Hi from Alberta!

Hello everyone
I am doing some research on which paints to buy as I will be doing super hero face painting for birthday parties soon
I have a few weeks before we start booking
And I am a total newb! lol I paint canvas but have not yet tried skin! lol

Welcome to the forums, gesso!

If you look to the top of these forums, you can see a small graphic with the text "FacePaintForumShop.com" - if you click on this it will take you to http://www.facepaintforumshop.com/ where there are lots of different face paints you can purchase.

Diamond fx, TAG, and Wolfe are a few go-to ones while Global seems to be winning more hearts each day as well ^_^

hello and welcome, gesso.

i recommend practicing sooner rather than later if you have never done any face painting. a 3D human face with skin and hair, and that moves while you paint is quite a bit different than a flat, stationary surface.

you can use the search box on the forum to look up info about lots of face painting topics.

Michaels in GP carries Snazaroo - vastly over priced for the individual cakes, but you could get one of the kits to try out.

Everything else has to be ordered and I would recommend trying a couple of different brands out before dropping a ton of money on one brand and shipping it here.

thank you everyone for the responses! I will check out the shop for some paint to try..
The lady I am working with wants to get hypoallergenic paint, do those main brands have that?

Who are you working with?

Only Snazaroo and Ruby Red claim to be hypoallergenic, but that doesn't mean people won't react.

Hey Shannon The lady I'm working with won't be doing painting, she is handling the party planning and organization
I will be doing the face painting. Im excited but theres so much out there its overwhelming. I;m wondering if it might be better to look for paint on amazon?

gesso, you will not be ready to book face painting events beginning in 3 weeks if you have never face painted before and do not yet have paints to practice with.

you should get some supplies, look up some designs to try, find some family members or friends, and spend some time practicing on them. you can also practice perfecting your technique on yourself, but that is much easier, because you tend to take your time and work carefully.

in addition to learning the techniques of face painting, there is the aspect of being able to paint quickly and effectively because kids are waiting in line, painting straight lines (on those superhero masks), people bumping your table or arm, fixing mistakes on the fly, wind blowing kids' hair into the paint as you are painting their face (if you are outside), wind blowing your hair into your face so you can't see, etc.

and that doesn't cover the potential behavior issues that can come up.

there is also liability insurance, which most people recommend, if you are not covered by whoever is hiring you for an event.

There are also the Alberta Health Regulations to follow, here's the link http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/EnvironmentalHealth/wf-eh-face-body-painting-.pdf

There is a lot more to it than just getting some paint, sponges and brushes.

You can buy face paints from a lot of places - I prefer to get mine from reputable retailers rather than anonymous buy/sell sites.