When makeup brand Anastasia Beverly Hills teased its first Halloween tutorial of the year on Instagram, its 11 million fans on the platform flipped out. And it's not the first time ABH has generated big buzz: The internet also went wild for its Glow Kit when it dropped a few months ago; ditto the supremely wearable, badass eyeshadow palette created with Kim K.'s makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic.
So when we got the opportunity to take the first peek at the full tutorial, we knew it was going to be good. But when we pressed play, it completely exceeded our expectations: The mermaid makeup manages to be dreamy, yet scary — all the while looking as if the subject is underwater. "I see Halloween costumes get more and more realistic and incredible every year," says Claudia Soare, the brand's president. If that's the case, we can't wait to see how people attempt to beat this in 2017.
Mermaids are having quite the year in the beauty world — from seashell crowns to seafoam-green color. "Mermaids are consistently a really popular costume already, but the brief flashes of blood makes for a surprising twist," Soare says. "It makes it regal, dark, and mysterious." And if you think you need drugstore red capsules to create a fake-blood effect, think again — all you need is a little makeup. In this tutorial, you'll see the model use red lipliner, but Soare is a big advocate for the brand's Lip Gloss in Papaya, which you can score for $16: "It makes the best fake blood, ever," she says. (Just don't use it near your eyes!)
Luckily for all the undecided Halloween partygoers, this won't be Anastasia's last makeup tutorial. "We are actually filming a new video today," says Soare. "When we aren’t recording new videos, we are creating looks live via Snapchat and Instagram Stories." As if we needed yet another reason to be glued to our iPhones.