It’s alive! Universal’s brand new Monster Makeover experience is now open, transforming guests into a variety of horrific creatures. The Monster Makeover is pricy, so we decided to give it a try to find out if Universal’s new $125 make up experience is worth it.

Monster Makeover Experience

The experience is located in the 5 & 10 at Universal Studios Florida, in a new boutique set up in the back room. Be sure to check out our post here for all the FAQs. Guests need to make a reservation for this experience and there’s 37 options to choose from. At this time, guests will need to visit the 5 & 10 to make a reservation, but there will hopefully be an option to book online soon.

A full face of make up is $125 and a half face is $65. The price tag alone is enough to scare some people, and to be completely honest, we were a little shocked, too. This is basically face painting, right? Well, not exactly.

The make up artists working here are the Universal artists who work on Halloween Horror Nights and Mardi Gras events. These are extremely skilled, talented artists who will be applying your make up. Not only are you paying for professional application, but the high quality make up used in the process.

Once it was our turn, our make up artists introduced herself and gave us a ton of information on what to expect. A lot of the application was done with airbrushing, and the make up artist will make sure you’re comfortable with the process before starting. The application feels cool and refreshing and smells like green apple.

The boutique is set up in an old storage room for the 5 & 10, but you’d never guess by the looks of it. The space is completely decked out with monster vibes. There are chairs for guests to sit and wait and tons of monster artwork all over the walls. There are 2 stations set up, each with its own chair and mirror. While having your make up done, monster music plays softly in the background, adding to the experience.

We picked out the creepy porcelain doll face for our design. The process took about 45 minutes and was very easy. Our make up artists was good about communicating everything during the process, so we always knew was was happening.

The cracks were all hand painted, adding a level of detail and uniqueness. The fine linework of the cracks shows just how impressive these artists really are.

The transformation is complete! There’s no denying that I look like I stepped right out of Halloween Horror Nights. This is absolutely incredible.

Is this experience worth the $125 price tag? Simply put, yes. Is is going to be something everyone is going to want to do? No. If you look at this experience as “getting your face painted”, you will not find the value in it. If you break down the entire experience, it’s much easier to see how Universal came up with this price.

First, you are paying for an experienced, professional make up artist. To book a make up artist for a wedding or prom will run you a hefty price because you’re paying for the talent and service. The airbrush make up is expensive to purchase, along with the equipment, so there’s another factor to add in for pricing.

The boutique set up is absolutely beautiful. Between the monster music and decor, it’s themed perfectly. I wish I could have had my eyes open more to look around! This also adds in to the value you get for the price.

If you’ve always wanted to feel like a Halloween Horror Nights scare actor or feel like the star of a monster movie, this will be perfect for you. For a special occasion or to get ready for an event, I would absolutely do this again. The amount of attention I received afterwards was so much fun. Walking around Universal Orlando getting strange looks and compliments was worth the price alone! After my monstrous transformation, we had dinner and drinks at Bigfire in CityWalk and none of the make up came off or smudged. Everything looked perfect and stayed in place.

Going into this experience, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to justify the $125 price. At the surface, this sounded like “face paint with a price tag”, but my opinion changed after going through with the Monster Makeover. You are basically paying for a boutique experience. The end results are absolutely fantastic, and every other guest we saw getting a makeover looked incredible. The only thing we would have wanted was a Universal photographer there to take our photos when the transformation was completed. Would I do it again? Yes, but only for a special occasion or event.

You can take a closer look at the process of the Monster Makeover experience in our TikTok below, as well as our video review:

What do you think about this new Monster Makeover at Universal Studios Florida? Is this something you would be interested in trying out or does the price scare you away? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to stay tuned to Universal Parks News Today!

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