Practical Training Solutions: How to Create Halloween Makeup

Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m Ismael Lavallee Digital Production Lead at Contendo Training Solutions. Halloween is just around the corner. I’m going to show you two ways you can create a little gore in your Halloween make up this year. Fx Makeup has been a passion of mine for the past 5 years. During this season I find myself helping a lot of people with their Halloween costumes. I also face paint for local events such as festivals, birthdays, nonprofit organizations. So I figured I’d share some of my expertise with you.

Enjoy the video!

 

Materials required

So let’s go over the materials we need. You’ll need some:

• Water
• Sponges and make up sponges
• Sponge brushes
• Paintbrushes,
• Translucent setting powder
• Modeling clay and sculpting tools
• Face paint
• Mixing tray
• Fx liquid latex
• Elmers’ glue stick
• And cotton balls

Now that we have all our materials lets get started.

Sculpting

The first thing we want to do is sculpt the shape of our prosthetic out of clay. I’m using a plasticine modeling clay, it’s oil based so it doesn’t ever dry up, very good to work with. I got mine at the Dollarama, any color can work. I’m sculpting to open cuts that I will be applying over my eyes on my forehead. The way you usually want to sculpt a cut or any prosthetic you want to blend with your skin is by thinning out the clay at the edges. Once you get the shape you want, just take time to smooth out all the surfaces to the texture you want. Keep in mind, you don’t want to go too detail want to go too complex. Otherwise, the next step might get a bit tricky.

 

Liquid Latex

Next step is applying some liquid latex to cast our clay sculptures. I use monster liquid latex. Just a generic brand, you don’t have to be picky with fx liquid latex. I got mine on Amazon but many Halloween stores sell their own brand of liquid latex. Use your sponge brush to apply your liquid latex to the clay. Once your latex is applied, you can let it sit to dry or speed up the process by using a hairdryer. Try to make sure the liquid latex doesn’t pool too much in the cracks, you can use your sculpting tools to keep that from happening. White liquid latex will turn a little yellow once its dry. It’s important you apply at least 4 layers of liquid latex. 

Now we’re going to remove our liquid latex using some setting powder. The reason for this is latex tends to stick to itself even when its dry. So use lots and lots of setting powder. If you don’t have setting powder, you can use regular baking flour. Not self-rising flour.

Cutting

Then we can cut off the wrinkled edges to have a cleaner product to work with. It can be a bit tricky to cut latex with scissors but if you tilt them at the right angle it’s easier.

Reinforcing

Our prosthetic came out a little flimsy and lost some of its shapes. So it’s good to just flip it around and tear some cotton fiber from your cotton balls and apply it to the inside of your prosthetic to fill it out. You can dip your sculpting tools in liquid latex to apply it and sculpt it inside. And then flip it over to regain the shape desired. Make sure to keep applying flour or setting powder to keep it from sticking. Finally, I decided to cut the prosthetic some more to make it easier to work with and apply to our final makeup. But you do whatever works best for you.

Applying Prosthetics

Ok so let’s add some Elmers’ glue stick to those eyebrows. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did since we’ll be applying liquid latex in that region. If you don’t take any measures to shield your eyebrows from the liquid latex, you might not have any eyebrows left after removing your prosthetics.

 So I started out by applying some liquid latex with a makeup sponge. so I could apply some cotton to make a texture underneath our prosthetic. Careful not to drip any on your clothes. Once you have some cotton stuck on there, apply some more latex on the cotton to seal it in. Use some liquid latex to apply your pre-made prosthetics one at a time.  It’s important also to no be careful not to apply liquid latex too close to your eyes because wet latex has mild fumes that can burn your eyes a little if too close. Carefully trim off the extra edges off. You can use some cotton and latex to blend in the edges with your skin, it also helps to stick it.

Here is an easier faster way to do a prosthetic. First, draw an outline with either a paintbrush or an eyeliner to the shape you want to make. I’m drawing on a smile so to speak, and like you did underneath your pre-made prosthetics, you’re gonna apply some latex and then apply some cotton. Use your sponge brush to soak your cotton in latex. Use your tools to smooth out some edges and sculpt out your smile. I’m using scissors to cut underneath the cotton for my creepy smile. This is optional, keep in mind you want to be very careful not to cut yourself here. Use a blow dryer to finish drying the latex. Then use some setting powder over the entire thing.

Face Paint

Now its time to at some color to your ensemble. I use TAG face paint, its waxed based. The colors come out a lot more vibrant. TAG is fairly inexpensive compared to most high-end facepaint, I definitely recommend it. I got mine on jestpaint.com. But you can also use Snazaroo face paint which can be bought at Micheals or Amazon. 

Use your some dark purple for your base color for the inside of your cuts. Then we’re gonna use some dark brown to add a bit more depth to your cuts and texture.And of course, we’re gonna add some red because it’s bloody. Now that your cuts are done being painted, let’s paint our clown white. For now, we’re gonna leave the inside of our eyes alone because we’re going to paint them another color later.  If you have a beard its fine, you can paint as close to it as possible. 

Then we’re gonna at the black around our eyes. What you’re gonna want to do is just brush on a ton of black in the area.  Then when wet a sponge brush just a little and blend the black around gently. A good tip if you want to make it look more grungy is to grimace and squint your eyes to emphasize those wrinkles while you spread the black. Gives that worn out look to it. 

Fake Blood

What is gore without some actual fake blood?  I’m pouring a bit of it in a mixing tray because I find most types of fake blood comes a bit too light colored. Often just looks like red syrup. So I’m applying a little bit of black face paint on my brush to mix in with my fake blood. It gives it a darker more realistic color and looks. Now that we have a mixture. Apply a ton of it inside your fake wounds. Use your judgment on how bloody you want your make up. Some people like to apply just a little. Some like it gushing. I’m just applying enough for it to show and maybe drip down just a little. Be careful it doesn’t get on your clothes as it can stain very easily.

Final Touch

And what’s a clown without funny colored hair? For this, you can use any color from your wax based face paint. I’m using green, and use quite a bit of water to activate it so you have plenty of paint to work with.  And then Simply start brushing your hair.

 

And there you have it! You’re ready to go out and scare your coworkers and friends… or maybe not.