Blog: Living Mannequin On Bluelight Commercial Stand At The Emergency Services Show 2021

I was contacted by Bluelight Commercial with a brief that they wanted something interesting on their stand at The Emergency Services Show at the NEC. The brief was that I was to be wearing a police uniform consisting of trousers, a short sleeved shirt, a stab vest and a helmet. The customer also wanted a female dummy, so I arranged this through https://mannakin.com/. I have attended the Emergency Services Show a few times, once as and defibrillator dummy.

This was one of the first exhibitions since the pandemic, so everyone was a bit rusty; I did know one of the organisers from previous shows, which helped a lot.

I had decided to drive up the day before the show and booked two nights in at the Holiday Inn Express in Castle Bromwich.

As it wasn't initially clear whether I'd be able to change and do my make-up at the NEC, I considered doing my living mannequin make-up in the hotel and driving to the show; I soon abandoned this idea when I saw the weather forecast for the two days was about 30 degrees!
I was also concerned that the latex make-up wouldn't survive a whole day because I'd be sweating which would losen the adhesion to my skin, which has happened before; so as a fall-back, I decided to take some pan stick make-up with me.

In the end the latex mannequin make-up held out on both days, although it was starting to come away towards the end.

All in a great exhibition, with some great reactions!