Fake Blood 101

Lj's Halloween Costume 08 = Pure Massacre

So, never say that I don't do anything nice for you.

As I mentioned yesterday, my costume this year is for me to magically transform myself into Carrie, and more specifically, Carrie in that scene where she gets a pantload of pig's blood tipped over her pretty wee head. The reasons why I chose this costume are threefold: One, I get to wear a tiara, and who doesn't want that. Two, I get to wear a long blonde wig, which is always fun. And three, I get to play with a hell of a lot of blood. And for a extremely huge horror movie enthusiast, I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by.

The easy way to create pigs blood effect would be to buy lots of that crappy "vampire blood" that is in all the stores this time of year.

But it wasn't enough. I would've had to spend my life savings to get the kind of volumes I needed.

So, in the spirit of the credit crunch, I decided to cheaply and easily make up a huge vat on my own. And it was such a huge success (even my next door neighbour thought I'd killed my cat or something) that I decided to share the fun with all of you. And show how you too can create some sexy blood with just a few simple ingredients, for any Halloween festivities you may be attending this weekend.  Or if you too want to just damn well freak your neighbours out.

So, this is based on a recipe that I found here when I was first researching how to pull off this hair-brained scheme. And the key ingredient that you will need is a wonderful thing called Arrowroot.

Vintage Boots arrowroot. Quaint.

Apparently, it doesn't matter if the arrowroot you have in your cupboard is from circa 1973, it still works just as well. 

Now after a lot of trial and error, I discovered this was the best thing to do with the arrowroot to get your water to the right viscosity, or gloopiness. Basicially, boil up as much water as you want to make into lovely blood. When it's boiling, take it off the heat. Then start off by putting two tablespoons of arrowroot powder into a small glass, and mix into a paste with a small amount of cold water. When you have it going paste-like, tip it into your hot water and stir. 

Lather, rinse and repeat until it gets to the thickness of blood.  To give you an idea, I did a large saucepan's worth with about eight tablespoons worth (adding two tablespoons worth of paste at a time).  But I've come to the conclusion that how gloopy you want it is up to you. I needed it gloopy, but still runny enough so that when I poured it over my costume it would drip all the way down the dress.

In short: blood is subjective. Do what you want.

The same goes for the colour, because arrowroot is white, and your mixture at this point is looking like grey goop.

Sanguinalicious...

For the colour I used small amounts of red poster paint, blue poster paint and red food colouring. I kept playing around with it and mixing til I got the right shade of red.

Once I was done, I just waited for it to cool down a bit. Then I hung my costume up on the line in the back garden, wig and everything and chucked it all over a bit at a time, using a jug for optimum pouring capabilities.

Dial M for MURDER!

I'm really pleased with it. I am now just waiting for it to dry. 

And explaining to the local RSPCA that I have not killed my cat, and I have the arrowroot to prove it.