Zombiefied

Maybe I'm just an attention whore, but I've never been the kind of person to go to a Halloween party wearing just a rubber mask. I've always enjoyed the preparation that goes into making my costume - in some cases, I've spent more time making the costume than wearing it.

I also love me a good zombie movie. Last year I painted myself up like a zombie for a Halloween wedding, and this year I decided to outdo that costume. So I did some research online, watched a couple DVD extra features detailing special effects makeup, and went to work for a party last night. I documented my progress - all in all, it took about an hour and a half to go from start to finish.

1. Start with a close, clean shave. I had a goatee but took it off - I learned the hard way several nights ago that trying to get liquid latex (a huge part of this costume) off hair is very painful.

2. Apply a thin layer of liquid latex.

3. Before the liquid latex dries completely, put tissues on the parts of my face that I want to create a rotting skin effect. Also, I used several layers of tightly-rolled toilet paper on the right side of my face (left side of the photo) to build a "crater" on my face, which I will later use as a zombie bite. Tear off the edges and immediately apply a liberal amount of liquid latex. Repeat as necessary for desired effect.

4. Once all the liquid latex has dried, I cover the rest of my face with a white cream base. No, I'm not a gay mime.

5. While the cream base is drying, fill in the "holes" in the tissue with black paint. After I'm fully painted in a few more minutes, these will be used for rotting flesh wounds. Anyone hungry for lunch?

6. Paint everything with your preferred zombie skin color. Mine was a green-tinged light skin tone. While waiting for that to dry, I filled in the rotting wounds with fake blood.

7. In college theater I picked up a little trick to create the illusion of malnourished, sunken cheeks. Using my finger and a dark color, I dab a line from my ear almost to my mouth, tracing my cheekbone. Blend it straight down. From a distance or in the dark, it's much more convincing than it is here. But we're still not done.

8. A little more touch-up, blending the edges of the tissue better, some black around the eye, and what I consider to be the most important part of the costume: the contact lenses. I ordered these from a website in the UK for only $21, and I think they make the costume. I looked at many, many pictures of zombies online, and if the eyes don't look completely fucked up (either blacked out like in 28 Days Later, bloodshot, or completely white) then the zombie just doesn't look convicing enough.

At the costume party, it was a hit. Random girls were taking pictures and asking me how I did it. After I left the bar I stopped to gas up, and a minivan pulled up to the pump behind me - when I turned to face the gas pump, exposing the giant gaping "zombie bite" on the right side of my face, the passenger in the minivan looked horrified.

Happy Halloween!