Halloween Series: Zombie

I love prosthetics so it only seemed right to include them into my 'Halloween Series'! This is my brother, Olly... He was going to a theme park for 'Fright Night' and asked me to do his make-up, so I thought I would document it as it may inspire you! It is rather gross, but I love it! 

Keep reading if you want to re-create this look!

STEP ONE

I prepared Olly's skin by simply moisturising it. Once the moisturiser has soaked in, I grabbed a red lipstick that had blue/purple undertones- I used Sleek: 'Cherry' (No.790). I applied this into the hollows of his neck and face and around his eyes. It is supposed to look sore, but is ultimately a guideline. 

STEP TWO

Using a reasonably small brush (for precision), I applied a dark brown shade from my MUA: 'Winter Forest' palette, called 'Truffle' to add more depth and definition to the areas I had previously applied the lipstick. I blended this with a lighter brown, 'Chino' and some grey tones, 'Dove Grey' and 'Slate'. I focused the darker shades closer to the bone structure to emphasise the shape- making them more prominent and skeletal. I added the same colours on to the eyelids as well as around the eyes and the outside of his face.

(You could stop here but I wanted to make it even more disgusting!)

STEP THREE

You will need some liquid latex, rigid collodion, 'bruise' coloured body paint for this next section... I just bought mine from Amazon. The body paint isn't as crucial, you may be able to use matte eye shadows. 

Okay, so first up is the liquid latex! When I was playing around with it the other day I ended up ripping out loads of my arm hairs, like when you pull a plaster off... it hurt! So, with this look I wanted to try something different so I didn't hurt Olly and just to see if it worked out better...and I think it did!

I applied a layer of liquid latex onto his neck and added tissue on top (I split the tissue into layers so it became as thin as possible). I ripped the tissue up into small sections and strips then kept adding layers until I was happy with the thickness and felt confident enough that I wouldn't cut Olly's neck! I also made sure that some pieces of tissue where raised higher than others and also crumpled some up to add more texture.

STEP FOUR

I left the area to dry for a few minutes and then grabbed a pair of small, sharp nail scissors and cut through the tissue, making sure I had some tissue flapping, this is 'skin' (EW)!

STEP FIVE

I then used some foundation to make the tissue more skin-like, Rimmel: 'Lasting Finish', 25 hour (100 Ivory). 

STEP SIX

This was the fun part! Using my Mehron: 'Bruise Wheel', I applied the deep red shade all over the 'wound' and 'skin', making sure I got into all of the creases. I found that the best way to achieve a more realistic look was to use a make-up sponge, but cut into the top so it had little bumps and holes and then dabbed it onto the skin. I then applied the mustard yellow and sludgy green shades to create a bruised effect up the neck and collar bone. I went over some areas with the dark brown and black but making sure the red was the most dominant colour, so the 'wound' looked fresh and sore. I then popped the sponge down and picked up a rather small paint brush to add detailing into the holes. I used the black inside the 'wound', focusing on the outer most part to add depth, then the brown and red... blending them together as much as I could without the colours mixing too much. I kept building  on the intensity, basically improvising as I went along! Once I was satisfied, I added fake blood, putting lots inside the 'wound'... letting some drip. I then just applied some around and about the hole, and that was it! 

(You could stop here, but I also purchased some rigid collodion so I wanted to use it!)

STEP SEVEN

As rigid collodion dries it tightens the skin, making it 'go in on itself' slightly...therefore appearing like a scar. I just applied this above the lip and onto Olly's cheek.

FINISHED!

Here are some more photos!

Speak soon!

Isabel x