ATV Octoberfest 15: Vintage Inspired Halloween Makeup Tutorials

Hi! Happy Halloween! I've posted today's entry ON TIME! I know that Octoberfest was a real cluster[bleep] in terms of the posting, but I really do hope that you enjoyed everything nonetheless. It may not have been apparent, but I worked super hard to create posts that I thought were interesting and still fit in the theme of vintage somehow. If nothing else, this was a massive learning experience for me and now I know what I need to do to make it better for you if I decide to try something like this again. Since today is the final day of Octoberfest, I thought I'd make today's post something directly Halloween related. I don't know about any of you, but I'm much more prone to just do face makeup as opposed to an entire costume, mainly because I love playing with makeup and usually don't have the money to go all out with a costume. So today's post is strictly about vintage-inspired Halloween makeup tutorials that I found on the 'Tube if you want some last-minute makeup ideas. If you've seen all of these already, you have my apologies. Enjoy!

Yes, I started with a flapper tutorial. Jordan Liberty has this beautiful 1920s inspired tutorial, so if your costume is meant to be more historically accurate than Halloween-inspired, go with this one. I really like the simplicity of this one; the brows are strong but much more natural than most '20s brows (which admittedly are probably my least favorite part of vintage beauty--I prefer a thicker brow), and it's very wearable in general, at least to me. If you're new to flapper looks, I think this is a good one to start out with. 

Ahh, one of my first vintage girlcrushes. If you've been here since ATV came back a few years ago, then you've seen me mention Cherry Dollface quite a few times so it shouldn't be a surprise that she's on my list for vintage tutorials. This particular tutorial is for Vampira and I thought it was an excellent recreation. Maila Nurmi had really strong bone structure so if you wanted to go the extra mile you could contour the cheeks with a cool-toned color, but this is spot-on. 

This tutorial by Zabrena is one of the best Betty Boop tutorials I've seen so far. It doesn't go overboard on anything, but it humanizes Betty's features in a way that's actually quite flapper-like, if you think about it. Most cartoon-to-real life renditions still look pretty cartoonish at the end, but this one doesn't and I love it. 

I really enjoy puppet makeup, but I really want the puppets to look like actual dolls. There's something really strange and creepy about those dolls to me, and that's what I enjoy the most. These remind me of some of the older fashions of ventriloquist dummies that you'd see at a circus or carnival. Many ventriloquists today use more human/muppet looking puppets, and while I like them, there's something about this particular style that I like. Tutorials like this one by Claire Dim also show the skill involved with creating something like this in terms of the lines and shading on the face. This could be a creepy-cute couple's costume as well, with the partner playing the part of the ventriloquist. 

I loved this Bride of Frankenstein tutorial by Desi Perkins. BoF's makeup and entire look is rather simple; the most striking thing about her, other than the stitches on her face, is her hair. This is one of the horror tutorials that can still be glam in a way, if you'd still like to do something with your eyes and lips. This is pretty accurate to how BoF looked in the film, and it's not hard to do. If you want more of a scary feel and have some time on your hands, Glam & Gore has a faceless Bride of Frankenstein that's as creepy as it is awesome. 

This chick is another of my spirit animals when it comes to makeup. This is a demented fortune teller tutorial by Nicole Guerriero, and on an unrelated note, the colors of the shadow she's wearing would make an awesome Halloween look once it's toned down a bit. I'd expect to see this kind of character at an early '20s circus or carnival, where she can, as Nicole says in this tutorial, eat my soul after reading my tarot cards. I love the mysticism with fortune tellers and this one definitely looks demented. I love it. 

What sort of Halloween would it be around these parts if I didn't have anything steampunk-related, right? Madeyewlook is quickly becoming one of my faves because of how talented she is, and I'm in love with this steampunk-inspired tutorial. It doesn't require a ton of extra materials, and would be great for a simple steampunk look. 

