We’ll take fake blood over fake news any day, especially on Halloween. Yeah, you could buy it premade in a bottle but it’s so easy to make fake blood that looks scary-real with ingredients you already have. Use it to instantly ghoulify any last-minute DIY Halloween costumes before you start trick-or-treating or to create a horror show with easy Halloween decorations. Our standard recipe for fake blood is the drippy kind, which you can let dribble down your mouth for, say, a DIY vampire costume. We also have more viscous versions so you can smear fake blood on clothes, splatter on walls or dump from a bucket to prank an unsuspecting prom queen. Need to make blood and guts or maybe some gnarly scabs? We’ve got you! Our method is simple and literally blood curdling.
Whether you intend to use fake blood for Halloween makeup or to stamp bloody handprints on your Halloween crafts, we have the grossest, coolest and most realistic fake blood out there. So step into our lab, where our mad scientists have been hard at work experimenting with several recipes to find the perfect match for your fake blood type (drippy, smeary, clotty and more!). Pick your favorite to start concocting a personal batch for the best Halloween costumes or whatever gory idea gets your blood pumping this October.
Blood for dripping and splattering
This clean, runny blood is perfect is for dripping and splattering. Plus, it was the easiest to make of all the recipes we tested.
- Combine 1 cup corn syrup with 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup in a bowl.
- Stir in red food coloring until you get a blood-like color. We used about 8 drops.
HERSHEY'S Chocolate Syrup
McCormick Red Food Coloring
Spring Chef Measuring Spoons
How to Make Fake Blood Without Coloring: Substitute beet or pomegranate juice in place of the food dye. You can also try red Kool-Aid or Jell-O powder, tomato paste, fruit punch or strawberry syrup.
How to Make Fake Blood for Clothes
This darker, viscous blood is ideal for smearing (á la the shower curtain scene in Psycho). It also can look really drippy without actually running all over the place. To make dried blood on clothes or surfaces, just heat it with a hair dryer after applying.
This blood includes detergent and IS NOT edible, so avoid putting it directly on skin. It's great and ghastly for splattering a Carrie-like prom gown or a lab coat for a mad scientist.
- Combine 2/3 cup chocolate syrup and 1/3 cup Tide laundry detergent in a liquid measuring cup.
- Stir in 4 to 6 teaspoons red food coloring.
HERSHEY'S Chocolate Syrup
Tide Liquid Laundry Detergent
McCormick Red Food Color
OXO Liquid Measuring Cups
How to Make Fake Guts
To simulate the texture of guts, you can use anything from chunky peanut butter to oatmeal. We took it to the max by adding thin strips of tissue paper, which best mimicked the gruesome look of vital organs.
- Prepare either fake blood recipes (above).
- Tear thin strips of tissue paper.
- Stir into the blood until you've reached your desired texture.
HERSHEY'S Chocolate Syrup
McCormick Red Food Color
How to Make Fake Scabs
This was our favorite and the most realistic looking blood mixture. It will darken slightly as it dries and the texture gets better as it sits, so feel free to make it about an hour ahead of time. Adding onion flakes gives just the right chunky texture to give the appearance of scabs. Gagging yet?
- Combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon onion flakes, 4 teaspoons water, 1 teaspoon corn syrup and 4 drops red food coloring in a bowl.
- Clump it onto your skin and let dry.
McCormick Minced Onions
McCormick Red Food Color
Susan (she/her) is the recipe editor at Good Housekeeping, where she pitches ideas, parses words, and produces food content. In the Test Kitchen, she cooks (and samples!) recipes, working with developers to deliver the best written versions possible. A graduate of Brown University and a collaborator on several cookbooks, her previous experience includes stints at Food & Wine, Food Network, three meal kit companies, a wine shop in Brooklyn and Chez Panisse, the pioneering restaurant in Berkeley, California. She enjoys playing tennis, natural wines and reality competition shows.
