DIY Halloween Costume: Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland

Last Halloween I made a set of satyr horns for you guys to go along with the Maleficent makeup tutorial. This year, things are a bit less intense, though you can feel free to make some cat ears to go along with your glam Cheshire Cat. The “hard” part here is the actual makeup.

The look doesn’t require many tools thankfully, and you only need a limited amount of colors. Your typical makeup palette should suffice. The only extra might be some good white face paint. Unfortunately, I skimped on that and got a 50 cent crayon that didn’t end up providing much coverage.  I just went along with it by blending in the pink. You can also probably forego the white though you’ll need some intense white pigment to draw in the teeth in the smile.

Tools:
– Fluffy powder brush
– Thin angled eyeliner brush
– Flat concealer brush
– White pigment for face and teeth
– Fine-tipped black eyeliner
– Gel/kohl black eyeliner
– Pink blush
– Translucent setting powder

1. I started off by prepping my face with primer though my cheap white makeup crayon seemed to hold itself pretty well regardless of the primer. If you don’t want to cover the entire face (I went over my eyebrows too), you can draw in a white space that your “smile” will outline. The white space will be the template for your mouth and teeth. If you cover the entire face, you don’t have to worry about getting this perfect. Set everything with the translucent powder!! Setting the makeup is imperative. ALWAYS set with powder.
2. You’ll be using a lot of the eyeliner from this point on. I drew in my smile with a fine tipped liner first. Start from the cupid bow and do a gentle curve well past the apple of your cheek. Repeat on the other side. You can set a “point” on the other side where your tip should end for it to be symmetrical. Measure the distance out from the corner of your eye.
3. Connect the two outer edges by drawing the bottom of the smile with a gentle curve. The bottom should extend past the lower part of your lip.
4. Mark off the “teeth.” I did little arches. Start from the middle and do the arches to the end. You can see what I mean by checking your teeth. It’s where the teeth meet the gums and then curve down to create the gap between that tooth and the next. You’re drawing in the negative space. Connect the arches with pointy “teeth” one by one. You might want to make the canines a bit sharper to mimic a cat. I used a flat angled brush dipped in kohl liner for this part since it provided a super black tone and allowed a lot of control.
5. Repeat the technique on the bottom. Fill all the gaps between the teeth with black liner. SET EVERYTHING with powder.
6. Create “smile lines” on both corners of the smile. Essentially, hug the outer edges and create sharp angle curve “parentheses.”
7. Line your eyes with the black eyeliner and create a thick cat-eye line. Make it a LOT more dramatic than usual.
8. Use the concealer brush tipped into the pink blush and start contouring the nose. Go up the sides and over your eyebrows to make them more rounded.
9. Draw in a cat nose line with black liner on the tip of your nose and fill the bottom of the nose with pink.
10. Draw on whiskers on the side. Set everything with powder again.
11. Experiment a bit to get your perfect look! The goal isn’t to be exact. Put on a wig, some cat years and a fabulous outfit and you’re good to go!

Nataliya Ogle

Founder

Nataliya Ogle likes making sure others live to their full potential. She publishes articles on her primary website styletomes.com and works as a freelance writer for other women's interest sites. Her physical body is in New York but her presence can almost always be found online. The internet is her first love.