Cosplay Makeup Tips for Beginners

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Cosplay makeup can be a difficult task if you are a newbie in this niche. Cosplay makeup is different from your regular makeup and requires a lot of time, practice, and skills. Do not push yourself, cosplaying can be difficult if you never did something like it. Look for characters that are easier and do not require difficult makeup or special costume design. Your first cosplay can be a challenge, but we assure you it is worth the effort! If you think that it is a time for you to start doing cosplay, we made a list of tips on how to make cosplaying makeup easier for a beginner! We hope that here you will find some useful information!

Tips on how to make cosplay makeup easier for a beginner:

1. Foundation

A common mistake among new cosplayers is a mischoice of a foundation. First of all, choose a foundation that suits your skin type. If you have dry skin, look for a dewy foundation that is high coverage. A matte foundation can over-dry your skin, and all of the fine lines and wrinkles will be visible. Remember that cosplay characters’ skin usually looks like porcelain and has that healthy glow.

If you have oily or a combination to oily skin, the mattifying foundation will be a perfect choice. Another thing that is worth mentioning is the use of a primer! If you want to achieve that perfect doll-like skin, prepare your skin. Use a moisturizer and a primer that smooths pores and keeps your makeup in place during a convention.

2. Creating a character face shape

If you already chose the character that you are going to recreate, analyze its facial features. What kind of face shape it has? Analyze the eyebrows, lips, and nose. If you are going to recreate anime character, the majority of them have a V form lower jaw. Natural V form jaw is a rare thing. If you want to look like your character, you need to change the shape of your face. Don’t worry, you won’t need a plastic surgeon for this. The medical tape will do the job! But you will need to wear a wig and a wig cap to hide the medical tape.

Firstly, measure how much medical tape you will need. Put your thumb on your cheek and try to lift it as much as you need to create a V form face. When put the index finger of the same hand on your wig cap. Now you know how much tape you will need. After you attached medical tape, finish your makeup and put a wig on. That’s it! You have a V form shape of your face! You can use a medical tape trick for lifting your eyes, creating a jawline, etc. There are plenty of Youtube videos where cosplayers show their tricks!

3. Eye makeup

The eyes are the mirror of the soul. This is why eye makeup is very important in cosplay makeup. Eyes are the main feature of cosplay character. If you watch makeup tutorials, you probably know that certain eye makeup can change the shape or size of your eyes. After analyzing what eye shape and size your character has, you can start to do the makeup. If your character is popular in the cosplay community, look for tutorials online. Other cosplayers can help you with the makeup look. 

There are a couple of makeup products you are definitely going to need, especially if your cosplay character is a woman. It is a black eyeliner, a white eye pencil, neutral eyeshadows, and false lashes. A lot of cosplay characters have big doll eyes. If you want to achieve that look, you will need to overline your eyes with eyeliner and basically draw lower lid of the eye. To make that line more natural, put a dark brown eyeshadow below that line and blend it.

To make the lower lid even more realistic, glue fake lower lashes on the lower lid and use a white eye pencil to create a new water line. Cosplay characters usually wear natural eye makeup. A neutral eye shadow palette will be a perfect option. Also, you can use it for your nose or face contouring!

Contact lenses can change your makeup look drastically in a good way. The perfect type of contact lenses would be circle lenses because they make your eyes bigger and more expressive. Make sure that you buy contact lenses from specialized shops because bad quality lenses can cause eye infections.

4. Eyebrows and lips

If you want to recreate the eyebrows of your character, you need to cover yours. The most popular method is to glue down your eyebrows. Basically, you need to glue down your eyebrows with a glue stick and comb your brows back up into the proper position before the glue dries. After the glue is set, dust your eyebrows with powder and apply another layer of glue. Touch the eyebrow with a finger, eyebrow hair should be glued to your skin. After that, put a foundation or a color correcting cream if you have really dark eyebrows and cover it with a high coverage concealer. Now you can draw the eyebrows of your character.

Lip makeup usually is the easiest part of cosplay makeup. If your character’s lips are small, cover your lips with a little bit of a foundation and apply pink or red lipstick in the center of your lips and blend it a little bit. This way you will create small natural-looking lips. If your character has wider lips, you can contour the sides of your lips with brown eyeshadow and make it longer.

Conclusion

If you want to learn more about cosplay makeup, check famous professional cosplayers, and watch their cosplay transformation videos. Learning from professionals is a good start. If you think that you are ready for cosplay, choose your character, analyze its behavior and style. Costume design can be a difficult task for a beginner. Search for costumes online, or look for something similar in thrift stores and adjust it if it’s needed. 

For the first time, your makeup can take a lot of time and require patience. Basically, cosplay is an art form, and like with other art forms, it needs a lot of practice, but don’t push yourself too hard! Cosplaying is a fun activity so feel free to experiment and try various characters makeups at home! Practice makes perfect!