Halloween make-up for grown-ups - Topshop and Mac

Is there any excuse as good as halloween for indulging in some quality fancy dress? I think not, but if yuo can conjure one up let me know and I'll be there. This year two of my good friends, Miss Laura Trouble and Eloise de Fine, are hosting a Zombies Ball at the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen so of course an outfit must be planned. Especially as it is on a Friday night so I will probably have to get changed in the toilets at work or at the venue.

Usually what happens in these situations is that I go out and blow between £20 and £30 on pointless pots of glitter, eye crayons and all sorts of other rubbish from Superdrug, half of which I never end up using and the rest of which I use once, only to discard it all about six months later in a make-up bag purge. I promised myself this year would be different. I already have two suitable eye shadows from Mac - a poisonous looking glittery purple called Beauty Marked and an evil potion shade of shimmering green called De Menthe.

But I need another texture. Mac have just launched a new range called Venomous Villains, inspired by various evil Disney characters including the wicked queen from Snow White and, of course, Cruella de Vil. 

Venomous Villains lipstick in Heartless - £13 - Mac

Venomous Villains mineralize eye shadow duo in My Dark Magic - £16 - Mac

Sadly my budget won't stretch that far. Instead I found the final ingredient for my make-up concoction at Topshop, whose autumn/winter Heavy Duty range is rather pleasing and filled with suitably dark and sinister colours with names like Grunge or Gloom. I was seriously tempted by a very deep purple lipstick which was tempting, but realistically was only going to be worn once so I steered myself away and towards a gel eye-liner in an emerald green called Ravine. Layer it on thickly with the little brush and it's dark enough to wear on its own so won't just be a fancy dress purchase but smudge it up and it makes a great base for something else. For halloween it will become a rather gangrenous looking cream blusher. 

Solid gel eye liner in Ravine - £8 - Topshop

I'll post a picture of the finished results after I sleep off the hangover next weekend...