Step-by-step: Three Halloween makeup looks

Step 1: Start with a clean and even canvas achieved by using your everyday concealer and foundation. Tuason stresses the importance of having highly hydrated skin for smoother application.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 2: Cut a piece of paper in the shape of a playing card to fit the area where you plan to draw the shape. Hold the stencil over one eye and mark the corners with a white eyeliner pencil.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 2 continued: Connect the corners by drawing in the line of the card. Tuason recommends coating a small angled brush with the white eyeliner to do this for a more crisp line. Fill in the card with a white eye-shadow base. Go over the base with a matte white eye shadow, and then again with a shimmery white eye shadow. “The three different layers of white give the card more depth rather than the flat effect of just white makeup,” Tuason says. Define the edges of the card by lightly lining it with a black gel or cream eyeliner. Tuason stresses that you don’t have to line the entire card perfectly, but rather just the corners and a bit down the sides. Trace over the eyeliner with a matte black eye shadow to intensify the line.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 3: Draw the hearts on the card with a red lip-liner pencil. Fill in the hearts with a red eye shadow and a few dabs of a bright fuchsia to add depth to the color.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 3 continued: Outline each heart with the black gel eyeliner and again with the black eyeliner. Draw in the A’s in the same black gel eyeliner. “The card should have a 3-D effect, as if it’s really sitting on the face,” Tuason says.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 5: “Erase” the entire lip with MAC Lip Erase or a concealer. Go over the lips with a pressed powder.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 5 continued: Take the same red lip pencil used to make the hearts in the card and create a kewpie doll-style lip, using the natural peaks of the top lip and drawing in the rest like a heart toward the bottom lip. Fill in the shape with a heavily pigmented red lip stain.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 6: Create a smoky look on the eye opposite the playing card. Using the black gel eyeliner, drag the liner across the top eyelid and under the bottom lash line. Brush a soft brown eye shadow into the crease of the eye. Apply a heavy mascara or false lash. On the eye with the card, brush an eye lash primer to “white out” the lashes so they blend in with the card, creating even more of a contrast with the other eye.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

MAC makeup artist Jae-R Tuason and model Maya Burkenroad -- and the finished product.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Stapleton used several colors of eye shadow and a pair of fishnet stockings to get this aquatic effect.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 1: Lighten the skin with foundation a few shades lighter than your natural skin color. Highlight the high planes of the face -- cheekbones, down the bridge of the nose, top of the lip, chin and eyelids -- with a shimmery white highlighter. Go back over the same areas with an aquatic color, such as the glittery green eye shadow Stapleton used, Juxt from MAC.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 2: Contour the face with a deeper, still shimmery color, in the hollows of the cheek, down the sides of the nose, the crease of the eye, hairline and jawline. Add another contouring color, such as a dark blue, lightly into the same areas to accentuate the contours even more. Don’t worry about covering all your skin. Stapleton says that having the skin show through the colors in some areas adds more depth. Blend the highlights, contours and colors slightly so the strokes aren’t too choppy. Stapleton added a white highlighter with a gold sheen on the forehead, cheeks and nose to help blend the colors and add more sheen.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 3: Apply a generous amount of eyelash primer to the lashes. Start flocking the eyelashes with one of the green eye shadows until the lashes take on the color. Stapleton adds that this can also be done to false lashes if you want a more intense eye. Do this same flocking technique to the eyebrows by stroking lash primer into the brows and then applying green eye shadow.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 4: Cut a pair of fishnet tights to create an area that slides easily over the face. With a firm brush, dab a dark blue or green shadow over the entire face for a fish-scale effect. “This makes her look like something between reptile and mermaid,” Stapleton says of the texture. Highlight some of the “scales” with a light dust of glitter so that they are more defined.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 5: Line the lips with a magenta lip pencil and fill in with an iridescent violet eye shadow. Brush the same violet shadow across the apples of the cheeks. Finally, finish the look by popping a blue-tinted highlighter or shadow on the same areas where you initially applied the highlighter.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

MAC artist John Stapleton and model Nicole Eisenberg -- and the finished product.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

For this look, you want to “take the blood out of the skin,” says MAC senior makeup artist John Stapleton. The model is Sydne Sommer.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 1: To achieve a very pale canvas, Stapleton applies the lightest shade of MAC studio fix foundation powder to simultaneously give the skin coverage and a blood-sucked look. Highlight the high planes of the face with a shimmery white shadow to make the face look even more hollow.

Step 2: Get a quick and dramatic smoky eye by using a black gel eyeliner. Apply a thick line to the top and bottom of the eye. “It’s OK to be messy because it will all get blended,” Stapleton says.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 2 continued: Blend the black color at the outer edges of the eye and at the inner corners for a strong, hollow look.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 2 continued: Leave the center of the eyelid bare so the inner and outer corners look more dramatic and sinister.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 4: Apply mascara to the top and bottom lashes. Using false eyelash style No. 47 from MAC, Stapleton applied the fanned-out lashes for an instant transformation.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 5: Line the lips with a deep red lip pencil. Go back over one side of the mouth with a dark purple pencil. “Just doing one side with blood coming down on the other, will look more convincing that she just bit something or someone,” Stapleton says. Fill in the lips with a heavily pigmented red stain or lipstick.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 5 continued: To get the splattered blood effect, Stapleton dips a clean mascara wand into the red lip stain and flicked it onto the skin around the corner of the mouth.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Step 5 continued: Dip a small, fine brush into the red lip stain and draw a few lines of blood running down from the mouth.

Now go take on the night.

[email protected]  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)