Building my kit - so excited!!

I just put in an order for a whole set of Royal "Soft Grip" brushes, and a load of Superstar (FAB under a different name, as I'm in Europe) paints in some yummy pearly colours!

Hope nobody minds me posting this here, but I'm ridonkulously excited to try out a brand I've heard a lot of good things about. Added to the colours I already have in Snazaroo and a little Wolfe, I'm really starting to feel a bit more confident in my kit.

I know there's a "What's In Your Kit?" thread elsewhere, but I think that's mostly aimed at the pros, who often have a wonderfully huge and specialised collection. Would anyone in the "newbies" category mind sharing what's in your kit, and what you like/dislike out of what you've tried so far?

I obviously have a small kit so far. Around a dozen Snaz, an "appetiser" palette of 6 Wolfe paints, various brushes including some I've stolen from my own craft stash, plus all the other basic paraphernalia. It just fits into the carry case my original Snazaroo starter kit came in, which will be interesting once my newly-ordered kit arrives in a few days.

As for what I like... I do like Snazaroo so far, especially as it's so gentle and soft on my little boy's skin and washes off so easily. I've heard others say it melts in hot weather, but I live in Scotland...the land where hot weather is something that happens to other people, or in legends. So that's not exactly a problem.

I'm not so fond of Snaz for line work, but I love the Wolfe black and white for that. They're really nice - opaque and creamy to work with. One of the things I have on order is the Superstar "Line Black", which I have high hopes for.

The brushes which came with the starter kit aren't great either - but that wasn't really a problem as I already had a number of brushes to play with as I learn.

I'm still a bit awed by the pros here, so I'd be very grateful to hear the opinions of those just starting out, like me.

Kammy xx

P.S. If I've broken any forum rules by essentially copying a thread idea from elsewhere, then please let me know and ignore (or delete, if you're an admin) this thread. Thanks!

Hi Kammy!

I am excited for you! I have just begun the process myself, starting first with Snaz of course, and just received my Paradise pastel pallet. I have sat for hours reading and admiring all this talent, and feel so overwhelmed with where to start! I have two confirmed gigs in October and I'm nervous as heck wondering if I have the right supplies, right amount of supplies, and so on. So, with all this said, nice to meet you and see a newbie on her way like myself. Big Karen Gillan fan btw;)

Jaimee (GracieFace)

Karen's cool, and a redhead of course, so I'm all for that.

Nice to meet you, Jaimee! Since I posted this, my kit has....um...expanded, quite a lot. I got back this evening to find a lovely parcel waiting for me, and it contained 4 one-stroke cakes, a couple of Snaz sparkle colours, some glitter gel, about 5 full-size Superstar cakes and a load of sponges.

Yay me!

I have my first gig a week from Saturday, so consider yourself lucky! It's not a paying one, though. I'm providing face painting for a charity event I really wanted to help with, and they're just making a small contribution towards my paint costs. I'm absolutely terrified - partly because I've never done it before, but also because I really respect the face painting community,and as a newbie I don't want to reflect badly on that. So I'm just trying to practice like mad (I'm typing this with a blue one-stroke butterfly on my face), do a few designs reasonably well, and do my best.

Gah. Can you tell I'm nervous?

I'm sure you'll do fantastically at your gig! Good luck with it, and keep reading here. There's so much experience and talent on the forums, it can't help but rub off on us new types. At least, that's what I'm hoping...

Gill (Kammy) x

My kit contains almost entirely TAG products. They are a South Aussie company so I'm able to purchase from an actual shop rather than sending away for stuff. I have the small 12 colour starter palate and about 3 various rainbow cakes plus 8 of the one-stroke cakes and also a few of the duo colour pearl cakes. I totally LOVE all my tag! So vibrant and easy to work with. I also have a cake of kryolin white.
I have assorted brushes (love the filberts but don't know what to do with the #4 angle brush!) and sponges and a few puffer glitters but use the white one most. I also have a set of doubers. I found at my local craft store (spotlight) some stencils made by Derivan which were not expensive, but I think they're crap! I have a tube of Tim Gratton silver glitter which is in like a gel, but I don't like it as it seems quite wet and makes a mess of the paint underneath. Just got a practice head too.
Now, just need to get some gigs so I can afford my new addiction.

