Literature Soong and I decided it was time to do a prosthetics adhesive test as we’re hoping to wear our panda noses to Ottawa ComicCon in May. We bought our adhesive, liquid latex, and adhesive remover from Candy’s Costume Shop in Toronto – it’s an awesome shop where we buy nearly all of our cosplay makeup. The staff are incredibly friendly and knowledgable, and they’ve never recommended a product that I was unhappy with!
We used Ben Nye Prosthetic Adhesive, and Ben Nye Bond Off adhesive remover for the preliminary test – the makeup sponges we used didn’t have thin enough edges for us to try the liquid latex. We chose to use the prosthetic adhesive instead of spirit gum as the prosthetic adhesive gives a stronger bond. Our aim is to attach a prosthetic that will move with our faces (and faces move a lot!), as well as be resistant to inevitable sweating, and we don’t feel that spirit gum is strong enough.
Following the instructions on the bottle, we applied a thin coat to our hands, then a thin coat to the sponges. We let the first coat dry completely (it took about 5 minutes to dry on our hands; the sponges stayed damp), then applied a second thin coat to our hands and the sponge. After the second coat was dry (approx. another 5 minutes for our hands; again the sponges stayed damp) we firmly pressed the damp side of the makeup sponges to our hands making sure to align it to the place we’d brushed with adhesive. (It was easy to tell where the adhesive was on our hands as when it dries, it’s slightly shiny)
We chose to apply the sponges to our hands for the initial test because we’ve never used prosthetics before and we weren’t sure if we’d have a reaction to the adhesive. After attending several cosplay panels that spoke about prosthetics, we learned that even if you’ve not had a reaction to latex or any other type of adhesive (like spirit gum), some individuals will react to latex prosthetics, or certain adhesives. We didn’t want our first try to be on our faces in case we broke out in blisters or welts.
The sponges stayed on extremely well – we left them on for a couple hours and did everything we’d do normally, except we had sponges on the backs of our hands! I even put my jacket on, and took it off to see if that would dislodge the sponge (I figured a narrow sleeve would be a good test of the adhesive strength) and it stayed on beautifully. We didn’t do anything absurd like wash dishes or have a shower, but we made sure that we didn’t shy away from using our hands just because there were sponges on them.
To remove the sponges, we used cotton swabs dipped in the Bond Off to gently loosen the adhesive. It took much longer than I thought it would, but the result was excellent. I had a slightly pink mark on my hand because I became impatient with the Bond Off and just gently peeled the sponge off. The pink mark only lasted about an hour, and I had no blisters, welts or other reaction to any of the products. Literature Soong took the time to remove his sponge properly, and he didn’t have any pink mark on his hand. I learned that it’s worth taking the time to remove the prosthetic properly, and not pull it off like an eager beaver – especially if it’s going to be on my face next time.
Our next test will be applying the triangular foam sponges to our faces to see how well the adhesive preforms. If all goes well, we will move on to a trial run of the actual panda nose prosthetic.
Have you worked with prosthetics and/or adhesives?
How did it go?
What did you use?
It Takes A Village To Cosplay!
Earla Alara
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