Too many options... So many colors

So I have yet to buy any split or rainbow cakes and its driving me crazy. I'm just starting out so I don't really have any designs to call my own. Just doing stuff like Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas.... full face Punisher skull.... white and brown bull dog I've seen on every website.... spiderman... and angry birds for boys. Then for girls of course butterfly... swirl design around eyes... flower design that wraps around eye... hell kitty... and unicorns.

My question is what split or multicolor cakes do you guys think are a MUST HAVE? I know I want a rainbow cake, then a split cake with light green and dark green for leaves, maybe a red and pink for roses, and a green and purple split for flower design everyone seems to love. Any other suggestions? I get to looking and it drives me nuts trying to decide. There's too many options and my newbie brain melts down =( I looked at those Arty cakes but it doesn't make sense to pay like $10 for those at 12 grams... when for like $14 you get the Tag cakes with 30 grams. So at least I've decided on a manufacturer lol. I use Diamond FX for my solid colors. But I'm going to order at least 3 of the new Paradise AQ Brilliant colors to try.

Guess my biggest problem is I don't have any designs in mind. Wonder if I'd be better just ordering solid colors, then building multicolor cakes as I decide on designs. Sigh.....

Dear jonwhunt:
When I first discovered OneStroke Arty Brush Cakes, then, later, Rainbow Cake from, um, "Happy Rural Place".... I bought SO many.  In hindsight, I realize that I only needed a few.  I buy TAG from the FacePaintForumShop (in the colourful rectangle in the header of this column) and I cut them apart and make my own OneStrokes (The 10g size), Base Blenders (50g), and 2 Colour Split Cakes (50g).  I am glad I ordered the premade One Strokes in the beginning, as now I have the containers I can refill.  Here is my basic wish list that I would have started with all those years ago:
OneStroke (10g)
Rose: white/magenta/red
Bright Leaf: pearlblack/dk. green/neon green/yellow
Fire: pearl black/ red/neon orange/neon yellow/white

Rainbow BaseBlenders (50g)
TAG Carnival: neon blue/neon yello/neon magenta
TAG Havana Sunset:
TAG Havana Sunset Pearl:
TAG Bubblegum:
TAG FairyFloss:
Bleu: MAC Ultramarine/TAG Pearl Dk. Blue/FAB Ziva Blue Shimmer/ FAB silver/TAG pearl white

2 ColorSplit Cakes:
neon yellow/ regular yellow
neon orange/ regular orange
light blue/ ultramarine blue


Of course, I do have a lot more in my kit.  The above suggestions are the basic colour combinations I use over and over again.   There are colour combos I carry that do double duty... The Christmas Base Blender (dk green/ lt green/ white/ red), is also what I call my Watermelon cake in the summer.  

You will get a different answer to your query from every face painter who answers in this thread.  There are different preferences and different painters.  You do not need to have every Rainbow cake in your kit to be an amazing, fast face painter.  (Although I would LIKE to have every combo!!!)

Happy Painting!

I don't like split cakes to be honest. I do use rainbow cakes and they are a necessity to do rainbows. And it is much easier to buy them pre-made. I have a regular traditional rainbow (8 colour) and a UV rainbow.

I do have SOME split cakes (many were gifts) and gave into temptation and bought three small split cakes BUT... I just do not like using them. What has ended up happening is they just get used for the individual colours and are worn at all different levels. 

I am impressed with what some people can do with them, but I can't be bothered for two main reasons:

1) I have to use CLEAN brushes and sponges on each person and it takes time to load with a split cake.
2) I have grip issues and can't twist a brush to make strokes.

I use a lot of them but if you don't know what you will be painting I would suggest.
a red themed one - for fire, dragons
a blue themed one - for dolphins, monsters
a green themed one- for snakes, leaves
a pink themed one for - princess and as I bet you will use it the most.
a rainbow type one

you can still do pink snakes, or green dragons etc but this way you have a variety of colours and can lay down various designs. One of the silly things I did when I first ordered them and did not realize was ordered 5 cakes and three of them I think were purple themed, I found that restricted what I could do more than anything. by the time you get to the bottom and you will hit the bottom of one most likely before the other - it will have earned its replacement value. and you would have been able to paint a few other things along the way.

The other option I would suggest is to look at what you are painting the most of already, or have in mind painting and order that way.

that's for one strokes though - split cakes are whole different thing and I don't use many so will steer clear except to say Havana sunset.

I don't know if Metina carries them in the Forum Shop, but TAG makes blender cakes that are basically two one-stroke cakes stuck together. So, for example, I have dark blue-light blue-white-light brown-dark brown that I can use for dolphins or teddy bears. I paid for a blender cake (about $2 more than a single one-stroke) instead of almost twice the price for two one-strokes). They're available in several combos.

If you're looking for just one-strokes, I'd recommend a leaf (green) cake, TAG Stargazer, TAG Unicorn, TAG 4 Color Rainbow and a flame (reds) cake.

Yeah I went with a couple of the blender cakes that have either 3 or 4 colors. Bought a couple like you're speaking of as well, where the center is a white or yellow and then on each side there is a color theme like light purple then regular purple farthest out. I should be good on rainbows, leaves, flowers, fire, and something else I'm forgetting.

I purchased the paradise prisma set with fire, fleur, twist, cool, and shadow...the others come in handy also (a pink rainbow and a red rainbow, patriot)
and a jumbo rainbow snazaroo-which has 8 18ml solid colors...


what I noticed is I used a ton of pink, white and black...so I purchased 18ml separately of those, and I make lots of tigers and snakes, so I cut out a small sliver of yellow, orange and green...I put a green in the yellow, a yellow in the orange, an orange in the yellow and a yellow in the green.
I also put purple and pink sparkle snaz in my hotpink 18ml jumbo pink snaz, since I always need regular pink for my kitty noses.


anyways, long story short, prisma cakes last forever....even with my toddlers gouging out several scoops of it to "paint" themselves (the horror!), I still have tons...stuff lasts forever, i'm telling you!

also, I used to cut my sponges in half, but lately I've cut them into thirds....and the wedges not only load faster, but if I spray with water, I don't need to redip it.

I use a new sponge for each face, but this cutting it into thirds instead of halves allows me to keep my kit cleaner-I can easily load one side in one color, and flip to load the other side.

just sharing I really think the mehron paradise prisma set is worth it's weight in gold.i use those cakes at every party for the last TWO MONTHS, and they are still not even a dent made...they must paint at least 10,000 faces each.meanwhile the snaz goes through about a thousand faces each.