Do You Watch Royal Pains?

Eric and I do.  In fact, we watched tonight.  In this episode, a theater company is putting on a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, my favorite Shakespeare comedy, in the Hamptons.

Evan makes the theater mistake of wishing his fiancee "good luck" and then repeatedly saying "Macbeth" in the theater.  For those of you who don't know, these are both bad ideas.  Really bad.  In fact, saying "Macbeth" in a theater, according to the superstitious, is a great way to have absolutely everything in a performance go wrong.

Of course, things start to go wrong, from a hyperventillating actress to an actor with different breathing issues.

During rehearsal, the Lysander has "faerie dust" sprinkled over his eyes... and it ends up in his eyes.  Guess what's being used as faerie dust.  No really, guess.  Glitter.  Craft glitter.  Guess the result.  Hospitalization due to a foreign body in the eye, together with the threat of having to forge on with an eyepatch.

Yeah.  That, my friends, is why we don't use craft glitter on the face.  That is why we use cosmetic glitter in face painting.

Always ask!

Just a Little Help

A friend of mine, Joan, an absolutely phenomenal face painter in Arizona, will be painting at a monster truck event out west.  Never having been to one, she didn't quite know what to expect and asked for some design ideas.  She got some good ones for truck themes, and I kicked in an idea for a really quick monster truck, since she's not sure how many interested people she'll have.

Here was my idea.

And her awesome rendition of it in face paint!

Pretty cool!

A Long Morning

This past Saturday, I painted with two other face painters - and two volunteers who just might have gotten the painting bug - at the Valerie Fund Walkathon in Verona, NJ.  I've been doing this gig for several years, but this was the first year that was misty and chillly.

It was fun anyway, with a great bunch of people and a nonstop line.  I barely had time to snap any photos, but took just enough time for these two, a dragon and a mesh of superheroes.

I like that superhero idea!

It's Been Confirmed!

An award-winning face painter in Canada, Shannon Fennell, heard all the talk about Reef Botanicals Purity soap and had to try it for herself.  She bought four bars, a heck of a commitment for a product she'd never tried before!

She blogged the results here, but I'll give you a hint.  These are the photos she took:

Is that cool or what?  She's another Ivory convert, as was I.  And her post precipitated another sale, to another Canadian face painter who was sold on the efficacy of Reef Botanicals soap.  Looks like Purity is the hot new thing for face painters!

The best thing?  It works just as well on faces for getting the makeup off.  It's gentle and has no allergens, so it works great.  I use it on my own face every day.

Wicked Faire 2010

Wow, what a weekend! Jeff Mach's Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire was even bigger and better this year than previously. Eric and I were kept so busy that we didn't even have time to see it all.

I was doing face and body painting, as ususal, but this time we also had our soaps for sale with us. Unfortunately, that meant that Eric didn't get to travel with me when I took my face painting cart to my various body painting assignments.

I did, of course, paint the wonderful Aiden, who oversees every aspect of vendor organization for the event, from registration to placement, to complaints.

Each year, the event has a different theme. This year's theme was Alice in Wonderland, and it was a wonderful springboard for costuming. I, of course, was happy that it led to people wanting me to assist with their outfits like this adorable Cheshire cat...

Of course, there was the typical Renaissance Faire fare of swirls and curls.

In amongst those, I was honored to paint the very talented Sarah, of musical group This Way to the Egress for the band's Saturday night show.

Of course, the male faire attendees and employees didn't let me forget them either! This handsome gentleman, Mike, from Virginia let me take advantage of his available "canvas" and really have some fun.

I think I'm ready to start painting Harleys! Ha!

And Oliver, who was working at the faire and who, together with his girlfriend Timna, makes the most amazing Steampunk accessories, had me paint him to match his very cool outfit.

Last, but definitely not least, on Sunday I painted one of my most loyal models, Patrick. What's a Renaissance faire without zombies?

Especially happy zombies.

Even better than all of this, on Saturday evening, I was given a stage an an audience, to complete a body painting demonstration on the lovely Toni. With her cat ears and tail, I had to give her a cat face to match.

But the body painting was the real star of the show. We had three people taking photographs as I painted my Alice themed design...

Because we had professional photographers taking pictures, I'm not going to post the full finished product today. I don't want to ruin the look by showing you less-than-perfect photos of the painting, which was completed, back and front, in just over an hour! As soon as I have the pro photos, I'll be sharing them.

I also had the pleasant surprise, though, of a surprise body painting assignment earlier on Saturday afternoon. There was a fashion show scheduled, and the organizer's order of body paint hadn't arrived in time. The fiance of a woman I painted last year let them know that a body painter was actually available at the faire, and I was hired to complete the "outfit."

My model was to have cat ears, a tail, and a gorgeous mask, and I was asked to paint her following the style of the mask in pink and black. It was craziness. I brought my cart to the hotel room where all of the models were getting dressed. The others were wearing beautiful Victorian and faire clothing and just the one was to be a body painted cat. People were getting dressed and corseted all around us, hair and makeup being completed, while my model and I twisted and turned around each other to get her done as quickly and beautifully as possible. The energy was incredible.

