The Daily Gamecock

Student's hidden talent shines at Halloween time

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USC is home to many students with hidden talents, including Delaney Dunkley, a second-year fashion merchandising student. Dunkley lives out her double life as a Halloween makeup artist. There are truly no limits on the number of paths her creativity with the season of horror allows her to explore.

So how does one become an expert in Halloween makeup? For Dunkley, it all started with a fascination of fall and Halloween, her favorite holiday of the year. The season, along with its spooky creativity, has become part of the inspiration behind her creative makeup designs. By watching Halloween movies, brainstorming ideas for Halloween costumes and enjoying all of the many sensations of this time of year, creativity comes from many sources.

“This hobby is a creative outlet for me,” Dunkley said. “I truly enjoy styling and doing makeup, and Halloween provides a time of year where costumes have no limits or boundaries and I love that. It really lets me express myself.” 

Dunkley’s talent has been progressing since a young age. Even in elementary school, she had a love for art and painting, and three years ago she decided to take this passion to a new field.

“I have an art background, so I just used my knowledge of color composition and shading techniques that I typically apply to a canvas and instead applied them to a face,” Dunkleysaid.

Now, instead of painting canvases, she paints faces. Dunkley's inspiration sparked when she was in a high school Spanish class completing a project on Dia de los Muertos. She was captivated by the sugar skull designs and wanted to recreate something just for fun.

She was debating her Halloween costume that year and combined her two interests of art and Halloween. She experimented with a similar sugar skull design on her face and posted a picture of her finished experiment on Instagram. When her friends saw this post, they began asking her to experiment with their makeup for Halloween.

With this first social media post, Dunkley’s Halloween makeup career began to escalate. That Halloween, Dunkley did makeup for her friends’ costumes.

Her first face painting with the Dia de los Muertos sugar skull design has continued to be her favorite. She will continue doing makeup for friends and other students, and Dunkley says she is “open to any and everything!”

This year she is planning something new, exciting and unique, so watch out for her costume and makeup designs on USC students this Halloween.


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