I need guidance on Glitter tattoos HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

I bought a Tulip glitter tattoo set (it was on clearance) at Michael's the other day since I have been contemplating adding this to my face painting service. I tried it out at a party that my granddaughter went to and decided it was easy enough to do and it stayed on her for over a week, so I decided to get some "real" ones from Tal and bought some from a fellow forum-ette. My first public usage of them was this past Saturday at an event and it wasn't a great experience. I had problems that I thought some of you more experienced people could help me solve.
1.) The brush bristles kept coming off and sticking in the glue and glitter and I kept having to pull out the tweezers to pluck these tiny hairs out. It happened with 4-5 different brushes, so is there another way? I don't want to do the whole poofer bottle thing, I would like to keep the glitters in the little container that I have them in.
2.) It was as hot as 4 hells under my tent and my stencils were not coming off the backing paper without twisting into a blob. I tried different ways of removing them and nothing worked?? The ones that would come off wouldn't stick to the skin. I cleaned with alcohol and gave it time to dry before trying to apply the stencil, but I don't know if it was the person started to sweat again that made it not stick or what, but I know I wasted at least 20 stencils that day fighting with them. Would having the person hold a paper towel over the area help keep it dry? I wanted to use them at a couple of July 4th celebrations coming up but I've got to work out these kinks first.

I got empty nail polish bottles & filled them with adhesive.

When I use a brush to apply glitter, I either use a retired face painting brush or an elf eye shadow brush.

I don't have shedding problems with those.

It sounds like maybe you need to move to a breezier area of the tent so your guest doesn't perspire for the stencils to adhere.

Or is it possible the stencil itself is not tacky? Have you tried that specific brand in an optimum location?
(We cut mostly our own, and sometimes I have not gotten the right adhesive & it takes twice as long to apply the glue while workin on a looser stencil.)

Why not try a small order from Faketoos.com (Only $1 shipping) and see if experimenting a bit solves it.

Definitely use a paper towel to super dry the area before application. This has helped a lot since I started.

If you go on the Faketoos website, he has a very nice set of pages in which he tells you all about some great ways to prep the skin, apply the stencils, etc. And yes, do buy some of the Faketoos stencils. They are well-made and I have never had the difficulty you are describing and extremely rarely (maybe once or twice a season?) waste a stencil.

Good luck! It'll all work out and glitter tattoos are fun to sell and do!

Anniel, there was no breeze at all, anywhere. Every person, either in my tent or outside it, was pouring sweat. I talked a few out of the face painting for this very reason. One look at the child and I knew there would be no chance of a design lasting more than a couple of minutes in that heat. I suggested the tattoos, and even then, I was fighting a battle. LOL

I have some of the Ybody stencils and a couple of the Faketoos and each one looked like it was melting and it was almost impossible to get them off of the backing paper. After I posted this thread, I looked all over the glitter tattoo section and found a thread where they mention putting your stencils in a cooler so I took out a couple and stuck them in the fridge for about an hour. When I took them out, they felt sturdy and the backing paper came right off so I am hoping this cooler idea will work. It also mentioned that Metina sells a little silicone thingy-ma-jig that looks promising for applying the glitter, so I may get a couple of those to try. I was using a few brushes that no longer had a decent point enough to use for face painting and I never had any shedding from them, so I don't know why they did it to me that day. Could have been the heat was so bad that the adhesive in the handle gave up?? I don't know. I am hoping to get all this sorted out and come up with a good solution before attempting to use them again. I am in the South, and I mainly wanted to add tattoos to my repertoire because of the heat. Thanks for your suggestions       

You need to let the glue dry before apply the glitter, this way you won't have the problem with the brushes, you can use a plastic tool that metina sell here in the shop and is awesome.
I clean the skin with alcohol, a long area around, wait for the skin to dry, apply the stencil and then use a baby powder around the stencil before I apply de glitter  it helps for the glitter not to stick around when you brush the excess (it still happen now with the humidity)
I think the problem with with the sticker will happen with the heat, and if the stencils are old or if you leave them in your car or if you store them in heat or very cold areas.

I hope the stencils aren't old because I just bought them.    They were in the car for the ride to the event and then on my table during the event. I used a few at home practicing and never had an issue with anything so the problems that popped up threw me for a loop and I was almost in tears trying to figure out what to do and how to fix it. I can only guess that it was the heat causing all the problems because it was in the high 90's that day. I am going to take a cooler with me tomorrow and try putting a few on ice to see if that solution helps.

I've used faketoos for years and the only issue I have is if they're old or have been in a really hot area (car) as mentioned above. Otherwise, they work really well for me.

