If you are going for an extreme look for your party, film shoot or cosplay, prosthetics can give a lot of exciting options. But have you ever thought about creating a completely unique look to your own specifications? With gelatine prosthetics, it can be easier than you think to mix and match and come up with your own look from off the shelf prosthetics.

Decide on a look before you start

With a little effort you can create completely new looks from off the shelf prosthetics

Have a think on the look you are going for before you shop. It’s tempting to get stuck in and design as you go, but you could run into problems like running out of materials, prosthetics that don’t go well together or overloading one area with too many appliances. Decide on the look you want to end up with and backward-engineer the process from there.

Select your prosthetics carefully

In our example we have used our Animal Attack, Swollen Eye, Shredded Nose Tip and Ripped face prosthetics. We selected these pieces to create one cohesive look that would use the whole left side of the face for a really gross torn face effect.

Select your appliances carefully and make sure you have enough to cover the area your design calls for

Make sure you have all the materials and tools you need

As you are making up your look from your imagination, you need to make sure you have your kit complete and ready to go before you start. Do you need extra gelatine for blending between prosthetics? Will your design require an excess of adhesive? You will definitely need a good sharp pair of small scissors for cutting your prosthetics to fit and we also recommend using Toms Sculpting Tool, soaked in hot water for manipulating the gelatine to create the shapes that fit your design.

Gelatine prosthetics can be cut with small sharp scissors

Keep the gelatine that you cut away

If you trim your prosthetics to help them fit together, keep the off-cuts. They can be melted down and used to create blends that look like flesh or sinew to help transition from one prosthetic to another. We stock 200g units of gelatine if you want to create larger built up wound areas and Bald Head Gelatine for creating areas of the head where the hair is missing (a disturbing effect).

Use gelatine off-cuts to create blended areas

Make small changes as you go

As you go through the makeup process, you will want to make small adjustments as the look develops. Be methodical, take a step back and review what you are doing regularly.

Make small adjustments as you go

Keep your paint job uniform

You’ve gone to the trouble to cut and blend your prosthetics for a cohesive look, so make sure you do the same with your paint job. Don’t paint the appliances individually; paint everything at the same time using the same tones, colours and levels of blood throughout the makeup to reinforce the look.

Keep your look unified with a solid paint job

Watch the 3 minute video below to watch this mash-up come to life, and get creative with your own looks – have fun! Don’t forget to show us photos of your finished work, we love to see the wide range of looks our customers get with our products!

Got a makeup FX question or comment?

We love hearing from Nimba Creations customers, Cosplayers, Actors, Movie Makers and Makeup FX artists at every stage of their career. If you’ve got a question or comment about our products, Makeup FX or want to show off your lastest creation you can contact us via our Facebook Page.