Ultimate Guide to DIY Edible and Theatrical Fake Blood Recipes
Fake Blood Effects by and for ArtCube Members
Creating realistic fake blood is an art form in itself. Whether you’re looking to make blood for a horror film, Halloween costume, or stage performance, having the perfect recipe for the effect you want is key.
Here, we’ve gathered recipes and expert tips from seasoned SFX artists, including ArtCube Nation community member Lex Kaylan, a NYC-based Special Effects Makeup Artist. as well as time-tested DIY formulas from the ArtCube Nation’s Vault.
Your gush can be SNL-esque and comedic or realistic so you will want to experiment and figure out your very own “secret sauce” and get a feel for the gag.
The pros often keep their special effects recipe “cards” close to their chests. Here at ArtCube, we like to share intel and help out our members out with tips and tricks of the trade
Essentials for Realistic Fake Blood Effects
Achieving different types of blood effects requires more than just the right recipe—it’s also about the tools, techniques, and knowing where to buy theatrical blood if you’re short on time.
Below are Lex Kaylan’s expert tips and techniques for both gushing blood effects and a recipe you can make and ingest!
Be sure and check out other recipes from the Cube vault, too!
“You can’t really get that ‘B-movie’ gush from a syringe alone.”
Lex's Standard Edible Fake Blood Recipe
You can buy faux blood, but you can make it from grocery store items and customize it for the effects you seek. Play around and become a blood master like LEX and other Special Effects Makeup Artists
Edible Fake Blood Ingredients
- Clear Karo corn syrup
- Red food coloring
- Blue food coloring
- Non-dairy creamer
Edible Fake Blood Directions
- Start with a base of Karo syrup or homemade syrup.
- Add a few drops of red food coloring, adjusting as needed.
- Add blue if you need a deeper, darker color.
- For a thicker, opaque effect, mix in non-dairy creamer
Lex's Gushing Blood Effect Technique
Materials Needed:
- Theatrical blood
- Large syringe or fluid extractor pump (1500ml for high volume)
- Clear vinyl tubing (snug fits your syringe or pump)
- Prosthetic flesh to conceal the tubing
Directions for Gushing Effect:
- Connect the large syringe or pump to the tubing.
- Run the tubing behind the actor’s wardrobe, snaking it to the desired location.
- Conceal the end behind a prosthetic piece with a thin slit.
- Slowly press the plunger to pump blood in a steady or gushing flow.
Blood Pump and Syringe Strategy
My recommendation if you’re using a pump/syringe connected to the tubing, carefully pump blood up the tubing until it’s very close to the exit wound so that there’s no delay when you get the green light and have to start pumping.
But be delicate with it, because the last thing you need is for blood to start dribbling off your actor before they’ve been maimed.
Realistic Fake Blood Effects: Wounds
My best advice for realistic wounds is that a little goes a long way. People often pile on the blood because blood means scary, but in my opinion, the most visceral visual experience comes from the gash or the puncture wound itself. Under-doing it is better than overdoing it.
Think back to a time when you’ve accidentally slipped with an X-acto knife and sliced your finger—the blood takes a moment to begin flowing and the gash is the gnarliest part. For deep wounds, keep it thick and dark. Again, this stuff is STICKY, and won’t fully dry down, so if you’re out and about in the wild with static blood on you, do your best to be conscious of its placement.
Making a Prosthetic
For prosthetic materials, I like to use foam/liquid balloon/monster latex or silicone.
Liquid balloon latex is often overlooked, but it’s thicker, and great for making stiffer prosthetics and inflating flesh bladders.
Silicone is expensive, but it moves splendidly with the body.
When I’m making small prosthetics from a mold, I like to encapsulate them in liquid cap plastic. If you can afford it, purchase a double in case of emergency.
You can DIY your own liquid latex/cotton ball wounds in a pinch. There are many tutorials for this on YouTube, et al.
Apply prosthetics to the skin with Pros-Aid, which will give you the best hold and is easily accessible online.
Lex's Blood Dribble Go-To
- A large syringe connected to thin tubing snaked behind the actor,
- Conceal the end of the tube in a slice in the prosthetic.
