Starter Special Effects Kit!

Hey guys I thought I'd share something a little different with you today. I feel it's really important whether it's just a hobby or a career you want to go in to later in life to have a great basis of products in your starter SFX kit. Although not all of these are completely essential I believe all of them will be beneficial to you in there own way. Enjoy guys.

Liquid Latex: This is a must have in your starter kit, although its not as life like as some products it's brilliant for creating skin peel effects and can be built up using tissue in between layers of the latex to create a structure. Just be careful that someone isn't allergic to latex before you use this on them.

Mehron Synwax: Waxes are a great step up from latex and while not all that durable as they can be damaged by touch, they do allow you to quickly make raised effects that can be easily coloured and sealed. 

Silicons based modelling materials: Here I have sculpt gel from mouldlife. These are brilliant at creating a long lasting flexible structure and definitely a must have if you want a step up from latex and waxes. They usually come in two parts that are mixed together and then applied directly to the skin and then moulded from there before it cures. Some silicons, like sculpt gel, come with a third part which acts a deadener to soften the silicon mixture to give it more flexibility and you more working time with the silicon.

PPI's Skin Illustrator FX Palette: This is a palette of alcohol activated paints, although they are not completely neccesssary they are brilliant at creating long lasting colour compared to cream make up that can wear off easily. Just a warning they are also very expensive and not great for use around the eyes!

99.9% Alcohol: This alcohol is used to activate alcohol activate colours and can be used to clean small areas of skin before applying as adhesive.

PPI's Telesis Super Solv Plus: This acts a remover for adhesives and alcohol activated colours, it is very quick at removing everything and the 'Plus' version is more gentle on your skin.

Ben Nye Cream Colour Wheel: These colour wheels are brilliant for beginners as they're not too expensive and they provide you with a large amount of colours to create many different looks with. Although not as durable as alcohol activated paints, they are still brilliant for creating effects. (Master bruise wheel and Death wheel by Ben Nye photographed.)

Spirit gum and spirit gum remover: Although this isn't a serious contender when it comes to adhesives this is brilliant for beginners and it means you can adhere waxes much better to the skin. Try to aim for a matte version as this has less shine.

Bloodymarvellous Fake Blood: There are many different types of blood out there but I believe when starting off a light and dark blood are essential for you kit due to the different dimensions you can create with them. I would also suggest buying small versions in the beginning in case you don't like the texture or colour of the blood. Also try to make sure the blood can be used around and in the mouth for extra safety.

Variety of make up sponges: Pictured here are regular triangle sponges, a fake sea sponge and some stipple sponges. These are all great at creating different effects and breaking up colours so they're not so flat.

Fake Eyelashes: Although not essential they're great for finishing looks, just like contact lenses, and come in many different styles.

Metal palette: These are great for mixing different colours on and also for mixing each part of a silicon modelling material together.

Face/Eyeshadow brushes: These are great for when creating a whole looks rather than just a small cut and allow you to get detailed eyeshadow work.

Paint and SFX brushes: Theses are brillliant to use with alcohol activated and cream paints and also when using latex, waxes and silicons, as these brushed can be brought very cheaply so it doesn't matter if they get ruin by the latex, and silicons that will dry into them.

Spatulas: I forgot to photograph them sorry! BUT spatulas are esstential when working with wax and silicon as they allow you to easily blend out the edges of these materials into your own skin seamlessly.

I hope you enjoyed reading about what I think is important for you starter SFX guys and that its also helped you  to decide what products would be important for you to use in your starter SFX kit! Thanks again for reading another one of my blog posts!
Becky ox.

The Chelsea Clown!

Hey guys I've been waiting to create a Chelsea smile effect for a little while using Mehron Synwax, and although I'm happy with the final results I believe there's definitely a lot of practicing I need to do with the wax before I'm happy with the final result. Overall I don't think I used enough adhesive and mixed too much Vaseline in with the wax so it became extremely sticky and hard to work with, but hey practice makes perfect and hopefully when my sculpt-gel arrives i'll be able to recreate a better smile. But still I think this look would be really effective for Halloween (just remember a sealer will help to keep it in place all night), so I hope you guys enjoy this one!

The Finished Look!



