Best Products to Make Skin Look Muddy

Creating makeup for feature films can get ugly. Especially when you've got an action-packed battle scene.  

What’s the key to make an actor look like they’ve been fighting on the dirty, swampy Chalmette Battlefield in the War of 1812?


MUD.

To create the look of muddy skin, I’m testing the following products:

• Gerda Spillmann Bio Fond cream foundation in Sable
• Maybelline Mineral Power Bronzing Liquid Veil gel
• Ben Nye Bronzing Body Tint liquid
• Loreal Ideal Balance liquid foundation in Mocha
• Makeup For Ever Mat Velvet liquid foundation 
• Merle Norman Remarkable loose powder in Deep
• Cover Girl loose powder in translucent tawny
• Hershey’s unsweetened chocolate powder

And the winner is…

Gerda Spilmann. The Bio Fond Sable foundation has enough of a green undertone to make it look believable. The cream formula does a good job of resisting sweat and humidity.

Maybeline’s gel and Ben Nye’s Bronzing Tint were too sheer to use for this effect. They stain the skin like ink and never looked natural. The stain lasted for hours so I wouldn’t use either of these products on set. Ever.

Loreal’s and Makeup For Ever’s liquids are amazing as foundations but not right for this effect.

Merle Norman’s loose powder and the Hershey’s chocolate powder worked well. I may dust these over the Gerda Spilman.

Cover Girl’s Professional loose powder in 125/Translucent Tawny looks like it has added glitter or too much mica. I definitely won’t be able to use this powder to dirty up skin. If you’re buying this loose powder to matte down skin, be careful because this one has a lot of shimmer.