THIS IS HALLOWEEN: Tippi Hedren in The Birds

This is my first Halloween look! How exciting! I will actually be uploading two today so check back this evening for my second one, which I am even more excited by. Anyway onto this one and first things first, I should admit that this is inspired very heavily by Lisa Eldridge's tutorial. But I don't mean I stole the actual techniques in the tutorial, just the idea. I watched hers and then a few months later (i.e. now) remembered it had been a good look and created my own off the film (Hitchcock's The Birds), with a little help from Google Images, without watching her tutorial again or anything. I think that lets me off the hook. I am obsessed with her tutorials though, they are SO good.

To start with I wanted a really flawless and velvety base so I made sure I was super smooth and moisturiser and then used a really velvety primer (details of specific products below!). Then because my skin was looking okay, I used a light-medium coverage foundation but you could up this if needs be. In-keeping with a flawless finish I then went round with concealer, in my case mostly on dark circles under eyes.
Cheeks are quite peachy, so I went for this gorgeous Rimmel one, which I think is one of those shades that will suit so many skin tones. I just did a gentle sweep of that under my cheekbones and then up onto the apples of my cheeks a little.

With the base (mostly) done, I then moved onto eyes. Or so I thought... I wrote this up having not seen the pictures and assumed that this was what I did, because that's what I would normally do, but looking at the photos I have seen I did eyebrows first. So I guess I should talk about that first. Eyebrows again are something quite personal, and one where what is most important is that you keep to what suits you, but basically these are quite natural looking, not too heavy or too thin, so I just filled mine in with a bit of powder, but equally delicate pencil-ing would work.

Now I actually moved onto eyes. This essentially is just a really lovely wash of blue, but it took me a couple of attempts to get it right, and not too 80s. I started with a very light blue (Bobbi Brown one) but then stupidly decided this wasn't quite enough and went in with the MUA. This was a mistake, I looked a bit like a hooker. I feel like this is one of those cases where you mostly only want to notice it when your eyes are closed, or when you blink, rather than having an in-your-face blue, so I would recommend keeping it super light until you have done the entire look, and then you could always go back and add a little extra (esp. easy if using cream eyeshadow, unlike me). You can see in the pictures on the left, once I had done the eyeliner and mascara I had slightly washed out the eyeshadow a bit compared to the picture before.

Anyway after you have some sort of icy blue on yours eyelids, you can move on to liner. Lisa Eldridge in her super-wisdom thinks gel liner is most like what is used in the film, but I am rubbish at using it so I just used a fairly bog standard liquid, but a really deep black one. The eyes aren't heavy so I just went for a thin line right by the base of lashes, not really onto the lid, then a little flick, but this is really up to what suits your eye shape. Next up tons of mascara, then eyes are done! For some reason I didn't take photos of these as separate steps, sorry!

This is quite a good place to set everything with powder and redo concealer if like me you get eyeshadow and mascara everywhere. I would suggest powdering before doing your lips so as not to get any fall out on them.

Lips are a pretty solid coral, and I actually slightly ruined mine by putting a too-red lip gloss over the top, so don't do that. They should be coral, and the lipstick I used is actually not bad, but tweak according to your skin tone. Also I don't know why I put gloss on because it doesn't really suit this look... If I was doing it again I think I would go for a slightly sheer coral lipstick in a satin finish, rather than matte lips and lip gloss. Maybe something like the No7 Sheer Temptation Lipstick in Cuckoo Coral

I know, I missed my calling as an actress...

To finish off the look, I would definitely need to fix my hair and clothes. Although a blonde wig would be ideal, I think any kind of neat updo would work too.

As for clothes, the most iconic outfit from the film is the green two-piece dress suit, but any green pencil or wiggle dress would be great, like this beauty. Also if you want to really go all out, take a look at Forever Amber's version here, which includes headdress complete with birds (along with a host of other incredible outfit ideas). This is also a good point to mention, as she does, that this is a really good outfit and makeup look if you don't really like the idea of Halloween or just if for whatever reason you actually want to look nice (how dare you). The fact that it is from a Hitchcock thriller totally makes it Halloween, and if you can't find some scary birds why not find a scary tiger friend...?

Thank you so so much to my wonderful friend Ellie (from incredible improv group Giggle Loop!) for taking these beautiful photos!

If you're interested in the specific make-up I used, here are the details:
17 Photo Flawless Skin Primer

Rimmel Lasting Finish 24Hr Nude (in 010 Light Porcelain)

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

Bobbi Brown Pastel Eyeshadow Palette in Iced Blue (eyes) and Mahogany (eyebrows)

Also a teeny bit of MUA Cosmetics eyeshadow in Blue Suede from the Poptastic palette.

Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde Mascara

Bourjois Liner Clubbing Ultra Black liquid eyeliner

17 Lasting Fix Lipstick in Hot Chilli

Maybelline Matte Maker Mattifying Powder in 10 Classic Ivory

Rimmel Lasting Finish Soft Colour Blush in 010 Santa Rose