What You'll Need:

Mehron Spirit Gum and  Remover

Mehron SynWax

Triangle Sponges

Vaseline

Random Brushes, Spatula
and Ben Nye Bruise
wheel

Face and Eyeshaow brushes

Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foudation
 in RO115
and Eylure Eyelash adhesive

Mehron Paradise Paint - Red and
Black

Natural Collection
Loose powder

Ardell Lashes 105 and
Sugar Pill 'Porcelain'
Eyelashes

Bloodymarvellous
Thick and Light blood

Sugarpill Eyeshadow Palettes in:
Burning Heart and Sweetheart

Step One:

Using a brown or dark eyeshadow lightly place out where you want the wax for the Chelsea smile to go and then go over these lines using spirit gum and tap it so it become tacky. Then using a metal or plastic spatula scrape out some wax and then lightly coating your fingers in Vaseline start molding the wax, making sure to get all of the lumps out of it. Then rolling the wax into a sausage the same length of your marker lines, place this onto the spirit gum. Then using the spatula lightly coated in Vaseline blend out the edges of the wax until you're happy with how it blends into the skin. Then taking the end of the spatula carefully scrape out the area where you want the cut to be. (As you can in the picture below I didn't apply any spirit gum around the bottom of the mouth and therefore the wax started to fall down and misshape so make sure to apply spirit to places where the wax will be, although do be careful around the mouth, and tissue off excess Vaseline). Then once you are happy with this apply a light whitish foundation, I used Illamasqua Rich liquid Foundation in 115 using a foundation brush and sponge, I then set this with a translucent powder. 

Step Two:

Then once the foundation has been set, apply a small amount of water to the Mehron Paradise paint in red, so you get a thick consistency of paint. Then with a thin eyeshadow brush paint four lines in the shape of a diamond and start to colour them in with the paint, but only go with the paint to the top of the eyebrow and leave a clear rim around the bottom of your eye as it is recommend to not use this colour of paint too close to the eye. To fill in the rest of the eye use a white eye pencil and use it on the areas not covered and blend out. Then using the red eyeshadow from the Burning Heart palette, put this over the top of the white pencil. Then taking a small eyeshadow brush, use the purple eyeshadow from the Burning Heart Palette to outline the red, blending it inwards. Once this has been done, use a medium size face brush and lightly blend around the diamond shape so it creates a faded red/pink effect around the diamonds. Dont worry about any fall out this adds to the messy, horror look of the clown. 

Step Three: 

Using the red Mehron Paradise paint again getting it to the same thick consistency, use a small brush to create a circle on the tip of your nose and set with the red eyeshadow from the Burning Heart palette. Then using the same techniques as we did on the eyes use the purple eyeshadow from the Burning Heart palette and go around the edges blending it inwards to help create a more 3D effect. Then mixing the white eye pencil from earlier and the red paint to create a light pinkish shade draw a half moon shape to the top left corner of the circle to again help with the 3D effect.

Step Four:

Next using the Ben Nye bruise wheel, use a small brush to apply the dark blue and red/brown to the inside of the cuts, blending it out with a sponge and being careful not to disrupt the wax. Then use the lighter red over the outer perimeters of the cuts and again blend this out around the outside and inside of the cuts, being careful with the wax. 

Step Five: 

Next using the Mehron Paradise paint in black, wet it with a small amount of water and then using a thin brush draw on eyebrows that flick up at each end. I decided to do one eyebrow arched higher than the other, but you can draw them both the same. Next use the paradise paint to thickly line the eyes and set with black eyeshadow making sure it's all dry before opening your eyes. Then apply the Ardell lashes to the top lashes and the Sugarpill lashes to the bottom lashes. Once these have dried, use a black eyeliner to waterline the eyes so the eyelashes blend better. Again don't worry about any fall out from the black eyeshadow, this adds to the look.

Step Six: 

To finish off the look use some white eyeshadow to highlight each top right corner of the diamonds around the eyes and apply the thick Bloodymarvellous blood in the inside of the cuts and blend/spatter using a sponge and then use the light blood to help create drips around the mouth and use a sponge to spatter it around the outside of the mouth to create a very messy effect.

