best kit to start with

I am totally new to facepainting, but I have a lot of painting in my background. What would be the best kit to start with? I'm thinking I would like a more fluid paint to try? Any suggestions would be great. I don't want to spend an arm and a leg to see if I'm going to be any good at this! LOL Plus, what about a practice head, is this a good idea?

Thanks to everyone and anyone with ideas!

I love Paradise. it is easy to work with and you can buy a sample pallette of several colours.
Good luck.

everyone has different favourites... there are threads and threads about it. I think the main thing is to get yourself a palette with a variety of colours so that you can try different things without having to buy all the colours individually until you get used to it. A Snazaroo 8 colour palette will take you pretty far to start with and they sell them at Michael's.

I don't think you NEED a practice head... you have a head, your partner has a head, you may have kids or other family members with heads You can also practice lines, swirls and tear drops on your arms and legs while you sit and watch tv or something.

Hello and welcome terntam. Check out my recent topic post under general facepainting regarding the practice head you might find it useful.

I think all painters have different preferences... I started out with 2 of the Paradise palettes (pastel & basic), though looking back I would have switched out the basic for tropical since the basic kit's colours are kind of blah, and I ended up buying pro size Paradise black & DFX white separately, anyway (even starting out you'll go through tons of black and white).
If you're really tight for cash you can get one Paradise palette (tropical has great basic colours) and full size black & white from the forum shop for around $40, which is really great. I like my DFX black and white better than the Paradise for line work, generally.
Snazaroo also makes tiny sampler palettes that are about $15 each, and are okay if you're really uncertain whether you want to do more face painting. The sparkle palette has great base colours, and the rainbow palette has the basics.
If you're not looking to make any big investments yet don't get a practice head. You have a perfectly good practice head on your shoulders!

If you want to use creams or liquids there is Fantasy Worldwide which is available both ways. The creams come in pots or tubes, the liquids in plastic bottles.

It is a really nice product.

There is also Fardel but you can't find suppliers in North America anymore.

There's a great starter kit in the kids section at most bookstores made by Klutz. They use Wolfe paints & are great for lines & bases.
Snazaroo is what I started with. I now use a mix of wolfe/dfx(the same paint in my opinion) & Paradise.
Also use quality brushes as your lines are only as good as your brushes.

Our Hobby Lobby has small Snaz kits available in primaries and pastels for $7.99. (You can frequently print 40% coupons from their website, too.)

Good point from Psalmbook: get good brushes! Check out the threads in the forum about brushes for the best options. The brushes that come with kits are generally no good.

I showed up to my first gig with a small paradise sampler. I can't believe someone paid me, but they did and now my kit is much larger. I've tried all the brands and my favorite is paradise.

The first think I purchased was a kit from Silly Farm. I purchased the Fast Fun Faces with the stencils and the rainbow cakes. I didn't love using the stencils. I think there is a learning curve to those. The kit was great though! I made a ton of rainbow butterflies, tigers, and kitties