The Corpse Bride: A Makeup Tutorial

By Anita Alex

The Corpse Bride is a popular Tim Burton movie that was actually based on a Russian folktale from the 19th-century. The title “Corpse Bride” refers to a woman named Emily who was murdered on the night she was supposed to secretly elope with her fiancé. Victor, one of the main characters in the movie, was a man who was arranged to be married to a lady named Victoria. Both, who having never met each other before, had a lot of concerns and were very nervous and worried. After have meeting each other, however, they both fell for each other.

During their wedding rehearsal, Victor kept on messing up his vows, so he went into the woods alone to go practice. During his little practice, he had placed his ring onto what he thought was a tree root. But little did he know, that root was actually the finger of the Emily, the dead bride. Emily then rose up and revealed herself to Victor claiming that she was now his wife. She then took him to the land of the dead. After several attempts to escape, Victor found himself willing to die to be with Emily forever after finding out that his once fiancé, Victoria, was going to get married to another man. Emily, after seeing Victoria, thinks about how she was robbed of her happiness and doesn’t want to be the one to take that happiness away from another bride. So she released her hold on Victor and let him and his bride, Victoria, have a chance at happiness that she never had.

The man that Victoria was about to get married to turned out to be Emily’s former fiance who was revealed to be the man that had murdered Emily for her dowry. Burkis, the former fiance and revealed murderer ended up drinking the poison that was intended for Victor, killing him and left for the dead. Emily, seemingly satisfied and happy, can now rest in peace. She embraces death and transforms into a thousand butterflies into the moonlight.

In this tutorial, I show you how to transform into Emily, the Corpse Bride.

For this look, the materials you will need are:

•Light Blue face paint

•White face paint

•Black face paint

•Eyeliner

•Red lipstick

•Makeup brushes or sponge applicators

•Dark blue eyeshadow/pigment

•Corpse Bride costume with veil

•White gloves

•Bouquet

For the first step, start with applying a pale blue face paint all over the face, neck and any exposed skin. Leave a space around the eyes blank because we will be painting that part a different color.

With a pencil eyeliner, roughly sketch out the area where you want the eyes to be. Draw a little curved line on the top of the eye circle. This line will indicate the eyelid crease. Then fill in space with white face paint. Paint over the eyebrows as well since this area will be part of the eyes.

Since Emily is a dead bride, she is basically nothing but bones. To get a similar effect, take a dark blue eyeshadow and contour the face and neck without blending it out so much. This will make her skin more hollow and give the illusion of having her bones sticking out.

On top of the contour, make a little white triangle on both sides of the face. Then outline it in black and add some strips. This is supposed to be the visible part of the bones on her face.

Back to the eyes, I am going to outline the white area with black to define the eyes. Add some curved lines around the eyes for the eyelashes. For the eyebrows, draw a line on her forward that curves around her eyes.

With the same black paint, draw a dot near the corner of her eyes for the pupils. Paint the bottom of the nose as well, from the tip of the nose to the ends.

The last step is lipstick! The Corpse Bride has thick lips with a defined cupid’s bow. Overline the lips to match the shape of the bride’s lips.

This is the final look! Complete the look with our Corpse Bride costume and now spend eternity mourning your lost life.

Products used:

•Dress/veil/headpiece - WC6735

•Gloves - WC23579 

•Shoes - WC4024

•Wig - WC24565

•Blue makeup - WC1223

•Black makeup - WC1236

•White makeup - WC1235