Zebra Costume Makeup - Tips on How to Apply It

You've probably had this problem before. Either you had to figure out a way to dress up your child as a zebra for a school program or a Halloween party, or you yourself wanted to dress up as a zebra for a day. While there are available animal costumes (like the zebra) out there, there are still ways to improvise and still give the same feel of a real costume. Zebra costume makeup might just be the solution for you, if you can't find a ready-made costume and you're running out of time at the same time.

The good thing about zebra costume makeup is that it only involves two colors - black and white. All the other materials that you need are for the application of the black and white makeup - makeup sponges (one for the face and another one for the body) and some paint brushes.

The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that you should use a hypoallergenic makeup. Using a non-hypoallergenic makeup might just end up having rashes or other skin irritations, which might take from a few days to weeks to heal.

Next, make sure that the hair is pulled back so that it doesn't get in the way when you start applying the makeup.

Now, for the application, we start first with the white makeup. Using a wet sponge, apply the white makeup on the different parts of the body that will be exposed. Make sure that you don't interchange the two sponges - use the face sponge for the face, and the body sponge for the other parts of the body. That's just the way it is, for hygienic purposes (In the same manner, you use a different soap for the face and a different soap for the body).

You can either repeatedly dab the sponge with white makeup onto the face and on the other parts of the body or wipe it evenly in one direction, so it doesn't look messy.

Once the body and face are covered with white makeup, you can start making the black stripes using the paint brush.

Starting with the face, use a fine brush when applying the black makeup. Just follow one direction when drawing the strips. Starting with the edges of the face, apply the black makeup and stroke evenly towards the nose to make a stripe. Repeat the same for the next lines of the face. The nose and the month, of course, should be black, just like the zebra's.

Once you're done with the face, you can just continue doing the same thing with the other parts of the body, but using a larger brush this time.