How to Age Fingernails, and Other Tips From a Movie Makeup Book

Two girls on the street pointed and laughed at me. My Uber driver stared at me suspiciously. My neighbor’s eyes popped out of his head, and when my husband saw me, he begged me to remove it before date night.

It was the fake chin that Emily Schubert, 32, a makeup and prosthetics artist, had placed on me earlier that day. It elongated my face and protruded far from my actual chin, making me look like a cartoon version of myself. It was lightweight, it matched my complexion perfectly and it moved fluidly with my expressions.

In her new book, “Beauty of the Beast: A Makeup Manual,” out this week with the art house studio A24, Ms. Schubert shares her tricks for creating this and other uncanny looks. There are instructions on how to age fingernails, how to apply and remove prosthetics, how to create the illusion of missing teeth and how to make someone look sick or dead. Ms. Schubert also shows readers how to make scars, neck bladders and bald caps.

“This book is for anybody who is a budding filmmaker who wants to know how to make these things,” Ms. Schubert said, wearing a charcoal gray shirt stained with paints and makeup that she has worn on all of her jobs. “They are all of these things that people have asked me over the past 15 years, 10 years about indie filmmaking, where they’re like: ‘OK, we have this character and they’re missing a tooth. Can you do that?’”

Over her nearly two decades in the field, Ms. Schubert has worked on films like “The Sweet East” and “Good Time,” and has done makeup for dozens of actors, singers and celebrities, and even Bill Clinton. She said she began experimenting when she was 13 years old, and long before.

“I remember I used to wear those washable Crayola markers as lipstick to preschool,” Ms. Schubert said, standing in her Brooklyn studio. “But I liked the yellow. I liked to make it look like I was sick.”