It was a Friday 13th to remember this year as I spent it in a MAC Cosmetics lock in!

Find out what I got up to after hours in John Lewis at West Quay, Southampton.

I was very excited when I turned up as the clock struck 8pm and the retailers doors shut for the day with me on the wrong side of the door. What a way to spend the spookiest Friday in October!

The evening was held to showcase some Halloween make up styles in the form of a tutorial. Tutorials are one of favourite ways to learn makeup tips as you always find out new techniques and tips to achieve different effects.

It also is a great opportunity to ask questions and listen to other people’s questions. Sometimes they ask things you’d have never thought of yourself and you end up learning a lot more.

We took our seats, introductions were made and two models were half made up with different Halloween looks ready to be completed.

The team launched straight into the tutorials and the make up artists took us through each product and how to apply them to achieve the looks.

The model on the left is a clown and the one on the right is a pumpkin/skull look. These looks were chosen due to the popularity of this year’s Stephen King’s IT film and the day of the dead.

What’s great about both looks is you can change them to fit more in with your theme, they are both really flexible.

If you wanted to achieve a look closer to that of the clown in IT all you’d have to do is change the colour used from a dark black/blue to red and make the base colour of the skin a bit more pale.

The same applies to the pumpkin/skull look. By blocking out harder shapes in black and adding more orange and brown you can bring out more of the pumpkin. Equally exaggerate the teeth, add more shading and make the face more pale and a better skull look can be achieved.

In the clown look they made the skin very iridescent and the highlighting game was strong. They used a product called Oh Darling, a gold highlight which was warm and added a real glow. It was applied with MAC brush 168 to get a real dense highlight on the cheekbones, nose and lips.

I fell in love with its gorgeous golden tones so picked one up after the tutorial was over. I’ve been wearing it every day to add some warmth to my face and move from the bronzers of summer to a richer shimmer for autumn. Add it lightly and it is a beautiful glow or build it up in layers to create a bold highlight that makes those cheekbones pop!

The 217 eye blender brush was used on both models to achieve big smokey eyes and to blend in other smaller features on the face.

I wish I’d recorded the tutorial now, as I couldn’t remember exactly what had been done to create the looks.

But, I did come away with great tips about how to apply highlighter, new ways to make your eye shadow work to its fullest potential. I’m pretty sure I could re-create the looks with the make up I have at home too.

For the highlighter I was taught to brush towards the outside of the face for best application. For everyday wear do a C shape from your cheek bone up around the outside of your eye. For parties and going out, layer it up to make it look more bold, add some down the side of your nose and tip, and some to the bow of your lips.

To make your eye shadow stick and to get the most amor the colour use some Fix Plus spray to wet the eyeshadow so it makes a paste. That way the colour becomes more bold and stays in place – you do have to work quick though before it dries!

The final Halloween looks

I think you’ll agree with me that both looks came out so well and are perfect for Halloween. What do you think of them?

It’s given me some brilliant inspiration for my Halloween make up and encouraged me to be more adventurous with my every day make up.

After the tutorial we were appointed our very own make up artist to ask questions and get shown tips and techniques. We were also invited to browse, have some drinks and food, and play a Halloween trick or treat game! I played, got a trick, and my dare was to take a silly picture in a mask with the models.

It was a great evening and I’m so glad I bought a ticket. I’d definitely go to another as I learnt lots and got some great inspiration to create my own Halloween looks. I’d love to know what you think of the looks, share your thoughts with me in the comments section.

Have a great Halloween everyone!