Makeup artist Renee Batres (known as Pretty Lil Renee to her social media followers) is well-versed in all the standard talents expected of a professional in the beauty industry—achieving everything from the soft peaches-and-cream tones of blushing brides to the smoky-eyed smolders of runway models. But then she whips out the liquid latex and a bottle of fake blood, revealing an unsettling knack for taking standard, healthy human faces and transforming them into monsters. The results are wincingly realistic puncture wounds, dribbling blood trails, and exposed raw, red patches of flesh ripped straight from a person’s nightmares—or a horror aficionado’s daydreams. Perhaps Renee’s love affair with specialeffects gore isn’t surprising considering she turned to makeup as a way to afford gas money while studying forensics, eventually dropping her studies to pursue makeup full-time. It also explains her fascination with the scientific side of cosmetics. Renee’s keen interest in understanding how people’s body chemistries react to products fuels ambitions of concocting her own cosmetic/skin care line in the lab someday.

“One of my favorite things is that transformation. Bring out the blood. Bring out the liquid latex. I enjoy people’s reactions. I have students that can’t even sit in on some of the demos because they’re like, ‘No, I can’t stomach it.’ I think that’s so much fun. Knowing how to do that sometimes takes away from the movies, because I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s such great prosthetics!’ I tell my students, don’t be so keen on detail. Make it ugly. Really tear it up. The uglier the better.”

Written by Johanna Hickle