The cultural obsession with the idea of a zombie apocalypse is extremely visible when considering the recent explosion of movies such as Zombieland and the upcoming Warm Bodies and books like World War Z. Because of this, it’s easy to understand why the zombie is going to be swarming the AMPocalypse. Many people who want to dress as zombies make the mistake of assuming that it can be accomplished with simply a creative use of pale foundation, dark eyeliner, and red accents, but it’s actually much easier and way more realistic if you go out of your comfort zone and use some other everyday formulas in combination with makeup.
Part 1: Makeup
First, you want to start out with traditional makeup to achieve a basic coloring. Cover your face very fully in foundation that is either at or lighter than your skin tone (if it’s a bit lighter, your “dead” look will be more convincing!) After this, grab your black eye makeup and go wild with it. There are several looks you could go for to achieve the sunken eye effect. If you want to look as scary as possible, surround your eye from the brow to the cheekbone and from the temple to the ridge of your nose in as much black as possible and blend it at the edges. You could also go for an “ironically glamorous” look, where you form a winged shape at the temple and add glitter on the edges. Experiment!
Part 2: Glue
Now comes time to add some less traditional media. Since zombies famously have been depicted as having peeling skin, glue is perfect to add to your makeup. Spread it lightly everywhere that you want your skin to “peel,” and wait ten or fifteen minutes for it to dry tightly. Leave the glue on and touch up your makeup so that your face will look the same color as it did pre-glue. Finally, it’s time to peel. Place a dot of glue on your finger, spread it on the fingertip so it’s somewhat thin, and leave it a few seconds to dry slightly to the point where it’s still sticky. Press it to your face where you’d like to peel the skin and lift carefully. Even if it rips more than you’d like, you can touch up later. Don’t be afraid to let some skin dangle. Have fun with this and experiment with how quickly and how much you rip!
Part 3: Final Details
If you have access to multicolored blush or even eye shadow, layer the different colors on top of each other around the peeled areas of your skin to make it look like you have bruises or dead flesh. Finally, paint red corn syrup or fake blood around the ripped areas to really add that zombie pop! You can add so much more, too – consider matting up your hair and adding red dye in some areas to look like blood, or using a light red or purple eyeliner to depict blood vessels near your temples or on your forehead. If you’re seeking a bit of the zombie-chic look, apply some dark red lipstick and focus a lot of attention around the eyes, adding sparkling liner and voluminous mascara over the black.
Have fun with your makeup and, more importantly, have a fun and safe apocalypse!