Day of the Dead: DIY Sugar Skull Halloween Look with Rick Baker, Horror Makeup FX Master

Day of the Dead, or Día de Muertos, is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1 or 2 each year to honor the dead. It's often lumped in with Halloween, and while some people do dress up in costumes, the day is much more focused on remembering the lives of friends and family members who have passed.

People who are unfamiliar with the holiday sometimes consider one of its most pervasive symbols, the sugar skull, rather morbid. And special makeup effects artist Rick Baker is no stranger to the macabre. If you've never heard his name, you've almost certainly seen his work in movies like Star Wars, Men in Black, and 1983 cult classic Videodrome.

Image Credit collider.com

Baker's work on An American Werewolf in Paris won him the first Oscar ever given to a makeup artist, which makes it a no-brainer that he'd also go on to do The Wolfman (pictured below).

Image Credit gawkerassets.com

So, who better to learn from than the man whose effects helped bring to life so many of the characters we now dress up as for Halloween? This year, Baker teamed up with MAC cosmetics to put together three Halloween looks, one of which is a Day of the Dead sugar skull.

Note: The other two videos were for the Monster's Bride and a Zombie

You'll need lots of white makeup with black for the lines and accents. Baker also used some red, green, blue and purple for the other details. He drew on flowers and a spider, but you can use whatever colors and designs you want to make it your own.

For more inspiration, be sure to check out some of our other sugar skull makeup tutorials, and don't forget to share your results with us by uploading a photo in the comments section!

Images via Universal Pictures