Maddie Tiemann is an 18-year-old senior who specializes in a unique field. During photography class, she decided to do special effects (SFX) makeup so students could take pictures of it.

Tiemann first decided she wanted to do special effects makeup when she saw someone on Instagram taking off makeup. She became interested in learning how to do it herself.

“When I saw someone on Instagram taking off makeup, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s fake,’” Tiemann said. “So I was interested in doing it myself and I wanted to learn how to do it.”

She said the thing she likes most about SFX makeup is the fact of how shocked she can make people with her talent and skills in makeup.

“I enjoy making people shocked at the work I can do,” Tiemann said.

Tiemann loves horror movies. When asked what her inspiration for SFX makeup was, she said horror movies like “The Walking Dead,” specifically all the different zombies and how each one looks different from one another. Looking at all the different looks they have helps her. She also said there was another Instagram account that inspired her called @projectsfx.

“‘The Walking Dead’ is what really got me thinking about doing SFX makeup because I want to go to school for it and I want to work for small Netflix productions,” Tiemann expressed.

Tiemann’s plan is to do SFX makeup for a living. She plans on going into schooling and college for it. She’s in pursuit of getting her makeup and cosmetology license, so she can legally get paid for her work.

“I plan on going into schooling and college to get my makeup and cosmetology license, so I can legally get paid for it,” Tiemann said.

She plans to first go to St. Charles Community College to get her first two years, and then she wants to move to either New York or Florida to go to a school around where movie productions are made.

“I’m going to move to either New York or Florida,” Tiemann said. “I want to go to some kind of school around that area where movie productions are made.”

She said her parents are very supportive of her career choice.

SFX makeup takes Tiemann anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and a half, and she has been doing this style of makeup for four years.

She normally uses scar wax, fake blood, and a bruising palette which reacts with alcohol and latex. She gets all these products off of Amazon. Her process while doing special effects makeup is first to apply scar wax, use flour, begin inside bruising, outside bruising/irritation, and add blood.

She has an Instagram account @sfx_makup_fake_gore. She has reached 3,677 followers with 141 posts. Tiemann’s first post on Instagram was on Feb. 2, 2020. It was her third makeup look. She had been doing makeup prior to that but she didn’t start posting until she got decent at her work.

Art teacher Ms. Middendorf was impressed with Tiemann’s work. Middendorf was “frightened, scared and full of anxiety because it looked so real” when she first saw Tiemann’s work in person.

“I felt that it was very professional because it looked very realistic. It was hard for me to even look because I was convinced it was real,” Middendorf said. “That’s how good it was.”

Mr. Purvis is the photography teacher and his students took photos of Tiemann’s work.

“Aesthetically, it was awesome,” Purvis said. “It was amazing and I think personally I’m attracted to those kinds of things: gore and horror movies. I used to watch a lot of ‘Face Off.’ She brings a lot out of other people. You can also tell that doing SFX makeup makes her really happy.”

When asked how he reacted to seeing the makeup get done Purvis said, “I was intrigued and curious watching. I knew a lot about the types of makeup so we had conversations about what she was using.”

Lucy Hunter is a student who watched the makeup process.

“It was really cool to see because I’ve never seen anyone do SFX makeup before. So watching Maddie doing it was very interesting,” Hunter said. “I thought it was really cool because she did it in 15 minutes. You had an entire mouth scar, which was a lot of work and the end result was really impressive.”

If you wish to look at Tiemann’s Instagram account, please do be aware she has warnings on each post. So if you have a phobia, try and look at her warning labels.