★ Why this course exists
Most special effects content online shows you the finished look. The real skill sits in the steps before it.
★ Materials
Know what every product on your table does, and when to reach for it.
★ Technique
Bruises, scars, bald caps and prosthetics, built one layer at a time.
★ Safety
Preparation, removal and skin care, so an effect comes off as well as it went on.
A convincing bruise takes more than purple paint. It depends on how colour sits in skin, how an edge vanishes under a lens and how a surface holds up after hours under studio lights. That thinking decides whether an effect survives a close-up.
The course follows the order a real job does. Tools and brushes come first, then preparation, then bruising, scars, cuts and grazes, tattoo cover, silicone bald caps, three-part gel, fake blood and prosthetics, through painting and removal.
I film each stage up close, mistakes included, because watching a problem get fixed teaches you more than watching a flawless result.
Some students come to it with a place on a university course ahead of them. Others want to build creatures at the kitchen table. Both start from the same foundation, and you need neither of the other two courses in the trilogy to begin.
The illusion is only as good as the prep underneath it.
★ What you get
Everything you need to practise, kept for good.
● 25+ step-by-step video lessons
Filmed in full HD across ten modules, from your first brush to a finished silicone prosthetic. No music playing underneath, nothing pulling your eye away from the work.
● Printable guides and practice booklets
Written material to keep beside your kit, so you can practise without pausing the video every few seconds.
● Four bonus videos
My beginner kit, my professional kit, my classic clown base and a day on set, filmed for students only.
● Lifetime access
Enrol once and the course stays yours. Rewatch the bald cap lesson the night before your first real one.
● The private student group
Post your work, compare notes with other students and get my feedback when something refuses to go to plan.
● Built to be accessible
Paced for people who need time with a technique, with written notes to return to. Anyone who loves this craft belongs here, whatever their age, background or experience.
Hi, I’m Sophie
I trained in makeup for media and performance at Arts University Bournemouth and graduated with a first. I won series three of Glow Up in 2021, aged 21, before I had finished my degree, and took an award for special effects makeup the following year.
Special effects is the part of the job I love most. I work across television, film and multimedia, with credits including Doctor Who, The Crown and the BBC, and I judge international competitions including The Beauty Awards. I am autistic, and it shapes how I teach: one step at a time, with everything written down, so nobody is left scrambling to keep up.
More than two hundred students have taken my courses since I began teaching online in 2025. This autumn I start a PGCE in art and design at UCL, because I hope to lecture one day.
