I’ve been having a lot of fun with making my own costumes lately (see my Taylor Swift costume post, my cluttered bathroom sink, and my drugstore makeup receipts for confirmation). Though I didn’t really celebrate Halloween in college and it’s not a major holiday in the Netherlands, I love the creative opportunity in designing my own costumes. Today I’m sharing three fantasy Halloween looks — a warrior elf costume, a mermaid costume, and a galaxy goddess costume — that you can recreate with cheap supplies and not too much effort!

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Warrior Elf Halloween Costume

This costume was really easy and fairly quick to put together (bear in mind that I already owned a flower crown!).

Tools for this look:

• Clear hair elastics
• Black liquid eyeliner
• Mascara
• White eye pencil (my favorite is the jumbo white pencil by NYX)
• Dark lip color
• Thin headband
• Flower crown

The Hair

Part your hair in the middle. On one side, find a chunk of hair about one inch back and braid. Tie off with an elastic and repeat on the other side. Now take the inch of hair in front of the braid on each side and bring them back. Tie them together with an elastic behind your head.

The Makeup

The makeup for this look is really easy. Optionally, apply any concealer or foundation as you normally would — I don’t tend to wear heavy makeup, so for this look I’m only wearing a bit of concealer. Next, take a black liquid eyeliner and create a slight winged eye (see tutorial here). Apply mascara.

For the lips, I like using a dark color to contrast with the white of the eye pencil. I used a lip paint by tarte that I got as a sample. but any liquid lipstick will do well.

Now take the white eye pencil and draw lines and dots on your face as desired. I did three lines in the middle of my forehead, two on each cheekbone, and one over each eyebrow. Next, I added dots on each cheek and one white line over my bottom lip and down to the end of my chin. I also added some white in the lower outer corner of my eyelids and smudged it out to make it look smooth.

The Accessories

Take the headband and slide it on horizontally so that the sides are hidden in your hair. Add a flower crown. Voila! You’re done!

Mermaid Halloween Costume

This look may seem a little more complicated than the previous one, mostly because of the detail work involved in applying the sticker pearls. But it’s actually not too difficult, and the effect is really great! Read on to see how I did it.

Tools for this look:

• Clear hair elastics
• Black liquid eyeliner
• Mascara
• White eye pencil (my favorite is the jumbo white pencil by NYX)
• Sticker pearls
• Sticker rhinestones (I used clear, but purple and blue could also look really nice)
• Blue glitter eyeshadow
• Some fishnet material that you don’t mind cutting up
• (Fake) pearl bracelet or necklace
• Bobby pins

The Hair

To do the particular hairstyle that I did, you need to be able to do a French or Dutch braid (tutorial here). Brush your hair back and away from your face. Now select the inch-wide section in the top middle — this will become your center braid. brush the hair on the sides of that selection downwards. Now Dutch braid that section of hair, binding at the end in an elastic. Pull the sections of the braid outwards to make it a little chunkier (this is also called “pancaking” the braid). Apply the same process to the 1 inch hair chunks on either side of the braid, making sure to keep the edges fairly neat. Finally, select some random pieces throughout your loose hair to braid more tightly. I chose to make two small braids on either side of my face.

The Makeup

Apply any concealer or foundation as you normally would. Clear skin is not as necessary for this look as for the elf, so if you don’t normally wear any concealer or foundation, go ahead and skip to the next step.

Cut a chunk of four inch by four inch fishnet from your stockings or fishnet material. Place it against your head and use a large eyeshadow brush, or your finger, to apply the blue eyeshadow over the fishnet (you can see a video of this effect here). Apply it around the top of the forehead, at the top of the cheekbones, and along the jawline (some mermaid contouring for you). Next, Take the blue or purple eyeshadow and brush it into your eyebrows to give them a blue shimmer. Apply eyeliner in a wing shape (tutorial here) and add mascara. Finally, apply the blue eyeshadow under your bottom eyelid.

Now comes the fun part: the pearls and rhinestones. If you bought a sheet of sticker pearls, they should be self-adhesive. The design you create is up to you, but I did a line down my nose and over each eyebrow, then a shell shape on my forehead and two bubble spurts over my cheeks. Finally I added a pearl in the cupid’s bow of my upper lip. I used the white eye pencil to add any extra dots down my nose or chin. Here are a few close-ups in case you’d like to copy my specific design.

The Acessories

Finally, take the pearl bracelet and open the clasp so it’s a small strand. Take a bobby pin on each end and pin it in place around the braids on your head so it creates a crown of sorts. I also had a pair of fish scale earrings, so I’m wearing those as well. That’s it! I wore this with a blue sparkly dress.

Galaxy Goddess Halloween Costume

This look involves fewer techniques than the other two, but can be pretty time-consuming if you want the eyeshadows to be applied thickly.

Tools for this look:

• Black liquid eyeliner
• Mascara
• White face paint
• Thin brush
• Cool colors eyeshadow palette
• Beauty blender
• Aluminum foil
• Bobby pins

The Hair

I kept my hair down for this look, but you could also try curls or style it in a way that you like. The focus of this look is the makeup.

The Makeup

Take your beauty blender and try to get as much pigment from the blue eyeshadow on it as you can. Apply it across your nose, in the area that freckles would be, in a dabbing motion. It will probably take some time (and quite some eyeshadow!) before you get the thick color payoff that you see in the photos above, but you should have more than enough eyeshadow to cover across your nose, temples, and do a swirl over your chest.

After patting in the blue, apply different shades of purple in spots over and alongside the blue to create some color dimension. Finally, add a bright pink on the outsides.

Next, take your brush and wet it. Using the white face paint, paint dots over the eyeshadow area. I tried to mimic freckles across my face, and create constellations on my chest. For some stars, you might want to create dashed lines between them for a constellation effect.

Finally, apply a pink lipstick, eyeliner, and mascara.

The Accessories

The only accessory for this look is fairly simple to make. Take a sheet of aluminum foil about a foot long, and shape it into a crescent. It will naturally become a 3D shape. Flatten it using your hands, a cup, or a rolling pin. Now, taking a pair of scissors, clean up the edges to give it a clearer shape. Hold it against your head to see where you plan to attach it, and in that place, puncture the ‘moon’ with a bobby pin and fasten it to your hair.

Which of these three looks is your favorite? Will you be trying any of them yourself? Let me know in the comments!