Painting Eye Lids

I have been looking all over this forum since I joined and and you all do beautiful work. I noticed that a lot of you have posted very detailed pictures with paint applied to the eye area. Do you think it is bad that I tend to avoid the eye area, even when I am doing full face work, on children. I am worried about things like pink eye or poking them in the eye.

I can't post pictures of my work for 7 days but my avatar should explain what I mean by avoiding the eye area.

I guess what I mean, does it make me look unprofessional if I avoid the eyes?

I do not believe it is unprofessional to avoid the eye area for you.
I feel confident about my the cleanliness of my kit because I use the same methods used by B.C., Canada face painters like Shannon Fennell.
I started face painting in a children's hospital and Infectious Disease Control had us following the same method as Shannon.

xoxo

Depends on the child and the event whether I paint on the eye area or not. And I always ask the child if they want paint on their eye lids. Lots of designs can look good even if you don't do the eye.

I have to follow very strict cleanliness standards as I also live in Alberta and we have a regulation covering this. So I'm comfortable if I do cover the eyes, but don't have a problem leaving them out if necessary.

What safety standards do you follow? I did some research before I painted on Sunday and I sterilized my hands with hand sanitizer and used fresh water for each child but I did re-use my brushes and sponges as I do not have that many yet, but I plan on using the money I made to buy more. (I hope to get some tack sponges and cut them up enough so I do not have to re-use them until I get home to wash them first. I have read mixed things about sterilizing between faces using alcohol. That was my plan originally but I just ended up washing them with baby soap at the end of the gig.

Dear Other Fish:
While I have a serious addiction to brushes, face paint, glitter, and I am constantly searching for my best kit, you, yourself do not have to purchase as many brushes as I carry. It is because of my brush addiction I carry so many.

So...
Here is the method:
Never paint over a lesion. You may introduce a bacteria to an open wound, if your brushes and sponges are not sanitized. You may also induce a crude type of "tattooing" if you place pigment in an open wound.

Sponges are used once, and then washed, dried on high heat, before being used again. I wash them in a lingerie bag. (Canadian Tire sells some festively coloured rectangular sponges, six or eight for $3. I use an electric carving knife to carve them into eight wedges.) I order more green Fantasy World Wide sponges with most orders, to keep feeding my addiction to more, more, more FWW sponges.

I do carry about 90+ brushes in my kit. You do not need as much I as have to follow through on proper hygiene.
Brushes go from the face to the first tank of water, which has one drop of pink hospital soap. The brand, or type of soap does not matter. I have placed a surgical scrub brush in the bottom to really winnow the paint out of the brush. (Google Lee Valley Tools Surgical Scrub Brush).
Second bath has clear water, and a surgical scrub brush wedged in the bottom of the tank.
Third tank has clear water.
Brushes get wiped out on a towel to soak up as much water as possible.
Brushes are dunked into 70% isopropyl alcohol. (Do not use 91% or 99%, as it dissipates too quickly to properly sanitize the brushes. I place the brushes in a container to dry. They are completely dry in 5-10 minutes depending upon humidity and ambient temperature. Then, when dry, put back into circulation.

Hands are sanitized between children. I don't know why my hands get so painty and stained. Someone else on this Forum may have a way to keep me cleaner looking.

This method adds 6-8 seconds per face. It does not slow me down enough to worry about.

Other Fish wrote:I am worried about things like pink eye or poking them in the eye. .

Everyone is giving you very good advice. As said, it is going to be your personal choice. Is some cases, it will be about the laws in the country you live in   Here in the USA, there are so few problems, no laws have been put in place about sanitation for us.

But, I did get bronchitis THREE times one year!  Then, I took control and do some things to keep gems away.   I wrote an article about it at .... http://www.funfacepainting.com/safety.html

But, in a quick nutshell:
1) I use skin safe antibacterial wipes, about 30 per gig
2) I never change my water, but I put vinegar in it
3) I often use Qtips on the eyes and always on the lips.



- Lilly Walters, landline 909-398-1228,  mobile, same area cd., 815-8535
Face and Body Painting in Claremont, La Verne, Upland, Pomona, Montclair, San Dimas, Rancho Cucamonga  http://www.funfacepainting.com

Lets be friends on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/lilly.walters.schermerhorn

No - it does not make you look less professional at all. I’m sure the parents appreciate it when it comes time to remove the design.

