Special Effects Saturday - Ripped Off Skin!

Welcome to a BONUS Saturday post here on Little Beauty Bug. I'm going to be doing these post's every so often to keep up with some content and to also surprise my readers with new and exciting content. Since today is HALLOWEEN, which by the way, Happy Halloween. I've decided to share a very exciting, gross and fun post with you all today. Just last week I had the pleasure of learning my first piece of special effects in my Makeup Artistry class. We learned a lot about how to create bruises, small skin wounds as well as learning to apply prosthetics. I decided that yesterday I would take the time and create something with the techniques I had learned. I wanted to create something simple that many people could recreate, but that looked realistic. So I decided to go with a skin wound technique on the back of my hand. I had seen something similar on Instagram a while back and knew that this would be something I could easily recreate. I hope you all enjoy this post and that it sparks your own creative imagination. Please let me know what you think, as this was my very first time doing special effects work!

Liquid Latex, Kleenex (Tissue) and Toothpicks used to build up the base layer of the wound.

Cream Paints, Face Paints and Fake Blood were used to create the realistic look.

What You'll Need:
Creating a special effects wound doesn't have to require a lot of time or a lot of products. It's all about working with what you have and making those things into something great. Here is a list of the products I used to create my 'Ripped Off Skin' effect:

+ Liquid Latex
+ Hair Dryer
+ Kleenex (Tissue)
+ Toothpicks
+ Wedge Sponges
+ Translucent Powder
+ Q-Tips
+ Cream/Face Paints
+ Fake Blood
+ Setting Spray

How to Create a Ripped Off Hand Effect:
There are a variety of ways that you can create a hand wound or any special effects makeup. I'm going to share with you today the way that I made the wound, however, you can choose to do things in your own unique way and use the techniques that you have learned.

1) Start off by cleaning the area you will be working on with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol. This will allow the products to stick to the skin if you plan to wear the wound for a longer period of time.

2) Next use one of your Wedge Sponges to place down a thin layer of Liquid Latex to create a base for your wound. You also want to make sure to completely dry this layer of Latex before moving on.

3) Next use some Liquid Latex and small pieces of Kleenex (tissue) to create a rough skin texture. Do this in thin layers and use a Hair Dryer to dry each layer so you can continue to build.

4) Once you like the texture you've created then apply some toothpicks in the areas where you would expect bone to be exposed. I decided to use two toothpicks per bone area so that I could really make them stand out. I then used more Kleenex (tissue) and Liquid Latex to build up the skin texture some more and hold the toothpicks in place.

5) Finally for the base I finished with one final thicker layer of Latex and made sure to really focus on the edges to make sure that they were less visible and blended seamlessly. It's also important that when you're done building your piece that you set everything with Translucent Powder so that your paints go on easier.

6) Now its time to get down with the paints. There is no step by step guide to follow when painting special effect pieces. Basically what I did was start with a bright red color and then build browns and blacks on top of that.

7) I then decided to add some fake blood to my bones area and really mess up the back of my hand giving it more of the realistic feel.

8) Finally, I added more of the red, blacks and browns and made sure everything was blended all the way into my actual skin around the Latex area. I built the color until I liked the effect and this was the outcome!

The End Result:
Creating this skin wound was a really fun process for me and something I enjoyed taking the time to do. This specific effect took me about an hour, but could have taken me much less if I wouldn't have been such a perfectionist about my painting job. I'm really excited to try out some other techniques and to learn more about the world of makeup. Special Effects is something I never thought I would ever try because lets me honest the products can be expensive and the creativity is sometimes hard to come by. I find that my perfectionist attitude takes over and I really have to remember that the more messy the wound and area is the more real and life like it's going to appear. Special Effects is a really unique world within Makeup Artistry that requires specific skills and a natural talent. I'm hoping to continue my journey and only fine-tune my skills to produce even more amazing effects.

What do you think of this special effects wound?
Would you like to see more of these in the future?

*** Products in this post are supplies used from my Makeup Artistry Kit supplied to me by the school I'm attending.