Catrina AI: Your Fairy Tale Catrina Look From One Photo
La Catrina is the elegant skeleton of Día de Muertos, and the fairytale version of her comes straight out of The Book of Life: sugar-skull paint, an embroidered lace gown and a hat of marigolds. The 2026 Catrina AI clip is one photo long — a flower crosses the frame, marigold light sweeps over you, and you come back as her. Pick the reveal you like below, upload a photo, and AI puts you, your kid, your mum or your pet in it, with the sound still on.
- 11 clips to remix
- One photo
- You, your mum or your pet
- Keeps the sound
- No watermark
Sexually explicit (NSFW) content is strictly prohibited.
Pick a sample
Rendering takes about 7 min. Finished clips land in History.
TL;DR
Rising · as ofCatrina AI is the one-photo version of the fairytale Catrina look: you add a photo, a flower crosses the frame and marigold light sweeps over you, and you come back as La Catrina of The Book of Life — sugar-skull paint, an embroidered lace gown, a crown of flowers. Đan Thy’s flower toss on October 20 did 40.6M plays and every copy credits her; the CapCut template Sasha La Catrina then made it one photo long, and #fairytalecatrina is at 72 new posts a day on the eve of Día de Muertos. It is climbing into its peak right now and will fall away after November 2.
- Original post
- Đan Thy’s flower-toss reveal, the clip every Catrina AI video copies · @thybui.__
- Sound
- Adiós señora bonita (El libro de la vida) — open it in TikTok and tap “Use this sound”.
- Also called
- Fairytale Catrina, Fairytale Catrina look, Sasha La Catrina, Catrina AI filter, Catrina AI effect, Catrina AI video, Catrina makeup AI, La Catrina AI, Adiós señora bonita
- Last updated
Fairytale Catrina Videos to Remix
Eleven Catrina clips to pick from: the flower toss Đan Thy made and 40 million people watched, a 3.9M-play copy of it, the cat that gets the look, and the clean reveals of a woman, a man, a young Catrín, a grandmother, a cat, a golden retriever and a xolo. Pick the one whose reveal you want, add a photo, and that clip becomes the reference for your video, sound included.
The flower toss that started it
@thybui.__ on TikTokThe same reveal, another face
@airabblack on TikTokThe cat that gets the look
@linhmaoworld on TikTokThe reveal at the ofrenda
View on TikTokThe Catrín in the marigolds
View on TikTokThe reveal in the marigold field
View on TikTokThe cat on the lantern bridge
View on TikTokThe retriever on the lantern bridge
View on TikTokThe xolo at the ofrenda
View on TikTokThe grandmother at the parade
View on TikTokThe young Catrín at sunset
View on TikTokWhat Is the Fairytale Catrina Look?
The fairytale Catrina look is La Catrina dressed for a storybook: sugar-skull paint in white and gold around the eyes and along the jaw, an embroidered lace gown with marigolds worked into the bodice, a crown of orange and purple flowers or a wide lace hat, candles and cempasúchil petals in the air. It is the look of the lady of the dead in The Book of Life, and in Spanish she and the trend are both called Sasha La Catrina.
The paint is a hundred years older than the film. La Catrina started as José Guadalupe Posada’s etching of about 1910, a skeleton in a wide plumed hat that he called la calavera garbancera, a joke about Mexicans who dressed European and pretended their indigenous roots away. Diego Rivera gave her the full gown in his 1947 mural of Alameda Park and the name La Catrina, and November 1 and 2, Día de Muertos, made her the face of the holiday. The fairytale end of it is newer: the candle-lit land of the remembered, the flowered hat and the gown that glows, which is what people mean when they ask for the Coco or The Book of Life Catrina.
For years the way to have that look was three hours in a chair with a makeup artist and a rented gown, and every October the feed filled with tutorials. The 2026 version is a clip. A flower crosses the frame, marigold light sweeps over it, and the person sitting there comes back out of it as La Catrina — the reveal Đan Thy made at 40.6M plays on October 20, and the CapCut template Sasha La Catrina repeats from a single photo. That is the whole trend: the makeup, the gown, the crown and the candles are all in the reference clip, and the only thing you supply is the face.
Three searches land near this one and they are different pages. “Catrina makeup” is the real-makeup tutorial half, hours of brushes and face paint, which no photo can replace. The Day of the Dead pet video is the memorial trend, a pet that has died coming back through the marigold gate; this page dresses your pet up as Catrina instead, and the cat and the retriever in the gallery are the ones people remix for that. And the Halloween transition is a costume reveal filmed twice, where the costume at the end is whatever the clip ends on, not necessarily her.
