Paradise facepaints???

I painted my niece's face a couple of weeks ago with paradise paints and she had a reaction to it, where her skin turned red underneath. Have any of you had this problem with them? Since then I have bought a whole new set of dfx paints but was wondering if I should still bother using the paradise ones on kids? If not I may just use them to practice with.

I use primarily Paradise on children and save the DFX for adults and linework. It may be that she was allergic to one or more of the ingredients or the fragrance in the paint? What color was used for the base coat? Was it an actual skin reaction or staining? I know it's a scary thing, but the best thing you can do is to sit back and thoroughly asses the situation before making a costly, shoot from the hip adjustment. I personally can't wear DFX on my face; it makes my eyes tear up, but TAG and Paradise don't bother me. Different skin is going to react differently.

I would suggest you do a patch test of the different brands to see if the problem is brand specific or is there a general sensitivity to an ingredient that is used by all of the face and body makeup manufacturers. I wish you luck!

Hmmmm I have to think that your niece may be the one in a thousand sensitive skin person. I have painted hundreds of kids in the last year using paradise and have never had a reaction report. Others may have had different results. Is she allergic to cocoa butter, etc? Paradise does have different ingredients than most paints.

Yeah i didn't know she had sensitive skin. I didn't see the reaction and didn't know about it until I saw her again my sister had told me what happened. She said that underneath the paint after she washed it off her skin was red like an actual reaction. I used pink to make a butterfly then white and black for an outline. I'm not sure about the cocoa butter but I will ask her mother.

Hmm... it is very possible that she simply has sensitive skin, but also, if the base color was pink and she wore it for a long period of time, the color could also be due to staining. If her skin didn't burn or itch which are usual symptoms that accompany an inflammatory allergic reaction like that, then I'd say it was mostly just staining. Often times if there is redness, there will also be little bumps on the skin or some other form of swelling.

I use a mixture of Paradise, Diamond FX, and Wolf FX in my kit, and have never had an accident report from anyone (except one little girl who touched the glitter then rubbed her eyes, but that's a completely different issue, lol).

I will agree though, Paradise pain is a very different paint from most other brands, I don't know of any other brand quite like it. The ingredients are very different, and that may be part of the issue.

Nothing is ever 100% safe with 100% of people 100% of the time. Paradise is a very safe brand made right here in the USA....I wouldn't let the one instance deter me.

After Mark Reid Painted me, I had a slight stain made worse by trying to scrub it off in a hurry (i didnt want to hold up rest of his class! there were very few models). Perhaps thats what happened? I mean i knew what i was gonna do to myself but thats b/c i've read all the posts etc...I DO suggest at least keeping your paradise black as it comes off super quick and doesnt stain like wolfe (i've got oily skin and it still stains) to use on little boys for venom or batman. xoxo

I use some paradise in my kit & have never had a problem with it. I wouldn't dismiss all your paradise paint because of one issue either.

w/o having seen it, as said, could even just be paint 'lingering'. Its usually green/yellow/ blue of most brands that do but I have 1 body model who always stains just with red/ pink.

Most 'reaction' cases I have heard of in the last 10 yrs turned out to be reaction to what REMOVED the paints, which is another thing to bear in mind - a lot were baby wipes as they can irritate skin - I know if I'm practicing on myself I feel raw after a couple of wipe removals but OK if I wash it off.

As they said, all good brands comply with FDA/EU regulations but you do and will get some who still react to some of it. We all know some painters/ kids who can;t be painted, or only with certain brands/ colours.

TBH much as I love DFX I don't use it on kids - its far less comfy on than Paradise.

Cat x

I've never had anyone react to any paints. I have however had issues with how the paint was removed. Once boy used hand soap & scrubbed very hard with those brown paper towels found in public restrooms. His face was red & raw. I always tell parents to remove the paints gently with a wash cloth & mild soap(or baby shampoo). I stress to not rub & tell them to wet the wash cloth & gently press it into the design & "lift" it off the face. Do this a few times(most the paint comes off in this step) & then put baby shampoo on the wash cloth & wash the remainder of the paint off.

I find when I use red or pink on my self and I use dfx and tag..the red lingers a bit..but ivory gets it off really good

How did they try to remove the paint? That is normally where the problem is.
- Lilly Walters, 909-398-1228
Face and Body Painting http://www.funfacepainting.com

i agree with everyone it might just have been she was allergic to something in it but i use paradise on my girls and nieces and they havent had any reaction and some of them have sensitive skin aswell so maybe its a certain ingredient, just try it on someone else that wouldn't mind i guess and wait and see, or even yourself like your arm that way you know.

I love Paradise and don't understand why more USA based face painters don't use it. All I hear about is Diamond and Wolfe FX . . .it puzzles me.

True most likely one in a ............ reaction.
The only paint I have ever had a reaction to is Diamond, but it could have just been that place and time. It could very well be painted again with it I'd have no reaction.

Personally knowing about the labs where paints come from I'd trust Mehron's USA made Paradise over any of the imported Asian brands any day! The regulations and testing for Mehron is much more focused on safe standards.

