Halloween 2023: Beauty Collabs & Fun Formats

Fun Formats: Spanning captivating make-up, pampering products and home fragrance, brands are elevating their collections with spooky sensoriality.

In personal care, US brand Wakse has launched its colour-changing Metamorphic Lava face and body wax. Its glowing orange colour when applied turns black when it’s ready to be stripped. Meanwhile, British beauty giant Lush’s Halloween collection features bath bombs, bubble bars, glow-in-the-dark soaps and shower slimes. New for 2023 is Lord of Misrule, a soap formulated with a spicy herbal blend of dark Sumatran patchouli and black pepper oils that turns bathwater a dark verdant green. Alongside this, its pumpkin-spice-scented oil burner Lush Melt captures the aroma of the season.

Also catering to home fragrance, high-street giant H&M’s lava stone diffuser comes with a black textured ceramic pot with lava stones inside along with a rich mahogany scented oil to burn.  

In beauty, US nail polish brand Lights Lacquer’s Book of Hexes collection is inspired by a world of magic and wonder. It features four polishes in mysterious velour finishes along with nail tattoos and a magnet wand to activate the magnetic pigments on the nails and create colour-shifting effects.   

Deceptive finishes are also at the centre of US-based NYX Cosmetics’ SFX Face & Body Paint Sticks. Available in six shades like Night Terror (a dark purple) and Spell Caster (a murky blue), consumers can use the sticks to sculpt, smoke and carve to create artistic illusions. 

Elsewhere, lipsticks in dark midnight black pigments are key for this year, such as UK brand Revolution Beauty’s Enchanted Kiss Lipstick, and French fashion house Givenchy’s Le Rouge Interdit Balm. The former is coated in sparkling glitter and comes with a black butterfly ring, while the latter adapts to the natural pH of the wearer’s lips to create a personalised shade in a glowy creamy finish. Also marketing black lip balm, Mac Cosmetics’ Squirt Plumping Gloss Stick creates a lustrous pop of sheer colour.

Creepy Collabs: Creative brand collaborations are also championing ghoulish colour-changing make-up and unique skincare formulas.

British make-up brand Lottie London’s Love Sucks collaboration with TV show The Vampire Diaries includes a pH Lip & Cheek Stick that transforms from a haunting black to a dewy pink flush personalised to each user’s skin. The collection also features a skincare-infused jojoba oil Blood Drip Lip Tint in a deep red and dark purple.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based beauty brand Sheglam’s Harry Potter collaboration consists of a Magic Cauldron Lip Mask. The murky purple shade applies as a transparent gloss and nourishes with meadowfoam seed oil, while the Bewitching Brews Lip Gloss Set includes a millet seed extract-infused Magic Elixir Lip Gloss-Polyjuice Potion that adds high shine and a wash of glitter.

Elsewhere, US brand Colourpop Cosmetics’ collaboration with Disney’s Haunted Mansion movie includes a set of eerie metallic crème-to-powder eyeshadows encased in holographic packaging.

For more visual inspiration, see Halloween 2023: Beauty Inspiration.