How to Prepare Makeup for a Vampire's Costume

Roger Bennett Riggle: My name is Roger Bennett Riggle, and today we are doing a vampire transformation. In preparation for the transformation, there are a few things we have to consider. One is I am going to sanitize my hands with alcohol which I always like to do before I work on the model. Two, I want to wipe the models face down with witch hazel and a cotton pad and then depending on your model, you want to be able to be fix the hair up and away from the make-up transformation and don’t forget that we are going to put a widows peak on our vampire transformation so I really need the hair up and out of the way. We are also going to spray the hair black. So I am going to take the alcohol and what I do, in a squeeze bottle is just squeeze that a little bit on my hands and I rub it very well all over my fingers to disinfect my hands. Now I am going to take the witch hazel and a cotton pad, this is also in a squeeze bottle and I am just going to saturate that cotton pad. And what I do here on the model, and this is Joshua Dubois, is to just really clean his face with the witch hazel which is a natural astringent and it also helps to close up some of the smaller pores on the skin. So we are not really putting make-up into those pores and I especially want to get in well around the nose where there are extra natural skin oils going on, okay. The next thing I want to do is to get the hair up and away from the make-up and so I have to begin the design of the hair for the vampire transformation. So at this point I will take some heavy styling gel that you can get anywhere, at the drug store, CVS, Rite Aid, any popular drug store and I am going to just put this gel through Joshua’s hair. I do want to use a good amount of it; I am going to pick up a little bit more. Let’s see, want to make sure I get the sides. I always think of the vampires being very, very debonair and slick. So that’s kind of the look that we want to achieve, good. Then I am going to take a thick tooth comb and I am going to comb through the hair, so I don’t pull on it too hard and get that pretty much slicked back. The styling gel as it dries will help hold the hair into place and then I am going to take a brush and try and just get in all the little wispy hair that are sticking out. So I get a nice, clean look and you can see where the brush really starts to tighten and pull the hair back. I want it real slick around the ears. So I will take that gel and really press it into all the little tiny hair that maybe sticking out and up. That is our preparation for the vampire transformation. Next, we will apply the prosthetics to the neck which are the vampire bites.