This simple Sugar Skull makeup and DIY headband are one of the ultimate solutions to a last-minute Halloween or fancy dress costume! Pair with an outfit you already own and you have a complete DIY sugar skull costume in under half an hour total!
The simple Sugar Skull look has become our go-to last-minute Halloween costume for our girls, who love the chance to have makeup on… even if it is spooky sugar skull make-up!
Find out how to make your own floral headband and be ready in a flash.
How To DIY A Simple Sugar Skull Costume
If you want to keep your costume budget low, or you simply get caught at last minute without a costume for Halloween or a fancy dress party, this costume is a perfect mix of feminine and spooky.
And super easy to DIY!
All you need is some makeup – red lipstick and black eyeliner will do the job if you want to keep it really easy! A plain headband and some fabric or paper flowers.
And an outfit from your wardrobe!
You don’t need to have any fancy makeup artist skills either. Because I certainly don’t, yet my girls love this costume more than any other.
The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), is a special holiday in Mexico, where families welcome the souls of their deceased relatives back for 3 days of celebration between 31 October and 2 November each year.
DIY Flower Headband
To make your DIY Day of the Dead floral headband, all you need is a plain headband – We used some we already had at home, but you can also pick up a packet of headbands for a couple of dollars.
And you need some flowers in the colour of your choice.
I had these large fabric flowers from making baby headbands many years ago.
Smaller fabric flowers look just as good, such as little rosebuds. But any flowers will do!
Red, pink, orange, white and purple are all popular choices.
Using a hot glue gun, glue your flowers in place on your headband.
It is ready to go once it is dry, however, I did also add felt circles to the underside of the headband as well.
This ensures a firmer hold and helps avoid any scratchy, annoying hot glue patches against the head.
RELATED: DIY HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS ON A BUDGET
DIY Simple Sugar Skull Makeup
It took me around 5 to 7 minutes each to do my daughter’s faces with their Day of the Dead makeup looks. We used a few images from Pinterest for inspiration but kept it really simple, without a lot of detail.
I used an eyeliner pencil for the black details – the stitched lips, rings around the eyes and the nose details.
If you have liquid eyeliner, this will likely work better.
Our eyeliner pencil was not ideal as it didn’t fit the sharpener I had, hence the very basic details.
A liquid eyeliner, or a nice sharp point, will allow you to do a lot more and still keep it simple and quick.
We used red lipliner pencil to ensure the red stayed bold, with red or pink lipstick over the top.
This time it was pink eyeshadow and blush with some silver sparkle liquid eyeliner to add some bling. Actual stick-on bling works perfectly for this too!
In an earlier costume below, I have also used the red lipstick around the eyes.
What Clothes To Wear For A Girl’s Sugar Skull Costume
For an outfit, plain black works fine. Or add some splashes of colour with floral prints.
A dress is a great option or an off-the-shoulder shirt with a bold pattern skirt gives off pretty Day of the Dead vibes.
This time round ours was a school dress-up day, so we stuck with clothes the kids could still play in. Well… for my eldest. My youngest was a Rapunzel sugar skull!
DIY Sugar Skull Costume Supplies
If you want to only partially DIY your easy sugar skulls makeup and costume, or you need to stock up on some supplies, here are some essentials to help you out:
- Plain satin headbands
- Fabric flowers
- Sugar skull temporary face tattoos – if you’d rather skip the makeup entirely!
- Headband with veil
Dia De Los Muertos Sugar Skull Costumes
If you don’t have the time for a DIY Day of the Dead costume, or you want to mix and match, these are some of the best picks for ready-made costumes to buy:
- Girl’s Skeleton Day of the Dead costume
- Men’s’ Day of the Dead suit costume
- Senorita Dia De Los Muertos costume
- Girls deluxe skeleton costume
This is a fun costume idea for when you are in a hurry!
It works just as well for men too, with a little masculine skeleton makeup, paired with a black suit or black pants and a white shirt.
And like I said, you don’t need to have any special makeup skills to make it look effective… a few smudges here and there are all part of the Halloween spookiness!
If you want more DIY Halloween costume ideas, check out these costumes for kids and babies, family and group costumes and DIY Halloween costumes for adults and couples. Or if you have book-loving kids, these Book Week costumes are a load of fun to make at home too.
Check out these costume DIY ideas too:
- DIY Luna Lovegood costume
- DIY Alice In Wonderland in the White Rabit House costume
- Poppy Troll Hair Headband
- Floral bunny headband
- Family Toy Story costume
- DIY Barbie costume
- DIY Bo Peep costume
- DIY Jessie from Toy Story costume
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