Fake a tear

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

For my next fashion/beauty session, I want to fake a tear to put on girl's face.
What do you suggest for the material? I thought of glycerin or hair gel, but not sure. If you have better ways, please share!

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4744 Location: Cheshire, England

I have seen glycerine based liquid for sale in the pro dealers for faking condensation this is normally sprayed on and stays put until its wiped off. I think glycerine if you get it thick enough will be ok. It will be kind to the models skin as glycerine is the active ingredient in all 'skin hydration regimes'.

Hair gel is a little too thick and wont necessarily form a tear shape. It may also be an irritant so be careful with it.

Gelatin, the stuff you make jelly/jello and puddings with may also work. Its cheap enough and if you use quite a thick concentration, the heat of the models face should make it slowly drip. Worth a try.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Cut raw white onion works very well for me (when I'm cooking) Wink

But it's real then, you may not want that...

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4744 Location: Cheshire, England

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Was my first idea to make a woman cry:

Instead of onions you could also use a little instant cappucino powder, at least I heard its very efficient Twisted Evil

Also tears made of gallium would look very cool....

Now coming to the more serious answers, glycerin drops should have an slightly unnatural (flatter, less round) shape which might (depending on wanted picture/angle/magnification) look unnatural. Also be careful with glycerin as does not dry easily, if some gets on clothes like a collar etc., it won't dry during the whole shooting and might stay visible in all shots. But except that glycerin sound like a good idea.

Hair gel is much too thick, especially if unthinned, it's sitcky an can burn if some gets into the eyes by acciedent.

Why not using plain tap water or 0.9% NaCl solution applied for example with a a plastic syringe or plastic dropper? (water doesn't irritate eyes and mucosas anymore if a little (uniodized) sea salt is added)

But imho best solution would prescription-free eye drops for dry eyes from a pharmacy or drug store, they purified water with ~0,9% NaCl added and sometimes a little amount of harmless "eye grease" like hyaluronic acid and similar ingriedients and they come in bottle most models would trust easily (I would imagine that most models would look are quite a but puzzled when you're handling around with a jam jar labeled with "homemade tear liquid" and a long sryinge)
Imho the best and also one of the easiest solutions.

hmm... maybe one day I will find some volunteers for an similar art project but showing faces sprayed with pepper spray
Twisted Evil

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4744 Location: Cheshire, England

Did you try gelatin? I have some here, I'll try it. Watch this space...

edit. I melted some in about 50ml cold water in a bowl, placed in a pan of hot water until it is dissolved.

Put the bowl into a bigger bowl of cold water and let it cool. It only takes a few minutes. It sets to a thin gel. I suggest keep looking at it and upon the tuning point i.e just before it sets, apply it to the models face with a dropper. It will run down like tears but keep dripping it on and eventually it will stop running and look like real tears. I tried it on my hand

Its still a bit runny but when it dries on the models skin it slows down enough to get photos, Sorry only my hand was available to model this idea.

Hope this helps.

scherfjack · Joined: 17 Sep 2014 Posts: 3

It can be easily done with the help of using it with the help of glycerine.and hence the fake tear will be obtained in an easier manner.

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

You could do it in post. It should be pretty easy to find a tear vector or raster that can be manipulated to match the lighting.