Dutch Makeup Artist Transforms Spooky Season Into Weeks Of Wild Creativity
Halloween may be low-key in the Netherlands, but this artist uses it to build entire worlds on human faces.
Halloween might not be a major celebration everywhere, but for many creative people, it’s the perfect excuse to unleash imagination in the most dramatic way possible. Costumes, eerie characters, and cinematic makeup looks become a playground for artists who see spooky season as more than just a night of candy and costumes; it becomes a yearly creative challenge.
For some, it’s not even about trick-or-treating or parties; it’s about the transformation, the storytelling, and the thrill of making something unreal feel almost alive. That’s exactly what drives Candy, a Dutch makeup artist who treats Halloween like her personal art festival.
Halloween isn’t exactly huge in the Netherlands, but that doesn’t stop her. Every year, she feels a strong urge to pick a friend, turn them into something wild, and capture them in a full-on photoshoot. It’s not about casual face paint or a quick costume; Candy builds entire worlds.
She starts by choosing a specific theme. Sometimes it’s demons with distorted features and haunting eyes. Other times, it’s inspired by deep-sea creatures, think glowing anglerfish or eerie bioluminescent beings that look like they’ve never seen the sun. Once she settles on the idea, she doesn’t hold back. Each new project has to go further than the one before it.
Lumiere
InstagramFraulein Traubensauer
InstagramAngler Fish - Nemo
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Moth
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Judgement Awakened
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Oxidized Skull
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Medusa
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Harpy
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Venus Flytrap
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Stained Glass Vampire
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Candy Makeup Artist is a celebrated styling and makeup creator from the Netherlands, known for her surreal, Tim Burton–inspired aesthetic. Her work features extravagant headdresses, dramatic corsets, and makeup designs that lean into the bizarre and fantastical.
Drawing heavily on folklore and ancient tales, she brings myths to life by exploring the unknown, where imagination has no limits.
She began her journey at just 16, sharing her photos online. Since then, her career has flourished: she now teaches aspiring artists, rents and sells her elaborate creations, and frequently collaborates on music videos.
Hekate
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Bloody Mary
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Candy shares her creative journey across social media, inviting followers into her world of eerie transformations and ambitious costume builds. You can explore her full portfolio at candymakeupartist.com, or follow her on Instagram and TikTok, where each Halloween reveal builds anticipation like a season finale.
Year after year, her audience waits to see just how wild, dark, or surreal she’ll go next, and she never disappoints.
Voodoo Skull
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Marble Statue
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Itsy Bitsy Spider
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Asmodeus
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Buried Vampire
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Ammut
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Sister Maria
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Bridget Bishop
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For Candy, Halloween isn’t just a one-night celebration. It’s the moment when imagination breaks loose and the strangest ideas are allowed to come alive. Every look begins as a spark, maybe inspired by sea creatures, mythical beings, or full-blown nightmares, and evolves over weeks of sculpting, designing, experimenting, and fine-tuning.
The final result is never just makeup. It’s a narrative wrapped in latex, special effects, lighting, and raw emotion. In her world, spooky isn’t just scary - it’s expressive, theatrical, and just unhinged enough to make you wonder what she’ll dream up next.
