Want to take your costume to the next level? Brents Effects has Halloween down to an art

BELVIDERE  — Brent Blaze has been able to turn his passion into a profession, and during the Halloween season — he uses his talent to help transform people into their favorite characters.

For Blaze, Halloween is an annual reminder of what first inspired him to become a makeup artist and start his business, Brents Effects.

Blaze spent much of his childhood looking forward to Halloween. By the time he was 15, he had started working at a haunted house, and he knew doing special effect makeup was his calling.

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Every year, he offers appointments to local residents so they have a chance to get professional special effects makeup added to their costumes. 

And every year, they come. Zombies, skeletons, clowns and more. One by one, the primarily self-taught artist transforms people faces into their favorite scary characters.

"There is just a certain group of characters that people kind of flock to it seems," Blaze said. "I love being able to get more creative with looks than I usually have the chance to do on a normal basis."  

While special effects makeup comes in handy during the Halloween season, Blaze's professional portfolio covers a full gamut of traditional makeup services. 

"As I got older, I realized that being in this area that it wasn't getting me as much booking as doing normal makeup would and then I kind of just started being fluent in all genres of makeup," Blaze said. 

Located in Belvidere, Brents Effects is starting to branch into workshops, too, during which Blaze shares some tricks of the trade with attendees. Earlier this month, Blaze held a workshop where he taught people how to create an open wound. 

Blaze said it's his way of giving back to the community and trying to be innovative with his platform. 

"I want to do more workshops in the future, but I don't know if they're all going to be work-related," he said. "I just kind of want to like change it up and do different things." 

Anyone interested in getting a Halloween makeover should reach out to Blaze through Brents Effects on Facebook. 

"It's my busiest time of the year, but that's what I love about it," Blaze said. "It keeps me going."

Shaquil Manigault: smanigault@gannett.com; @RRstarShaquil