14 years with no complaints - until now.

Ok so there is a first for everything, I'm trying to remain calm.... Breathe just breathe.

14 years I've been face painting professionally, and 2 years as a professional makeup artist for film. Never had a complaint. I always encourage parents to follow up with me if their child has a reaction.... well it finally happened.

I got a call today from a parent who attended a birthday party my partner and I did this weekend. 5 of the kids broke out with rashes on their faces. OMG!

She's not blaming us in any way, she just wants to know what was in the paints. She also said one of the mums took her kid to the hospital and the doctor said it was a virus and not chemical

She asked if they had latex in them, I said absolutely not. Even our skin glue is latex free. I gave her the brand name (TAG), and I had my MSDS print out from my kit ready and read it to her over the phone. We went over which faces has rashes, I listed them then went over every color used and which of us painted each design.

Here are the facts:
we painted 20 kids, and the majority of them were special needs (down syndrome mostly).

None of the  paints are 'brand new first time used.'

Here are the colors and products we used for those designs:

Spider Man: Artist - Me
Tag Regular Red - full coverage
Tag Regular White - eyes
Tag Regular Black - webs

Batman: Artist - Aryn
Tag Regular Black - outline
Tag Regular Royal Blue - mask
Tag Regular White - highlights

Iron Man: Artist - Me
Tag Regular Red - around outside
Tag Gold - middle
Tag Regular Light Blue - eyes
Tag Regular Black - outline
Tag Regular White - shine marks

Blue Princess: Artist - Me
Tag 'Blue Bird' Split Cake - base color of crown
Tag Regular White - details
Quo Eyelash Glue - jewel

Butterfly: - Artist - Aryn
Silly Farm 'Dazzle' Rainbow Cake - base color
Tag Regular White - outline and details

Aryn and I each have our own brushes, water, sanitize, and our own container of white and black that we don't share between us. (only thing in common is the white, but from two different cake of it?)
Other procedures we follow include
-Use of hand sanitizer
-One sponge per child
-Disinfection with 99% iso alcohol of brushes if used around the eyes or mouth (and we don't double dip with these areas either).
-Frequent water changes
-We avoid painting over open wounds
-We do not paint children who are sick, or have skin conditions

After every event we clean and sanitize our brushes, wash our sponges, and wipe the surface of each paint cake, and spritz with a mist of 99% iso. We then leave them to air dry. The paints themselves contain an anti bacterial agent so no bacteria can grow on the paints (so I've read).

I also emailed all this information to her and then some. I also asked if she could give me the email address's of the other parents, or if she could forward the information.

I'm re-sanitizing my paints just to be sure. I've never had a problem with them before.

But I'm having a mini heart attack here. I feel it's extremely unlikely it was the paints, and one doctor already said it was a virus not the face paints. I'm worried about the kids, I hope they will be OK. I thanked the mom for phoning me and told her I was very appreciative for the follow up, I was professional and sympathetic/ concerned over the phone, and told to let me know about any developments.

But I'm worried about my reputation too. Even if I'm totally in the clear, moms talk, and this viral outbreak. I've also today read up on deficient immune systems of kids with down syndrome, and it seems it pretty much goes hand in hand. So it's possible they had a reaction, or it's possible they just got sick with something else at the same time, and the spread through close proximity. I'm hope i don't end up being a scapegoat because they all just happened to get sick at the same time.

Also googled face painting and down syndrome, but found nothing but events for people with down syndrome where they offer face painting. So that tells me that face painting DS kids isn't a huge concern even with immune disorders, or at least it shouldn't be?

What do I do? Anyone else had this happen, or anything similar? Any one have a parent call about a reaction? Any complaints? This is a total first for me.

Thank you!

P.S. Yes I'm insured. (and you should be too!)

Dear Forest Fairy,

      Breathe..... Again..... One more time, breathe deep.

     First of all, so sorry this conundrum has got you in a tizzy.  What jumps out at me is two things:

1)  Doctor at hospital says viral, not chemical.  
2)  Did you find out whether kids that were NOT painted broke out as well?  Or, was every single child painted?  

If the answer to my first question is that other children broke out that were not painted, well.... there's your answer, obviously.  

But if all children were painted on their faces, then it remains a mystery to you as far as from a face painter's perspective.    If possible, perhaps you could see if the parent who took their child to the doctor could provide you with a copy of the diagnosis for you to have on file.

I don't always believe or trust what one doctor says... but it seems like they MUST know the difference between a chemical related skin rash and a viral rash.  But who knows?  

This won't ruin you by any means.

I'm really sorry this happened. It's a very scary scenario, but you obviously take pride in what you do and are safety conscious. You're taking the time to be sympathetic, communicative, and responsive to the parent who contacted you. This is more than many companies do. People don't remember the companies who handled issues well, they remember the ones who handled things poorly. This will not follow you or your company. Chin up and keep us informed as to what you find out. This could happen to any one of us.

Could it be something in the hand sanitizer? Maybe what the sponges were washed in? (I doubt both, just throwing it out there in case you did something you hadn't before). What did they eat? Did they all ride the same bus and it was disinfected/wiped down with something they reacted to? There are so many variables...maybe you could ask a few questions & they'd rethink just for your peace of mind.

