After 10 years working full time in the costume business, and over 20 in and out of the theater community I've heard tons of times that "Spirit Gum didn't work for me." or "Spirit gum gives me a rash." To the first one I have a simple response, "You didn't do it right." To the second one I have this to say, "You didn't take it off right." I am not a medically trained person but I have never heard of anyone being allergic to spirit gum, you can however really damage you skin if you take it off incorrectly.

Here is an update to the above statement. When I wrote it I had not heard of, even after a little searching on google an Allergy to Spirit-gum, thanks to a really nice letter received from Heather Lesh, included after the article. Now I have. But after reading this page, http://dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/rosin-allergy.htm I can still say that I believe that none of the complaints the I have received about Spirit Gum use was an allergic reaction. Especially seeing the very wide range of product that contain the active ingredient, if you are going to be allergic to Spirit Gum you'll likely know it long before I'll sell you any. So read the article above, and then buy from us.

Spirit gum has two enemies: Dirt and moisture. Both of these can be combated easily.

To begin with make sure you clean any area of the skin with alcohol or witch hazel to clean any oils and dirt out of the way, do the same with the prosthetic piece almost every prosthetic is powdered down when it came out of the mold and that can still be sitting on there. Give that a little time to dry and then start with the spirit gum.

As with everything in life there are arguments about where to put the spirit gum. One side says put it on the skin, the other says put it on the piece. You know, either one will work as long as you follow this simple rule: DO NOT STICK ANYTHING ON WET SPIRIT GUM!!!!!

If you put the gum on the skin then you will need to make it tacky first, you need to get rid of the moisture in the alcohol, so take your little finger, (you know the useless one at the end of the hand) and tap the wet spirit gum with it, yes you are going to get glue on it but you don't use it for anything else anyway. Keep this up until your finger just starts to stick and little stringy strands start to come off of the skin, NOW you can stick the prosthetic piece on. Same goes with putting the gum on the piece but instead of you little finger you can hold on to the piece and use it to make the gum tacky, again wait for the strings to appear.

That's it that is the secret for making spirit gum work for anyone. I mean anyone, I am a big guy and I sweat a lot but I can wear a prosthetic piece for 6 - 8 hours with no touch up, and something like a moustache of fake beard would be even longer. Just take your time and let it get tacky.

Which brings us to the second reason people don't think they like spirit gum, the "rash" or irritation.

Here is the really sad news people, Mission Impossible is FAKE!

As much as I would love to have instantly made and painted masks like in the last Mission Impossible movie (Financial backers, I have a plan for one but no capital) right now they do not exist. You also cannot and do not want to just grab the bottom of your fake face and pull, more than likely if you followed the instructions above your real face would come with it.

Let's not kid ourselves Spirit Gum is a glue, and like any glue it is used to hold two or more things together, if you glue two piece of paper together and then pulled what happens? you get a lot more or a lot less, than two pieces of paper back. Same thing with the skin, YOU HAVE TO USE A REMOVER. The irritation can be caused by two things the first would be pulling the pieces off with out using the proper amount of remover, or none at all. The second would be dry skin from the alcohol.

Now you do not have to spend a ton of money on Spirit Gum Remover, rubbing alcohol will do. The clear advantage to using a remover is that they are buffered, they help protect the skin more that just using rubbing alcohol. If you do stay with rubbing alcohol make sure you wash your face afterward and even might want to consider a skin lotion too.

I hope this helps, we will be writing and posting more articles on make up and costuming. If you have a question you need answered e mail it to questions@fantasyfestival.com

Received 3/18/2007

Hello! I stumbled across your site about Spirit Gum and I wanted to complement you on your tips.

That stuff can be pretty tricky to work with and a lot of people don't use it properly. I've seen people put Spirit Gum all over their skin and prosthetic pieces before letting the gum dry properly. Then they get angry when the pieces don't stick properly and they have to do touch-ups.

When people say they can't use Spirit Gum because it gives them a rash, it's true that they might not be using it properly. It's also possible that they are allergic to the rosin that's contained in it. I have a BA in Theater and a long history with Ren faires and theatrical makeup and costuming, especially with prosthetics. I used Spirit Gum for years and years without any problems, until about 10 years ago. I wore "fairy ears" for Halloween. The next day, I noticed that my ears started to hurt and the day after that, they were swollen and itchy and I looked like Dumbo. :) Also started having trouble breathing. A dose of Prednisone (steroids) took care of the problem. The doc told me I was probably allergic to something in the Spirit Gum and that I probably had developed an allergy to it, just like people can develop allergies to Latex. We weren't sure what it was until about a year later when I tried to wax my legs. I had the same reaction and I compared the ingredients in the wax to the bottle of Spirit Gum. The common ingredient was Rosin. I asked my doctor if the allergy was unusual and she consulted an allergist, who said that it wasn't unusual. Rosin is a tree sap derivative that's contained in many beauty products and adhesives. I've had the same reaction a few more times. Once was when I cleaned up some spilled rosin at the dance store I worked at. Sometimes if I purchase poorly made shoes and the adhesives in the shoes get on my feet, I will have a small reaction. Also, and this one is the funniest, I can't use Vicks Vaporub anymore because the tree sap gives me a rash.

I haven't worn prosthetics since the horrible Dumbo Fairy Ears incident, but I know there's several alternatives on the market for people who are allergic. There's Beta Bond, which is a polymer acrylic based adhesive and I've heard great things about silicon-based Kryolan Medical Adhesive from my friends still doing theater. It's supposed to be stronger than Spirit Gum and works better on big prosthetic pieces. It doesn't crystallize like Spirit Gum does when it's exposed to moisture.

I hope you found this information useful! Sincerely, Heather Lesh