None of it is footage of you. The model reads the photo, keeps your face under the paint and generates the gown, the candles and the petals around it, in the clip’s own length and with the clip’s own sound. That is why it works with the one photo on your phone, and it is also why it is worth labelling as AI when you post it: the whole point of the look is that la Catrina remembers the living, and the people you send it to should know which half was drawn.
Timeline
The first Catrina AI clip to travel goes up: an elegant Catrina in front of a lit ofrenda, 216.6K plays, a month before the holiday.
Đan Thy throws a purple flower across her bedroom and comes back as La Catrina. 40.6M plays and 7M likes later, it is the shape of the whole trend.
Her second, “adios SHASHA”, puts the film’s line “Adiós señora bonita” on the reveal and passes 31M plays; the copies start crediting her by name.
The CapCut template Sasha La Catrina spreads through template accounts and turns the reveal into one photo; by the holiday it has passed 960 uses.
Pets join: a kitten in a lace Catrina dress passes 453K plays, and the dog and cat versions start arriving the same week.
Día de Muertos. #fairytalecatrina is taking 72 new posts a day and the template is being used 83 times a day, the busiest it has been.
How to Make a Catrina AI Video
- 1
Pick the reveal you want
The flower toss in the bedroom, the hands-over-the-face in front of the ofrenda, the walk down the candle path, the Catrín in the top hat, or one of the pet clips. The reveal, the light, the gown, the camera and the sound all come from that clip; your photo supplies the face.
- 2
Add one photo
Face toward the camera, hands away from the face, and waist-up if you want the gown. The clip already has a body sitting, standing or walking in it, so a portrait that shows your face clearly and your hair is enough. For a pet, a photo where its whole head is visible and its markings show. If the clip has two people in it, add the second photo as Image 2.
- 3
Make it and post it
Your Catrina AI clip comes back vertical, at the clip’s own length, with the sound kept and no watermark, ready for TikTok under #fairytalecatrina, #lacatrina and #sashalacatrina, or for Reels and Shorts. On November 1 and 2 it lands with everybody else’s.
Tips for a Better Catrina AI Video
Hands away from the face
The clip is built on a reveal — a hand lowering, a flower passing. If your photo already has a hand over the face, the model has to invent what is underneath and the result stops looking like you. A plain, face-forward portrait is the right input even when the clip has hands in it.
Waist-up for the gown, full body for the walk
The lace and the marigold embroidery are the best part of the look and they need room under the shoulders. For the walking clip, a photo with your whole body in frame reads better, because the model has legs to put the gown on.
Keep the face, not the makeup
The prompt already asks for your face under the paint. If you also ask for “pretty” or “smoother”, the model tends to trade the likeness for it, and the video stops being a portrait. Ask for what to keep — hair, glasses, a beard, the shape of the jaw — instead of what to fix.
One photo, or one plus one
Most reveals have one person in them and need one photo. The Catrín and the pair versions have two, and there the second photo is the second person. A pet clip wants a photo of the pet alone; putting yourself in the pet slot just gets you a sugar skull with whiskers.
Pets work better than people think
The cat and the retriever are two of the most-played clips on the page, because the paint reads as a costume rather than as a face going wrong. A photo with the animal’s whole head in frame, ears up and markings visible is what makes it land.
Say that it is AI
TikTok, Instagram and YouTube all have an AI-generated label, and a Catrina video is a made thing. Use the label and keep the caption about the person in it. On a holiday that is about remembering people, passing off a generated portrait as a photograph is the one thing that will get you called out.
Pricing
Each Catrina AI video is one use (700 credits), whether you pick 5, 10 or 15 seconds. The price is on the button before you start, and nothing else is added.
A single use is $9.90; packs of 4 and 8 uses, or a monthly plan that posts trend videos to your accounts for you, cost less per video. A render that fails is refunded automatically.
Autopilot plans
Every month we turn the newest trends into meme videos and post them to your accounts. Each post is one of the plan’s videos, and any you make yourself come out of the same count. Cancel any time.
One-time video packs
Pay once and use them on any trend template, at any length. The credits never expire, and the other video tools can spend them too.
Use it responsibly
- Only upload photos of yourself, of people who said yes, or of your own pets.
- Do not use it to make someone look like they did something they did not.
- Label the result as AI when you post it; TikTok and Instagram both have an AI-generated tag.
- Día de Muertos is a religious and family holiday, not a costume party: if you make one of these for a Mexican friend or a relative who has died, ask before you post it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fairytale Catrina look?
La Catrina dressed for a storybook: sugar-skull paint in white and gold around the eyes and along the jaw, an embroidered lace gown with marigolds in it, a crown of flowers or a wide lace hat, and candlelight behind. It is the lady of the dead of The Book of Life, which is why people also ask for the Coco or Book of Life Catrina.
