The Making of a Zombie

Yesterday I promised to show how I made my zombie costume. I already gave the link for the tutorial I used (here it is again in case you forgot). The supplies I used to make my costume were:

tissues
liquid latex
spirit gum
red and black paint
old pink shirt I hated
fake blood
packet of plain white fake fingernails with glue
foundation
green eyeshadow
black eyeshadow
black eyeliner
scissors
conditioner
baby powder

The first step in costume making was to make the underpart of the zombie mask.  For this, I needed some help so I enlisted my friend Crane who was visiting from Colorado. We started by putting liquid latex on my face, followed by a layer of tissue, another layer of liquid latex, and so on. This made an incredibly stinky mask that was sort of like paper mache:

I had to wait for it to dry, which was kind of hilarious because I looked like a bizarre mummy. Then it was time to take the mask off. It felt like my skin was being slowly peeled away. Probably because it was - I felt very exfoliated by the time we were done:

After we peeled my face off, I let it dry. Then I added teeth! The teeth were made using some of the fake nails. I simply cut them into teeth shapes with the scissors and stuck them to the mask using spirit gum. I also built up a bit more liquid latex and tissue gums around them to secure them in place. I know zombies probably have rotting teeth but I wanted mine to stay in place… 

After that it was time to paint the mask. To do this, I borrowed red and black acrylic paints from my housemate Plum (also known as "mama" to the kiddos). 

I took a moment to tear some artfully placed holes in my pink t-shirt and then I let my paint job dry overnight. The next day after work, I met up with my friend Tea at her mother's house where she was babysitting her niece. I made the top layer of the mask, which meant I basically did the same mask creation technique all over again, only this time with less attention to detail. The idea was to make a skin-colored mask, rip the part around the mouth and nose, and then slip the first mask in beneath it so it looked like my flesh had been ripped to expose a bloody toothy mess. Here I am making mask #2:

You'll note that my hair looks horrible. I smeared it with conditioner for a greasy look and topped it and my skin off with baby powder to whiten it for that dead look. Here's a picture of me doing Tea's zombie bite wound. This is after I inserted my under-mask and before I put on foundation, zombie makeup, and fake blood. I look demonic already. Tea looks exactly like the unfortunate recently bitten nurse she is playing, complete with slight greening of the face (green eyeshadow) and circles around the eyes (black eyeshadow).

After this I covered my face (minus the inner red mask) with foundation, shaded my eyes with black eyeliner and eyeshadow, dusted my face with some strategically placed green eyeshadow for that sickly look, sprinkled on more baby powder for a washed out effect, and put on a bunch of fake blood for good measure. Below is the finished look. Hooray for zombies! Tea looks a little too happy here for someone who has just been attacked by a zombie:

Here she is trying to look terminally ill:

And here I am looking menacing: 

And lastly here is a photo with a good view of my fingernails. The fingernails are fake nails that I scratched up, covered with black eyeliner, cut to look chipped on the ends, and smeared with fake blood. 

Happy zombie apocalypse!!!