With just over a week until Halloween, silver Halloween makeup offers a way to stand out without copying the sea of Squid Game costumes on the street.
Silver Halloween Makeup: Met Gala Inspirations
Take cues from this year’s Met Gala red carpet, where several celebrities used metallics to create looks that read futuristic, theatrical, and still wearable for a party or a photo op.
Grimes
At the Met Gala, musician Grimes combined pearl-accented eye makeup with a silver face mask to sell a full-on futuristic warrior aesthetic, as seen in red carpet photos.
Hunter Schafer
Model and actor Hunter Schafer opted for an understated base, then added a three-dimensional silver ornament at the center of the forehead and white contact lenses for an off-kilter, ethereal effect.
Amanda Gorman
Julia Garner
Poet Amanda Gorman and Emmy-winning actress Julia Garner both used silver eyeshadow to create looks that read as high-fashion but more approachable than the extreme, costume-oriented variants.
To try a silver Halloween makeup look, makeup artist Cheryl recommends leaving behind the usual gray-silver smoky eye and instead focusing on one bright silver tone applied strategically to the inner eye and the bridge of the nose.
Cheryl said to start by packing a single, reflective silver shadow into the inner corner of the eye, then blend a small amount along the upper nose bridge so the forehead and brow center pick up the gleam.
Finish the face with a glass-like lip gloss that has high shine. The result is a clean, luminous silver look that photographs well and is easy for makeup beginners to execute.
Step-by-step, beginner-friendly silver Halloween makeup
- Prime lids with a cream eyeshadow base so the silver pigment looks vivid and stays put.
- Apply a high-reflectance silver shadow at the inner corner, then dust the same shade along the bridge of the nose toward the brow center.
- If you want a more theatrical effect, add a small 3-D metallic appliqué at the forehead, or use white contact lenses like some Met Gala looks showed.
- Skip heavy black liner, unless you want a graphic edge; instead, curl lashes and add a lengthening mascara to keep the look modern.
- Top lips with a clear, shiny gloss that contains micro-reflective particles for a glass-lip finish.
Use photos from the Met Gala red carpet as a reference if you want to match the intensity of celebrity looks. For a Halloween night out, scale the silver accents up or down to suit your comfort level.
With silver Halloween makeup, the key is placement and finish: reflective pigment at the inner eye and nose bridge, and a glass-finish lip create a futuristic impression without feeling like a costume.