I doubt it was the hand sanitiser, I always rub my hands until dry, and my partner is using a different brand then me at the moment. A sponge was only used on the butterfly, the others were all by brush only. All good observations, but again nothing that they all have in common... That's what gets me.

They all are in the same class together every day... they all ate the cake. There were other snacks and drinks there too, not sure who had what.

I'm racking my brain to think of something, but the fact that Aryn and I have different makeup stations and different tools rules it out. :/

Yes the all had their faces painted, but it was all different colors, products and tools. Correlation does not imply causation. The two variables being face painting and rashes does not necessarily imply that one caused the other. However if they all had something else in common on top of the face painting, like they all had the same color, same artist, etc then there would be more cross over and not just a casual relationship. The fact that there is nothing else in common has be convinced it was something other then the face painting.

Did you ask how they washed off the facepaint? Did they all have glitter. If the rash wasn’t in the same shape as the designs, then It probably wasn’t the face paint.

Only the princess had glitter. I asked how it was removed, she said her husband did it and she didn't know. But prob just soap and water.

Im going to call her tomorrow and ask for an update.

Oh, that's a bugger!!
(Is that a right expression for this? I don't want to use wrong ones)

It's so sad the rash broke out at the same time as the facepainting was done... If the doctor says it's viral, you just spread that fact.
I react different to my same paints over and over again! I can paint my face ten times and everything's kust fine and the eleventh time I have a rash! It's not the paint, it's my skin, being more dry that time, or something like that.
We all the kid's faces cleaned at home or at the event? Maybe they used babywhipes?

I doubt too this will effect your bussiness seriously, you are handling this very professional!

This happened to me as well so I changed a bunch of things. I bought one of those curry's water pots where after each use you push a button and new water comes out.
I have a container or soap and water and wash the brush quickly and a rinse container. I wash and rinse the brush every time I dip it in a color.
Si first it could be the container you rinse your brushes in is that fully sanitized each time? Plastic is porrus and can retain bacteria.
A stainless steel rinsing container and water pot may be a good idea.
Yet I did do a bit of research on this.
Kids can get a rash from the products in the paints.
It is a petroleum based product so the chemical factor of it is quite a possibility so it could of been a rash caused by the cosmetics because in all honesty how many face paints products have really been approved and tested.
Almost all of them are pending FDA Approval.
I am thinking to changing products to that new vegan one.
So either your rinsing pot or allergic reaction to the paint called Contact Dermatitis.

For me it was the paint that was the problem because one thing about the rash my clients got was that it was only where the paint was applied so batman had a rash that looked like batman.

Contact Dermatitis: A Skin Rash Caused by Irritation or Allergy

Contact dermatitis can be caused by any allergy-causing substance or irritating substance that touches your skin. Irritating substances are more common and include solvents, acid, and detergents. Allergic contact dermatitis is commonly seen with poison ivy, cosmetics, and medications that are applied to the skin. The skin rash of contact dermatitis can appear as red skin, skin bumps, blisters, scales, crusts, or sores. Itching is common. Treatment of contact dermatitis includes washing the skin and using anti-itch lotions and steroids.

That sounds like a hand little water container.

I thought of the water being the cause but I change it between every 4-5 kids (we have an empty bucket under the table and large water bottles for quick changes), and these kids were not one after the other but spaced out. Also my partner has his own separate water container on his side of the table. Lastly our water containers are glass.

I could be that there were five kids all to have fragrance allergies, or allergies to the paints at the same party? Not impossible but the odds are a little low I think. Then again, a lot of them had DS, but only one that we painted had DS that was obvious.

So i'm told none of the rashes resemble the patterns of the designs. :/

Oh and I called the parent, no answer so I'm going to try again another day.

Yeah sounds like its not that then.
Glass great.
When it happened to me it was the 1st time in 10 years I ever heard about.
For me it came down to that contact dermatitis they were sensitive to the Wolfe black and Wolfe red. It is highly pigmented. only the ones that those were used on got the rash.

Yeah to me that makes sense because it was all the same color, they have something in common besides just the face paint itself, they also have the same color. Ours was all over the place and don't seem to have anything else in common. :/

The more I think about it, the more I think the Dr. who said it was viral is correct.

If the rash is in places that were not painted, it sounds viral, not related to your supplies or technique. If they are all in the same class, transmission of a virus is much more likely than such a large percentage (but not 100%) of the painted children having a reaction to your materials. I know "Fifth Disease" is going around my area, and the final phase of the virus is a rash that makes the children have rosy red cheeks like they have been slapped along with a lacy rash nearly everywhere else on their bodies. Try not to stress too much. It sounds like you are extremely vigilant about sanitation and safety!

Thank you becky I really try my best to keep our saniation and safety standards top notch. I try to have them as close to makeup industry standards as possible with out digging out the paint from each cake and putting it on a pallet to later be thrown away lol.

Still no answer from the mum that called me. I made sure to deep clean all our stuff after the last one, as i didn't want our paints exposed to something like that. But I'm feeling less stressed about it. Did a gig on Friday and Saturday and no complaints

Most viral illnesses with rashes are not transmitted through the skin. They are transported through coughing and sneezing, so unless a child sneezed in your paints, no worries about that. :-)