Bayleaf Botanicals Face Paints: A Review

I so love trying out new face paints and body art products.  Well, I got to  last night!  I was recently contacted by Bayleaf Botanicals, a small family-owned American business, which has among its products a new face paint.  Based on the copy, I could see it being popular, as it's FDA-compliant, which you know is a requirement of mine, plus made in the USA, vegan, and free of parabens, nuts, fragrance, and latex.  It's also child-toy safety rated.  In my world, that means these face paints are about as safe as they come.

The set is comprised of 28 2 ml colors, which is enough to paint a lot of faces.  I spent years, even as a professional, using this size before moving up to the larger "professional size" face paints that I use now.

I tried them first with a sponge, and found that they blend very well.  This is a creamy style face paint, great for blending, rather than the "hard" type face paint, but I found it was still nice and sharp for linework.  It works up quickly and easily without a ton of water.

Then I had a little fun with a funky bee (of course a bee!), a little tribal, and a quick Spiderman.

 

These face paints hit the key points I look for in my products - the colors are bright and dense, the white has good coverage, and the black can achieve a nice sharp line.

You also may notice that I painted all of these on my left arm.  In between, it took me literally seconds to wash off each design; these face paints are removed incredibly easily, which is a huge plus.

For professionals, this size is on the small side, but for moms and volunteers, this set is absolutely perfect when paired with some good brushes from an art or craft store and some good face painting sponges (not makeup wedges; those are impossible with face paints of all sorts, get actual face painting sponges or a tack sponge to cut up).  It's easy to use, with good pigments, and a wider variety of colors than most "mom" sets contain.

Overall, I highly recommend, which makes me especially happy since I believe we should all support small business where we can.  So I suppose I ought to let you know that you can buy them at Amazon here.

I was provided with a 28-color set of Bayleaf Botanicals face paints in order to complete my review.

Is it really all that important that a face painter use proper supplies?

Yes!  Yes, yes, a million times yes!  Why?  This is why:

This photo and the follow up comments were posted in one of my face painting groups on Facebook this week.  It's horrible!  I'm torn between being sad for the poor kids suffering this, and absolutely furious at the "makeup artist" who subjected them to it.

The two most important questions to ask when hiring a face painter are:

(1) What do you use?

To which the answer should be reputable, researchable brand names of FDA-compliant face paint.  I will happily provide names of every brand I use, and even links to their Material Safety Data Sheets when asked.

(2) Are you insured?

To which the answer should be "yes."  End of story.

You Know It's a Good Party When the High School Kids Get Involved

Back in June, I painted at a high school graduation party.  I was originally hired to entertain the smaller kids there, but everyone was having so much fun, I was asked to stay longer.  What a great group!

That was my first ever attempt at Tweety.  Not bad, I think.

You may notice that this is different from my typical Joker.  The tech-savvy kids at this one pulled the face painting of another artist, and asked me to replicated it.  Yikes!  I didn't have that much time to make it really stellar, but it was fun to try mimicking someone else's work!  Made me appreciate their talent, too.
 

And a girl vying for the "strangest" request of the party, who asked for a nailpolish bottle...

I think the best, though, were the teens.

Awww...

Sleepover Party

Last Friday evening, I painted a bunch of well-behaved, appreciative, and cute girls at a birthday sleepover party in Westwood, NJ.  It was a blast!

The birthday girl asked to look like her orange striped cat.

Meanwhile, I was shown a medium-haired, fluffy cat in tabby colors and asked for a rendition of that too.

In addition to a few more cats, I also had a couple of dogs, of course.

Only one more species at this party, bunnies!

The funniest and most creative request, though... a chocolate chip cookie.  With a bow.  And moustache.

Um... ok!

Working My Way Backwards

I've been so lax about posting what I've been doing!  So rather than start at the beginning, I'm going to start with this past Saturday and work my way backwards for a bit.  This past Saturday, I painted at a corporate picnic for Brown & Caldwell.

What a great group!  I know I say that a lot, but this bunch was really fun.  And they didn't even make fun of me - much - when a gigantic cicada landed on my leg and freaked me out, sending me dancing around like a rather shrill lunatic.

So... on to the painting.

My very first request was for a zebra.  I wish I'd known it at the time, but this girl actually had a zebra print dress, complete with tail, and a headband with zebra ears!  It was terrific!  My lament is that by the time I saw her and realized, I was painting others and really couldn't go tackle her for another photo since she was off and running.

Then, another very specific request.  This one wanted to look like her yorkie.  Who can resist that?

This great kiddo said "cow."  Okie doke!  So here you see what I believe is my first ever cow face painting.  His mom cracked up when I started painting the straw.  To do it, I googled cow images and came up with this guy.

I think it's a fair rendition, right?

It was hot out, so the arm art was understandable.

 

If you don't recognize that last guy, it's an Enderman from Minecraft.  You may remember the Creeper I once painted.  I'm starting to think I should get to know all the Minecraft characters; it is not an unpopular game!

Chilly & wet, but who cares?

Last night, I painted with two good friends at the Bergen County Zoo in Paramus.  It's a rain or shine event, so we were up despite the weather that closed the wimpy post office two hours early in some towns.  They had us under the wooden overhang of the bison viewing area rather than up on the bison viewing platform, and gave us a couple canopies for our patrons to stand under too.

It was a light event in terms of patrons this year, when in some years there's an insanely long line, but it made for a nice, easygoing event and gave us a chance to appreciate the ones who showed up.

I don't think it was coincidence that my most requested design was for dolphins.  Eric suggested that I should probably expect a lot of aquatic ideas.

 

I didn't pull out the glitter because it'd get gummed up in the wet, so they don't have that added punch, but the kids loved 'em and that's what counts.  In fact, last night was super satisfying, in that a large majority of the kids I painted actually exclaimed "Wow!" when I showed them the mirror!  Best compliment ever.

I did have two buggy requests, too.  Only one butterfly!  I moved away from my typical butterfly, decided to try something a little different.  Maybe I'll do more of those today; we shall see.

And then, a few more.

I get a kick out of the zebra, that was a fun request.  And I hadn't done one in so many years, I had to come up with it on the fly!

Anyway, off to another event this afternoon...

Come Find Me!

I'll be painting at two public events in the near future, and you should come find me!

First, this Saturday I'll be at the new Potbelly Sandwich restaurant at the Bergen Town Center (previously the Bergen Mall) on Route 4 East in Paramus.

I'm really excited about this, since they're a new client for me and the sandwiches on their site look SO good!  Plus, I've read the Our Story section of the site, and I'll admit - I'm impressed.

I'll be there from 12-3 p.m.

Second, on April 27, I'll be back at the Tribeca Film Festival!  That's the day of the family festival, and I'll be painting from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.  Hope to see you there!

Use the Force

In November, I was asked to paint at a Star Wars themed party.  This one was a lot of fun, mom had the Leia buns and a great Star Wars t-shirt on; dad appeared in a Storm Trooper costume.  They had a light sabre to hit the pinata.  And I painted all in theme.  I knew female faces would be a challenge; there aren't many recognizable female aliens, and you can't exactly paint girls to look like Leia.  So I went hunting.

There was Queen Amidala, of course.

And I found another few characters that apparently appeared in the television series.  The popular one was the Jedi Ahsoka.

The boys were easier.  I'd done Yoda before.  And Darth Maul was one of my very first face at my very first party in 2003.

The new ones for me, though, were Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper.  I think they were fairly successful for my first attempts!

Whatcha think?