I need halloween makeup advice!

Ok...I'm going as a freakishly dead and maimed rockstar...not any rockstar in particular, just going for "the look". I've got this idea where I'm going to chop off not the whole plug, but just the tip of an old guitar cable, and somehow secure that to my neck or head. This is to give the effect that I've plugged one end of the cable into myself. The other end will be plugged into my guitar.

The problem that I have, is that for one the plug is metal (of course) and there is a weight issue. If any of you have a guitar cable, or have used one in the past, you know that it carries some weight. I need to figure out how I'm gonna attach this thing to myself without it falling off all the time. It needs to stay put.

Any ideas?

Use something that resembles a guitar cable, such as a length of black bungee cord with a connector slapped on the end of it. Then find a lightweight plastic 1/4" plug housing (Radio Shack) and paint it silver.

Oh, and weave a length of blue electroluminscent wire along the bungee cord and hide the power supply in the guitar. Most excellent.
:devil:

PhotonWrangler said:

Use something that resembles a guitar cable, such as a length of black bungee cord with a connector slapped on the end of it. Then find a lightweight plastic 1/4" plug housing (Radio Shack) and paint it silver.

Oh, and weave a length of blue electroluminscent wire along the bungee cord and hide the power supply in the guitar. Most excellent.
:devil:

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That's good...but since the one end will be hanging from me, that will add more weight, plus I need it to look as real as possible, so I'm not so sure a silver painted plastic connector will do the trick...I'll use that for a last ditch effort though. And I love the idea of the blue wire...I never would have thought of that!

You are one sick puppy. O-Tay; cord needs to drape over right shoulder around back of neck. Take Play-do or something similar and make a semi flattened ball large enough to secure the cord (could be done without destroying a good cord) place it on your left temple then wrap with gauze bloody up the gauze with fake blood just around where the cord goes in. You may wish to have a little drip down the side of your face, your call on that. I hope that helps.
Topper

Lots of super glue and epoxy!!! LOL.

I'm seriously thinknig about going all out this year with liquid laxtex and maknig my face look like a rotting zombie. Like hardcore hollywood style. I've always wanted to do it and this year I think I just might!! Gotta get some cothes from the salvation army to shred up and distress like in thriller music video...

Topper said:

You are one sick puppy. O-Tay; cord needs to drape over right shoulder around back of neck. Take Play-do or something similar and make a semi flattened ball large enough to secure the cord (could be done without destroying a good cord) place it on your left temple then wrap with gauze bloody up the gauze with fake blood just around where the cord goes in. You may wish to have a little drip down the side of your face, your call on that. I hope that helps.
Topper

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Hehe...I know I'm sick...I become extremely creative when it comes to halloween costume ideas...October is my month. The problem is in making them work.

I'm a little confused here...I'm pretty sure playdoh doesn't have any adhesive qualities..how exactly would I get it to stay put? Do I wrap the guaze around the base of the playdoh in a criss cross pattern to keep it in place? Also, playdoh doesn't exactly come in flesh tones...I wonder if a nice glob of latex and spirit gum would do the trick? Or maybe that would just add more weight....

My thought was that the gauze would cover the "wound" so to speak.
Topper

Topper said:

My thought was that the gauze would cover the "wound" so to speak.
Topper

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OH!!! Duh...I get it now...hmmm...that just might work. Hmm...I could even unplug myself, then plug back in...that would be a great effect...I could use a pen cap inside the playdoh to keep the hole intact....*evil laugh*

And I thought of the super glue, but then all I could see was me getting that cord caught on something somehow, then RIP!!! YEEEEEEOOOOOWWWCH!!!

Anyone need extra blood and flesh for your costume?

IsaacHayes said:

I'm seriously thinknig about going all out this year with liquid laxtex and maknig my face look like a rotting zombie. Like hardcore hollywood style.

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I did that one year for a halloween costume contest at work. REALLY creeped some people out. :laughing:

Makeup hint: use latex to glue little bits of toilet paper to your skin, then paint over them with more latex and then color as needed for a very realistic and unsettling 'peeling skin' effect.

PhotonWrangler said:

Makeup hint: use latex to glue little bits of toilet paper to your skin, then paint over them with more latex and then color as needed for a very realistic and unsettling 'peeling skin' effect.

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Anyone eating dinner right now?

LaserFreak said:

Anyone eating dinner right now?

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Oops... sorry about that! But hey, you ASKED... :sick2:

I'm eating right now. hahah.

PW- At first I thought you went as the sewage monster with the toliet paper bit.. heheh. But actually I have heard that before. Thanks for reminding me. Will save me some time! I'm thinking about building up sections, and then glueing them to my face. Like a fore head, 2 cheek parts, etc. Maybe something half freddy krueger skin, half oozing zombie rot.. Oh yeah, gotta have some food dye or something to stain my entire mouth black and/or spew mollassus... lol. Mmm mollassus. haha. I'm probably grossing someone out but I'm laughing.. I guess I really am sick!

