These are the formulas for the AGER I and AGER II latex stipples that I used for this production. I will give you an idea of how much I used and the ingredients to make it yourself and what I used for the removal. Plus I will make some final comments on what I used to accomplish this whole process and some other final thoughts on the routine for doing it. If you have any questions, please E-Mail me and let me know and I will attempt to help you in any way, should you plan on using the process or the formulas. Likewise, I appreciate any feedback on the process or the photo spread (no criticism please on the lousy photos I took). :o)

First of all you should use a gram scale of some kind to measure these components accurately. I have the Ohaus gram scale but any scale that will do accurate measuring is fine. First I measure out the 10 grams of Talc in a measuring cup or any glass cup. This is NOT baby powder talc but rather plain USP talc available at drug stores or chemical supply places. Unfortunately I could not find regular, plain talc. I ended up using a powder that said it was Talc on the front of the can it came in but in reality contained zinc oxide powder, talc and fragrance. Well believe it or not, it still worked and I think that maybe the zinc oxide powder may have helped it somewhat. Reason I say that, is because of the effect zinc oxide has in the running of gelatin to make it stronger and more resilient. It may have had some effect on the AGER formula I made. Can't swear to that, but it worked nonetheless.

Next I added 1/2 teaspoon of Knox unflavored gelatin to the Talc and 6 grams of cake makeup in an appropriate color (as a base color) which I scraped off the top of a cake I already had. I scraped off enough to make 6 grams of weight and ground this down till it didn't have any lumps or chunks in it. That is all the powders mixed together, blended a bit with a spoon or stirring rod (preferrably glass but I used a dowel rod). Then I measured out 90 grams of foam latex base into a wide mouth jar (capable of holding 16 ounces). Ideally you should mix this in a glass beaker of some sort but when you don't have one you improvise. I measured out the foam base into this jar and capped it so it wouldn't begin to set as foam latex will do just like most other lattices except it takes a little longer to air cure. Then I boiled some water and mixing in one TABLESPOON of water at a time to the powder mixture, I stirred that up to dissolve it. You will add three TABLESPOONS to the powder mixture but mix it after every spoonful you put in to make sure it's smooth. With all three spoons of water in the mix and the powders thoroughly mixed together, you VERY SLOWLY pour this into the foam latex base stirring rapidly with the glass rod (or other) as you pour so there are no lumps created by the mixture gelling in the latex. You are trying to simply eliminate lumps in the mixture by stirring and pouring the powder "liquid" into the foam latex base. When that is done you can pour the mixture into one or two ounce jars and cap them. I didn't have these jars and couldn't find them anywhere (in the time I had to look) so I just left it in the jar I had the foam latex base in and into which I poured the powder/water mixture. And I used that and it was fine. Once you have done whatever you intend to do (leave in the jar or transfer it to smaller jars) you should put these into a hot water bath for 10 - 15 minutes. I just put them in the hottest water I could get out of the tap in the kitchen sink. Then you put them in the refrigerator for storage till used. With the gelatin in the mix this solution has the tendency to "go bad" and get moldy or musty because of the organic substance (gelatin) in it. That is the formula and the process I used to make AGER I.

Now what you are going to do to create AGER II, is to make a batch of AGER I and once that is made, set it aside. Measure out the Cabosil into a plastic cup. Cabosil is a unique powder that acts as a thickening/matting agent and has many uses for what we do in SPFX makeup work. But for now it serves as a thickening agent. 2 1/2 grams of Cabosil is about a cup's worth but you still need to weigh it. Cabosil is a VERY LIGHT powder so it takes quite a bit to make 2 1/2 grams. You'll be surprised. Anyway, in a plastic cup (you can throw away) put the Cabosil. Then weigh out 50 grams of Acrylic Gel medium. This is very thick like paste or mayonnaise used by artists to create a more thick painting medium that shows brush strokes much more heavily. Once that is measured, you carefully put that into the Cabosil and mix the two together. Be careful when you put the gel medium into the Cabosil. Cabosil being so light a powder will go everywhere if you're not careful. Mix these two compounds together till they are smooth and all the Cabosil has been absorbed by the gel. Then you are going to spoon that into the AGER I formula you just created. Mix them together till the mix dissolves and thickens the AGER I into what will become AGER II. It takes a little while to mix the gel medium/Cabosil mixture in the latex but since the Liquitex Acrylic gel medium is water based it WILL dissolve somewhat into the liquid latex in the jar or beaker (whichever you're using). That is all there is too it. You now have AGER II made.

