Catrina Makeup: The Day of the Dead Look and How to Try It on Your Own Photo

Every year in late October, faces start turning into flowers. A white base, bright circles around the eyes, a jewel on the forehead, fine lines across the lips. By November 1, whole streets are full of elegant painted skulls in lace dresses and wide-brimmed hats.

That is Catrina makeup, the signature look of the Day of the Dead. This post covers what it is, what the details mean, and how to see yourself in Catrina makeup from a single photo, before you pick up a brush.

What is Catrina makeup?

Catrina makeup is the sugar-skull face paint worn for Día de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead on November 1 and 2. It takes its name from La Catrina, the elegant skeleton lady in a big flowered hat who has become the face of the holiday. Her partner, El Catrín, wears a suit and a top hat.

It is easy to mistake it for a Halloween costume. It is not meant to be scary. The Day of the Dead is about welcoming back the people you have lost, with altars full of candles, marigolds, photos and their favourite food. The face paint is part of that celebration: colourful, festive and a little bit glamorous.

The classic details are always roughly the same:

A white or pale base over the whole face.
Coloured circles around the eyes, often edged with petals or dots.
Flowers and fine scrolls on the forehead, cheeks and chin.
Lines across the lips, drawn like the stitches of a skull's teeth.

Here is how that looks up close.

Two close-ups of Catrina makeup: a woman with a white base, burgundy eye circles edged in orange petals and a jewel on the forehead, and a man with orange-rimmed eye circles, a purple jewel and stitched lines across his lips

Three looks, one face

Our Catrina Makeup Portrait template paints the makeup onto your own face and lets you pick the outfit:

Catrina: a high-necked black lace dress and a crown of red roses and orange marigolds.
Catrín: a dark suit with a vest, a bow tie and a wide-brimmed black hat with a marigold in the band.
Marigold crown: an ivory embroidered blouse and a full crown of bright orange marigolds.

Every portrait sits in front of the same warm altar: candles, marigolds and the colourful cut-paper flags called papel picado. Here is one woman's photo next to all three looks.

A woman's selfie next to three Catrina makeup portraits of her: with a crown of roses and black lace, in a black hat and bow tie, and with a full marigold crown and an embroidered blouse

The looks are not tied to gender. The Catrín suit and hat look just as good on a woman, as you can see above, and the marigold crown works for anyone.

Picking the right photo

The makeup is painted over your face, so the face is what matters:

Front-facing, looking at the camera. A side profile hides half the paint.
Good, even light. Shadows across the face come out as patches in the makeup.
No sunglasses, and ideally no hat. The eye circles are the centrepiece.
One person per photo, and adults only.

What you are wearing in the photo does not matter: the outfit comes from the look you pick. Your hair and your smile do carry over.

Three photo and portrait pairs: a bearded man in a navy sweater as El Catrín, a woman with a blonde bob in a marigold crown, and a man in a light blue shirt as El Catrín

How to make your Catrina makeup portrait with ZOOOP

Open the Catrina Makeup Portrait template and upload one clear photo.
Pick a look: Catrina, Catrín or Marigold crown.
Keep the 2:3 portrait shape or choose another, then generate and download.

No brushes, no face paint and no hour in front of the mirror.

What we learned while building the template

Elegant beats scary. Push sugar-skull makeup too far and it turns into a horror mask: hollow black eyes, grey skin, cracks. That is the opposite of what the Day of the Dead is about, so the template keeps the paint colourful and warm, with flowers and fine lines, and no blood or gore.

The face has to survive the paint. A full white base can wipe out a face completely, and then the portrait could be anyone. The template keeps your face shape, eyes, nose and smile, so people still recognize you straight away under the Catrina makeup.

Adults only. Sugar-skull paint on a child's photo is too easily read as turning a kid into a skeleton, so this template only takes photos of adults.

More ways to play

Make the Catrina look for one friend and the Catrín look for another, and post them side by side as a couple. Or use your portrait as your profile picture from now until November 2. For more October ideas, browse the Halloween templates. Everything that turns a photo into a picture or a clip lives in the template library, and if you would rather describe your own Day of the Dead scene from scratch, start from AI image generation.

Light a candle, pick a look and see yourself as La Catrina: make your portrait with the Catrina Makeup Portrait template.