Vampire skin is the immortal beauty trend here to step up your Halloween game

By Malavika Pradeep

Published Oct 15, 2022 at 09:00 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

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Image by Yan Krukov from Pexels

Remember the time resident bad boy vampire Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson, who hates the role more than any living being on our home planet) gave a breathy Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) an unsuccessful reminder of how he’s the world’s most dangerous predator in Twilight? “This is why we don’t show ourselves in the sunlight—people would know we’re different,” he quipped while lowkey stripping under the beams filtering through the canopy.

Glittering like a Hello Kitty sticker on a backpack, it wasn’t long before Bella ignored the blaring red, pink, and beige flags and stated, “It’s like diamonds… you’re beautiful.” To this, Edward quickly spat, “Beautiful? This is the skin of a killer, Bella.”

Fast forward to October 2022, a beauty trend now has TikTok in a glitzy chokehold—right in time for the year’s spooky season. Introducing vampire skin, a makeup look that nails the blood-sucking clan’s aesthetic, one foundation pump at a time.

With 715,000 views and counting on the gen Z-first platform, vampire skin made its TikTok debut when makeup artist August uploaded a tutorial detailing the look as part of one’s Cullen-ification process for Halloween. “If you guys want to go as a Cullen for Halloween, just add orange contact lenses,” the creator captioned the video, which has garnered over 1.7 million views to date.

In the clip, August can be seen mixing a few pumps of sheer coverage foundation with both silver and gold liquid glitter (for that extra disco ball sparkle) on the back of their hand. The revolutionary concoction is then dotted all over their face and blended with a densely packed brush.

The creator proceeds to put Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ to shame by dusting powder glitter in an icy white shade all over the high points of their face, including cheekbones, brow bones, nose, and temple. A good amount is also patted as blush over their cheeks—because hey, there’s no such thing as too much glitter, right?

Shortly after August’s video went viral on TikTok, several creators jumped on the trend with their own renditions of vampire skin. While some added face oil to the blend, others bejewelled their looks with red gems and fake blood. Smudged lipsticks and bold, bleeding eyes are also the sparkling cherries on top of the Cullen-inspired cake. And don’t even get me started on the rightfully-abundant use of body shimmer to complete the spectral vibe.

This section is for fellow folks with textured skin. If you’re concerned about glitter not suiting your type or its gritty texture feeling rather uncomfortable when layered, the SkinTok community itself has some advice to share.

“For those curious—doing it this way will bring out ALL the texture on your skin,” a user noted. “Your best bet is to use a micro glitter dust spray after your base.” August also has another video in their vampire skin series detailing the textured skin-friendly process of nailing the trend. In it, the makeup artist recommends staying away from liquid highlighters and opting for a glitter spray on top of the base after contouring.

In a third clip, August also dished a key factor to keep in mind for vampire skin. “The trick is to actually not use too much foundation—you only want one pump,” they said. “Mix it with your fingers [and] tap it on. I find the trick is to actually do a quite light layer, you want the glitter particles to be well-distributed.” The makeup expert further recommended mattifying pore filling primer to people with textured skin.

At the end of the day, know that the possibilities with vampire skin are endless and every swipe of glitter under a flashlight is bound to aid your immortality. Over at TikTok, it’s safe to say that it’s already beginning to look a lot like Halloween.