The fashion show was photographed and videorecorded professionally, and I will have both photos and video links. I'm waiting for those photos and links before I post the results here, so be sure to check back! I wasn't able to see the show, but I'm told my model was absolutely amazing on the runway.

All in all, we had an amazing time, and are completely exhausted!

A Win for Face Paint!

Kryolan Professional Make-Up, a quality face paint and theater makeup company out of Germany, is now the first producer of a range of color makeup products to receive the Seal of Quality Approval from the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation.

With the increase of the prevalance of allergies in industrialized countries, the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation is working to raise the level of awareness ?poiyhdsxfgbjkl;]
\[-53q and research into allergies and relief therefrom.

The Foundation awards the Seal of Quality Approval for allergy-friendly products if the products have been shown to relieve and/or better the daily lives of allergy patients. Cosmetic products can receive this honor if they have been proven in laboratory and clinical tests to be especially well-suited for sensitive skin and patients with neurodermatitis.

Several Kryolan products, including their Aquacolor face paint line, were tested, and all received findings of "good" or "very good" with skin proving to be unchanged or improved after use.

For more details, look here.

Please do not confuse Kryolan makeup with Krylon, the company that makes industrial and spray paints. They are two very different things!

When is face paint not face paint?

When it's craft paint!

When is it dangerous even if it's not craft paint? When it's not FDA-compliant or used improperly!

There's a good article in Monday's USA Today, that you can read here. It explains the allergic reactions - red rashes, etc. - that can result from using craft paint or face paint that's not the good stuff.

Face paint, after all, is not all created equal. That stuff you get at most Halloween stores is usually from China. Remember all those issues we had a while back with products from China? The pet food? The paint used on children's toys? Yeah, same country, similar issues.

The products I use are all labeled as makeup, not paint. So that's a start. If you're looking for face paints, look for makeup. Something to note: Face paint (as other cosmetics) are not FDA-approved. Under the law, the FDA does not approve cosmetics. What they approve is the pigments used in the cosmetics. This makes the makeup FDA-compliant, if one is being accurate. If someone tells you that the face paint he or she is using is FDA-approved, s/he's wrong.

Now, I'm going to assume that anyone reading this is bright enough to never, never, never use craft paint on his face or the face of his child. That means no acrylics, no temperas, no watercolors, no markers, no Sharpies. Non-toxic doesn't cut it. As a good friend of mine in Minnesota likes to say, habanero peppers are non-toxic, but you wouldn't want to rub them all over your face!

So... what about those Halloween kits you see at the stores this time of year?

They're... potentially OK. But pay attention.

If you buy a great-looking kit to do your son up as Darth Maul, and there's an awesome photo of just such a face on the packaging - read the entire package before you buy. If the label or packaging says to avoid the eye area with certain colors (like red or black, which is very common), listen to the packaging, no matter what the photo shows. The packaging and labeling trump the photography every time. Take it seriously.

If the makeup smells funny, ditch it. Do not try to use it, since it could be infected with bacteria or simply old and past its shelf life.

Your best bet? Hire a professional. Even if it's not me (there, now you know I'm not biased). Ask him or her what's being used. If you hear Snazaroo, Grimas, Paradise, Mehron, Fantasy WorldWide, or several other brands (do your research if you hear something unfamiliar), you're OK. If it's craft products, run. Run like the wind. Run like they're trying to give you the Swine Flu.

And the same goes for face painters who won't tell you what they use. If they won't tell you, it's because they have something to hide.

My, How You've Grown!

So... the first face painting kit I used, the one I suggested my friends purchase, was this:

And then when I went professional, I splurged on this:

Nifty, right?

Since then, things have changed. I've discovered and become part of a worldwide netowork of body artists, who have directed me to a plethora of other products to try. The key, readers, is that every single one of the products I use is FDA-compliant. While I say "face paints," because that's what is commonly understood and known, I do not, under any circumstances, at any time, use actual paint.

In my kit, you will find no acrylics, no temperas, no watercolors, no oil paints (A mom actually recently asked a friend of mine if this is what she used! On faces!), no markers, and no craft glitters.

[OK, to be accurate, there are two Sharpies in my kit, but they're for sign-making, numbering, and other administrative purposes, not for use oh humans. I also have scissors, plastic ties, clamps, packing tape, and other things I may need while working at a fair. But we were talking about my face painting supplies.]

Never, and I do mean never, should you allow anyone to use craft products on you, your children, your friends, your neighbors, or anyone else. Want to know why craft products are such a bad idea? Go here and here.

