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This was yet another in my longstanding series of “happy accidents” when playing with makeup.
I read online somewhere that you could make a DIY silicone type compound by combining equal parts glycerin, gelatin, and water, and then microwaving it for 20 seconds. Bored on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to give it a go.
Initially I was seeing about making a scar with the silicone, but it wasn’t really working out too well. Not knowing what to do with a Tupperware container of homemade gel, I swirled it around with a paintbrush and started dripping it onto my hand as it dried up.
The effect started looking kind of cool, so I got a couple of q-tips, some cheap red and blue makeup swatches, and some fake blood. In what has probably been my quickest and easiest makeup job yet, I used the q-tip to fill in all the areas between the drips with red. Then I used another q-tip to darken certain areas with blue and blend things around for depth. Finally, I q-tipped some blood throughout.
The silicone rejected most of the flake blood and cream-based makeup, so it retained its skin-tone quality which made for a cool “chemical burn” type of effect. This was such a piece of cake that I may incorporate the technique into my Hoff-O-Ween costume this year!
(FAIR WARNING: The silicone mixture smells exactly like a wet dog. Quite disgusting.)