- Pump and bleed
Lex's Tips On Food Coloring
For food coloring, you’ll want to invest in standalone bottles of the red, but keeping a small blue bottle around is never a bad idea in case you feel like deepening the color.
Use a very light hand, however, because you can easily turn your blood purple, which is a bad time for everyone.
In a pinch for small batches, I’ve used a little bit of cocoa powder. My advice is to start with the syrup and add water from there so you don’t thin out your mixture too much.
Evil Dead star/gore expert Bruce Campbell also swears by adding non-dairy creamer to his blood to give it that 70s/80s opaqueness.
Lex's DIY Simple Syrup for the Fake Blood Base
- Boil sugar in water until it reduces to goop.
- Add your preferred ingredients.
Lex's Tips On Quantity
“I’m in the B-movie/camp house for the most part, so I largely end up mixing a ton of this stuff at once, pouring water into buckets and adding long squeezes of Karo syrup as I go along.
My recommendation for extreme effects is ALWAYS mix more than you need.
You may be eating the cost of a gallon of syrup and some dye bottles and it’s a pain in the ass to carry around, but I promise you the last thing you want is to be left high and dry on location with nothing to squirt.
Thanks Lex!
If you need a Special Effects Makeup pro (who happens to be an amazing vocalist) reach out to Lex Kaylan – she’s bloody good at her craft!
Lex's Final Word
At the end of the day, there is no right answer. If something works, it works. Some of the best cinema-caliber on-screen monsters I’ve ever seen were made out of garbage bags. If you’re mixing blood and you randomly find that frozen yogurt gives you that perfect consistency, use it.
Fake Blood Recipes from the ArtCube Vault
We searched a decade the ADVICE POSTS and the OGG posts for other recipes – here’s what we found!
No Corn Syrup Fake Blood
" I used pomegranate molasses with a little red food coloring added. So beautiful and very tasty!"
Classic Fake Blood Recipes
Chocolate Syrup-Based Blood Recipe
Ingredients
- Chocolate Syrup
- Clear Karo corn syrup
- Red food coloring
- Blue food coloring
- Non-dairy creamer
Directions
- Mix dish soap with red food coloring until you reach your desired shade.
- Add a dash of chocolate sauce if a darker color is needed.with a touch of blue to deepen the color
- Optional: non-dairy creamer for an opaque effect
Washable Fake Blood Recipe
Ingredients
- Pink disdh soap
- Red food coloring
- Chocolate sauce
- Powdered creamer
Directions
- Mix dish soap with red food coloring until you reach your desired shade.
- Add a dash of chocolate sauce if a darker color is needed.
Sep 10, 2017Hey Cubies,
I am on the search for washable fake blood for a murderous scene tomorrow.
I have found one recipe that uses poster paint, corn syrup and cocoa powder.
I wanted to know if anyone has used this with success.
Would love any advice before covering walls and furniture with a potentially disastrous situation.
I used a washable recipe recently made with dish soap that worked great. Pink Dish Soap Red Food coloring A little chocolate sauce to darken it(generic) Super cheap easy and realistic. Washed out of linen.
My favorite recipe has been corn syrup and Hershey syrup boiled and then add powdered coffee creamer which is supposed to make it washable. I used it on white shirts that needed to do several runs in a play.
If it does not need to be edible you can add simple green to make it washable..
I've had great luck with blue laundry detergent and red food coloring. If its going to be static, it'll come out of anything. But if it's going to be agitated, it can suds up, which doesn't work at all.
If you absolutely need it quick and you need it to wash out, I recommend stopping by Manhattan Wardrobe Supply and buying premade blood. They have a million types
Another approach you probably don't have time for is red flocking and water. Super easy, instant cleanup.
Wound seal first aid powder and India ink.
Try strawberry milk syrup, or jam if it doesn't have to ooze and drip. Syrup has good consistency and can be mixed with chocolate syrup to add opacity. Very sticky but delicious.
Share your recipe in the comments!
We’d love to hear about MORE BLOOD from you!
