Poll on Brands

I have only ever used Kryolan and am very happy with it. I also sell tons of it on my website, so at least in the years I've been selling it, I also get it at wholesale cost so I don't have much motivation to try anything else. ;-) The interferenz and metallic paints are trickier to get good coverage, but if you get it to the right consistency and use enough water, they can really cover well. It's a matter of playing with it until you get the method down you need to get the coverage you want. I also love their little palettes, with the re-fillable colors. I usually keep mine in screw-together jars that stack and work great. But, if you just want to whip out your paints in a second and put them away in a second, the palettes are great. (like when ONE more kid comes up at the end of your gig who hasn't been painted, and all your paints are put away!)

Shannon, if I'm looking for the more primary looking colors, which snaz electric or sparkles am I looking for? Are the sparkle green, red, orange, blue and purple primary or more pastel looking?

I am a DFX fan all the way. I have been using mainly DFX (essentials, neons, and metallics for around a year. I have not had one complaint from a parent about it being hard to remove or staining...(knock wood) I do put on the back of my card removal instructions & just a little blurb about darker pigments and the possible staining of clothes.

Before I switched over to DFX I used mostly wolfe. I do have and use kryolan aqua colors and interenze as well as the ben nye lumieres. For high heat and humidity situations I use starblends.

I started out with snaz...I think it is great to learn with but just did not give me the results I wanted as my skills progessed. I do however love the snaz sparkle orange or maybe its called electric orange (which ever is the metallic looking one)...beautiful color. I will use snaz black when working on small children 3-5.

I have not tried paradise, TAG, grimas.....perhaps as my supply starts to deplete I may venture to try some of these other brands, but for now I enjoy using DFX.

wmeventservices wrote:Shannon, if I'm looking for the more primary looking colors, which snaz electric or sparkles am I looking for? Are the sparkle green, red, orange, blue and purple primary or more pastel looking?

They are not pastel looking:

Snaz Electric Blue is very blue, dark - I call it the perfect Optimus Prime Colour. Great coverage.
Snaz Sparkle Blue is nice but not a "primary blue" it is more sky like and quite shiny.
Snaz Sparkle Orange is bright orange and I find it to be very solid - I use it for tigers all the time.
Snaz Electric Purple is shiny purple, not a deep purple, and sometimes is a bit sheer, but it is a pretty colour.
Snaz Sparkle Red is a nice solid colour - it is red, but leans to the being more of a rose than a scarlet.
Snaz Electric Green - it isn't my favourite. Has a blueish shine, sort of irridescent but not really solid.
Snaz Sparkle Green is a shiny green that I tend to use to make scales on top of flat colours... not a real bright green, more mossy.

That help?

I am fairly new to face painting (not quite a year) but so far I have tried Snazaroo, DFX, Wolfe and 1 white Mehron Star Blend. At first I only purchased Snazaroo, I really like their sparkle colors especially for eye designs because they look really beautiful (like a rich, creamy shadow), Shannon is right about the gold and silver, I completely stopped using them because they seem way too sheer, plus the yellow and gold look almost identical. My favorites are the sparkle red and pink for lips and the light blue on the eyes and also sparkle yellow and orange for butterflies or tigers. I dont like the sparkle green or purple as much as the others. As far as DFX and Wolfe, they seem interchangeable to me. Are they the same company? Maybe Wolfe is a little more pigmented, it is kind of hard to get off. I love both for line work. They seem to stay on much longer than Snaz and apply so much smoother. I love them! Plus I love that I can stack them together it makes carrying everything in my large craft bag (from Walmart) so much easier. I don't think that I am using the Star Blend correctly because I cannot seem to make it look anywhere near close to opaque. You can hardly see it on fair skin tones. But it is fantastic as a base to use under another color for any design (especially under Snaz) it makes the colors much brighter and they don't sweat off as easily. I find that Snaz MELTS outdoors, even in the early Spring! Lately I have just been replenishing my stash with DFX and just ordered some Paradise to try out. I have been using my Snaz to make my own split and rainbow cakes and I keep them in the black cases from Silly Farm. Hope this helps! :O)

How about Kryolan? Does anyone use & like it? Do you have favorite colors & some that aren't worth buying?
I have a Kryolan Teal(not sure if it's the name, but it's the closest to Jaguar's Teal). I love it! I use it for all sorts of designs based off of our football team! Now I'm thinking I might like some other colors.

I have lots and use it all the time. I use Kryolan white interchangably with Snaz white (I never know which one I have in my palette).

I have a massive stockpile of Kryolan - Interferenz, UV, and regular colours... I'm actually switching out many Snaz as I use up the colours and replacing with Kryolan.

My first fp was the Kryolan 24-colour box which is still my travelling/convention kit.

Generally... the Snaz colours I intend to continue to use are Bright Red, all the sparkles, white, black, electric blue... the rest once used up will not be replaced with Snaz.

I like all the Kryolan... the greens linger, and the yellow is a bit of a pain as it crumbles with age and use - have to add glycerin to it to make it last.

I had an orange Kryolan "sweat" & leak all over my paint closet. It ruined some seasonal vests(horrible stains). I never bought it again after that, but I'm re-visiting the brand as I love that teal

Thank you Shannon! I also like that I can buy it locally in a pinch.