I guess I'm the unusual one around here, I have had 2 kids react and I have had a few reactions myself. The two kids that reacted to my paint are allergic to red and blue food colourings and happen to be from the same family. (I only found out about it because mom is a friend) Food dye allergies are not THAT uncommon and can happen. I have personally reacted to DFX and Wolfe paints. I'm not positive on which ingredients cause my reactions but I THINK it is the acacia gum that is in it... it is sometimes used as an anti-inflammatory and I am allergic to all NSAIDs.

I honestly believe that reactions occur FAR more often than most painters realize. You only heard about it DAYS later because it was your niece.... would she have bothered contacting the face painter if it had been anyone else? Would any of you even TRY to figure out who it was to tell them about it? OK, as fellow face painters you might, but let's say you weren't a face painter..? Most parents wouldn't have a clue even HOW to find you after an event if they hadn't taken your card and if they HAD taken your card, they'd have tossed it as soon as their child reacted to your products!

Perry, I actually disagree. I don't think reactions are that common. We send people out of our booths with business cards with our number and email on it. If people were unhappy, they'd call...especially for something medical about their children. We live in an age of complaining and lawsuits.

I've painted school carnivals (hundreds of kids) with nothing but Paradise. If any of the kids had have had a reaction, I would have heard about it from the teachers/school. I'm more worried about breathing peanut breath on a kid with a nut allergy than I am the paints.

everyone has a different opinion perhaps but why do you think the craft paint people say "nobody ever complains" to them either?? Because people get pissed off yes, but they worry about getting their kids "better" after it happens and just refuse to ever pay for face painting again.

I think everyone is just different and react to different things than others do. I don't think banning a bran entirely is going to make a difference because someone could have a reaction to the other brand you choose. It could also be the pigments for certain colors. Things can't run smoothly 100% of the time. Once in a while you will have an incident.

Let me put this out there... while I DO believe that reactions are far more commonplace than most painters or paint companies like to think, I try not to worry about reactions too much beyond my own reactions to the DFX/Wolfe/Tag family of paints. Not because I don't care about other people's reactions but because no matter what kind of paints you use, someone in the world is allergic to anything you can use. People are allergic to soy, wheat, food colouring, pennicillin, aspirin, shellfish, peanuts, coconuts, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, pork, milk... shall I go on??

I use primarily Paradise paints, and some DFX, and a teensy bit of Wolfe. I personally have a small reaction to paradise paints... my right eye lid will get puffy and itcy after I've had paint on it for a few hours. I don't think it happens with every color though, and only with the Paradise. It's weird because it only happens on one eye and nowhere else. I still paint myself because it's more of a small annoyance than anything else.

As far as customers go, I have had 1 complaint. I worked a 4 day gig and I painted two sisters on day 1, and on day 3 the mom came back and asked what kind of paints I used. She said one of her daughters had a red rash under the paint when she washed it off (unfortunately it was a big full face butterfly!). I explained to her that all my products were professional grade and FDA approved, and she went from about to be upset to being understanding. She said only one of her daughters had the rash, so it must have been an allergic reaction. I offered to show her my paints and the ingredients so she could check to see if she was allergic to any of it, but she said no. She left satisfied with the information that I wasn't using anything harmful I guess.

Well, I've had more than one reaction... I've had about four over the years, and two were to Paradise. THAT I KNOW OF! There were probably others but you don't hear from people about it.

Since I don't like the smell anyway as it cause my allergies to kick in, I choose not to use Paradise. My choice.

The other reactions were to other brands in a theatre setting - we changed brands on the one person, and lectured the other about washing it off properly each day!

Nothing is completely hypoallergenic as there is always someone who will be allergic to something in the ingredients.

My personal rating of how likely a face paint brand is to cause a reaction is:

LOWER RISK: Snaz, Grimas, Fardel, Fantasy Worldwide
NOMINAL RISK: Kryolan, Funky Foxes
MORE RISK: Wolfe, DFX, TAG (anything made in China), Paradise

This is simply based on my own experience with these brands, both using them on other people, AND on myself.

Sweet Loretta wrote:True most likely one in a ............ reaction.
The only paint I have ever had a reaction to is Diamond, but it could have just been that place and time. It could very well be painted again with it I'd have no reaction.

Personally knowing about the labs where paints come from I'd trust Mehron's USA made Paradise over any of the imported Asian brands any day! The regulations and testing for Mehron is much more focused on safe standards.

Oh yes, I agree!

Perry Noia wrote:...why do you think the craft paint people say "nobody ever complains" to them either??...

word.

Shannon Fennell wrote:
LOWER RISK: Snaz, Grimas, Fardel, Fantasy Worldwide
NOMINAL RISK: Kryolan, Funky Foxes
MORE RISK: Wolfe, DFX, TAG (anything made in China), Paradise

This is simply based on my own experience with these brands, both using them on other people, AND on myself.

Shannon, Is Grimas, Fardel, and Fantasy Worldwide all creams? Do they make a cake?