I still use Snazaroo face paints, albeit in greater quantities than when I began. Don't get me wrong, I still have that original 18-color kit, that I've refilled many times over the years. In addition to that, though, I have three larger palettes filled with Snaz. What you see here, though, are also Wolfe Brothers, Kryolan (not to be confused with Krylon, which makes the well-known spray paint), Mehron (both Paradise cakes and Starblends powders), and Fantasy WorldWide creams. I have cosmetic loose glitters from Modern Magick Body Art and Amerikan Body Art. My glitter gels are also from those two companies. My cosmetic shimmer powders, housed in those brushes in the tub, are from Modern Magick.

The kit's grown a little bit, huh? I go nuts over new colors, and I find that different products work best for different circumstances. And so it just keeps growing... and growing...

Looking Back

People ask me all the time how I got into face painting. It amazes me when I remember how I fell into this vocation.

I do have an art background. I'm fairly certain that there were art supplies waiting in my crib for me when I arrived home from the hospital after my birth. OK, that's an exaggeration. Maybe they were waiting in the closet until they were safe for me to use. I do know that I took my first art classes at a local NJ museum when I was 5. I know that I never went a year without art classes, even getting up an hour earlier than necessary to take "early morning art" during my senior year of high school because I was taking things like calculus and physics and political institute, but couldn't bear the thought of a year that couldn't fit an art class.

The first time I ever painted a face - a moving "canvas" was a whole new arena! - was when I was in college, between 1988 and 1992. I was a member of Starlight Foundation, an organization similar to Make-a-Wish. In addition to raising money to grant wishes for terminally ill children, we hosted pizza and face painting parties at a local children's hospital in Boston.

I remember one of those parties like it was yesterday. I remember going to the "congenital defects" ward first, and meeting a little girl, probably about four years old. She couldn't speak, so I had her point to some sample photos I had, and she pointed to the clown. I asked her, "You want me to paint you as a clown?" and she nodded yes. I started, but she kept rubbing the makeup from her face and trying to transfer it onto me with her fingers. Finally, I asked her, "Do you want to paint me instead?" and she nodded yes again. Emphatically.

I handed her the brush and my face paints, and she "scribbled" all over my face, my arms, my hands. I remember the nurses commenting that I was terrific for letting her do that, but as I saw it the point was to make her happy. Because we were using real face paints (i.e. makeup rather than craft paint), it'd be easy to remove at will. Finally, since I wasn't doing my share with the other children, I had to start moving on. This little girl took my hand and came with me, "helping" me with all of my other customers in that ward. She was a sweetheart and I hated to leave her.

We then went to the "behavioral problems" ward. Remember those troublemakers in high school? That's were these kids were likely headed, and so their parents would send them to live in the hospital and work things out with the docs. I honestly don't know how I feel about that, but I do know that I had fun painting them. They were all boys, from 10 to 14 years old, and one of the nurses told us that we were the highlight of their month. Really? A bunch of college geeks with some pizza and paintbrushes? How tough could these kids be? I wondered. They weren't, really, no tougher than any others. They just needed some help, maybe distance from their circumstances. One kid told me about how his older brother had been teaching him to steal hubcaps, for instance.

Another, though, another approached me and said, "Out of all the kids you could have visited in all the hospitals, thank you so much for choosing us." My heart melted.

That wasn't really the start of it, though, not really.

The start came many years later. It was September of 2003, and my friend's twins were turning 7. We were brainstorming inexpensive entertainment, and I remembered, "I have this clown costume... but I don't clown. I haven't juggled since college and even then I was just learning. I don't do magic. What can I do?" Aha! Insert light bulb graphic above my head. Face painting! Amusingly, I suggested to my friend, "You buy the paints, because you've got kids and you can keep them afterwards to use later. I'll never need them again." Famous last words.

I painted my heart out at that party, and the kids loved me! I trumped the pinata! I kid you not, there were children who refused to leave my line to go hit the pinata and get candy. I have no idea why. My painting then was... well... not so much up to par. Basically, I stunk. Don't believe me? Look!

Yes, that was my very first tiger. Please contrast it with the very cute little girl painted as a tiger at the top of this blog, the one in the header. That is my newer tiger, as painted in 2008. It comforts me to see how I've improved.

That, however, is an aside. In 2003, this poor kid wore my very first tiger. And still I trumped the pinata. I simply cannot fathom why.

As planned, though, I did leave the face paint kit, an 8-color Snazaroo palette, with my friend for her use. It wasn't long after that, though, that I was telling another friend about the party... and this friend had a daughter turning four. You can guess what happened. Again, not taking the hint, I told her to buy the kit herself for me to use, so she could keep it. Again, I was sure I'd never need it in the future.

This time, though, people were asking me what I charged to do parties. Hmmm... Really? Now that is an interesting thought!

So... I bought myself an 18-color Snazaroo set and some Avery business card blanks, and called myself a "business." I started testing different markets and different arenas, and I've been up to my eyeballs in painting ever since.

Not only that, but I've expanded. I also do temporary tattoos...

... and henna! ...

Plus, I've started teaching myself balloon twisting. My balloons are somewhat better than my initial foray into face painting, but then they'd have to be, wouldn't they?