CINE-WEEN: A Beginners Guide to Becoming a Monster

You know that scene in Mean Girls where Cady Heron shows up looking scary as fuck to the Halloween party where every other girl is dressed completely sexy? Oh yeah, that’s totally me.

Did you know it’s super easy and cheap to be completely terrifying for Halloween? When I first started doing specialFX make-up the only thing I had was YouTube, a bottle of liquid latex, and my own personal make up. Come to find out: a little red lipstick, some purple eyeshadow and you can create a quick bruise. Cheap household items like coffee grounds, toilet paper, and cotton balls can form the deadliest zombies. You really don’t need to spend $60 at the Halloween store. You can tu rn yourself into a masterpiece with just a $20 set of face paint.

Today I transformed myself into a zombie using facepaint, liquid latex, and some scab blood.

Facepaint is a versatile and easy to use product. I love facepaint because it’s super easy to remove and start over if you mess up. Facepaint comes in a ton of different colors and you just add water and it glides on your face and dries quickly. It also lasts forever; I’ve had the same set of face paint for several years. If you buy a basic color set with white and black, you can mix colors to create any color you desire.

Liquid latex is a product that is used to create old age make up, peeling skin, tears, and wounds. Latex can also be painted over molds to create any 3d effect. If you are allergic to Latex, there are similar products like gelatin and silicone that you can use as well. Liquid Latex is sold at most Halloween stores, but if you are using it on your face I would highly recommend getting a high end brand. Trust me, your skin and nose will thank me! t’s really fun to use this product once you figure it out. Be careful of getting it in or on hair, because it will definitely tug that hair out when you’re removing it.

Here’s what I did:

Use Liquid latex and glue toilet paper to your face in any pattern you like to create a wound. Avoid your eyebrows and hair. Be sure to use a brush that you can throw away! I use a butter knife and just peel off the latex when it dries. Let it dry completely before moving onto the next step.
While your face dries on one side, create disgusting oozing boils on your face by making yellow circles on your face and then adding detail. I used a brown eyeshadow around the circle to create depth and make it look raised up and then added a dot of white to the yellow circle and blended in a little green to make it as icky as possible. Put them wherever you want. You can do combinations of circles where you think would look the best for your face! You can always go back and add more.
Once the Latex dries, I use my normal foundation and paint the edges of the latex and then carefully lift the inside edge to make it look like skin has peeled away from the face. Then, I paint inside the hole red.
Add depth to the red by adding black around the edges. Think of it this way, the darker spots make it look deeper and lighter spots look raised. So on the boils you want to highlight with white and inside the pit of latex you want it to be dark at the edges to give it the most depth and look like your face is shredding off.
Go back and add green and yellow to make your skin look discolored and sick. Go in again with red/brown around the edges to make bruises and give yourself some more detail.
I actually had a big scummy ball of latex sitting around the edge of the bottle so I peeled that off and just glued it inside the hold to look like skin was dangling out of my face.
After you have added all the details and you think it’s done, add tons of scab blood. Scab blood comes in a jar and is the consistency of jam. It’s different from fake blood because it’s not liquid and won’t go over everywhere like you’re pouring syrup on your face. You can use your fingers or a q tip and spread the blood in exact locations. Scab blood is fantastic because it will dry and harden and look extremely realistic and last all night. I actually don’t have any fake blood but you can always add that as well. The scab blood is the best because it’s easier to not mess up all your work and is more precise than the liquid fake blood.
Now you look disgusting and can go scare all your neighbors or the poor Grubhub guy.

Honestly, my favorite type of specialFX make up is the kind you throw together last minute. I’ve been known to shove nails through my face, shove pencils through people’s noses, and slit a couple throats. Household items create the scariest and most innovative costumes. Here’s a few examples