They're all going to laugh at you!

October 25, 2006 9:44 AM

Fake pig's blood for my prom dress: anything out there that's realistic looking and not too sticky?

I'm going as Carrie (Post Pig's Blood, not Sexy Carrie). I would like to cover myself and my dress with a lot of fake blood. The problem is, all the recipes I'm seeing involve corn syrup, which I think would be sticky & uncomfortable all night on bare skin. Does anyone know any realistic fake blood recipes that aren't super sticky? Or, if you've worn fake blood, is it not that bad to party in? And will I get fake blood on and stain things wherever I go?

posted by witchstone to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total)

Your best bet will be to cover it in red dye asap, like tonight, so it's dry by the party. touch up on your face and skin with a traditional fake blood, but that way you're not leaving little red spots everywhere you touch all night.

Get a good quantity of dye, and any liquid medium, even water. It won't look wet, but it'll give you the freedom to, say, sit down if you want without destroying a chair.

Almost all fake blood, even the commercial stuff, has a corn syrup base. When I worked in a haunted house the other cast and myself would beg not to be covered in the stuff since it would invariably end with us running from bees half the night.
posted by Kellydamnit at 9:50 AM on October 25, 2006

When I went as Uma "Kill Bill" Thurman I made a batch of my own blood using corn syrup, and though it was sticky, it dried on my clothes without any stickiness or tack. But it did need lots of proper drying time.
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:56 AM on October 25, 2006

I have some actor friends and asked about it once... Its mostly corn syrup and dye, but.... If consistancy is important, they always add a bottle of KY liquid to make it move properly
posted by upc_head at 9:58 AM on October 25, 2006

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they used Strawberry Quik for the pig/human blood. Probably a bit less sticky than corn syrup, but in person the tell-tale aroma could be a problem.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:19 AM on October 25, 2006

Thanks for the suggestions! I hadn't thought about doing the dress early in order to give it time to dry, so that's a great suggestion. I'm also going to try mixing in some KY along with the Karo to maybe get a bit less sticky on my arms & face. I'm also going to try the strawberry quick. I'd read about mixing chocolate milk mix in, but that's for darker dried blood, so the strawberry might be a better color. And I guess a strawberry smell isn't terrible. Hopefully.

Maybe I can mix strawberry Quick with KY jelly!
posted by witchstone at 11:04 AM on October 25, 2006

Find some canned beets and simmer them over a low heat for about 10-20 min. Drain off the beet juice, add a couple drops of black food coloring as needed, voila! This is the most realistic looking blood I've ever seen and it cleans up good.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:22 AM on October 25, 2006

I always used clear liquid soap with a bottle of strawberry Quik and a tablespoon of chocolate.

The shopping list always looked like this:

Liquid soap
Strawberry Quik
Chocolate Quik
Milk

because why waste the rest of the chocolate?

The bonus for this type is that it assists in its own cleanup. It also makes "pickable" scabs.
posted by Sallyfur at 1:17 PM on October 25, 2006

For the dress, I'd just use paint. You can buy mediums to make the color more shiny and fluid (golden brand fluid medium, for instance). It dries quickly and is flexible.

...wouldn't use it for your hair/skin, though. *g*
posted by lovecrafty at 6:37 PM on October 25, 2006

I went as Carrie one year and went to Spirit (www.spirithalloween.com) and bought a pint of their fake blood. Hung the dress in the shower and drizzled it over. It left lines of blood that looked very real and washed off the tub when I was done. Once it dried it wasn't sticky at all. One issue... it was rainy out and there was a little running. So just be careful not to get wet.

Also... the dress I used was my bridesmaid dress from a college roommates wedding. The outer layer was made out of a tulle (sp?) material and it didn't adhere as well as it did to the dress underneath. So regular cloth would probably work best.

Good luck!
posted by slim at 8:19 PM on October 25, 2006