Doing make up for a 'R.E.D sounds' event

Some friends of mine own an up and coming company named 'R.E.D sounds'- standing for 'red eyed dj's'. Based in Bristol, they get together a group of aspiring dj's and play a range of House, bass, garage and grime. All of these events have a horror/ sexual torture theme and i was asked to do make up for the five dj's and hosts. They always go to town on the decor which creates a really cool yet trippy atmosphere, and this time they wanted some gory make up to take it up a notch.

As I was going to be making up 10+ guys in about two hours i knew that i needed to design something simple yet effective. When I asked what make up they had in mind- they replied 'go crazy! whatever you think looks cool!' the only request they had was a slit neck, however, i knew i wouldn't be able to do 10 in 2 hours. I had never done a slit neck before, the only special effects experience i had was in sue's lessons. I had really enjoyed these lessons so luckily i had stocked up on special effects make up, so i had all the tools i needed. When creating a slit neck, I tried cinewax first- i knew that the cinewax wouldnt last the night. These dj's were bound to get hot and sweaty and it needed to last from 10pm to 6am. After asking sue for some advice, I came home and tried a slit neck using liquid latex. I was so pleased with the way it turned out and it didnt take me too long either.

• I began by applying krayolan skin protector foam.
• Then drew the outline of the slit i was going to create.
• I then applied clear liquid latex around the shape that i made, covering most of the neck. With a hair dryer on a cool setting, I dried the latex until it went from white to clear. I repeated this four times until i had a good amount of latex to work with.
• Once happy with the latex, I took some latex remover (or acetone) on a baby bud and extended the slit slighty, creating flappy skin. It is important to tease the latex away with acetone rather than pulling it like some tutorials suggest. When practicing this method on myself, i was left with bruises.
• I then began by colouring the wound with the brightest red from my supra colour pallete. Then I put a deeper red in the middle and then black around the edges and even under the flappy skin. This was really effective and created the illusion of a deep cut.
• I added wound filler and blood to the wound, and then coloured surrounding area with a variation of reds and blood, i found a stipple sponge to be very useful for this step.

I did this on a couple of the dj's and it looked really effective. A i said, it would have been impossible to do this on all 10 guys, so i needed something simpler up my sleeve. As they call themselves 'red eyed dj's' i wanted to create something to reflect this. I designed a look to reflect this and last all night. Using supra colour, i created a bruised, irritated eye on just one eye (some people wanted both done). I also added black khol around the eye for an extra dramatic look. I then took a baby bud and drenched it with fake blood and carefully took it along the lower lashline, and dragged it down the cheek slightly and layered it until it began to drip. This took on average under 10 minutes and was very effective. I ended up doing around 15 of the crew and then the bar staff and bouncers wanted this look too! It was very simple but i think it really added to the atmosphere of the night and added an extra something to the promo video they had made. This was such a good experience for me, something completely different. They have asked me to help out with future events. Its even relevant to this project, too!