I also take a very stiff card of plastic (like a credit card), and run it over the back a few times before I put the first layer on the person, it helps adhere the sticky layer to the transparent layer and then I run the same card over the tatt on the skin, which adheres the sticky layer to the skin and transparent layer peels right off. Hope that makes sense.

Use Iso. alcohol on the area before applying the stencil, if your not already doing so. Make sure you use enough glitter that your brush doesn't actually touch your glue, just the glitter. Trying a different brush might be a quick solution to your problem, hairs should release that easily.

Also, some stencil designs just suck to do!

Yeah, I was using alcohol. The bristles were just randomly falling out of the brushes as I tried to put the glitter on. I would dip the brush and hover it over the area and tap with my finger to get the glitter off and the bristles were just falling everywhere. I am definitely trashing those brushes. I have already decided that I am going to limit my stencil designs to the easy ones for a while, at least until I get the hang of them better.

Sorry, that should have said brushes Shouldn't shed like that!  E.l.f. makes nice eyeshadow brushes you can usually fine on the cheap. Good Luck!

Tell ya what, though ... the poofer bottle method is just great. Faster too. And you can be very precise in your aim, so you can do good detail work. Yes, it's possible to waste some glitter. But, still, the glitter seems to last and last.

I was thinking of using poofers later on, I just wanted to get the hang of it with the brushes, since that seemed to be the easiest way to begin. Once the glitters I have begin to get replaced, I may give the poofer a go.

When I began, I loaded up on bottles of glitter and then transferred the glitter into pretty little round containers and had a gorgeous display of them. But you know what? It was annoying. Hard to do the brush method, and if it gets windy, the glitter flies. I went immediately to bottles and it's worked ever since. If you give it a try early on, you may find it is super easy, and then your brush worries are over.

All the glitters that I got were in those little containers with the screw on lid but I moved them all to a box with little individual compartments with pop open lids. It only stayed open long enough to apply the glitter, then I closed it back up. I didn't have any problems with it due to wind, because I would have sold my firstborn for even a slight breeze that day. I am really considering getting one of those kits that have like 30 poofer glitters. In your experience, what is the best, easiest to manipulate stencil? Like, what brand? I am going to stay away from the complicated ones for a while         

Okay, I have stencils from lots of places. Amerikan Body Art sells stencils which are blue, and I find the stencil and the top peel-off layer very easy to work. Faketoos makes a wonderful variety - sometimes a piece may detach when peeling off the top layer but overall they are very high quality and learnable to work with. I also have gotten stencils from Linda Adams which are quite nice (she has a great selection) and she carries many designs which have been made for simplicity - such as a one-pull Angry Bird, etc. Above all, watch out for stencils which have floaters. They can be managed, but some are too complicated for removal with small children. Some with floaters are easier. But if you start with stencils which come off in one piece, without having to go back in after the extra pieces, your life will be easier.

Ok, thanks. That info will help when I go on my search for more. I wanna kind of build up the kit a little at a time right now until I know it's going to be something that sells, then I will try to stock up. Have you tried that little silicone thingy-ma-jig that Metina sells? I watched a video of Suzy demonstrating it and it looks like it would be easier to use than a brush??

Building my glitter tattoo kit too, and got the silicone thing from Metina last week. For the price, I'd say do it. I mostly use it as a little shovel to get the glitter on, but I way prefer it than getting glue all in the bristles of a brush, and trying to get the previous color off the brush before picking up a new color is a huge pain. This thing cleans way easier and my colors aren't getting so mixed up. I just rub it between my fingers for a moment, or maybe on my towel, and almost all the glitter comes off.

I've tried all the expensive brushes that came with the glitter tattoo kits and suppliers but I've had the best luck with Big Kid"s Choice brushes. http://www.joann.com/search?q=big%20kids%20choice
They come in a 12 pack for $1.29 at Michael's or Joann's or you can order them online. I use them for one color and then toss em into my alcohol after a few minutes I take em out and let them dry off and repeat. They are so cheap I have about 50 that I rotate through during the course of a day. It keeps my colors clean and I have rarely had issues with hair loss. They also have an assortment of sizes.

For moisture I have a brush that has a mineral base face powder in it. I think I got it years ago from Bare Minerals but I've seen others over the years. It's nice because the powder is in the brush and it doesn't take up a lot of space. I can just uncap it and give little swish of powder to keep dry.

As to the stencils. I've never had trouble with heat but I do know after doing this for a few years that you learn how to work a stencil from the outside in. The card trick mentioned by others works really well. If I get busy I sometimes don't worry about the little pieces finding it is easier to add an eyeball with a dot of glue/glitter on a round brush and people like the added detail.

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