Bloodshot Eyes Makeup

[paci5217]

Hello everyone,

I am doing a makeup design that needs a bloodshot eye. We don't have time or money to get contact lenses. One of my friends used lemon juice during a filming. Is that safe or do you know of a better way to get the effect (using something from home if possible)? Thanks!

 

Laura

[Andrew C]

I'm no doctor, but I doubt anything that HURTS is going to be particularly good for you. It is the bodies natural defence system to stop you doing it again.

 

Are you really going to be performing close enough to an audience for them to actually see the bloodshottedness? Or would a red rim to the eye suffice?

[paulears]

When you note that even Optrex is now frowned upon and isn't in first aid boxes anymore, the suggestion that somebody puts an acid into your eye to deliberately make it read and bloodshot for real is unbelievable!

 

What happens if the lemon juice does damage? Short term, long term? Crazy!

[blackbird]

If you ask *very* nicely then the two major contact lens companies in the UK - Ciba Vision and Cooper Vision (from memory, but something like that) will both give you a couple of cosmetic lenses for free for theatrical purposes.

 

I should mention they have to provide them through an opticians by law, but if the actor already has an opticians (and preferably wears lenses already) you should be able to avoid paying a nice local opticians (i.e. not specsavers) anything.

 

Otherwise, find an actor with hayfever and buy them lots of flowers!! Of course the sneezing may not add to their performance!

[w/robe]

This requires acting not interfering with someone's eyes. Contact lenses are probably not the way forward either as they mainly cover the iris, not the white of the eye which is the bit that becomes bloodshot.

 

I should mention they have to provide them through an opticians by law,

I'm sure you used to be able to buy coloured contact lenses in Camden Market, London, England.

 

Of course non of this is much help if you are in Colorado.

[andy_s]

Hello everyone,

I am doing a makeup design that needs a bloodshot eye. We don't have time or money to get contact lenses. One of my friends used lemon juice during a filming. Is that safe or do you know of a better way to get the effect (using something from home if possible)? Thanks!

 

Laura

 

how big is the theatre? how far away is the front row? is it worth it?

 

was involved in a production of "Frankenstein" once which toured to all sorts of venues, where the actor playing F's creature got at his own expense some white contact lenses to give the correct corpse-like impression. Looked great sitting across the table from him in the bar, on stage they were really not very obvious. And he went through agonies for it, not being a regular contact lens-wearer.

 

My other suggestion involves several bottles of whisky and sleepless nights, ....

[Troyminator]

Contact lenses ARE best, but they need to be prescription lenses from an optician (not those nasty fashion contacts) and they will cost a LOT of money. That's your best and safest bet, however the effect would be lost past the first couple of rows of the audience!

There are specialy formulated make-up products such as Kryolan's Eye Blood that can be used. However the effect only lasts a few minutes (up to 20 if you're klucky) and in most cases can only be used once a day. They are also quite uncomfortable to use and of course once again the effect will be wasted for the vast majority of the audience (who will be too far away to see it!).

Your third option is to rim the edges of the eyes with a crimson cream make-up (like you might for an addict).

The thing to bear in mind with theatrical make-up is that subtelty will be lost after the first ten rows (so most of the audience will miss out on all your careful detail work). And of course the poor devils on the back row will only be able to see the wig and costume!

So you have to strike a balance somewhere between what you WANT to include in your design (because it looks cool) and what you NEED to include (for the benefit of the audience).

;)

[Stuart Basson]

Since it is the white of an eye that gets bloodshot, is a contact lens going to do any good, beyond making the eye red through irritation, perhaps? Does the lens only cover the bit in the middle that we see through? It'd have to be the size of half a ping-pong ball to cover the whites, too! (I don't wear them, so I don't know for sure!)

 

I would run a mile from anything that involves putting stuff in people's eyes. As someone sensible said above - how far are we from the audience? Will they see the vessels on a bloodshot eye? Make-up on the fleshy bit around the eye, to make it look inflamed, plus some good acting - that's the road I'd go down.

[Ekij]

Does the lens only cover the bit in the middle that we see through? It'd have to be the size of half a ping-pong ball to cover the whites, too! (I don't wear them, so I don't know for sure!)

"Hard" lenses only cover the pupil (the black bit you see through) and overlap a tiny bit onto the Iris (the coloured bit)

"Soft" lenses cover the pupil and Iris and extend a tiny bit onto the white of the eye.

 

You can get "theatrical" lenses that extend across much of (or even the whole of) the white of the eye. But as others have said very few if any of the audience will see it.

 

Get the actor to act having bloodshot eyes. They should squint a lot and blink much more often than normal. The occasional rub wouldn't be out of place either.