Masquerade Flesh Mask

I love facepaint. It doesn't really matter what you wear but if you've spent some time creating a masterpiece on your face it can create a costume all by itself. Last Halloween was the first time I went one step further and created a prosthetic for my face. A prosthetic is a way of creating a layer of fake skin, which can make wounds look particularly realistic. I used some different techniques to create this costume: a Masquerade ball mask, made out of "my own skin."

The end of the night, so some of the blood has come off, and why I look a little tipsy..

Now, I didn't come up with the idea, I followed this tutorial by a fantastic lady called Bonnie Corban, whose Youtube channel has got loads of great original makeup tutorials and I highly recommend. 

As you can see, it's a masquerade mask, but the idea is that I've carved my own skin off my face to make it. The key to this costume is liquid latex, which is this fab stuff that is (my) skin coloured liquid plastic which dries to solid. I bought mine from Kryolan. The mask was simply a piece of cardboard, cut out to shape. The tutorial then used wax to build up layers before covering with the liquid latex, but I left this step out and just used layers of tissue. It's a bit like papier mache, in that you rip up strips of tissue and paint them onto the cardboard with the latex, which then dries hard. It took about 3-4 layers to get a satisfactory look. 

I then painted on the eyebrows, and went around the edges of the mask with Ben Nye fake blood (in Dark Blood). It's hard to see in the photo but I then stuck into the prosthetic little bunches of staples, with which to "re-attach" the skin mask. Then all it needed was a holder - I used an old wand from a fairy costume and stuck it to the side, I liked the feather and ribbon on it. 

Now the fun part - my face! 

The first step was my eye makeup - I just did my standard "going out" eye, eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner. Next step is the latex prosthetic. This is the flap of skin around the edge of the blood. I tore thin strips of tissue paper up (about 2 cm wide), and stuck them to my face in layers with the latex, in the shape of the mask (after drawing it on in eyeliner as a guide, using the cardboard mask I had made to make sure it matched). Once it has dried, you have to very carefully rip it upon halfway through with a pair of scissors, all the way around the outline. I did manage to scratch myself ever so slightly doing this. That way it creates a "flap" of skin. The inner half is coloured over with by the blood.

I then used Snazzaroo facepaint in maroon and dark red as a base layer, blending them together to create different shades in different places. Following this I used my Ben Nye in Dark Blood and in Stage Blood (both absolutely AMAZING professional stage fake bloods) over the top. I used a cotton bud to apply it, this meant that bits of cotton got stuck to my face as well, which created the texture to make it look really fleshlike and gory, and not just like I had paint on my face. I also used small bits of rolled up tissue coated in fake blood and paint and pushed them up under the prosthetic to push it out and elevate it, to make it look more realistic. 

I used a sponge to apply the fake blood around the edges of the prosthetic, and then again using the cotton buds applied large blobs of blood to the bottom of the mask which then rolled down my face. The Ben Nye stuff is great in that it stays looking wet, and the dribbles of blood really look like they've just run down my face. 

To finish the costume I just stuck on a black tie dress, a necklace and some earrings! I loved this costume and I got a lot of compliments for it, as well as a lot of people being grossed out by it! I really want to do more with latex and prosthetics so will definitely be experimenting more with this next Halloween!