GracieFace - how are you finding the Paradise colours? I've heard good things about them, but know the coconut smell tends to polarise people a bit!

dartiegirl - I love the look of TAG paints, but they're generally pretty expensive where I am! I might treat myself to a couple of the blending or split cakes soon, though, as I'm just starting to experiment with more than one colour on my brush at once. Thanks for the heads-up on the Gratton stuff. I use the Snaz glitter gels and they seem fine, but you do have to have a very light hand with them and wait until the paint underneath is dry. I do want some of the puffers, but I just dropped all my spending money on paints and sponges, and can't afford more right now!

Post in the Kit part of the forum about how to use the angle brush! I recently did that about filberts, and everyone was hugely helpful.

I'm actually going to experiment with making some of my own stencils this week! I have acetate, a die cutting machine and lots of punches (yeah, paper crafting addict here, I admit it) so I'm going to see what I can come up with. I'm lusting after some of those lovely BAM stencils, though...

Oh, and carrying on the "review" theme of the thread:

I love my Superstar paints. There are a couple of colours that have been a bit disappointing - particularly the mint green, which is less opaque than I'd like, and I'm not tooooo sure about the lime yet - but in general they're creamy, really smooth to use and have good opacity. The shimmer colours are gorgeous! Some of the older stock does have a perfumey smell, but the newer ones (with clear tops, no white sticker) seem pretty scentless.

Just got 4 Cameleon Colorblocks yesterday too, and I'm really liking those!! Lovely, creamy paints. I still have to experiment (with the aid of Denise Cold's tutorial vid!) with getting just the right amount of water in them, but otherwise...definitely a yes!

Yeah, I think we are going to find the opposite things expensive! The shop I get my gear from stocks tag, grimas, and some paradise but that's about it, anything else I would have to mailorder and shipping to Aus would be quite high. I've never seen snaz here but it sounds like a great starters option. The other brand that's widely available here, like at general craft stores is derivan, which is a liquid, and not expensive. But I love my Tag too much to try much else! I'm quite intrigued by starblends so if I ever feel the need to put in an order from fpf shop I would add those.

I like the idea of Starblends too, from a "trying something different" perspective, but I worry it'd take me ages to get an opaque finish with them as they have to be built up in layers, I think? Might be wonderful to have a few to increase the cover and opacity of other colours though - like white for zombies/skulls, red for Spidey, etc.

I think you're right about what's expensive here and there. If you ever want to give Snaz a go, PM me and I'm sure we can work out a mini-swap for sampling purposes at some point. I think it blends beautifully for bases, but prefer more opaque brands like Superstar or Wolfe for line work. The sparkle Snaz colours are really pretty, but a good bit more sheer than the matt colours.

I've been building my kit very,very slowly. I started with snaz and really feel more comfortable using it on the younger kids so I think it will always be in my kit. My next purchase was tag because of the reviews on the forum and I must say I love it. Wolfe I have black and white only. The black was recommended for line work so wanted to have something I new was popular with most face painters, being a newbie I of course had no experience or knowledge of what paint worked for what particular task.
I also purchased starblend, just three, white, pink and blue.
I think it was Denise Cold who recommended it for boys,they don't like the feel of paint around the eyes is why I think she likes it.
I use it now for my spiderman around the eyes and even though it's not as opaque it really doesn't matter, customer is always happy when he looks in the mirror
The pink I like to use as blush for princess. My last gig I forgot my blue snaz and a little boy wanted wolverine. I used my blue starblend and although I had to go over twice it was easy to apply and get the shape I wanted. Boy was estactic with it and even posed growling into the mirror a few times.
Ooops! Grandbaby woke up screaming! Will continue later