Yes, Cherry's on here twice. Anyway, I am slowly coming around to accepting that the '80s are now considered vintage. The periods that I typically considered 'vintage' have been vintage my entire life so there was never a period of acceptance there. But the '80s always feels like it was so much more recent, so I never considered it part of the club. I guess part of it is also because I'm an '80s baby and I'm loathe to accept that I'm growing older. lol But my personal issues aside, here's a '80s makeup and hair tutorial from The Cherry Dollface. I like this because it has that bright, harsh color that the '80s were known for, but it reminds me of Bowie, who I love, and still manages to look fun. 

When I try to visualize what I think a Victorian corpse looks like, I've always pictured something close to this tutorial. Even in death I imagine that there's this ethereal quality about them, which I know sounds totally inaccurate because no dead body looks ethereal, but whatever. This Victorian corpse tutorial by Aimee Hughes is easy to do, still has a vintage feel to it, and because the end result is still quite simple, you can do a lot with it if you decide to go gory. 

Jordan Hanz isn't my girlcrush or my spirit animal. It's at a level above that. I want to kidnap her and make her teach me everything she knows. lol She is crazy talented and this wouldn't be a Halloween post if I didn't include her in here somewhere. I've already got a flapper tutorial on today's list, but I really like this zombie version, which is why I featured it. It's not super messy and doesn't require a lot if you decide to make the jump from gorgeous to undead. 

Wonder Woman is not only my favorite superhero, but she was also the costume of choice for many folks back in the day. She still is, which is another testament to her badassery. (It's not a word but it stays.) Pop art is another vintage thing for me, even though it's seen a resurgence in popularity as of late. When I saw this pop art Wonder Woman tutorial by Denean Dale, I thought it was great. I didn't want to include a modern-inspired pop art look, but I didn't want to include a modern Wonder Woman tutorial either so this was the best of both worlds. 

And finally, I didn't want a normal rockabilly tutorial, so I took it up a notch and went with psychobilly instead. What I liked about this tutorial by rottenzombiefairy was that it's equal parts glamour and horror. You can still do the pinup look, but the zombie mouth and gashes, green face paint and colored eyebrows keep it from looking typical.

And with that, this year's Octoberfest has come to an end. Thank you so much for keeping me company this month and letting me experiment, and thank you so so much for being patient with me when I wasn't posting on time. I really appreciate it and if you've read all of the Octoberfest posts, you're the MVP of my life. It can be difficult to gauge how people take my posts because I don't often get comments, so I judge it by views and go from there. I honestly don't know how people feel about my posts or my blog in general, but I know that it tends to get stale around here sometimes. Things like SUTS, or in this case Octoberfest, allow me to stretch my wings and provide what I hope is a more fun experience for the reader that's still true to what ATV is about. I know that I don't have the resources or the clothing that attracts most vintage readers so I'm aware that I'm not going to have those levels of views, which is okay with me. But I'd like to think that there are a few of you out there who genuinely enjoy what I post, my long-winded rambling, and like taking a trip back in time with me a couple of times a week. It's nice to spice things up around here every once in awhile though and I feel like monthly promotions as well as the regular monthly themes allow me to do that.  This may not seem like it's very much, but I'm really proud of this. SUTS is an annual thing, but it's not mine per se. I put my own spin on it, but it's not mine. Lots of blogs cover SUTS. Lots of blogs also do something special for Halloween, but ATV Octoberfest was something I thought of a year ago and had to wait to actually execute. It was totally worth the wait, worth the work, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. It probably sounds like I'm being sappy for no reason, but there's nothing wrong with taking pride in what you do. I'm not proud of myself very often, but I'm proud of Octoberfest and I'm so grateful to anyone who popped by this month to read any of it.  But anyway, I hope if you're staying indoors tonight that something I've posted helps keeps you company and if you're going out, that you have tons of fun. Please stay safe, don't drink and drive, and don't let your friends drive drunk either. Thank you again and Happy Halloween!

P.S. Wait until tomorrow to buy candy; it'll be 50% off. LOL