Laserfreak: You could do something with the liquid latex. Even build it up where there is a sore/bloody hole where the plug goes into. that way there is a larger area to adheare to the skin.

IsaacHayes said:

PW- At first I thought you went as the sewage monster with the toliet paper bit.. heheh. But actually I have heard that before. Thanks for reminding me.

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Yep - it doesn't look like toilet paper when it's done carefully - it looks like loose, peel-able skin. I originally tried liquid latex and a hair dryer to produce wrinkles, and while they looked incredibly realistic (a coworker almost didn't recognize me), the result was only visible from a close distance. The bits of TP make for a more visible "bad skin" effect even from a distance.

One problem with trying to build up liquid latex is that it takes FOREVER to dry! If you wind up applying anothe rlayer on top of one that hasn't fully dried yet, the lower layer will never dry because it's been sealed off from the air by the new coating, and that can cause unpredictable results and failures. It's better to use another material for building up and then used the latex or spirit gum for adhesion. BTW, using pancake makeup over the latex works nicely - the latex accepts it well without any running or smearing, and it leaves a realistic-looking matte finish that doesn't look like greasepaint.

Gosh. can 'ya tell I enjoy this stuff?

Ooh, made wrinkles. Hmm. I always thought it'd be cool to dress up as a really really old person too! hahah.. hmmm. I want to do that some time other than halloween and prank people for more fun! Now I'm off to google for more tips!!

IsaacHayes said:

Ooh, made wrinkles. Hmm. I always thought it'd be cool to dress up as a really really old person too! hahah.. hmmm. I want to do that some time other than halloween and prank people for more fun! Now I'm off to google for more tips!!

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Old person makeup - stretch out a portion of your skin while painting a layer of latex over it. Keep the section stretched out while the latex dries! Use a hair dryer to speed up the drying, since it takes a long time to do a large area correctly.

Then when the latex dries, release the skin and poof! Instant, real wrinkles! Color and powder as necessary for liver spots, etc.

http://store.cinemasecretsonline.com/index.html looks like cheap stuff for already painted latex sections for stuff! I wonder if wal-mart has a decent sized bottle of latex. I want to do the old man thing later on after halloween, so I can get a big bottle cheap from that webstie later on... Ever seen the movie *******? they have the old people skits. that just cracks me up!

IsaacHayes said:

http://store.cinemasecretsonline.com/index.html looks like cheap stuff for already painted latex sections for stuff! I wonder if wal-mart has a decent sized bottle of latex. I want to do the old man thing later on after halloween, so I can get a big bottle cheap from that webstie later on... Ever seen the movie *******? they have the old people skits. that just cracks me up!

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I've only seen the smaller bottles of latex at Wal-Mart. The larger ones can sometimes be found at the larger halloween specialty stores, and they're usually on hand in good supply in theatrical costume shops.

Hmm It would be hard to stretch my skin. I just tried on my forhead and it barely moved. I guess I'm too thin to have any skin to stretch. Got to search for alternate means or premade sections to apply... Thanks for the tips.

Yeah, premade prosthetics might be the way to go then. Consider yourself fortunate if your skin doesn't stretch! Many of us here can remember those days...
:laughing:

You know the Steve Martin "Arrow through the head" headband? Besides fixing a Radio Shack amp jack to one of these so it looks like it's coming out of your body, you could also do the same with some other pieces of musical gear like cheap drumsticks, or part of a microphone stand for the "dead rocker" theme.

I made several of the same thing out of wire coathangers, but they were for my torso instead of my head, using several cheap large kitchen knives I hacksawed the blades off of, plus a few forks, a pair of scissors, and a couple of pencils for efffect. I bent the coat hanger wire into a "C" shape so it would clamp around my body like a gir's hair band, and then bent the sharp cut ends back onto themselves in flat loops.

I then attached the cut off knife and fork handles, pencils etc., to the wire loops on the ends of the bands with small fiberglas-like wrappings of gauze and Elmer's glue. I made the wire "C" bands into "shoulder holster" kind of rigs with strings tied around the body over the shoulder, and around the opposite side of my chest to keep them from slipping off.

I wore a thick sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off for padding so the wires and string wouldn't chafe too badly, making improvised pads from folded up socks laid flat where extra was needed. Once I had them all in position, I slipped a loose button-down shirt over everything, and had my family carefuly cut slits in the shirt so the objects could poke through making sure that they lined up right so they didn't pull or stretch the shirt funny, making it look as though they really were stabbed in place through the fabric.

Once that was done, I took everything off, and hung the cut shirt up on a hangar, and applied fake blood around each cut, in a large circular stain, then let gravity run it down natrualy in streaks . I let it dry overnight into a hard crust.

The effect was very realistic. To the point some people were put off. (This was in high school when I worked at a store and we had a costume day for Halloween.) You could take most any of the "stabbing objects" and bend them and on the unerlying wire loops, they'd "sproing" back like they were really imbedded in my body, giving most everybody the heebies.