Face-Painting : Creative Expression for Mommy and Kidlets

If you have been over to my other blog, you would know that we have been doing plenty of face-painting lately. I kind of got into it because my friend was having a party for her daughter and I’d sort of promised that I would help out. I did tell her that I’ve never really done face-painting before, but she was kind enough to bring along a kit and we both practiced on her daughter and on Josh and Zoë first.

We started with small flowers and butterflies, balloons and spiders, small details around the eyes.

It was so much fun! For both of us and for the kids. They kept asking us to paint more and before we knew it, we had painted small drawings on their cheeks, all up and down their arms. and we even started working on their legs!

I decided to get my own set and I got braver and decided to try full-face jobs. They’re not as hard as I’d thought they might be. You just need to be VERY patient, though. Especially if your tikesters are any like mine, who can hardly sit still throughout the session. You’ll probably be gritting your teeth and threatening not to complete the job if they won’t sit still. (No? I wish I have your patience.) BUT, the look on their face after you’ve finished and they’ve checked out your work for themselves in the mirror? Is SO worth it. Seriously.

Face-painting has been such a lot of fun. I got to let my creative juices flow. There are tons of face-paint designs online to copy from and the face-paint kit that I got came with a guide. But even without these, it was fun to come up with my own designs. You’d be surprised at how easily inspired you could be! For the kiddies, it was great seeing them get into the character of whatever face paint design they got. There was plenty of pretend play happening after each session and I so enjoyed watching them walking around, proudly showing off their face art, and engaging each other in various pretend scenarios centered around their face-paint characters.

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The face paint kit I use is by Snazaroo. In Hong Kong, you can get it from Bumps to Babes for HK$150. It comes with a brush, a cosmetic sponge, a step-by-step guide with a selection of designs to copy, and 8x 2ml colors (red, blue, white, black, green, pink, yellow, and purple). The paints are hypoallergenic, non-toxic, and water-based. They wash off very easily.

I’ve tried to use face-painting crayons before, but I find the Snazaroo face paints a lot easier to use. For one, these face paints are easier to apply, especially if you have to paint over a big area (with the sponge). I had bought extra face paints in select colors for those colors that I know I will use often. Bumps to Babes carry the 18ml ones (HK$50 each).

And the glitters? I just got some from the local stationery store. Just make sure that you get the glitters that are labeled "good for body, nail, hair," as opposed to glitter that you normally use for arts and crafts.

I got a couple of these glitters from the stationery store at Stanley (where the old Pepperoni's used to be) for HK$15 each and then I found the exact same ones in another stationery store near where we live for only HK$6. (Yes, a whopping difference of HK$9! The Stanley stationery store was 2.5x more expensive! For HK$30 for just two from the Stanley shop, I could have gotten FIVE from the other store!) Glitters add a lot of oomph to the face-paints. Go get some.

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Image credits: Snazaroo product shots from Snazaroo website; glitters from Fan Hung Enterprise Co., Ltd.