I wouldn't say it makes your work less professional. But I myself would find it limiting.

In makeup school we were taught many different ways to sanitize our tools for each given situation. Ideally you want to fully wash and rinse each brush and sponge, but this can't always be done, such as when doing makeup for 'extras' on set. I have 5 different sets of brushes on set that i cycle through, but after i use each brush i place it on a towel after spraying it with iso a few times and wiping it out on the towel. It's dry by the time i use it again. Same thing for powder puffs.

Here is what i do when face painting.
I only paint on clean faces with no boogers, food, or wounds, and only on children who are not sick. I have a sign on the table that says i don't paint sick kids. Some times tho they try to sneak them in. If they cough in line (a congested cough), then no way they are getting painted. I also use hand sanitiser between children.

I never leave my brush standing it water or in iso, as it ruins the tips and the iso ruins the glue holding the bristles in. Instead if i have to use a brush over the eyes or mouth, i spray it with iso and put it down off to the side to dry. I spray it about 4-5 times for a good soak into the bristles.
With sponges I generally don't reuse them, but I always spray them 2-3 times after use on the off chance i run out of sponges and have to reuse one. For stencils i have one sponge for black and one for white that i reuse and i spray them in between use. I use the iso spray for everything just about.

Drop a brush? Spray it. Taking out hair clips? Spray them before putting away. Had a kid cough in your chair while painting them?

Even the chair, and the tops of the cakes that were used then wipe.
I even do this if I see their sibling cough.

Once there was this kid who REALLY spit when he talked, and totally got some spittle into my paints and all over my brushes.... Spray all the things!

If there is a lull in the line, i spray all my brushes, and clean all my stencils, and anything else that needs attention. I also have two jars of water, one for dirty wash out, and the other for clean. I keep a bucket behind the table to pour out my spent water, then rinse the jar, and you guessed it - I then spray the jar.

What ever procedure you follow, be it dipping your brushes in a cup of iso, or having brush bath in a jar or what ever. As long as you are doing something to stave off transfer of germs, a little effort goes a long way.

Thanks everyone.

Hi Lisa
When you wrote 'Brushes go from the face to the first tank of water, etc' what happens if you need to reload your brush, do you use a new brush, rinse and pick up more paint?
Thank you!

Yes, I have 8-10 rounds dedicated to black only, and the same amount dedicated to white only. If you take your time load, load, loading your brush, it doesn't run out of paint as fast.

xoxo

I saw a snaz cake with directions of not painting the eye lids, Isn't that crazy? Its just a pre-pre-pre caution right?

Raka, some color additives are not approved by the FDA for use around eyes, and some are not approved for use around the mouth. Yes, it's a precautionary statement as the product is otherwise intended for use on the skin.

FDA does not clearly state why certain pigments are not approved, but there are a lot of pet theories people spout without any evidence to back them up.

The only one I've found that FDA cites has to do with microbial load in eye products, but it's not specific about which additives are concerning.

Many painters choose to use these products all over the face and haven't had issues. It's up to you what you feel comfortable with.

To the question at hand, I vote on the side of "it's fine if you don't want to". We all have our own styles, and if yours includes avoiding the eyes, no problem. I imagine it gives you extra impetus to be creative in other ways

About the issue of FDA approval of colors, I've done a good bit of research on the subject (including contacting the FDA directly) and it seems that the reason certain color additives aren't FDA approved is because, basically, they've never been tested.

Enforcement of FDA regulations, in regard to cosmetics, is discretionary. Evaluation of color additives is done by petition- meaning that unless a lot of people ask (or a big corporation pays for it) the FDA doesn't test.

Now, of course, I'm not suggesting that anyone use colors in a way contrary to how they're labeled, but you may notice, for instance, that regulations for different countries vary. UV/Neon colors, for instance, are approved for use on the eye area in the EU, but not in the US. They're not necessarily different pigments, and certainly, eyeballs in the EU are not physiologically different that US eyeballs! The difference is often just different regulation procedures.

Consider this:
Glitter, in any form, is *not* FDA approved for cosmetic use. Nor is any ink approved for injection into the skin (aka: tattoos). That, of course, doesn't prevent hugely visible companies like MAC from using glitter, and we all know how prevalent tattoos are...so...just some food for thought