How to Do Medusa Makeup

Medusa turned anybody who looked at her into stone.

Avoid causing costume confusion when dressing as Medusa for Halloween by utilizing proper makeup techniques. Medusa is one of the Gorgons in Greek mythology, who was cursed to be ugly and have snakes for hair when she insinuated that Athena was jealous of her beauty. In the myths, anybody who cast eyes on Medusa would be turned to stone. Most people focus the majority of their Medusa makeup on the eyes, and use lipstick along with contouring effects on the face. More extreme variations on basic makeup can be achieved if you want Halloween party guests to believe they may actually turn to stone.

Things You'll Need

• Angle brush
• Black gel eyeliner
• Black eye shadow pencil
• Black eyeliner pencil
• Black eye shadow
• Green face paint
• White eye shadow pencil
• Small and large brushes
• Gold eye shadow
• Plum/black lip liner and lip stick
• Small piece of net

Instructions

1. Use black gel eyeliner to create a larger eye along the line of your eyebrow. Use an angle brush to go over the line of your eyebrow with black. Continue down the bridge of your nose, stopping when you reach the same level as the corner of your eye. Follow the natural curve of your eyebrow down on the other side and stop when you are in line with the outer corner of your eye. Join this outer line up to the outer corner of your eye. This will create a black eye shape over your actual eye.

2. Fill in the outer corner of your eye-shaped outline with a black eye shadow pencil. This is supposed to blend in as it comes closer to the center of the eye, so you can afford to apply it more liberally in the outer corner. Fill in the eye shadow in so it is above the outer corner you created and stops around a third of the way in to your eye. Use a brush to blend the color out into the center.

3. Apply a base-coat to fill the rest of the eye-shaped outline using a white eye shadow pencil. Apply gold eye shadow using a brush, over the white you just applied. Ensure it blends in with the black area.

4. Reinforce your lash line using a black eyeliner pencil. You can also use this to add a small, horizontal flick extending from the outer corner of your eye. Use a brush to blend this downwards along the bottom lash line. Apply white eye shadow to the corners of your eye. Repeat this process on the other eye.

5. Use professional-quality green face paint to cover the rest of your face. Do your best to ensure an even coating. Use a small brush to apply it on the outside of your "eye" outline. Pull your hair back and paint right up to your hairline. Decide whether you wish to accentuate your face paint with black or gold. You can use other colors if you wish, but these are most common for Medusa costumes. Shape your face by applying eye shadow on the underside of your cheekbones, on the line between your ears and your mouth.

6. Hold a small piece of net over an area of your face. Any kind of netting is suitable. This is to add a snake-skin like effect. Apply gold or black eye shadow onto your face, over the netting. The eye shadow will coat the part of your skin not covered by the net, and leave a scaly imprint of the net. Remove the netting to see the effect.

7. Apply lip-liner and lipstick. Lip liner is important for definition, and the lipstick should be used to cover the lips. You can use a plum shade of lipstick or simple black lipstick.

References

• Greek Mythology: The Medusa