Reusable old age makeup, put it on fabric?

Hi all!

For a cosplay I am planning I'll have to do a rather large area of old age makeup, including places where I cannot reach very well.
Due to it being so time consuming and probably wearing the costume a few times I'd like to be able to pre-make and pre-paint the makeup. This also means I can make 'my skin' the same colour as the dangling extra set of legs and attach the nails in advance. It would also be ideal if it could be used multiple times with only minor touch ups.

My idea was to take a thin skin coloured fabric (like ice-skating suits) and to do the make up on there. Basically sew it into a shirt, stretch it a bit and cover it in latex so when I let the fabric go it hopefully wrinkles a bit like old skin. I am quite new with sfx make up in general. I have made a few small gelatin one part molds and poured some small latex pieces in it. I want to do this for the arms/hands, legs and midriff. I don't mind applying the face at that moment, because it will for sure not look good if you put it on a mask.

Before I buy the fabric and start sewing I'd like to know if this idea will work, and if you would have other suggestions, or tips for this kind of makeup in general.

Thanks in advance!

Hey there. Honestly there's near to no way you could paint latex on to fabric and have it wrinkle in a way similar to skin. furthermore, there's really no way that you could make a passable appliance using this method. It would look like a mask, no matter what. I'm assuming you want this to be a more appliance based makeup, otherwise I'd suggest making a pull over mask.

If you want something you can slap on fast, paint quickly, and be ready to go, I would suggest transfers, though this would require some foresight and sculpting. Basically you sculpt out your individual pieces on a flat surface, mold it using stone or silicone, and using cabo patch, which is essentially pros-aide prosthetic adheisive thickened with cabosil (you can purchase pre thickened stuff made specifically for transfers) you fill the mold, let it dry, slap it on to transfer paper, reactivate the back with some alcohol, then apply where needed (there are tons of tutorials on YouTube, including a nice series on makeup application presented by multi academy award winning makeup artist and former face-Off judge Ve Neill (this is so not a commercial, I swear) you can even mix in the right shade of pigment and have skin colored appliances ready to go. It's really not hard to find reference for transfers online at all.

This, I think, would be the closest to what you are looking for. It goes on fast, comes off fast, and if it's pre-colored, it cuts down on painting, and the edges blend INCREDIBLY well. Plus, you can overlap appliances. sculpt separate pieces for cheeks, forehead, eyebags, nose, chin, neck, you name it, the edges can overlap and will blend together beautifully. The best part of transfers is you can sculpt your pieces really thin, which will allow for more realistic movement in the final pieces.

the biggest con to this, is it's a more advanced makeup technique, so you'll really have to do your research on it and you'll have to be able to sculpt 3D pieces on a flat surface... it's tricky, but it can be done. Oh yeah, the pieces aren't reusable, but they are pretty quick and easy to make once you have a mold, so you can pre-make as many pieces as you need.

The only other method I can think of would be gelatin appliances. They're generally easy to work with, but the application method is more traditional, which means it takes some time to apply... And the gelatin is heat sensitive....

On a home budget, That's the best I can think of... probably not what you were hoping to hear, but maybe it can give you a few ideas....

EDIT**** I just re-read and saw you are planning for various places around the body, which Transfers work EXTREMELY well for... they originally started as a quick way to make body scars and burns and that type of thing, since the body is a larger, flatter surface than the face... anyway, there you go...

Buliwif said:

EDIT**** I just re-read and saw you are planning for various places around the body, which Transfers work EXTREMELY well for... they originally started as a quick way to make body scars and burns and that type of thing, since the body is a larger, flatter surface than the face... anyway, there you go...

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice! I was indeed planning to use this only for the arms and legs. I want to sculpt the face pieces on a plaster of paris cast that I have of my own face.
Then for the arms and legs I guess I will go for the transfers, luckily I am not limited anymore to a home budget, so I can try it a few times.

Excellent! Here's a link to the FX warehouse's page on 3D prosthetic transfers. It shows some of the materials used and even has a video tutorial on the page. This site may not be the best destination for purchasing, but it'll give you a good idea of what's involved...

https://www.fxwarehouse.info/category/brands-bondo.html