Becoming Wolf: How to Apply Easy Nail Polish Scratches & Scabs
The Real Meaning Behind “Little Red Riding Hood”
Little Red, her grandmother, and the big, bad wolf have been reimagined over and over, and the adjustments to the fairy tale lead to new messages while sticking with the original theme. At it’s core, “Little Red Riding Hood” isn’t just a story about a little girl and a wolf in the forest; it’s a metaphor for a girl becoming a woman. The red cloak symbolizes the start of her menstrual cycle and the wolf symbolizes a sexual predator or a tempting union out of wedlock.
The story was created to warn girls not to trust strange men as they transition into adulthood. In the early versions of this story, Little Red is shamed for having told the wolf where she was going and what she was doing and punished by being eaten. The message is essentially “don’t talk to strangers” and if you do, you deserve what you get. However, as the fairy tale was reimagined, the message started to shift and Little Red escaped. In some versions she’s saved by a huntsmen, and in others, she tricks the wolf and escapes. The message is still “don’t talk to strangers” or “be careful who you trust,” but the shame at being tricked is gone.
My favorite versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” are the really modern ones where she becomes the wolf. In these versions, there is still the lesson to “be careful who you trust”, but transforming into a woman is seen as becoming something powerful instead of something weak and vulnerable. You can see the way society’s view of womanhood has shifted with the evolution of this fairy tale.
Little Red Isn’t the Only Story with a Wolf and a Girl
While “Little Red Riding Hood” is the most well- known fairy tale about a wolf and a girl becoming a woman and learning who to trust, it isn’t the only one. Th inspiration for “Wolf Girl” in my collection of modern fairy tales When Magic Calls is “The White Wolf.”
In “The White Wolf,” a forest prince is able to shape-shift into the form of a white wolf. A princess falls in love with and marries him, but when she returns home to visit and she reveals her husband’s secret, her family and palace staff kill him. Luckily, she’s able to bring him back and escape using his white wolf skin. The moral of this tale is still “be careful who you trust,” bit this time it’s not the wolf who betrays the girl.
In my version, the girl is the magical being form the forest instead of a prince and the message is about appreciating wild things for what and where they are instead of trying to own and bring them into civilization. So the next time you read a modern take on a classic tale like “Wolf Girl,” ask yourself what the message is and how that message has been altered.
How to Apply Scratches & Scabs with Makeup & Nail Polish
* Disclaimer: Test the nail polish on your skin in a small patch first to make sure it doesn’t irritate your skin *
Supplies
Makeup Primer (Maybelline Master Primer)
Red Eyeshadow or Blush (NYX Sex Bomb Femme Fatale red only)
Makeup Brush
Eyeliner (Maybelline Unstoppable Eyeline Cinnabar)
Red, Textured Nail Polish (China Glaze I Love Your Guts)
Fangs (Scarecrow Small Sexy Deluxe)
Nail Polish Scratches
Apply primer where you intend to put your scratches.
Note: Don’t do this around your eyes, nose, or mouth. Otherwise you can apply as many or as few scratches wherever you want.
Use a makeup brush to sketch where you want your scratches in red eyeshadow.
Buff out the scratches to give the illusion of flushed, healing skin.
Draw a line of eyeline inside the scratches as a guide for the nail polish and to create the illusion of depth.
Dab nail polish over eyeliner. You want it to be thick and raised like a scab.
If needed, add a bit more eyeshadow to make the skin look more irritated.
Allow to dry.
Apply the rest of your makeup and costume and enjoy!
When I do my makeup for cosplays, I try to make what I have work before buying anything new. That’s how I came up with this way for making scars, so please let me know how it works for you in the comments.
Molding Fangs to Your Teeth
Note: I followed the Scarecrow instructions exactly and they worked, but I do have a few other tips.
Make sure you have the powder, liquid, stirring stick, container, and fangs.
Note: If you don’t want to have leftover molding in the case, use another small, clean container you don’t mind messing up.
Twist one tube of powder and gently pull to open. Pour powder into the fang case.
Add 4 drops of the liquid and mix until it becomes a gummy, moldable glob.
Scoop up all of the glob and put it on the inside sides of one fang.
Note: Do not fill the bottom. Your teeth don’t reach that far down.
Press the fang up onto the desired tooth. I did the third from the middle, but the second is just as popular.
Hold in place with minimal wiggling for 5 minutes. Keep gums off teeth
Carefully press the gummy substance off the bordering teeth on the front and hanging below your other teeth. This way you don’t have to clip/file later.
Leave that tooth on and repeat steps 1-8 for the second tooth.
Leave teeth in mouth for 15 more minutes.
Remove teeth by pressing against them with your lover teeth until you hear a crack.
Note: The crack is startling, but shouldn’t be painful.
The gummy stuff will continue to set for the next 24 hours.
Put fangs back on teeth, add the rest of your costume, and enjoy!
Don’t forget to let me know how your costume turns out below!
Caitlin Berve is the author of When Magic Calls: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales and currently working on a fantasy novel involving an arranged marriage, damsels who save themselves, and non-human shape-shifters. Through her company Ignited Ink Writing and MFA, she edits other people’s novels, creates video tutorials, teaches, and writes. Caitlin seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers, pet all the fluffy and scaly animals she can, and find magic in modern times.