows me to be as creative as I want to be without any real repercussions. I chose this look for my 31 Days of Halloween because it helped make me who I am.
Moving on from the sappy shit, we have some serious supplies to go round up. Lots of makeup, hair stuff, and some costume bits and bobs to boot. Here’s the ticket, so let’s get pickin’
You’re gonna need:
- White Cream Paint
- Green Eyeshadows in varying shades
- Green Lipstick
- Purple Eyeshadows
- Makeup Brushes and Sponges
- Brown Eyeshadows
- Gray Nail Polish
- Green Hairspray or Temporary Green Hair Color
- Regular Makeup Routine Supplies
- Primer
- Color Corrector
- Moisturizer
- Etc.
This is the makeup portion of the look which will take up most of the post, but there are a few little costume related points I have to make. We will definitely get to that later so for now, grab a snack and buckle up baby!
Step one on this crazy ride is to build a base. First you need to make sure that your face is clean because stuff won’t stick if there’s oils and dirt in the way. Even Beetlejuice had to clean up to look that scary! Once you have a clean slate to work with, prime and moisturize your face. Priming and moisturizing helps to make your newly cleaned up mug, nice and smooth for the coming awesomeness.
Moisturizing aside, grab your color corrector and apply it to the necessary spots and blend it out. Go over the top of that with a concealer or BB cream to match your skin tone. I recommend one of these options because they won’t cause problems with blending the white paint in the next step. The issue with cream foundations and cream paint is the bleeding of colors so I like to think that the use of concealer should negate it.
Up next is the white base for this grimey S.O.B. I have a Ben Nye White Cream Paint that I use for all of my SFX makeups that need white so I’ve got this part down to a science. I take a makeup wedge that I got from Qosmedix.com, and drag it around in the white paint and carefully pat it onto my face. You want as full coverage as possible for this so slow and steady wins the race. I will warn you that your hands will be thoroughly coated in white paint by the time you finish.
Once you have the first layer down, grab your setting powder or baby powder, whichever you have, and a fluffy brush. Proceed to powder the crap out of your face. I highly advise you don’t just brush it on and go because you need the cream paint to grab it and hold it so slow pats are the way to go. With that done, grab the same sponge and patch any thin spots and repeat the powdering. This should give you a pretty even base for the rest of the makeup.
The next step is adding dimension with shadows. He just came out of the ground to greet you so he’s covered in dirt and grime from bein buried that long! He’s covered in moss, grass, dirt, and all kinds of bugs from that hole. So grab some greens and go a little nuts. Use a couple different brush sizes to have different shapes and amounts of moss and grass to make it look dynamic and un-lifelike.
His eyes are my favorite part because you get to take purple and draw a messy circle around them. If you want to know why his eyes are a messy purple you’ll have to ask Ve Neill. Her choice, not mine. I have two palettes that I’m pulling from for this step because neither has the perfect match but a mix will get us closer enough. I used a small blending brush to apply the colors in a fashion that was dense but messy because in all the reference photos, the color is very firm and very visible.
The last makeup step is to add a little bit of green lipstick to the lips and add some mascara to make your lashes pop. This step is sort of anticlimactic compared to the others but they won’t all be jaw droppingly fun.
I have a few pieces of a closet cosplay type costume to put on but you can leave it at this if you want! This is where we leave this one so stay tuned for tomorrow! It’s going to be a really fun month!
Kit By Design 