Technical - Wax Wounds

Health & Safety:
Make sure you place an apron around the model to avoid damaging their clothes.
Carry out a consultation to highlight if they have any allergies or contraindications.
Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly with soap before touching the clients skin.

Products Used:
Spatula
Moulding Wax (e.g. Plasto or Cinewax)
Make-up sealer or Latex
Tuplast
Collodion
Fake Blood (optional)
Fake Puss (optional)
Wound Filler

Like bruising, when creating wounds using make-up you must consider the circumstances, for example how the person fell (the point of impact), is the wound infected (you would then consider using fake puss and greens and yellows in the wound)? and how new the wound is (the newer the wound the brighter and more liquidised the blood is).

*Tips: apply the wound first and then do the rest of the make-up look afterwards, and always sit the person down when applying any kind of liquid makeup to ensure that it sits exactly where you want it too and it doesn't run (an important part of ensuring continuity).

Step by Step:

1. Take a small amount (depending on the wound you are creating) of the moulding wax you wish to use and begin by rolling it on the back of your hand in order to warm it up slightly and make it easier to manipulate and shape.
2. Mould the edges of the wax in to the skin (you can apply a small amount of cleanser to make it easier to move)
3. Take a spatula or a palette knife and cut the wax (dependent on what type of wound you are creating), you can also use a pin to pick at the wound to make it rougher and more graphic.
4. Take the sealer or latex and lightly coat the wax using a cotton bud in order to help the wound last longer on the skin and stick better.
5. Take a hairdryer and, on the coolest temperature, lightly blow it onto the wound until the latex goes clear (or until the wound is dry).
6. When creating a new, recent cut, stick to red colours when applying makeup to the wax in order to give it a fresher look. (the colours you use on the wax are dependent on how recent etc. it is).
7. If you wish to make the wound look deeper then you can use wound filler within the wound, take a small amount and apply it where necessary.
8. Then take liquid blood (if you want the wound to look like its bleeding) and lightly apply it using a brush or sponge. 

*Consider where the person is supposed to have got the wound ... if they fell outside it could have dirt in the wound (you can use greys or browns to create the look or specialised fake dirt).

Evaluation:
I enjoyed learning how to create wounds using wax and found the whole technical very interesting, however I did struggle to blend the edges of the wax into the skin and found matching the colour of the wax when applying foundation, to the colour of the skin quite difficult. However I'm not too worried by this as I feel with some more practise and experience I will be able to master this.