In my experience using fake blood for cosplays, store bought stuff tends to go kind of pinkish or orange after it dries and generally looks like what it is - cheap fake blood.

What I'm after is stuff that will dry and look like blood that has dried - it doesnt need to brown, I can add those effects myself, but getting a bloody-red fluid to spatter on clothes and have it continue to look like blood after drying is something I've struggled with.

I was wondering if any of you guys have any suggestions - store bought or home-made, as long as it looks like blood once applied to clothing, I'd love to hear about it!

Thank you!

Its easy to make your own

Red food colouring - half teaspoon
Blue food colouring - tiny dot of colour
Corn Syrup - 20ml
Flour - added to desired thickness.

You just mix the flour and corn syrup together then add the colouring. Its easy to avoid that orangey look, thats what the blue is for, you should always add blue at the end of any 'bodily' based colouring to knock the colour back.

This is a cheap way of just making your own to the colour you require, but you can buy fake blood, however cheap joke shop brands will look pretty fake, if you want SFX blood it'll cost you a pretty penny.

Hope that helps.

I heard abou this awell but never tried it though as I haven't found a cosplay that I want to that needs fake blood lol

but I would give it a go!

I actually used the EXACT recipe Laura posted when I did a set design project at university. It's amazingly good, and tastes ok too!

If you do end up needing it to be in your mouth, and you don't like super sweetness, a drop of mint essence cuts it back without affecting the look, and leaves you with minty fresh breath.

ooh thats a great tip! Well remember that for next time

Hehe, I had to literally spit tons of the stuff at a wall to make a convincing headshot blood spatter. After about half a litre of the stuff, it got pretty nauseating so I experimented a little.

If you want it to dry and still have the appearance of fresh wet blood (and you're not needing that much of it), dark red nail varnish looks excellent. The shininess makes it look like it's fresh but it won't rub off on anything. Any old cheap nail varnish will do.

This worked BEAUTIFULLY - thank you so much!