And Then There Was Sunshine: Cheap skate zombie!

I'm a little crazy for special occasion make up trials, which normally means Halloween or horror events for me. I'm also a single mom, which means I save my expensive make up for the actual event and find cheaptastic ways to create what I want for my trials. I can't believe I've never done zombie make up before. Of all the costumes I've worn... In my effort to find a cheap way to create a zombie I stumbled upon a fun technique someone had done in an effort to create a burned skin look, I couldn't resist it.
What is so very genius about it is that it will cost you about $5 if you already have make up, if not around $20 on the least expensive side.(As in you get the supplies at a drug store or stick with Walmart or Target, NYX has some pretty inexpensive make up that comes in a variety of colors depending on the season)

What I used to create the skin and wounds:

Liquid Elmers washable school glue and cotton balls. Done.

I also used, Hard Candy's concealer pallet ($8 at walmart)
A translucent powder (I used a cheap one from walmart, I think it's around $3)
Red lipstick(I used Urban Decay Revolution because that's the only red lipstick I own. Any red lipstick will do)
A reddish/brownish (brick colored) eyeshadow (I used Glamour Doll Eyes Lovers Lane)
A dark purple eyeshadow (I used MAC Fig. 1, again because that's all I had in that color, but you can find dark purple pretty much everywhere)
A Yellow eyeshadow (I used MAC Sun Blonde, which I think was limited edition)
And a clear lip gloss that's free of glitter, preferably unscented/unflavored, if you have a scented one just make sure it's not mint or menthol since it'll be near your eyes.

Obviously I used more then this if you include my eye make up, but for the basic zombie wound, this is what I used. You can do your eye and lip make up any way you'd like. Also if you get one of those cream make up pallets they sell during Halloween at walmart, or target around you wouldn't need the red lipstick, yellow eyeshadow, or even the purple eyeshadow, which would be much cheaper then buying the shadows and lipstick separately. Make sure you also pick up a little brush set, I actually use a $1 plastic crayola paint brush set for children, cream make up and glue is really hard to get off brushes and the cheaper they are the better if you have to throw them away.

First you'll want to make sure your face is clean and dry, skip the primer or lotions.

Then you want to put a small amount of glue either on the back of your hand or on a little plate and spread a thin layer on your face where you want the wounds. Allow it to dry or use the cool setting on your blow dryer and blast it for a few seconds. Apply a second layer and let it dry. Then spread a third layer very thinly and let it dry until it's tacky.

Then take your cotton ball and dab it in the tacky glue so that little bits of fluff stick to it. Press down slightly with your finger just so there isn't random cotton ball fluffs sticking up. At this point you'll want to let it dry completely. Throw another layer of glue on top of the cotton so it's not fluffy. Let it dry completely before you move on.

You should look like you're growing fluffy mold on your face until you paste it down with glue.

Once it's entirely dry, cover your face, including the wounds, with a concealer that's a little lighter than your skin tone. Brush translucent powder all over your face. You don't have to go stark white, so many people do this and it looks awful. Just go 2 shades lighter then your normal skin tone, trust me, it will look so much better then paper white.

When you do this for an actual event try to remember to use your zombie make up color on your neck, chest, and arms if they will show. Don't forget your ears and lips.

Use the yellow eyeshadow and brush it around the edges of each wound, under your nose, and under your eyes extending it slightly downward past your eye socket. Don't be afraid to go heavy on this.

Yellow it up!

Taking the purple shadow, brush this very lightly on the wound areas and extend it slightly outside the edges. Also use this to make shadows under your eyes, don't forget to brush it slightly upward around the inside corner of your eye. Make it darker in the inside under area and slightly lighter towards the outside. If you aren't doing eye make up, also brush this on your lids and up to your brows. DON'T USE BLACK!! Everyone always makes 2 black circles around their eyes as dark shadows, it looks like a sad panda attempt, don't be a sad panda, use purple and don't go too heavy. You can always add more color if you feel like it's too light, it's much harder to scrape a layer away. You'll also use this color to contour, I don't do that until I'm completely finished because I always forget but, this would be the time for you to lightly brush some purple under your cheek bones and on your temples. Don't go crazy heavy on your first attempt, build it up until you hit the right amount of shadow you want.

Sleeping is for squares

Use a tweezers to pick a small hole and tear from there to create your wound. Pull the inside edges of your tear up slightly on the inside so you create a small pocket for each wound. The pocket is very important.

It's a nice start to a wound

Take the red lipstick and put some on the back of your hand, mix in some of the red/brown eyeshadow. Use this on the inside of each wound and into the "pocket" you've created, be sure to get this on the underside of the "skin" as well. An easy way to do this is to paint a generous amount of your lipstick mixture into the pocket and push down on it right away, a nice amount of color will transfer to the "skin".

Also dab some of that red lipstick around your wounds if you want them to look a little fresher

Next, dab the clear gloss liberally on the inside of your new wounds and sparingly on your new dark circles. If you're using fake blood, forget the gloss on the inside of your wounds, pump your skin pockets full of whatever fake blood your choose and let gravity make you much more grotesque. Although, I used gloss and my lipstick mixture out once and by the end of the night it had melted and dripped down my face in a disgusting curdled blood way. It was fantastic. I'm just saying you don't always NEED fake blood to get a juicy wound.

It's so exciting!

And you're done. If you'd like to splatter yourself with fake blood now would be the time, do it outside and facing away from your home though. I like to use red body paint as far as blood splatter goes. Add a tiny amount of water to make it a little easier, dip a paint brush in it (don't wipe off any extra you want it dripping wet) and in one fast movement, make like you're going to hit yourself in the face with the paint brush. (Just stop before you actually do.) If you want to do your eye make up or lipstick, the time to do this is right before you splatter.


Ignore that wound on my neck, it started to peel because I was moving around too much while it was drying and I was too lazy to glue it back on. Which you totally can, add a little more glue underneath the peeling edges and press back down.