It's an Apoca-lips!

Social media invaded our planet a long time ago. The wonderful thing about it is that artists, creators, and thinkers can share their wonderful inventions with the world.

Halloween has come around again. I have to say I have forgotten about it for the past couple of years. In fact, Tim the photographer of this shoot would tell you that 2 years ago we were sat in my house watching Christmas films wearing novelty jumpers, completely forgetting it was Hallow's eve until a few little monsters came knocking at the door.

But with being on social media a lot more, I can't escape the creepy themes of this special night, and the lead up to it in the makeup world has been one of the most exciting years so far! The use of liquid latex has become more popular and it is now more widely available to non-professional makeup artist. It is used to create amazing special effects of fatal wounds and extra skin. Upon seeing this big trend I was dying to give it a go! And so I got a bottle of liquid latex from my local Superdrug (Makeup Revolution £2) and gave myself a few days to practice before the shoot, and here are the results!

"Kim, how long is this going to take?"

Tim arrived at my house at lunchtime—I was somehow still in bed. When I finally got up, I got to work with the project. What they do not tell you on Instagram or Facebook is how much liquid latex stinks! Seriously. I'm talking eyelash glue times a thousand.

Unfortunately I'd managed to lose the soft tissues I'd originally wanted to use, and ended up having to improvise with kitchen roll—it didn't stop me! I used a lot of palettes and products from my private collection.

Makeup Used:

• Makeup Revolution
• Blush Melt Palette
• The Dead Are Alive Palette
• Give Them Darkness Palette
• Retro Luxe Lip Kit in Regal (Matte)
• Ultra Powder Contour Kit
• Kiko
• Instant Colour Matte Liquid Lip Colour Shade 15 (Black)
• Kat Von D
• Everlasting liquid lipstick in Hawkwind
• Collection: Lasting Perfection Foundation in Cool Medium (Shade 2)

Methods

When applying liquid latex, it is important to allow layers to dry before you move on, I timed each layer allowing it around 10 minutes before proceeding to decorate my arm with cuts and bruises.

Once the latex was dry, I used Collection Lasting Perfection Foundation to give the tissue the color and appearance of skin. This was a pretty good match for my slightly tanned arms. I have to say, face wise, this foundation does not work for me, as it does oxidize and my combination skin just doesn't agree with it. However, it's thick consistency makes it absolutely perfect for special effects makeup. I set this with a mixture of the shades from the Makeup Revolution Contour Palette.

I used the small brush shown here, just a flat eye shadow brush from Superdrug, to apply and smudge a mixture of liquid lipsticks and red/purple/brown/black eye shadows on the arm to create the bruises and burns. The blush melt pallete also came in very handy for this, acting a a base for different powders causing a patchy bruising effect.

After this, I used scissors (carefully) to cut the tissue later of "skin" in various places, some big like very open and gaping wounds, and some smaller like grazes. I would line these with black/brown/red liquid lipstick before filling them with fake blood just before the shoot.

FOUR HOURS LATER! I finally finished and after dusting the rest of my body with the darker powders from the Makeup Revolution contour pallete to create bruising and dirt on my legs, face and chest, and doing the same with my white dress, I was finally ready!

BLOOPERS!

Here are a few stories from the shoot to make you laugh, accompanied by photos. At the end of the article there should be a nice gallery of the photos from the shoot (if you can call a zombie photo shoot nice).

Oh No... Youths

It's all very well walking around barefoot as a zombie in your local village park, but when other people turn up it is beyond awkward... This is my face when a family with very small children arrived at the park, and the parents of the small children looked at me as if I were Donald Trump trying to invade the country with a water gun. They were NOT impressed. Hopefully their kids will not have any nightmares...

More Improvisation

Unfortunately the tissues were not the only things I had misplaced before this shoot, I had also lost my load of fake blood. And so I used BBQ sauce instead... I love this sauce. But not on my body! I had to fill my bath with LUSH stuff to get the smell off. The things I do for you guys...