If doing the corn syrup blood, add a little non-dairy creamer powder or something else to make it more opaque. Play around, see what works for you. The Ben Nye stuff isn't bad, although the mint flavor is a bit much for me.
You can do air pressure squibs- there's plenty of tutorials online for doing that. A bit limited in that they can't blow through costume, so there has to be a small hole already there, but it can be effective, it's super cheap, no insurance headaches like you can have with pyro squibs, and it's safe. Squibs can be less safe, can only legally be purchased or made by someone with a pyro license, and the homemade squibs I've seen or worked with in the past are often too sparky or smokey to be just right for body hits.