Severe Trauma Kit Tips

Instructions to the Severe Trauma Kit, Severe Trauma Deluxe Kit, and Special FX Trauma Pro Makeup Kit

Before You Start: Your makeup should be applied in a clean, well lit area. Give yourself plenty of room and arrange your materials neatly in front of you. If you are doing the makeup on yourself, make sure you have an amply sized, well lit mirror. Wear old clothes–makeup can get messy! Makeup should always be applied to clean skin. Time Needed: 30-45 minutes Household Tools Needed: Popsicle stick Scissors Facial tissue, paper towel, and cotton ball A note about Liquid Latex: Liquid Latex is very versatile and an interesting makeup item. This kit makes extensive use of it and will undoubtedly inspire a variety of new ideas for its use as you practice and learn. Please remember: Keep liquid latex out of your hair and off of your good clothing. Any fiber liquid latex sticks to will be married to that latex forever! Eg. carpets, sofas, drapes, etc. Do your work with latex over a formica or other smooth, non-absorbent surface and use a protective smock or drape to protect your clothing as you work.

Figure 1

Drip a dime-sized dot of Liquid Latex onto one of your latex Sponge Wedges, apply the five areas of liquid latex to the forehead as indicated. One, two or three coats as desired depending upon how thick you want the blistered skin to be. Reload the sponge wedge as needed; let the latex dry between layers. If you prefer, use the brus-cap in the latex instead of using the sponge. Tip: use the latex sponge for large areas, the brush cap for smaller areas.

Figure 2:

Pinch the latex in the center of each area and pull away from the skin just enough to create a good air pocket, just like a real blister. In order to achieve the popped blister look, tear the latex air pocket or cut with your scissors and then roll back the edges away from the center of the blister. The latex will stick to itself quite easily as you will see.

Figure 3:

Using the Sponge Wedge, apply Liquid Latex to the entire left cheek area in two coats. While the second coat is still wet, cover the area with a double thickness of tissue and tear away the remnants that aren’t wet with the latex as shown. Apply two more coats of the liquid latex over the top and along the edges of this cheek tissued area. Later we will use this area to create a nasty exit wound.

Figure 4:

As in the above figure, apply two coats of Liquid Latex to the other cheek. While the second coat is still wet, take a crumpled paper towel and embed it into the wet latex. Allow the paper towel to be as crumpled as you would like to achieve your desired burned, mangled skin effect. Coat this very absorbent paper toweling with 3-4 additional coats of the liquid latex. Next, apply an area of latex to the lower lip as indicated. Take a bit of cotton ball and stick it to this lower lip area.

Figure 5:

Paint latex all over the cotton below the lower lip while forming a circular pocket in the cotton that will serve as a broken boil. Apply Spirit Gum on the bridge of the nose. Create a blob of Modeling Wax and stick it to the nose on top of the tacky Spirit Gum. Be sure the Spirit Gum is tacky by tapping it with your fingertip until you feel the gum pulling back at you. Shape the wax area with your fingers until it is smoothed out and ready for make-up application. A bit of make-up remover on the tip of your finger helps to smooth the wax. Tip: Coat wax with latex or with flexible wax sealer to give the wax a bit of a protective skin prior to applying make-up. Since we will be gashing this wax area later, we will go straight to the make-up step without any coating at all.

Figure 6:

Using a Sponge Wedge, wipe across the surface of the Light Olive Foundation; apply the foundation to the entire face.

Figure 7:

Sponge on the Maroon Creme Foundation around the forehead blisters, around and on top of the nose wax, the broken boil and on various low lying areas of your burned / mangled cheek area. Apply Dark Purple Creme Foundation to deepen some of those low lying areas just mentioned. Apply the Thunder Grey Foundation to further deepen and shadow the low lying areas, and the under eye areas and anywhere else you wish to spread that dead, grey flesh look. Use your Yellow Creme Foundation to coat the highlight areas of your cheek scarring. Use your Stipple Sponge with a bit of the yellow to stipple areas of jaundice around your other wounds. Finally, use your Red Pencil to color in the insides of your forehead blisters. Once everything is blended and looks as you wish, load Powder onto Powder Puff by sprinkling a small pile of powder onto the middle of the puff, folding the puff and rubbing the puff’s sides together until the powder is substantially loaded into the velour of the puff. Using a gentle but rapid patting motion, powder deliberately across the face, one section at a time. Reload the puff frequently to avoid excessive “offsetting” of the make-up onto your puff. When the face is fully “set” you will be able to touch the make-up without any coming off.

Figure 8:

Using a sculpting tool or just a popsicle stick, score a gash in the Modeling Wax on the bridge of the nose. Paint Maroon Creme Foundation into the crack.

Figure 9:

Pull the facial tissue / latex area away from the skin to create a much larger version of the little blisters you made in Figure 2. Have your powder puff ready and full of powder before you cut your exit wound open. Powder the inside shreds of the exit wound one at a time as you cut them. If you are not careful, the latex strips will fold over on themselves as you cut them and they may stick together permanently, so, powder as you cut.

Figure 10:

Apply your the make-up to the exit wound, Maroon around the outside with stipplings of Grey, Yellow and Dark Purple. Use your Red Pencil and Maroon on the cheek inside the wound to prepare for the blood. Brush on a bit of Stage Blood to the inside of the exit wound for that fresh gunshot effect.

Figure 11:

Add Blood to the gash on the bridge of the nose. To make it look like you’ve lost a tooth, dry the tooth with a tissue–the drier the better. Scoop a pea sized ball of Black Tooth Wax out of its dish. Press the black wax into the tooth and smooth around the entire tooth covering that tooth completely. If any of the black gets on an adjoining tooth, scrape it off with your fingernail or a toothpick. Once the tooth looks entirely black, now you can lick the tooth and it will stay black until you scrape off the wax later.

Figure 12:

Dab blood over the surface of your traumatized cheek until you feel you’re sufficiently gory. While at the party, you may wish to really gross someone out by pretending to tear off your skin as shown in this figure – Yuck! Costume & Accessory Tips: Since trauma, or gore make-up is used in so many different ways, your application will determine the suitable accessories. If you are part of a local medical trauma unit, making up victims and casualties for a training event, torn garments and old, disposable clothing will be quite common. If you’re haunting a masquerade party, you could be anything from an injured GI in fatigues, to a screaming ghoul in a black robe. Consult with your local costume retailer for ideas aplenty.