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A grownup’s guide to going goth for Halloween

Forget Marilyn Manson. Goth is now mainstream. The “pretty Goth” look ruled the runways at London Fashion Week recently (above), and the cheerful child-friendly site Kidzworld tells kids how to dress Goth. Anyone with a trendy teenager in the family has probably seen way too much kohl around the eyes and dark lipstick and nails a la the adorable singer Avril Lavigne.

For Halloween, we thought it’d be fun for us grownups to go for the Goth. After all, we more or less started the look back in the day with Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Sid Vicious, and even that sitcom vamp Morticia Addams. If you need a refresher, here are Kidzworld’s five Goth essentials:

  • Black nail polish
  • Black boots
  • Black and/or bright-colored dyed hair
  • Clothes with studs and/or zippers
  • Black eyeliner

Hmmpf! Big surprise for those of us who used to dress up like Dr. Frank-n-Furter or Magenta for those midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now it’s all coming back. Crank up a little original heavy metal - may we suggest Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, vintage 1971, when Ozzy Osbourne was yours alone? -  and Goth up.

Let’s start with the makeup. It’s fairly simple, according to Goth site Bloody Mary:

  • Apply white foundation.
  • Use blackest black mascara.
  • Swath your eyes with black eyeliner and/or black eye shadow.
  • Paint on black lipstick.
  • Finish it off with black nail polish.

 This works whether you’re a Goth Guy or Girl. You can find pretty much any Goth makeup you want at Bloody Mary. Scroll down on the page for essentials such as the Tri-Color Goth Foundation Wheel with colors Pale Death, Flesh, and Ashen ($9); the Goth Shadow Kit with red and black eye shadows and Black Blood lipstick ($16); and even sterling-silver fangs ($30) or Goth Blood ($6).

At Urban Decay, prep your eyes with the Eyeshadow Primer Potion to keep your eyeshadow from fading or creasing ($16). Then smear on Liquid Liner in shimmering Oil Slick black or Perversion ink-black ($18) and Big Fatty mascara in black-black ($18). As for lips, it’s back to black with Manic Panic’s Raven matte lipstick ($7). Set the whole look with Manic Panic’s Vampyres veil-pressed powder ($14). Add L’Oreal’s Pro Manicure nail polish in Stroke of Midnight (2 for $5), and you’re set.

For hair, we like that ultra-straight longish hair with streaks of temporary color. Get that deep-dark black with Color Fiend’s comb-in temporary color and then streak it with Color Fiend’s hot pink or royal blue ($2 each) or pop in a Manic Panic’s Glam Strip in turquoise, violet, or lime green ($5). If you’ve got short hair, color it then spike it out with TIGI Bed Heads Hard Head spiking gel ($14).

If you don’t have any leftover punk gear in your closet, start with a base of a black T or cami over either black jeans or a short black skirt with ripped black tights (have fun ripping your own). The Goth drama comes in with a leather motorcycle jacket like Xelement’s classic men’s biker jacket ($75 on sale) and then killer boots like the Demonia five-buckle patent platform boots ($65). As for accessories, the wing bolt skull tiered chain necklace ($10) and chunky wallet chain ($17) finish off the look.

Now that you’ve gone over to the dark side, your teen won’t know what to do with you. And that might just be the best Halloween trick ever!

 

 

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