Step Seven: 

To remove first gently pull off the fake eyelashes (you can reuse the lashes by pulling off any excess glue and sanitizing them with a makeup sanitizing spray if you wish). Then use the spatula to scrape off the wax and then makeup remover to get rid of the rest of the makeup. Scrape off any leftover wax and then using the spirit gum remover on a cotton wool bud wipe this over the areas you applied the spirit gum making sure it is all removed. Then wash your face with a cleanser and apply some moisturizer. (P.S the red Mehron paradise paint can stain lightly but should be easily removed with an eye-friendly cleanser.)

Thanks once again guys for reading this blog post, I hope you all enjoyed the outcome and have fun recreating it. 
Becky ox.

Stitched up Wrist!

Welcome to another Mehron Synwax creation, I thought I'd create something a little more gory this time! This would be perfect for something like Halloween (just make sure to use an adhesive and sealer as the wax is prone to slipping and sliding all over the place if not!) I hope you enjoy this looks guys and have fun recreating it :) .

The Finished Look!

What you'll need:

Mehron SynWax

Mehron Sprirt gum and Spirit gum remover

Vaseline

Random brushes, Plastic Spatula and
 BenNye Bruise Wheel

Bloodymarvellous Light and Thick
blood

Random Triangle Sponges

Step One:

First apply a thin layer of spirit gum to the place you are going to create the effect on. Then tap it lightly to help it become tacky. Then using a plastic or metal spatula scrape out some of the wax and take the wax making sure to coat your fingers lightly with Vaseline (and I mean lightly to much Vaseline will just create a horrible sticky mess which is a nightmare to work with!) and start to warm the wax in your fingers making sure to get rid of any lumps in the wax which will ruin the smoothness of it later. Once the lumps have been blended out with your fingers roll the wax into a sausage shape to the correct length and apply it to the tacky spirit gum (if the spirit gum has dried just apply a little more and allow to become tacky).



Step Two:

Then coating your spatula lightly with Vaseline start to blend the wax into the wrist trying to get the edges as thin as possible so they blend into the skin seamlessly. Keep blending and reapplying Vaseline to the spatula until you are happy with the final result.

Step Three:

Once you are happy with how the wax is blended, use end of the spatula to carefully create a slit in the middle of the wax, pull out the excess wax and start to smooth some of the rough edges of wax. Try to make sure the cut is a little jaggered. Now would also be a great time to apply a sealer if you plan on wearing this out as this will help keep the wax in place and will also help the Vaseline to not effect the staying power of the cream colours and blood later on. If you don't have a sealer, tissue off the excess Vaseline being careful not to ruin the wax structure. 

Step Four:

Then using a mixture of the dark blue and red/brown from the Ben Nye bruise wheel, use a thin brush to start painting this into the inside of the cut making sure to get in all the edges to create depth. Then applying the lighter red from the bruise wheel start to stipple and sponge this in and around the cut to create the effect the skin is irritated. Keep doing these steps until you are happy with the result. (At this point you can also colour match the wax to your skin colour before adding the other colours if it doesn't match already, I didn't bother as it matched pretty well to my sisters wrist.)

Step Five:

Then taking the dark blood from Bloodymarvellous apply this into the inside of the cut, and then using the light blood use this to fill the cut to create a dripping effect. This helps to create different textures as the thicker darker blood will stay in the side of the cut and the lighter blood will mover around more. To create a messier effect stipple the blood all around the cut in a random manner. You can stop here if you like the effect of the wrist not being 'stitched'.





Step Six:

Then using thick black thread cut it into little strips big enough for stitches. To apply these push each end on the thread very carefully into the wax and then recover with the wax to make it look like the thread is in the skin. Keep doing this until the whole wound is 'stitched'.

Step Seven:

I found that as I was applying the stitches the excess Vaseline was causing the cream colours and blood to spilt away from the Vaseline making the colour much lighter, this is why in an earlier step I mention using a sealer or to tissue off excess Vaseline as this will prevent this from happening. To correct this I just added more colour and blood. You can also use the sealer again now to seal the final colours and stitches in place for a longer wearing time.

Step Seven:

To remove just carefully use the spatula to scrape off the wax and stitches and then using a makeup remover, wipe off the blood and cream colours. Scrape off any leftover wax after this and then using the spirit gum remover on a cotton-wool bud swipe this over where you place the spirit gum making sure to remove it all and then wash with water.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you have fun recreating it!
Becky ox