The Kryolan light pink, not sure what number or the actual colour is called, has a tendency to "separate"... I add my water drops per usual and the puddle leaches out "red" water on top of the light pink cake... I mix it back in with my brush.

It is make-up and contains more "moist" ingredients so is more apt to sweat and get a "film" on top but it doesn't affect performance.

Sorry I'm just now jumping in on this topic, but I thought I'd add in my two cents.

I use pretty much exclusively Wolfe F/X and D F/X. I am slowly starting to add in some Mehron Paradise for base and sponge work, but that's it.

Personnally, I can't STAND Snaz. In my honest opinion, that is one of those brands that you either love or you hate... I haven't found a whole lot of middle ground with it in mine or many others' opinions of it.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying Snaz is a bad brand, I am saying it doesn't work for how I work.

If I had to choose just ONE brand, I would have to go with Wolfe F\X because although my kit is split about 50/50 on the the two brands, I like the colors of the Wolfe better, especially the red, orange, white and black.

I know a lot of people say they hate or that it is impossible to blend Wolfe and D F/X, but I don't really have a problem with it, you just have to be quick. I mean, if the pros like the Wolfe Brothers can do it, why can't we?

I blend my DFX/Wolfe just fine as well. I also use kryolan. I have the regular palette and the interferenze. It took a bit for me to get use to working with the creaminess of the paint but I like it. I really like my Ben Nye lumieres too very very pretty.

I wonder why it is so difficult to come up with a true metallic red. With all the beautiful colors being manufactured and with todays technology.....it seems like it shouldn't be that hard.

I love this thread... very intersting! Especially the positive/negative comments on Paradise. I was trained professionally by Donna Nowak and she is a rep for Paradise, so that's what she recommended we use and she had pallets for sale really cheap for us. I actually love the smell! It must be a coconut thing... I've gotten alot of people comment that it smells good when I use it on them, or just that it smells funny and I point out that it smells like coconut and then they say they like it. But even if you don't like it, I don't think it smells at all once it dries again... just when it's wet. I love my Paradise paints because I do alot of blending and full coverage work and it's fantastic for that. But I can say that their metallics are a waste of money... Wolfe was out of silver & gold when I needed to reorder so I just went with Paradise instead and they are very translucent. I usually apply a second coat once the first is dry when I use it and it's still pretty weak.

I've been using Wolfe for my black and white, but I just bought a DFX Black to try out... used it once so far and liked it. I actually DON'T like Wolfe white because it gets really gummy all the time. I know it's supposed to be the best white because it's so opaque, but I hate working with it when it's all gooey. Can someone recommend another brand for white? I was thinking of trying DFX, and by the sounds of this thread that's probably a good call.

I haven't really tried any others besides Snaz (NOT a fan)... Paradise doesn't have the biggest selection of colors so I was thinking of trying some other brands to suppliment. Are Mehron Starblend comparable to Paradise? How about Kryolan aqua color?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

When I was at Bodyssey, Jodi Carr just got a new shipment of Fantasy World Wide and they are in a pump bottle now. I had read Shannon's blog about FWW previously so I asked Jodi if these new pump bottles can be refilled and she said no so she's planning on getting rid of the FWW refills that she has on hand if anyone is interested.

I did try FWW at it feels great as a base but not for line work.

Snaz, although washes off easy, fades and dries hard on my face (makes my face feel like it wants to crack)

Wolfe/DFX- tricky to blend as a base but nice for line work. (A tip that I got from Bodyssey-Lucie Bruillard is to take most of the black out of the container and just have some around the edge then add water to get the 'black soup' effect...works well and avoids getting mush.

Paradise- This is what I'm using primarily for my kit now. Initially when I opened up my kit I can smell the coconut but either I get accustomed to it or the smell dissipates in a few seconds, haven't had any comments from clients. The black can be used for line work, the white may have to have a couple of coats, so I usually grab my wolfe white instead. As for color selection, so far it works for me as I'm trying to 'downsize' my kit and I'm getting better at blending colors. Also the Prisma blending cakes are more practical size and shape wise than the Arty cakes.

Kryolan- I have a couple of Shannon's favorite.... just had to try them.

I'm going to order some UV colors of Kryolan- they look great

After asking many of the instructors at Bodyssey, they all said that if they are water activated paints, they will all work together. So get the colors you like and just go to it! If you ever get a chance to look at Lucie's paint, she has a huge selection in small containers of all sorts and brands. Some she even mixes together to get a color that she really likes.

Changing: If you want a true metallic red go w/ Paradise. It has wonderful coverage(not all Paradise Metallics do) & has a good shimmer to it. I use it on all my Spidey Guys.

Amanda: Wolfe & DFX whites are the same product. They are both low water paints. Shannon has a technique that works great w/ them. Take the pointy end of one of your brushes & poke a hole in the paint(twirl it around to make it about the size of an eraser head). Put a drop or 2 of water into the hole. This will activate just the right amount of paint to water you need for great linework.

I also mix brands all the time. I love DFX neon yellow w/ Kryolan teal. Talk about a tiger that pops! I did a lot of these on Friday by accident. The child asked for a teal tiger & just as I loaded my sponge she said she wanted the neon yellow too. I didn't want to waste the paint, so I loaded the other side w/ the yellow. Wow, that was the most popular design of the night!