How to make fake blood

Practicing first aid isn’t easy. It’s hard to simulate a real life accident to allow first aiders to practice their lifesaving skills. One thing you can make very easily however is fake blood. Making fake blood can be an easy way to bring some realism to your first aid scenarios.

There’s lots of recipes out there for fake blood, here’s a couple which you might want to try. Remember each will give you a different colour and consistency so its worth playing about until you find your perfect fake blood recipe. If you know of any recipes we’d love to hear about them!

Fake blood recipe 1Injured hand

>     450g of golden syrup

>      Red and yellow food colouring as required

>      Coffee essence or gravy browning to darken

>      1 cup of custard powder mixed in water

Add custard powder to the syrup and colourings.  Heat in a saucepan until the mixture does not stain your skin and bottle when cool.

Fake blood recipe 2

> 3 jars of clear honey

> Small amount of boiling hot water (thins) 100 ml red food colouring (reds)

> 10 ml black food colouring

> 1/3 tin of condensed milk

Mix ingredients to desired colour and consistency.

John Furst

JOHN FURST is an experienced emergency medical technician and qualified first aid and CPR instructor. John is passionate about first aid and believes everyone should have the skills and confidence to take action in an emergency situation.

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8 Responses

  1. jayrady says:

    I think making fake blood for First Aid Practice is a great idea. While the basics should be taught in a classroom setting and practiced with close supervision, this could be an excellent way to prepare those learning first aid to become accustomed to all the different variables that may be present while administering first aid.

  2. TPhoenix says:

    I recall food coloring and honey was involved in the process of making fake blood, so it’s good to see I remembered when reading. But yeah, I think I should try concocting some fake blood and getting myself accustomed to not only practicing first aid but also seeing blood, even though it only resembles the real thing. I say that because I can hardly stand the sight of a heavy amount of blood and to help anyone, including myself, I need to get pass that psychological barrier.

    • Linkzelda41 says:

      Sounds like a major psychological deadlock you have to conquer with Hemophobia, TPhoenix. Hope things go well in your journey towards absolving yourself from that particular phobia. Because I know some individuals that would literally have their eyes wide opened, and feeling helpless on what to do just because they didn’t know how to assess the situation.

  3. Lacey says:

    This is a great idea. From the picture it looks completely real. This is a great way to get students who are going through a first aid course or EMT course used to the sight of blood.

  4. cpefley says:

    Thanks for sharing those recipes! Great for practicing and Halloween costumes as well! I think I will share these with my children. I’m sure they will have fun making ‘fake blood’.

  5. Andrei Punte says:

    I think I’m going to use this.. in evil ways!!! Pretty good for Halloween or a prank. I think it would be hilarious to have a bag of blood in my pocket and just start “bleeding”, in public, while laughing with some friends. I think that wouldn’t be creepy at all. I’m just kidding, I would only use it for demonstrative purposes. With great knowledge come great responsibility!!

  6. Linkzelda41 says:

    I agree that this is useful for developing a more accurate experiential reality for demonstration purposes. Though I feel that at some point, people would have an interest of trying this out in other situations. I just hope others don’t get into really serious pranks where people would actually think the person is in danger. We wouldn’t want things to turn into a boy/girl who cried wolf now, would we?

  7. sillyeggplant says:

    Being a person who has experience with sfx makeup, I would have to disagree about the food coloring choices. The only food coloring colors you need are red and green. Green has both the lightening of yellow and the right amount of darkness from blue to bake a realistic dark blood color. I find that red/yellow is too bright and red/black is too dark. I find that a 3:1 ratio of red to green is the best combination of food coloring. Hope this helps fellow fake blood makers.

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