If you’re a big fan of X-Men (like my husband is), you probably want to make a bang at your next Halloween party by dressing up like one of them. If you have a big enough gang, you can even go together as different X-Men. One of the most popular but probably most difficult X-Men to dress up as is Mystique, first portrayed in the movies by Rebecca Romijn and most recently by Jennifer Lawrence, with the famous blue skin, yellow eyes and red hair.
Here’s a great tutorial if you need to see it versus just read it.
Putting on this make-up is a little bit more difficult than one would imagine because she’s not just simply blue like the Navis from Pandora. The scales on the side of her face are probably what will make people rethink their original guess of Avatar for your costume. In order to create these scales, you’ll first want to find some flesh latex, usually pretty easy to find at any Halloween special effects store.
Starting at the forehead, take a small make-up brush and put the latex on in any shape you’d like in any pattern you’d like. If you want to follow the pictures, they’re easy to find online, or you can be creative and make it your very own creation. Follow the forehead with the scales on the sides of your cheeks and even a little under the eyebrows if you so desire.
After the scales have dried, find some blue make-up or paint; cream make-up, body paint, just about anything will work (but you probably want to make sure that it comes off easily or else you’ll look like a smurf for a couple days). Using a large, round brush, carefully dab the paint on over the scales and across the rest of your face. Don’t rub it or else the scales that you so painstakingly applied will come off. Usually, you will need two or three coats to make it the correct shade of blue.
Next, find some dark blue or black eye shadow and apply it on your eyelids, applying it not only over the eyelid but up under the eyebrows as well. Then take eyeliner or even more eye shadow and apply it to your bottom lash line. You’ll want to make the scales stand out, so take an eye shadow that is a shade or two darker than the blue paint you used on your skin to paint over the scales and make them really pop.
Then comes the hair and eyes. You can either buy a wig or spray paint your hair. We recommend simply spray painting it with a temporary red hair spray because a wig will probably sit too far forward on your forehead and cover the scales you worked so hard to get. Once your hair is a satisfactory red, all that’s needed is yellow contacts if you really want to go all out. Those can be found at any Halloween store, along with most of the other necessary make-up.
I hope this helps you a bit. Mystique is a fun character to portray. If you really want to go all out, you can repeat the scales and paint process over your entire body. If not, finding a suit such as the one that Jennifer Lawrence wears in “X-Men First Class” requires make-up on only the face and body. Whichever you decide, all of your friends will be so impressed by your costume, but mostly by your awesome make-up. If you have a boyfriend or husband, have him dress in a X-Men Wolverine costume.
Emma Rae Curtis is a costume/dressing up/makeup & accessories expert. She mainly writes about Halloween but also about all things costume and dress-up related.
Being a Halloween aficionado means that I get to dabble in the dark side here and there. (They lied about that whole cookie thing.)
Next you’ll want to lines your eyelids in a thick, dark line of black eyeliner and add false eyelashes to your top lid. Once you are done with that, add draw in and then fill your eyebrows.
First off, if you have hair long enough, you want to braid your hair into the small braids; if not, they make wigs that emulate just about any hairstyle so the hair should not be a problem. Next, put a good layer of foundation on for a good base for your blue paint. Next comes the blue paint—similar to the Mystique 
You’ll want to paint your entire face and any other part of your body that will not be covered by clothing with the light blue color. Then, apply the eyebrows. Eyebrows on Pandora are much more dramatic than they are here on Earth, and you’ll want to draw those in with a thick black eyeliner or even black paint. Then add black eye shadow to “recreate” your eyes, as the eyelids of Navis are black. Sticking with the theme of black, use black eyeliner to create the cat eye effect.
To liven things up, have your partner join you in a suit, with his face painted also, his hair slicked back like Zorro! What a great couples’ Halloween costume that would be! With the right make-up and accessories, you can create an amazing Day of the Dead look this Halloween.
