Klingon Ridges Fit for a Warrior

Looking to join the Klingon Empire? Using a glue gun and some makeup products, you can! Bring glory to your house, using some household ingredients and your honorable creativity!

Tape measure
Parchment paper
Marker
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Foundation makeup and applicator
Adhesive - prosthetic or eyelash glue is best
Eyeshadow in several shades of brown
Makeup setting spray, optional

Take a measurement of your forehead from your hairline to above your eyebrows, as well as across the width. You will use these measurements to draw the shape of your ridges on parchment paper with marker. You can draw your ridges in any shape or thickness you like! There is so much variety within the Klingon race.

Using your glue gun, trace over the lines you’ve drawn. It is best to start on either side, and then finish by drawing your line down the middle to unite all of your individual ridges.

Wait for your hot glue to try completely so it is cool and solid to the touch. 10-15 minutes to be safe. Then peel it off the parchment paper. If there are any imperfections you can trim them off with scissors. Don’t worry if your ridges aren’t perfect, you can trim, add more glue, or make another set.

Now you will want to cover your ridges in whatever makeup you plan to wear for your Klingon character. Here, I have coated them with a cream foundation and then a powder foundation to better seal the color in place.

Apply your character makeup. Klingons tend to have dramatic styles of makeup, so you have total freedom with your design!

Even though it’s homemade, what we are about to do is apply an alien prosthetic! You can use a professional grade prosthetic glue, such as pros aide, but eyelash glue or a water soluble glue-stick will work just as well. Make sure it’s safe for your skin and possible for you to remove after your costume event!

I am using pros aide, which needs to be painted on to the backside of the prosthetic and left to dry until tacky, about thirty seconds.

After your glue is suitably tacky (if it’s too liquidy, the piece will slide down your face and you’ll need to try again) you can align it over your forehead and press it into place. Hold it there for about thirty seconds, paying special attention to the edges to make sure they adhere well to your skin. Our dry hot glue is flexible, so we can bend it and shape it around the curve of the forehead, eyebrows, and so on.

Even though we have a 3D prosthetic on, we want to really enhance it! I suggest using a shade of brown darker than your skin tone and tracing around the bottom of each ridge, as well as down the middle. This creates the effect of a shadow being cast from our ridges and onto the skin.

After adding our dark lines, we want to go over the tops of each ridge and do the opposite - accent the tops with a lighter color of eyeshadow. You can also continue the highlighting and shadowing down your nose, along your cheeks, or anywhere on the skin your alien look requires! Reinforcing the pattern from the prosthetic and onto our natural skin helps us make believe it’s all one piece.

If you feel your shadows and highlights are too harsh, you might choose to add another thin layer of foundation over your forehead - skin, prosthetic, and all. Having a better color match between the glue ridges and your skin leads to a more effective finished look!

You may choose to set your whole face with a setting spray or powder. I recommend this especially if you’re wearing your cosplay for an all day event!

Q’apla!