An Hour in the Life Of Jesse and Amanda Corey of Core Creations

Who: Cousins Amanda and Jesse Corey
What: Photographer and make-up artist, respectively
When: 5pm, Saturday, October 20
Where: Core Creations, 1320 Cranston Street, Cranston
Why: I wanted the Coreys to make me gory

This is what I first saw upon arriving at Jesse and Amanda Corey’s Cranston studio on Saturday, October 20. My beautiful friend Ellen was looking a gory mess in preparation of the 2012 Providence Zombie Pub Crawl, which was later that night. We took one look at each other and burst into hysterical laughter. Clearly, my decision to sign us both up for a horror makeover was the right one.

Jesse seemed super excited at the opportunity to gore us up, and encouraged our input as to shaping the “look” we wanted. We both told her, “Just do whatever you want.” Apparently that was Jesse’s green light to rocket us to hideous town. Ellen’s pre-made mold consisted of an eyeball that was hanging from its eyesocket, her face appearing to melt into itself. Awesome.

I soon discovered that I would be strutting my stuff around town with a circular saw protruding from my chest. “It’s a real blade,” Jesse said with a proud smile. “My boyfriend sanded the edges down, though, so you won’t injure anybody.” Um, he what?! Jesse held the mold up against my body, this way and that, searching for the perfect spot on which to affix it.

I had planned ahead and ordered a post-apocalyptic vest fashioned from bicycle tire inner tubes that exposed both my stomach and my chest, per my "slut-it-up-it’s-Halloween" tendencies. Jesse looked me up and down; her smile grew larger. “Your outfit is perfect!” With that, it was decided that the mold would be most noticeable nestled just above my cleavage. Lovely.

I was surprised at how quickly the time passed as I sat in Jesse’s chair being poked, prodded, dusted with liquid latex and dabbed with gobs of fake blood. She tore bits of toilet paper off the roll and pasted them on me, dabbing the mounds with makeup, building Hollywood-worthy wounds on my body and face while intermittently blasting me with puffs of hot air from a blowdryer.

Eventually it was time for me to take a look at myself in the mirror. Holy crap, was I atrocious! It was perfect. Core Creations makeovers include a photoshoot, courtesy of Amanda. Her studio takes up one half of Core Creations and comes equipped with a variety of backdrops perfectly suited to horror, from drapes in all shades of red and gold to a custom built metal board.

The PVD Social Club was stop one on the annual crawl; my friend Ellen and I arrived there promptly at 7:30pm. The undead – in all shapes, sizes and levels of decomposition – came out in full force. I knew immediately that my makeup looked sick (in a good way) simply by all the appreciative stares and compliments I received. Huh, I thought, Maybe I should dress like this everyday.