Alternative to Wet Wipes

For many years I used wet wipes to clean children's faces when face painting until a few years ago I stopped altogether. I've been getting a lot of questions lately about what I use as an alternative and also why I stopped using wet wipes. So since everyone keeps telling me I should write a book with all my information  I decided to start a blog, where I can answer some questions and topics in depth.

So here is my blog post on Wet Wipes!

4 Reasons Wet Wipes Are Bad For Face Painting

Please tell me what you think, and what you use in your kit. Again i never tout myself as the all knowing finally authority on face painting so please feel free to disagree, or comment with your own musings on the subject, shared knowledge is awesome.  

P.S. I hope it's ok to post links to blogs on the forum, I see Shannon'd blog links posted a lot so I figured it would be fine. But please correct me if I'm breaking a rule or something, thanks.

omg I love your blog! Waaah I did the wet wipe on my cakes just yesterday! Kicking myself now. Thanks for the info

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you found it useful. ^.^
I hope to write more helpful articles, the forum as really inspired me to put all my ling winded posts in one place lol.

P.S. Thanks for your comment on my blog.

Well done, FF!

Thanks Anniel! *hugs*
The blog is still just a baby right now but im working on it. Even back posting some things I wrote on the forum a while ago.
please let me know what you think!

I lurve your blog, you are one funny lady

I think I want you to cut paper towels for me...

Just wondering if the potty wipes have oil? (And the impression they would make sitting in my paint case instead of wet wipes. I could put them right next to the WD40...)

I use makeup wipes... I figured they were made for faces????

thanks maggie! Glad you like it.

Anniel I'm pretty sure the potty wipes are pretty much the same thing. If they are moist, then they have to have some kind of chemical to keep them from molding.

I know pixie, that's what I thought too, but it turns out even the makeup ones are really bad for your skin. :/

Makeup Remover and soap/water works best for removing makeup. I've lately been reading more an more articles about how wet wipes are made and what's in them and it's pretty nuts.

I was being foolish...I figured that, too---

Seriously, thank you for the research...

I carry a roll of paper towel with me but have had it walk away or disappear in the middle of the party. Parents just help themselves to it. Cutting them and placing them in a container is a great idea. Will be doing this for my next party. I do carry baby wipes to wipe my hands, kit, etc. I'm thinking I won't be buying them anymore.

lol sorry anniel, it's so hard to guess the 'tone' of text based conversation.

Thus my over use of images and emotes.

Maggie - oh yeah we have had that happen too! With wet wipes, paper towel, pretty much anything like that. They will just help themselves, even if it's not face paint related. SAME thing happens on movie sets with the makeup people. If we are in plain sight and not a trailer or something ans we have a case of bottled water, tissues, wet wipes, or any other creature comforts, people will ask and even just take. We HAVE to jump on that right away and say NO. Because before you know it all your supplies are gone! See everyone thinks "it's just 1 or 2 tissues, what's the big deal?" The problem is that 20 people have the same idea. Also we NEED those for our makeup kit, to do our jobs, and the crew just doesn't get it a lot of the time! We tell them from day one to bring their own supplies to set, and we become the 'bad guys'. 
Luckily more experienced crew know NOT to ask makeup for these things.

I learned this lesson the hard way the first day on my first movie. Supplies that should have lasted us a few days were gone before back up time, because the other makeup artists and myself included were giving away tissues and bottles of water pretty much to anyone who asked! The irony is that you can get these same things over at the Craft Services tent. Boy did i learn when i went for water and it was all gone, and I wet for a piece of paper towel and it was ALL gone too, my scissors were also gone! Never again. Now if someone asks for something our first question is: "is it makeup related?" then "what for?".

At one point Aryn and I had an idea to set up a 'cleaning station' in our tent for parents to clean the faces of their kids. But we knew right away after 5 min of thinking about it it wouldn't work.

1. Random people would use the stuff to clean kids that were not getting face painted.
2. It will be a mess. Even with a trash bucket, people won't use it.
3. Some parents won't see the cleaning table and will sit their food faced kid down for you any way. Meaning you either have to clean them yourself, or send them back to the cleaning station which would be a waste of your time.

Nope. Better to just either
A. Clean the kid yourself
B. Prep a towel square for the parent and have them do it. (i do this with booger kids ALL the time)

Putting the towel squares in a little plastic box helps hide them from grabby hands, but some extra things you can do are:
~Place something on top of the towels, like the soap spray bottle, or a little travel case of q-tips. People only want to touch the object they are going after, and they will feel it's MORE invasive to possibly move other things out of the way or touch them while trying to get at the towel.

~ But them close to you, like by your brushes, or water. In line of sight. Again people would much rather take them when you aren't paying close attention. They also don't wish to 'invade' your work area on your table that is more high traffic.

~Put them under your table on a box, your case, or something. No one will touch them!

No offense taken, FF, I should've used a smiley

Comparison...super duper 6 pack tri-cut paper towels and 15 bars of Ivory soap cost me $11 with tax at the grocery store yesterday---vs. about double that for wet wipes at Costco.

Thanks for the hoarding tips, I was thinking perhaps towels would not be as attractive to the snitch crowd.

I had someone swipe my water bottles (just generic ones that were passed out) from my personal space last year...super hot day--went to grab a sip and ???

I had someone ask me for a kleenex (her kid sneezed on her) and I didn't have any but I did have a wet wipe so I offered her one. She took it nicely but then muttered as she walked away that I should make hand sanitizer available... ?!?!?! because I am responsible for your kid sneezes?

I do have sanitizer, for ME. Silly people :S

really, people. hand sanitizer is so cheap, she could get some at the dollar store!

totally Anniel - so much more cost effective and it just works better with the face paint medium itself. I'm sure you'll notice the difference right away.

I always make sure I get plain soap and plain hand sani (with moisturizer) because you never know if some kid will have an allergy right?

Wow pixie.... I know right, like I said, people see the makeup station like it was made for them. That face painting should be free, that we should babysit their kids while they shop, and so forth. 

Exmaple: At the market we paint at on Friday's, some times we have parents who say "they'll come back" to pay after they get change.... even though we can totally make change right then and there. Some never come back, and others do, but what gets me is this... How do they think this is acceptable? You don't go to one of the food trucks order a burger, get the burger and say you'll come back with the money. NO WAY they would try that, same with any other vendor, it's money up front. But for some reason people think it's rude for me to ask to be paid first? That's messed up.

I use Cetaphil...=D

I was just going to ask if anyone here used Cetaphil!

I use it in my makeup kit because (aside from some dry skin) I have yet to come across a client who reacts to it. I had some really nice paraben free, cruelty free, fancy schmancy expensive jasmine scented facial soap, but... after having a lady refuse to use it because the lavendar smell reminded her of her aunt's funeral, I just gave up and use the cheap stuff now.

lavender fondly reminds me of my late grandmother, who always had lavender scented hand soap in her bathroom

Thanks so much for this, FF. What fabulous information, and what an ingenious solution!