Who is Sasha La Catrina?
Sasha is what the Spanish side of TikTok calls her: the lady of the dead of The Book of Life, in the flowered hat and the glowing gown. The CapCut template everyone uses is named Sasha La Catrina after her, and the captions run “adiós Sasha, adiós señora bonita”. She is La Catrina of Día de Muertos, not a new character.
What does “adiós señora bonita” mean?
“Goodbye, pretty lady.” It is the line the trend’s sound is cut around, taken from The Book of Life and used on the reveal — the moment the everyday person is gone and La Catrina is there instead. On TikTok it is the caption as often as the sound: adiós señora bonita, adiós Sasha, la catrina.
When is Día de Muertos 2026?
November 1 and 2, as every year. November 1 is the day of the angelitos, the children and the saints; November 2 is the day of the faithful departed, when the family ofrendas are fullest. The Catrina clip season runs the two weeks before it and ends a few days after, which is why these pages are busiest on the last week of October.
Who was La Catrina originally?
A drawing. José Guadalupe Posada made her around 1910 as la calavera garbancera, a skeleton in a plumed European hat, mocking Mexicans who hid their indigenous roots. Diego Rivera put her in a full gown in his 1947 mural of Alameda Park and called her La Catrina, and Mexico made her the elegant face of Día de Muertos.
What is the difference between La Catrina and a Catrín?
La Catrina is the woman in the gown and the flowered hat; a Catrín is the male version, in a suit or a charro outfit with a top hat, a bow tie and the same sugar-skull paint. Both are on this page — the two men in the gallery are Catrines, and the template for them is the one with the top hat.
Can I make one of my pet, my kid or my mum?
Yes, and that is most of what people post. A pet needs one photo of its face with the markings visible; a kid works best with a face-forward photo and no hands over the face; a mother or grandmother is the version that gets shared in the family group, sunglasses and all. The clip supplies the body, so the age or the build in the photo does not limit which reveal you can use.
Is this the same as the Catrina makeup trend?
No, it is the other half of it. The Catrina makeup trend is people doing the paint and the gown for real, hours of brushes, tutorials and costume reveals; this page is the one-photo version, where the clip already contains the paint, the gown and the candles and you only add a face. If you want the tutorial, search “catrina makeup”; if you want the look without the three hours, this is it.
Is it respectful to use Día de Muertos for this?
It can be, and the way to keep it that way is small: make it about a person, keep the caption about them rather than about the tool, label it as AI, and do not put it on someone who has died without asking their family. La Catrina is a satirical figure and a beloved one at that, so she takes a joke; the day itself is a family’s remembrance, and that part is not a costume.
What is the Catrina AI filter or template?
They are the same effect in two places. On TikTok and CapCut it travels as a template, Sasha La Catrina, which takes one photo and returns the reveal; people call it the Catrina AI filter or effect when they see it in the feed. Here you pick one of the eleven clips as the reference and add your photo instead.
How much does a Catrina AI video cost?
One video is one use, 700 credits, at 5, 10 or 15 seconds. A single use is $9.90, and packs of 4 and 8 cost less per video. Failed renders are refunded. A render that fails is refunded automatically.
What is the Catrina AI prompt?
The flower toss prompt is in the AI Prompts section below. It starts: "Image 1 is the person, or the pet, the clip is for." Paste the rest into any AI video tool that accepts your photos.
Come Back as Catrina
One photo, one reveal, and the marigold light does the rest. Pick a clip and see who comes out of it.
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Catrina AI Prompts
The prompt behind each reveal: the flower toss, the hands-over-the-face, the walk, the Catrín and the pet version. Each one names the scene, what happens to trigger the transformation and what to keep from the photo, so you can change the gown, the flowers or the light and keep the rest.
Flower toss
Image 1 is the person, or the pet, the clip is for. If the clip has two people in it, Image 2 is the second one. A purple bedroom, the person sitting in a chair with a small round cushion. She throws a purple flower across the frame; as it passes her face, marigold light bursts across the shot and she comes back as La Catrina in the black and gold lace gown and a wide purple lace hat. Keep the face shape, skin tone, eye colour, hair colour and build of Image 1 exactly as in the photo, so it is plainly the same person under the sugar-skull paint. The Catrina of The Book of Life: an embroidered lace gown with marigolds worked into the bodice and sleeves, a crown or a wide lace hat of orange and purple flowers, sugar-skull paint around the eyes and along the jaw, gold jewellery, warm candlelight, cempasúchil petals in the air, cinematic, shallow depth of field, photoreal. No text, no captions, no logos, no watermark. Audio: keep the original sound of the reference video.
Other versions: Face reveal · Walk down the path · Catrín · Pet as Catrina