Zombie Costume and Makeup Ideas

Zombies are at the pinnacle of their popularity. Movies like 'Night of the Living Dead' have seen renewed popularity. Local zombie walks and crawls are springing up in communities everywhere. The presence of the walking dead can be seen in pubs and on the streets on Halloween. As the owner of Niagara Ghost Walks, I decided to hop on the bandwagon and turn my ghost walks into zombie walks on Halloween weekend. Like myself, many of my zombie volunteers were newbies and needed a crash course in how to prepare. Once the transformation was complete, everyone fell into their zombie role quite naturally. What a wildly fun and memorable evening! This is definitely going to be an anticipated annual event and next year, I want to be even scarier looking. Getting in costume and makeup for the zombie walk was half the fun.

Whether you want to join a local zombie walk, dress up for Halloween or host a zombie party, you will need to perfect your zombie look and persona. There's lots of room for creativity with these zombie makeup and costume ideas.

Photo by James Yu Photography via Flickr

Zombie makeup should help you look dead and scary. You will want to find a concealer with a green or blue hue. This can be mixed with the lightest concealer you can find. Don't forget to lighten your lips as well.

Eyes should be dark. Use black or combinations of grey, dark brown or dark purple to create the sunken in look of the walking dead. Darken eyes top and bottom and accentuate with a dark liner.

I made the mistake of somehow getting the makeup in my eyes, which became irritating half way through my ghost walk. This could have probably been avoided, had I used a cotton swab to apply the eye makeup. I used my fingers.

The evening's agenda was to treat the Halloween guests to an extra treat by recruiting a group of novice zombies to pop out behind every corner during the walk. Once costumed and made up, they took to it like they had been dead all their lives! The best part of the evening for me was that I also had no idea where they were all hiding so was able to experience the shock and thrill as my ghost walkers did.

No Zombie makeup job would be complete without the zombie scars that make the whole look scary and add some interesting conversation pieces to your zombie creations.

If you are feeling creative, you can add your own scars with scar putty, fake blood and some dark makeup for effect. If you would rather, there are many unique zombie scar kits available.

The messier your zombie hair, the better. Tease it up and spray it in place with a strong hold hairspray. If you've always wanted to add those cool streaks to your hair, now's a great time to try them. Or spray in a wash out grey hair colour. Every zombie needs to have the worst hair day ever.

If you don't want to mess with your own hair, zombie wigs come in many different looks.

Zombie costumes are only limited by your imagination. Any ripped up or shredded outfit would do other than that, the costume is a personal choice. You can be a zombie construction worker, cheerleader, nurse or cop. As long as your threads are roughed up, you'll fit right in.

The right accessories can elevate your zombie costume to fantastic.

This is a great zombie walk with lots of realistic looking zombies. For zombie makeup and costume ideas, check this out. You will find lots of inspiration. Check out the walk as well for some ideas as to the zombie gait. Zombies are clumsy and move slowly, with arms outstretched and heads hanging limply.

This is one awesome zombie walk!