You Won't Believe the Insane Body Art This Instagrammer Creates
Half the fun of Halloween is whipping out our wildest makeup palettes and experimenting on our face.
While messing around with makeup is a blast, a full-blown Halloween look isn't really complete without body paint—just ask Corie Willet, body painter extraordinaire.
Corie takes her vivid imagination, paint and a whole lot of talent to create the most unique, out-of-this-world body designs.
We recently chatted with Corie and she revealed how she got involved in the industry, while providing tips for creating the most memorable Halloween looks for ourselves.
Scroll below to learn how it's done!
Sweety High: When did you start experimenting with body paint?
Corie Willet: Halloween two years ago I started playing around with it, and after that I just kept going. I was following a lot of makeup artists on Instagram and saw they did it all year round, so because I had so much fun with it I wanted to keep going, too!
A photo posted by corie willet. (@twistinbangs) on
SH: Do you have any professional training, or are you self-taught?
CW: Up until a couple months ago, I was entirely self-taught by just studying photos. I don't learn well from YouTube videos or tutorials, so staring at a photo and trying to visualize the steps other artists took in their designs, then applying that to my own makeup ideas works for me.
SH: How do you decide what to paint? What do you draw inspiration from?
CW: I try to decide in the morning what I'm going to paint so I can think about it all day, and when I sit down I can just get it done. I get inspiration from everywhere. My favorite example is when I did a breakfast-themed body paint simply because I really wanted brunch that day.
SH: What's your favorite look to date?
CW: Oh, that changes every week! I just did a dark mermaid piece that I adore, but I tend to love them all for little reasons here and there.
SH: What't the most difficult look you've ever done?
CW: They all have parts that trip me up—I never even drew until I started body painting, so every time I paint I try to challenge myself. I honestly didn't think I had an artistic bone in my body, but I guess I just needed to find my medium.
When I painted the text for Harley Quinn's shirt, that was so frustrating. I hate mirroring the image in post edit, so I actually painted the cursive backwards while looking in the mirror. I might have thrown some paint brushes during that part.
I'm currently working on trying to be better at creating shadows and depth. Again, I have zero art experience so it's been hard!
SH: How long does it typically take to create each look? What's the longest it has ever taken you?
CW: When I first started, looks took me a lot longer, so my longest was my Lisa Frank Leopard I did last year. It took me a little over seven hours—I think I could get it done in four nowadays!
The dark mermaid I just did took me about six and a half hours, but I didn't preplan the design so there was a lot of trial and error and there was a ton of detail. Usually I shoot for two-three hours, though.
SH: What looks do you still hope to do?
CW: I have so many looks I'd love to do. Right now I'm focusing on actual characters for Halloween. I don't really preplan the looks, but I do have a list in a notebook, as well as photos and notes on my phone, so I'm kind of working on the fly at this point.
A photo posted by corie willet. (@twistinbangs) on
SH: In your opinion, what are the best makeup products for doing your own Halloween makeup?
CW: I love Mehron's Paradise AQ and Graftobian's Propaint for doing my looks, but the best advice I have for anyone painting themselves to actually go out for Halloween is to invest in a good setting spray!
I prep the skin before to prevent sweat breaking through, then I lay down my paint and then I spray the design one or two times over when I'm done.
I love Mehron's Barrier Spray or Ben Nye's Final Seal, but the absolute best setting spray I've ever found is PPI's Marble Alcohol Selr Spray. It's pricey, but so worth if it you want to wear body paint out!
SH: What's the easiest Halloween makeup look for beginners to recreate?
CW: A skull is always a fun one to start out with because there are so many possibilities and fun tweaks you can do to make it your own.
Sometimes that can be kind of difficult to start out with though, so I'd also suggest a pop art zombie—they're so common, but they're so fun to do! You don't have to add shading if you don't want to, nor do you have to be a blending queen to create a rad design with those.
for halloween i just did a half popart zombie girl, i probably could have been more creative but i wanted to attempt to incorporate a heart into a popart zombie again (if anyone has seen my light blue zombie, i wussed out and just drew a regular heart because i couldnt draw an anatomical heart back then) seeing progress in drawing skills is fun! AND YES i know its on the wrong side of my body hahahaha i felt pretty smart when people pointed that out last night ???? doing makeup in a mirror is hard
A photo posted by corie willet. (@twistinbangs) on
For more of Corie's stellar work, check her out on Instagram @twistinbangs.
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