Make Your Own Blood for Halloween!

Blood is disgusting, but something that is part of Halloween for most of us.  Buying fake blood at Halloween stores, or even Walmart can get pricey if you need more than just a tiny bit.

The good news for us creepy Halloween people is blood is super easy to make.

Funny story about this picture.  It SEEMED like my lovely daughter was taking a picture of her mom getting her blood applied... but alas, she was PRETENDING to take a picture of me so she could get a picture of the "cute" boy behind me so she could show her friends. Haha!  Teenage girls!

corn syrup, chocolate syrup and red food coloring

with coffee grounds

Homemade Blood

corn syrup
red food coloring
chocolate syrup
used coffee grounds

Corn syrup and food coloring alone make nice blood, but chocolate syrup adds a nice rusty red color.  Just mix until you have a nice color.  When you add in the coffee grounds it adds nice chunkage.

corn syrup and red food coloring

Let me describe to you our bloody zombie movie extra experience.  We stood in line watching people get their blood on, waiting for our turn.  I hate feeling the stickiness of Halloween makeup, so I was dreading it, but I didn't know how gross it would be. 

At first the blood smelled yummy and chocolatey and tasted good as it was applied to my lips.  The makeup artist let the blood run down our cheeks and chin to look like we had been feasting.  It was cold and sticky and disgusting.   It ran down my shirt and pooled in my bra.  I can't even begin to describe how gross it felt to be covered in corn syrup like that.  It was all over my neck, so when I looked down my chin would stick to my neck.  Whenever a breeze blew my hair would stick to my face and neck.

Several times during the morning the makeup artists would stop by saying our makeup looked "dry" or that we needed more applied.  Throughout the day I went from having my face and neck bloody to having them add blood to my back, my arms, my hair and basically anywhere that could be seen.

More and more cold, sticky blood pooled up in my bra.  Every time I tried to pull my shirt away from my chest it was like getting waxed.  Thank goodness I have no hair on my chest! haha!  The yummy chocolate smell wasn't so yummy after an hour.  They had us put the mixture in our mouth and swish it around to get a bloody look to our teeth.  I thought I was going to puke swishing that sweetness around on an empty stomach.

Our zombie scenes involved us chasing a girl... over and over and over.  The wind would blow our hair into our face, we would sweat and the smell of corn syrup and chocolate was strong.  We could taste the sweetness on our lips as they kept adding more and more blood to our mouth areas and it was sickening.

I have never felt so disgusting!  That was the best shower I've ever had when I got home!  All four layers I had on my top were glued to each other and to my skin.  I had to put all my clothes in the wash together because they couldn't be pried apart.  The good news is the mess washed off my skin and hair easily.

It was a lot of mess and fuss for a short film that will be around 5 minutes long!  I had fun, but if I ever have to have corn syrup down my shirt again I will probably scream!

Happy Blood-Making!

Nina's vampire blood from last year