Why no cream or to powder or not to powder

So, I have a question regarding cream based makeup. I know that here in FLA, the sweat factor in the summer means that water based face paint is really rough. I know I can't wear anything water based because I sweat like anything.

This time of year on Adults I use temporary tattoo inks, and alcahol palletts a lot.

My question is, though, what is the hesitancy of using cream makeups for face painting? (Grease Paint was the old name but it's the same stuff)

Are people powder phobic? Is it because it needs more soap and time to wash off? In most cases, the cream based makeups that are on the market (Kryolan Supracolor for instance) have been around much longer than the water based ones, so tend to have an even longer track record for safety etc.

I am not arguing for or against- I know I have no problem using cream makeups, especially if someone is concerned about it lasting... I was just curious if industry wide there was some "reason" more people don't.

Dean

I use Fantasy World Wide make up all the time, they are a cream based product ..NOT a grease paint one though. I love them, especially their sparkle colours. I find they hold up well in heat, as long as people don't touch their faces!

I must admit, I have wondered about the same subject. Here's the conclusions I came to.

-Parents are the ones paying for face painting and parents hate fighting with their kids to clean their face, the easier it is, the better. Although kids care that the paint gets messed up, the parents usually don't. It's to be expected and part of the experience.

-A lot of the techniques are different with cremes. One stroke work is harder and takes longer. In my opinion, most techniques take longer and I have no interest spending more time on faces at a festival or party environment.

-I do use cremes for Halloween and am investing in even more this year to provide longer lasting designs.

So overall for me, it's a difference of time, ease of application, and ease of removal. For face painters that choose to use cremes, I have no problem. They are using safe products and it is their choice of how much time they use to paint a face and whether or not their clients are happy with how it removes. As long as it's safe, I'm happy.

Basically, it is the contamination factor and the cost factor.

With theatrical oil based you can't work out of the container, you have to remove it to a clean palette, enough for each person, then clean the palette of any left overs, and start over for the next person... and you would have to do that for each colour. Cleaning the palette and the tool you are removing make-up with each time with alcohol or commerical sterilizers.

There is a lot of waste until you get really really good at knowing exactly how much you need to use.

Then powdering is another step that adds time, and another product that adds cost. Also, there are allergies to talc, so you have to have a clear (usually white) setting powder that is talc free. And tools - brushes or puffs to apply the powder.

(I was waiting for Shannons answer.) I figured it was the sanitation.

It can be done... but I wouldn't bother with it at a regular FP gig. Too time consuming.

Now... you could use liner pencils (lip and eye liners) which are just the make-up in a pencil form, draw and colour, use a sponge for smoothing and blending (that is how my avatar was painted) then powder to set the design if you think it necessary... it is easier to draw with the pencils for a lot of people than using a brush. IF you want to use oil based products.

The pencils are cleaned by sharpening... BUT again, for a public gig you would use up a LOT of pencils! And to work nicely you need the better quality ones with the softer "leads"... the hard cheap ones aren't great to work with except for basic outlining of the rough designs IMO.

it takes FOREVER compared to face painting!!! My clown face is really quite simple, but even though almost all of my face painting designs I can paint in 3 to 5 minutes, it takes me AT LEAST 20 minutes to do my clown face. You have to powder between colours that touch and you need to use oil or cold cream to be able to remove it.

I used to allow an hour to do my old Auguste clown make-up.

It just isn't feasible for production jobs. For one of projects sure, why not??

yeah. I agree. My clown face takes a good 25 minutes to apply. I can paint the same face on in 5 min tops.