How to keep daubers hygienic?

So do you use one dauber to a face like how you use one sponge to a face?

yes.

if I run low, I stop using designs that require it....or I modify with a pinched regular sponge piece to get the shape I need.

one of the main reasons I work by request and without a board.



I use the Martha stewart pouncer daubers, these massive cylindrical sponges that I remove from the plastic, chop in half and then I have 2 daubers for the price of one.

you can clean them just like all your other materials.i don't reuse on anybody, with the exception of the rainbow pouncer that ONLY is used at the end of the gig for the back of the hand on anybody bugging me as i'm packing up to leave.

Thanks Nikki! Cause I was here bellyhurting over the fact I didn't get this tiny set of daubers I saw with cool handles. Then I realised I can't reuse them anyway so I'll stick to sponges for now.

you can reuse them. they are sponges on sticks. just wash after the gig.

some people reuse their sponges-one sponge per color on multiple people....I just prefer to get a bunch of sponges, one or two per person.

nikkili26 wrote:you can reuse them. they are sponges on sticks. just wash after the gig.

some people reuse their sponges-one sponge per color on multiple people....I just prefer to get a bunch of sponges, one or two per person.

Ok so I am a little confused about something... Should it be one sponge per person or one sponge per colour ... I thought it was one per colour or rainbow cake... Then I read something on here saying one per person and I was kinda horrified with myself for thinking I could reuse them on a gig... But when I think about it, when you load up a sponge that tons of paint... to trash it after every use it kinda wasting it... So I was gonna really limit sponge designs...
So basically I am wondering if I spritz the sponge with alcohol between uses to sanitise and wipe each persons face before I start (which I already do) would that be ok?

lisa joy young, very respected face painter, only uses one per color.
in fact, many famous respected face painters only use one sponge per color.

some spritz with sanitizer (like lisa joy young), while others do not.


personally, i use one or two sponges per person.
I find it keeps my kit cleaner, and also because I work for affluent families-I find they appreciate the fact that I spend part of the rate they are paying me to invest in new sponges for each child.

this does not mean I toss out the sponges after the gig-but when I am working for a very low rate, I will resuse the CLEANED sponges.


They can look practically new if you keep them wet and wash them right after the gig.

Some colors DO stain the sponges-but my "Work around" is to only reuse the red sponges for red paint, the green sponges for green paint, etc etc etc.

I did dye all my used sponges black at one point-it works, but with my toddlers getting older, I just don't feel safe boiling water anymore so I haven't done that lately. Too much risk of them getting hyper in the kitchen for that.


i don't "trash after every use"-the only exception is if a kid is showing signs of illness....sniffling, coughing, anything basically that gives me heebie jeebies gets trashed after use.

what I WILL do is put the sponges into a bucket after I use them, to be washed later.

I do mostly birthday parties-usually the kids will interrupt to get a "touch up" after eating cake or drinking soda-so I will just grab the sponge I used on them, mist it, and reapply.


It really isn't a "waste of paint"-the cost of paint per face is less than a nickel.

Granted, there are other costs that go into painting a face (brushes, insurance, even the sponges alone are about 50 cents each) but the paint is not one of them when you really break the cost down.


If you are concerned about saving TIME, then yes, by all means, reuse the same sponge over and over....

Personally, if I'm worried about time, I will switch to the "quick version" of the design.  I have a 1 minute version of every face I paint...I also have a 2 minute version, a 4 minute version...and when I'm not worried about time or a line, I can take up to 10 minutes to get a detailed face.

It really doesn't take much time or paint to change sponges every time.

my kit barely looks touched and I've been working every weekend for 5 months.  The only replacements I've had to make were black, white, pink and yellow.
That's not to say I haven't purchased more paints-but those paints barely look touched at all.

**********
I don't wash people's faces between painting.

I wash my brushes, sanitize and air dry them.
I just rotate brushes between people-which means yes, I have duplicates of all my brushes. They are usually dry in time for the next person.

If a kid comes to me with a dirty face, I will just paint around the mess. I've only encountered one dirty face, and I just threw away everything that touched it.
My worry is that the kid might get a reaction to whatever I'm wiping them down with- I'd rather not go there.

Thanks so much for the information Nikkili!

I will work on getting more brushes to allow each some down time between people. And I think I like the idea of misting with a sanitizer, and still changing the sponges after every few uses.
I actually have never had a problem with wiping peoples faces. I usually ask the parents permission to wipe with witchhazel and I have only ever had one person say hey were not sure how the child's skin would react, So I didn't wipe her.

One more question though, Is it ok for the paints if I mist them with alcohol to sanitize every now and then while working?

I personally would never spray anything but water on my paint. At the end of the job when I get home, I always sit down take all my paints out of my kit and wipe the tops of each container with a damp clean sponge to clean the tops off. I like everything to be very clean looking when I get to the next job. I also spot clean my kit along the way at a job and try to keep everything as nice as possible.

Jody Rife wrote:I personally would never spray anything but water on my paint.

same here.
the paint does have some stuff in it to keep it from mildewing or crazy bacteria growth-and since i work weekends, i usually have 5 days to let my kit dry out completely....so, a dry kit is harder for bacteria to grow in.

i use a baby wipe to clean my kit before a gig and after....i just press it down over the whole cake and reform my paint into something smooth and pretty....

the way i use my kit is that i load my stuff well the FIRST TIME.
one load will usually get me through the entire design-and as i said, i carry multiples of the same brush....worst case scenario, i will grab a new one and reload.

i don't "double dip" on my kit.

i have a few spray bottles in my kit that i will mist my brush or sponge with regular water to reactivate the paint if it goes dry.

load it good the first time and you won't have to go back into your paints.

choose the right tool for the job....if you find you need to go back for tons of black for your line work-try using a script liner instead...it holds way more paint to make thin lines.
practice makes perfect.


I've found that my thin lines with a #1 round are the same as my thin lines with a #6.

so I only work with a #6 most of the time...takes some practice to get brush control, but the best tip i've heard is to think of the brush tip as a ballerina foot-you want to keep her on her toe.and think of your brush strokes as an airplane taking off and landing-one smooth sweeping motion.


sometimes my cheekart is just a blob of color, and i use my linework to transform it into something workable...think of it like a reverse coloring book....that cuts my cheek art down to only 1 sponge of rainbow cake, 1 black brush, 1 white brush for highlight.

Thanks for the info guys, learning so much!  

I don't re-use daubers, just one load per use/child, then into my 'to be washed' bucket same as sponges.  

The Martha Stewart daubers are GREAT...throw away the plastic bits & treat them as you would your regular sponges.  I'm not so keen on the wooden handled ones, harder to wash properly, and the sponge falls away from the handle after repeated washing.

just to be clear-this is the kind I use.

I remove the white shell and I just slice them like pepperoni in half...

the huge one is EXCELLENT for a quick spiderman..I don't cut those, I load one side white, one side red....and bounce away.the kids love it with a boing boing sound, and it quickly fills the area.

^ yes, those ones! They're great.

Will look into getting those ones. So relieved I didn't buy the wooden handle ones now!