When I was a kid I loved monster masks. Every Halloween I wanted to have the coolest scariest Halloween costume and mask, and when I was a kid masks were great because I could get a couple and hit the houses with the best candy over and over.

As an adult though masks present some major problems. First you can’t drink. Second my glasses fog up. Third you can’t drink and Fourth it muffles your ability to talk. Solution? Ditch the mask and build a better creature with make up, prosthetics, contacts, and props.

As the owner of the Halloween shop Dapper Cadaver I’m amazed at how many people are reluctant to do any make up but still buy masks. Believe me the mask is 100 times more unpleasant to wear then some prosthetics. Plus, prosthetics transform your face without hiding it so you still look alive.

Then just add some creepy FX contact lenses like the kind they have at Lens Shopper and you go from an average joe to a creature from beyond.

Be sure to order early, I don’t sell contact lenses and I can’t tell you how many people call me desperately in the 11th hour looking for some.

For prosthetics I usually use cinema secrets. They stick to the face easily with spirit gum / spirit glue and they can be colored with practically any make up. Don’t be intimidated by the shear variety of make up available. Unless you know you’re a make up artist go with the simple stuff. Believe me, when it’s dark out or in the club no one can see the small details anyway, what they see is “holy crap that guy really has a cut up face and creature eyes!”

My friends and I in monster make up:
Halloween 2008

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2006

Halloween 2005