DIY Zombie Makeup

I know a lot of you guys look forward to my daughter’s costume reveal day and I am loving this year’s. This DIY zombie makeup is not for the fainthearted folks out there who don’t like seeing dripping blood and wounds.
My daughter has really been into scary movies and scary characters which you can see in her other costumes we created like the day of the dead costume, queen of hearts costume, apocalypse costume and maleficent costume just to name a few.

I’m sure it also has to do with the fact that she has a brother who is four years older than her. She’s gotten a reaction from his friends that made her happy already when we were doing the makeup and I guess that’s totally what she is looking for.

She also loves soccer, which is probably the reason she had to be a soccer zombie. Apparently, it’s nothing new either because Google is plastered with images of kids wearing soccer zombie outfits.

Fact is, that I’m a “Walking Dead” and “Fear The Walking Dead” fan. I never thought I would like a show about zombies but I really love it and so does my husband. Our daughter has not seen the show yet though. She’s planning on it!

So here we go, let me explain how we achieved this year’s costume. We really had a lot of fun with this one and giggled a lot. She had a ton of fun my little actress!

DIY Zombie Makeup for Soccer Zombie Costume

Obviously, this masquerade is all about the zombie makeup look. She and I watched countless YouTube videos so we could come up with our own. So let me show you how to apply zombie makeup…

supplies used for zombie makeup

• fake blood (HERE)
• makeup applicator sponge (HERE)
• stipple sponges (HERE)
• blood gel (HERE – this stuff is awesome for this type of makeup)
• black fake blood (HERE)
• bruise effect coloring palette (HERE)
• liquid latex (HERE and obviously only for people who don’t have a latex allergy)
• box of tissues
• sponge brushes (HERE)
• white face paint (HERE which I had leftover from all her previous years of painting her face)
• various art brushes and makeup brushes
• black eye shadow (I used this one because I had it but I’m sure any would do)
• her old soccer uniform

(Additionally, you can use zombie contact lenses but I would recommend contacting an eye doctor for recommendations. I don’t feel like I’m able to give advice about what products to use)

Out of all these supplies, we will all get a Halloween costume this year when we go as a zombie family. It’s enough makeup and blood for all 4 of us which in the end makes this a pretty cheap series of costumes for our annual neighborhood Halloween party.

If you love doing makeup like us then also check out my forest elf costume and dark angel costume.

Creating the bites and wounds

We started with the tissue and liquid latex layers for her wounds. These are the most important part of the makeup and are actually pretty easy to do.

Start with a clean face:

Tear the tissues (or you could use thin toilet paper) to fit the size of your face and desired wound:

Brush some of the liquid latex onto your face and lay the tissue onto the wet latex. Then brush some more liquid latex over it. If you’ve ever done decoupage then you know this process. It’s pretty much the steps.

We repeated it three times which means three layers of tissues.

We decided on one cheek wound and one neck one. After she saw the finished photos, she said that she wants a bite on her arm for Halloween night.

Let the latex and tissue mix dry all the way.

This is the step where she freaked out a bit because you have to tear/cut the part of the wound to make it look open. In the end, I mostly used my hands because I was afraid of hurting her which is definitely a possibility. So be careful or just tear it open.

We opened both wounds.

Then I used the white face paint cream but I just stippled it on with the makeup sponge. In the previous years, I brush on a thick heavy layer of white which I definitely didn’t do this year. You can see in the below photo that I started around the wound and worked my way out.

And then covered the entire face. Thicker in some areas than others to create an uneven light skin tone.

Below you can see the uneven texture and that I left the eye area clean so I could apply more darker makeup to that area.

Then I took my black eyeshadow and painted in dark areas around her eyes to create dark eye sockets, on the side of the nose, on the jawline and cheeks to create protruding cheekbones, on the side of the temples and neckline. You could go even darker on the eyelids and under eye area with some more black and purple eye shadow but I think in our case this was enough.

Then I used the bruising colors for around her wounds. Old bruises have all kinds of coloring. Blue, green, brown, red, and yellowish.

Take a thicker artist’s or makeup brush and stipple it around the wounds to blend it towards the pale skin tone.

I used an artist’s brush to put lots of black blood inside the wounds to make it look like exposed bloody flesh wounds.

Here you can see it up close.
This is also where you can see the blood gel which I stippled inside with the brush that came with it. Without that gel, it wouldn’t look as real.

Disgusting, I know!

She was a very happy zombie at that point.

In the end, I used some more white for certain areas and dabbled some more blood on other areas with the stippling sponge and fake blood.

And done.

Now all you have to do is roll around in the dirt with your outfit and you are set 😉 That’s the part my daughter was really good at.

Finished DIY Zombie Makeup and Soccer Zombie Costume

She had so much fun taking the photos. As usual, that’s her favorite part. Remember her previous year’s photo shoots?

She gets all into character and I don’t really even have to tell her what to do.

We also bought a wig that we didn’t end up using because it looked better without.

Same photo without white eyes. She can’t handle (and I’m glad) contacts but she wanted to see what a zombie eye would look like. So I helped out with a little photo editing. Like I said, if you consider wearing contacts like my husband is for Halloween, please ask an eye doctor for recommendations. After reading this article HERE, I’m really scared of possibly getting the wrong ones.

We decided to paint white makeup on her arms and also paint dark areas between her fingers. You could step it up a notch by making your fingernails really dirty but she didn’t want to do that.

The soccer ball in the photos was found in the field at their soccer practice and my daughter is convinced it’s a zombie soccer ball. Well, whatever that means.

If you are looking for another easy costume then check out her last minute maleficent costume DIY which was so easy to put together with some aluminum foil, black duct tape, and face paint.
Or you might like my tutorial on how to make a scarecrow mask with burlap for a creepy DIY costume.
Another easy costume to put together is my DIY Cruella Deville costume version with my husband dressed as a Dalmatian.

She had so much fun and asked me to make her a Halloween photo book with all her costumes over the years in it. I asked my son if he didn’t want something like that too and if we could take photos and he said “no thanks Mom I’m good”. Those two are as different as they come. Well, he’s my little traveler and foodie and she’s my actress.

Her other costumes from the previous years were definitely more my style but whatever floats her boat. She has her own mind. Find them all below.

Tschüß,

And as a little witch with an attitude

And my little renaissance princess: