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Kara Longo

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp. Pd.3

18 September 2020

Discovering SFX

Over the past few years, I have never been one to be a “girly girl” or someone you would

see in their future doing anything makeup related. Throughout middle and high school, I have

been mainly known for school sports and higher in academics than most. But most recently we

have fallen into a pandemic. March 13, 2020, high schools across America were sent home to

continue online learning. Assuming we would come back it was never a big deal, but from all the

countless nights of staying up, afterwards I would always attempt to do my makeup, might sound

boring but I had to entertain myself somehow. This could be anyway I wanted, anything I could

do. I may have not been good at all during this time but it sure would lead to a lot in the future.

A quick rundown of SFX is special effects makeup. This is usually what you will see in

like Marvel movies with the cool aliens and the black eyes from fights. It ranges in multiple

directions, from a different face sculpture to the smallest of cuts and bruises. SFX was nothing I

really had interest in until a few months later I approached my 16th birthday, we all know the app

Tik Tok, a well-known app by most of Gen Z, I was recently joining the makeup community

when discovering SFX. Sure, I knew it from movies and Tv shows, but I would never believe it

was something I would get into. A few days after my birthday I received my first kit and that is

where the journey began. I will be completely honest. I was terrible, but there was some sort of

spark that told me to keep going. I was limited in supplies, but I didn’t care I would do whatever
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to get the bloody, and gory look I desired. That is exactly what I worked up to, just to make it as

realistic as possible was my standard, burns, cuts, bruises, even testing with small prosthetics.

This has all brought me to where I am today, I am so lucky for the family that has bought me my

first SFX kit I couldn’t have done it without them for sure.

SFX has also its hand in my future, in occupational therapy, the career I’m looking

forward to in my later life, it deals with small structures. You may be wondering how does OT

and SFX connect? The small makeup like bones and cuts on my hands I'm able to do, I must

know bone structure. It is a must have to know all these things small parts to make it one big

picture. Without it my makeup wouldn’t be realistic at all and would be a mess. If I didn’t know

hand structure for OT, I most definitely couldn’t work in the field itself. It’s the littlest things

that pull it all together.

Without COVID, even if it is a pandemic it brought me close with something, I love a lot,

I would never be where I am today. Would have never learned how to properly blend foundation

and concealer, because I sure know I couldn’t do that before. Even with COVID this tested me to

find myself at home. I had to find something to spend my free time and that’s exactly what I got

into. Made me find something I am passionate about and I am forever grateful.