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Easy and Gruesome Fake Wound Tutorial for Halloween

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Helsinki chapter.

Need a last minute Halloween look? This tutorial will teach you how to create gory-looking fake wounds that will surely gross out your friends. All you need is some tissue paper, water-based glue or lash glue, your makeup kit and some fake blood that you can mix yourself. Let’s get started!

© Satu Mäki-Arvela

Step 1

Apply some glue on your skin. Then rip thin layers of tissue paper and glue them on, so that each layer is a bit smaller than the previous one. Depending on the size of the wound you’re making, you’ll need 3-5 layers. Pay close attention to the edges, so the paper will blend in with your skin smoothly. Let the tissue paper dry before you move on to the next step. Also, try to keep your hand (or whatever body part you’re working on) relaxed. As you can see from the picture, the paper will end up wrinkled if you clench your muscles too much or don’t let the layers dry properly.

Step 2

When the paper is dry, cover it with foundation that matches your skin tone. Now you should have something that resembles an old scar or burn.

Step 3

Take a pair of nail scissors and make a rough cut in the middle. Then, paint the inside of the cut with black gel liner, let dry and then add some flesh-coloured eye shadow or blush and just a little highlighter to the center of the wound. Dab some blood red lipstick onto the cut to add to the gory effect.

Step 4

Now the finishing touches! Smooth the edges by peeling off all extra paper if needed. My wound looks quite fresh, but you can apply a hint of purple and green eye shadow around the wound to get that bruised look, or choose yellowish colours instead if you want the wound to look infected. Lastly, add a few drops of fake blood and let it drip. The fake blood you can get from the store is often too runny and pink for my taste, so I used a mix of syrup, red food colouring and cocoa powder. And, if you’re going for the infected look, you can just add syrup as it is.

Done! Have fun scaring everybody at the party!

© Caitlin Barán

Helsinki Contributor