Now I had some variations that I used that were nothing more than out of necessity. I ran short of the Liquitex Acrylic Gel Medium and couldn't get to the art supply store to buy more. I did find Liquitex Matte Medium which is also an acrylic emulsion but in the consistency of thick cream and pourable. When I saw I was running low on the gel medium I measured out what I had (by weight - should have been 50 grams) but I didn't have enough. So I mixed in some of the Acrylic Matte medium which made the mixture less thick. When I added that to the Cabosil I also added a few drops of water (up to a tablespoon at most) and it loosened everything up nicely. When I poured that into the AGER I formulation to make the AGER II, it was much smoother and not as thick as when I used nothing but the gel medium with the Cabosil. And in the end result, I don't think it made a whole lot of difference in the final product or the use thereof. So the second time I had to make the single batch of AGER II I used more acrylic matte medium because I had even less gel medium than I needed. And it still was fine in the final analysis.

Another thing I did for both the AGER I and the AGER II formulations is that when I mixed them up anytime I made them, I added a little Liquitex Acrylic paint in a deeper flesh tone (not too dark but healthy tan) and mixed that into the latex mixtures. This gave the latex more of a flesh tone than without it. As well, the powder I used was a standard translucent powder and I added some dark brown powder to the translucent. I knew that using powder as much as I would have to, to do this process, if I used a darker powder the coloration would be more flesh like than whitish or dead looking. And it worked well because when the latex is dried on the skin it has some tackiness which all latex does when unpowdered. So by adding in a darker powder it adhered to the latex a bit and gave me more skin tone than just a powdered look. Now I didn't use much dark powder just enough to tan the translucent powder down a bit more.

Mix all ingredients together in a bottle and shake it up well. The hardest thing I had to do was to find someone who had the green soap. I had to end up ordering it from a drugstore. This used to be a common item but with the advent of all the fancy liquid handsoaps, this isn't used as much anymore. It used to be used in public restroom soap dispensers. But even that isn't the case nowadays. Anyway, I ordered 6 pint bottles (16 oz.) and hardly used one bottle. As a matter of fact, I didn't even use one bottle because the amount I mixed up for the removal process only amounted to half of what I even mixed up at all. The removal process was quite easy with two layers of stipple latex. I loosened the edge near the top of his head and more often than not, the whole "mask" would peel right off in one piece. See the final photo. I had to release it around the eyes a bit and on the neck here and there. Plus I had small places where it would stick - like at the back of the neck or at the sideburns. But as a general rule it peeled off in one piece without having to do too much liquid removal. Thus it saved on the remover I made. But with someone with reasonably sensitive skin, it might take more time and more solution to remove this latex. Then if you need to I suggest some facial cream that has Aloe in it to heal and repair the skin, though this guy didn't have a problem at all. I think the mineral oil in the remover helped to moisturize the skin after the removal. Also I did use Super Solv by Premier Products of California. This is a gentle pleasant smelling adhesive remover that has lanolin in it I think, and other things that prevent the removal from being so hard on the skin. As many times as we did this though, he never had a skin problem. Just be sensitive to those who would though and adjust accordingly.

Well that is about all on this process. I hope you will try this and see for yourself how good this can be made to look to achieve many levels of old age for a really inexpensive (relatively speaking) process of three dimensional makeup for aging without prosthetics. You need to have the right faces for it though. Younger faces don't do as well but still don't do too badly. Give it a try. Let me know what you think by E-Mail of the process and the photos or if you have questions you can E-mail me as well. Busy with my directing project so I may take a little longer to get back to you by return E-Mail but just PLEASE know that I WILL get back to you. Have fun and as with anything you do be careful. I am not nor will I be responsible for any foolish mistakes you make without testing or will accept no liablity for anything resulting from your work where these processes are used. With that, I hope you will try it though and see what a difference it can make. GOOD LUCK!!!