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.

Special FX Makeup Lesson: How to create wounds

     Jessica deBen creates a wound with Kleenex and latex.

Special Fx makeup is like cooking.

Judy Edelman of Bellus Beauty Academy (www.sandiegobeautyacademy.com) gave me this recipe for creating wounds with Kleenex tissue. I’m creating makeup for a battle scene in slow-motion, High Def, CGI next week. I’ve got to make quite a few actors bloody and dirty. Judy’s method relies on cheap supplies (Kleenex tissue and clear latex).  What are the Makeup Department’s odds for coming in under budget on this project?  Very good indeed.

Ingredients/Tools of the Trade:

•  Latex (clear or flesh tone)
• Thin 2-ply tissue split into 2 thinner sheets and shredded
• FX blood (thin and very bright red liquid blood)
• Blood gel (thicker and darker red for a dried blood effect)
• Oil-based cream foundation
• Hairdryer
• Scissors or serrated knife
• Tweezers 

Make sure your actor is not allergic to latex or FD&C dyes.

To start, layer the clear latex and shredded tissue. I used Ben Nye’s clear latex and Target’s tissues.  Do at least four layers and dry them with a hairdryer each time. Then cover everything with an oil-based cream foundation. I used Gerda Spillman’s Bio Fond foundation palette. Creating the slit for the blood can get a little tricky. I used a serrated knife (not pictured) and gently sawed my way through the first layer.  Communicate with your actor so you don’t cut too deep. Use the scissors to cut through the remaining latex-tissue layers. Use the tweezer to open up the wound so you have a place to add the bloods. For the final step, add FX blood to the deepest part of the slit and use the blood gel on the outer skin.