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Photo of special effects makeup, not real injuries

A Facebook post shared over 2,000 times in Nigeria asks people to pray for the woman pictured. She looks disfigured, with half her face appearing burnt and bleeding and her right eye hanging out of its socket. 

“Please don’t ignore. She need prayers. Please help share to 5groups on Facebook. Don’t ignore her without a share. Only heartless and racist will ignore,” the post says.

Many commenters have said the injuries aren’t real, but makeup. We investigated.



Special effects makeup


A reverse image search leads to the original photo, which was posted on Twitter by a makeup artist based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

The top tweet on her timeline, from 27 October 2019, includes the photo shared on Facebook. The tweet reads: “Hey guys, I'm a make up artist and I do SFX makeup. Please help me retweet.  My customer might be on your timeline.”

SFX stands for special effects. The injuries in the photo aren’t real, but created by makeup. – Jennifer Ojugbeli




 

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