Face and Body Paints…Beginners Guide

Hi lovelies,

Halloween season hit us big last year on IG and I’m sure this year will produce even better makeup. As a beginner, my first question was what do these amazing artists use when creating these looks and where do I start with deciding what to try. Since many people asked me advice over the halloween season I thought this post could help out.

There are a few types of paint that you can use and I did find so much info out there that it was a little confusing. On YouTube, it seems like the best artists use a lot of alcohol activated paints and these are super expensive. Remember if you’re a beginner you don’t need to be adding this to your kit just yet, other mediums are available to practice with so save that money on things you need now. I still haven’t added alcohol activated paints to my kit. 

I started with water activated paints because they are very easy to work with and you can use eyeshadows on top of them for shading. You can pick up water based paints in most fancy dress stores for pretty good prices. I absolutely love my Snazaroo paints as a cheap buy but Mehron and Graftobian paints are also awesome even if they are a little more costly. You can apply these with both a brush and a sponge although I prefer using a brush with these.

The water activated paints are perfect for face painting on kids and adults for parties or IG/filming work. However, these paints do not last well on nights out. Paint transfer occurs regularly with these and it can become streaky if you are sweating under the paint. However I love using the water based paints when creating veins as you can create a really thin colour that looks like its under the skin.

Water-based paints are also available as pens allowing you to get more detail. Personally, I don’t have any in my collection purely because I don’t use my paints enough. These are available online from a range of retailers with nibs of various sizes.

For a more practical paint (for wearing outside), I’ve started playing around with creme paints. I’ve never really been a big fan of creme paints only because they tend to stay tacky on the skin (like greasepaint) however using powder does take away this tackiness. One of the biggest problems with creme paint is that it doesn’t set so even when using shadows and powder to remove the tackiness, the paint can still smudge easily.

Although they can smudge easily, these paints do last throughout the night. A light rain and sweat didn’t budge these from my face during Halloween weekend. I’ve been playing with multiple brands of creme paints depending on what colours I’ve needed for looks. For colouring large areas I’ve been using the Nyx SFX Creme Colour paints. I also purchased 2 of the Kryolan paint wheels (zombie, burn and injury) and these pretty much contain all the colours needed for basic effects makeup.

I’ve also found that the creme paints can work a lot better with prosthetics than the water based ones. I think its because the creme paints stick to the surface better rather than been absorbed but I’m not 100% sure why (if you know, leave me a comment).

You can also get face paints crayons that behave similar to a creme paint. I’ve only tried the snazaroo ones and although it makes some things easier, it is a little too chunky once you’ve worn down the nib.

Gaining confidence in using these paints basically comes down to practice. Like all makeup, the more you practice the better you will become. This isn’t something you will be amazing at after a few attempts no matter how talented you are with makeup. The application process is so much different. A lot of application knowledge and techniques came from practice and A LOT of Youtube videos. I learnt a huge amount from watching MadeYewLook as well as ElliMacs but I’ve still got a lot to learn.

Collaboration group shout out to Misfit Muse here as well. Since going full time, her facebook page is becoming a wealth of knowledge on a whole range of topics but her body painting stands out. Check out her page here but also her Youtube channel here.

Thanks for reading this super long post. I hope this helps you out with getting to know about body paint and picking the right options for you. If you have any extra tips add them to the comments. Don’t forget to hit the like or subscribe button.

Rach xx

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