Put your best face forward
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Special eff ects makeup artist shares Halloween tips
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CoastWeekend
By NIKKI DAVIDSON
COAST WEEKEND
Halloween makeup can be a nightmare.
As much as I wish I could say I’ve
thrilled and dazzled fellow party guests
with life-like artistry, I’ve never gotten any-
where close to that point.
When I was growing up, my family had
a “Halloween bag,” comprised of old cos-
tumes we reused every year. Some of the
pieces had been in trick-or-treat rotation for
decades.
With a lack of variety in garments, we
experimented with makeup to put a fresh
twist on our costumes. The results ranged
from passable to comical fails. We once
attempted to cover my face with pancake
batter to simulate a bumpy witch complex-
ion. It cracked and peeled off through the
night. The real horror was it looked like I
simply suff ered from extremely dry skin.
But creating a realistic Halloween
face with common household items is not
as hard as it seems, proven by the work
local amateur makeup artist Brittany
Rowles showcases on her instagram, @
letsget_sp00ky.
Rowles has experimented with off -
beat, gory makeup for seven years. She’s
helped create terrifying faces at North Coast
haunted houses and agreed to share a tuto-
rial for Coast Weekend readers.
Building a base
The tools Rowles uses are inexpensive,
easily accessible and nonconventional.
“Sometimes I’ll see something at the
thrift store or around the house and think,
‘That would look cool in my face, or
that would look great with blood on it,’”
Rowles laughed.
I off ered up my own face for a demon-
stration, and Rowles decided to create a
deep head gash, a process that took about
35 minutes to complete.
She began with the one ingredient she
said is essential for any realistic horror
eff ect, liquid latex. It can be found in large
retail stores on the North Coast, and there
are DIY recipes you can make at home
with a few ingredients from the kitchen.
“I use latex in everything I do, every
project,” said Rowles.
While painting a thin coat of liquid latex
on my face with a sponge, she instructed
10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Rowles creates a gruesome head wound
with makeup on Coast Weekend editor Nikki
Davidson.
me that the key is to build up several layers
to build dimension. However, this process
takes time. Each layer must be dry before
the next is applied.
“You don’t want it wet underneath, you
won’t be able to pull it back,” said Rowles.
“It will just fall apart in the end.”
She applied four to fi ve thin layers
across my forehead where she planned to
create the gash, creating a base wider and
taller than the intended gash to ensure sta-
bility. Once the layers on my forehead were
dry, Rowles covered the latex with a skin-
tone liquid foundation.
Then, it was time to create the gore. She
used a pair of sharp tweezers to carefully
puncture a hole in the latex, then grabbed
a miniature pair of scissors, similar to
what you might fi nd in a manicure kit, to
cut a gash. Careful to preserve the fl aps of
“skin,” she fl ipped them open and anchored
them in place with a touch of liquid latex.
The next step was adding color and dimen-
sion with a cream makeup palette and pow-
der eyeshadow or blush.
Making it look real
“I’m going underneath the edge of the
wound to give it more depth,” she said.
“I’ll start with the black and the red makes
it pop more, makes it look deep.”
Rowles used only three colors to create a
Makeup artist Brittany Rowles showcases her
horrifying makeup at the Seaside Inverted
Experience.
lifelike gash on my head. She fi nished it off
with a touch of petroleum jelly, and gel syn-
thetic blood. To see exactly how she created
the life-like eff ect, visit the Coast Weekend
Facebook page for a full video tutorial.
For more intricate designs, Rowles
enjoys incorporating household items into
her costumes.
She’ll use glycerin or gelatin to cre-
ate a texture that will stick to her face for
an entire night. Pantyhose builds a base for
designs that cover one eye for a sunken,
missing eyeball eff ect. Acrylic nails become
teeth when she uses a dark color to conceal
her real mouth and create an exaggerated
smile. Masking tape or twine can add tex-
ture to create an exposed tendon eff ect.
She swears on using inexpensive pig-
ments for any design, no matter how
terrifying.
“I can get eye shadow, eyeliners, and
blushes at Dollar Tree and little stores,”
said Rowles. “I go for cheap and accessi-
ble. I get gelatin all year long at grocery
stores, and glycerin I get at pharmacies. I
like to use things that anybody that can get
access to.”
Nikki Davidson
A variety of inexpensive and easily
accessible household products can create
a realistic Halloween makeup design.
Create a look that will last
Her strongest piece of advice is to plan
ahead. She says the easiest way to ruin a
design is by not giving yourself enough time
to let the latex dry. She’ll budget up to two
hours for more complicated Halloween looks.
Rowles also warns to make make sure
whatever you create is comfortable enough
to be worn for an extended period of time.
“I try to do pieces that are convenient and
I can wear out for the day,” said Rowles. “I
want to make sure if I do big pieces I can
still make sure it’s still fl exible or livable.”
Once the job is fi nished, you’re free to
explore the North Coast with a gruesome
new look. Rowles said she’s had all kinds
of reactions to her work.
“Sometimes I’ll do a project and I’m like
‘I think I want to pick up McDonald’s,” she
laughed. “It spooks people out.”