I have a few questions (kinda long)

Hi Tracy, welcome to the forum!

Metina's shop has one of the best prices and her shipping is super fast and economical, I totally agree with you on wanting to buy everything

I really like DFX white and black
You can get tag colors (cheapper and they are great)
yellow, orange, pink, red, light blue, dark blue, lime green, green, purple and teal

I really like the pearl colors but if you are watching your budget I would pick
dfx metallic pink for lips, tag old gold and tag pearl white (you can use this to mix with regular colors and make them sparkle)

You can get pretty much any brushes from Michaels, ACmoore and Joanns, make sure you watch their sales and get the 50 and 40 % coupons oon one item.
Lowe Cornell brushes, I found the royal majestic brushes which I love at acmoore, there were 13 round in a package for 19.99 and I used Michaels 50% off coupon, yes they take Michaels coupons LOL

You will also need a 3/4" or 1" brush for your split cakes and sponges you can cut in half.

Add baby wipes, dollar store mirror, small spray bottle.

Oh, I do use googly eyes but I don't have any pictures because I used them at few parties, they are so cute. Boys love them!



Good luck

Wow, that's a lot of questions! Welcome to the forum! Make sure you head on over to the "Introductions" subforum and introduce yourself to everyone.

Okay, lets get cracking on those questions....

Colors and paints:
I highly recommend DFX for paint, though it can feel a little heavy on the skin for full faces. For that purpose I also have large cakes of Paradise in my kit. The colors I use most for full faces are: Red, Black, Lt. Green, Lt. Blue, White, Orange, Yellow, Mango, Pink, and Lavender. Like Maggie said, for linework and small details, DFX white and black are the way to go, those colors ROCK!

As far as other colors go, I recommend getting the basic rainbow (ROYGBP) plus Pink, Teal, Gray, Brown, and any Neon or Metalic/Pearl colors you may want. I find neons really POP and Metallics offer a lovely shimmer to any designs. I have both in my kit.

Finally, as far as splits go, if you are just starting out, I would recomend purchasing pre-made splits. This is more cost effective as you would have to buy several extra cakes from which to make the splits otherwise. I still buy my splits pre-made, but it's all personal choice.

Glitter:
This is purely painter preference. I like LOTS of different colors and kinds of glitters. I'm a glitter FREAK. However, all these colors were accumulated as my busines grew. I started out with just a white/clear/irridescent glitter in a poofer bottle and it worked wonderfully. I now have many different colors to bring out different colors of the design and I spot apply it with a moistened finger. Your preference will change as you grow in your ability and your individual style blossoms.

Brushes:
Absolutely you can use regular artist's brushes! My favorite brand is Simply Simmons and you can get them at Michaels. They are a great quality brush with a very wide variety of shapes and sizes. And the best part? They're cheap (in price, not quality, lol). Every brush, even the big 1" flats are just $2.99. You can easily pay double or triple that else where with other brands that really are not THAT much better (in my opinion).

Miscellaneous set up necessities:
You will need a table and chair set up of some kind. You will also need to think of how you will store your water and organize your paints if you do not use a palette. A clean workstation is essential to making a good impression with the client.

You will also need some kind of board letting people know what designs you offer. There are several threads on here with a plethora of ideas as far as board set ups go. Just type in "photo boards" in the search bar.
If you will be doing a lot of outdoor events, you should also look into a canopy of some kind to keep the elements off of you in the event of rain or extreme heat and you need shade for yourself and your paints.
Finally, some kind of signage is a good idea to let people know you are there and to bring people into your booth.

As a side note:
I don't really see the problem with starting out with a beginner kit or even using palettes. We all start somewhere and a beginner kit will help you earn more money so you can continue to grow your business. I started out with an 8 color Snazaroo palette, a few Wal-Mart brushes, dollar store mirror and wipes, and a borrowed card table and folding chairs. I didn't even have glitter at first! But now my kit has expanded so much I easily have over $1500 worth of stuff going with me to every festival.

The point is, you don't have to start out with the whole shebang all at once, especially if you can't afford it all at first. It is perfectly okay, and normal to start out with a bare bones set up like what I did all those years ago. It takes time to build up a good professional kit and set up, so don't stress over having one immediately. Many of us "more expirience painters" are STILL adding to and altering our kits and set ups.

Good Luck, and hope this helps!

I started out with a basic snaz palette and some small paradise palettes, then I ordered a few dfx paints. You really don't want to make a huge order right up front because you never know which paints you might like and which you won't. I, for example, discovered that I hated snaz(it melts in the Florida heat), but I love paradise and dfx, so a few small palettes would be more than enough to get you started while you figure out which ones you like.
I am curious, which part of Florida are you from??

Thank you all for your imput, you have been super helpful!
oh, pjhamel I'm in Altamonte Springs, you?

Do the colors availible in Metina's shop change? Some colors are not availible in some sizes... also are the TAG 32 g and dfx 32 g around the same size? how does that compare in size with the paradise 40g? (im talking how much space it takes up) are the dfx 45g just deeper than the 32g or are they also wider? what yellow and orange to you like? (so many questions, i know lol)

oh and the reason I dont want a palette is I hate not being able to move things around, I cant stand it when things are fixed a certain way. I also dislike painting from a water color palette so I asume I wouldnt like it with face paint either. Me and my annoying wierd quirks.. *sigh* its why I dont bother with crayons..I hate the feel of the paper on the outside,lol lol

OH! Well, if that's what you don't like about the pallete, no worries. Every face painting brand I've every used has palletes that you can move the paints around to where you want them to be. Like me for example... I like things in color order, you know, red, orange, yellow... etc etc... so if that's your worry, then don't worry! You can customize the layout of your pallete easily.

As far as sizes, the ones you're asking about I think are pretty much all the same diameter wise, they are just different depths.

As for color, I like DFX for most colors (except RED!) because they are so bright and have good coverage. But like PJ said, it's a matter of YOUR personal preference, which means you may have to get a few different brands and try them to see which you like best.

And I beleive Metina's stock changes all the time as people purchase stuff. But she always gets everything re-stocked so you can always get what you need. Just be patient, as amazing as Metina is, no one is quite Wonder Woman.... though Metina come DARN CLOSE!

Yeah, Metina is about as close to wonder woman as one can get in a world without super powers.
I don't really know about tag, because I have never used it, but the dfx is a little wider in diameter than the paradise, and it is shallower too (because it's less).
And if you can't find something in Metina's store, you can usually find it on Sillyfarm. It's a bit more expensive, and the shipping takes a little longer, but I have also ordered from there before and was quite satisfied with what I received.
Oh, and I am down in Naples

Wow alot of question Eh? lol its ok though its good to ask questions.

Well as far as colors go i use DFX & Snaz with the snaz i use that to make all of my splits. then for a kit i got a tackle box from walmart and it has 4 individual cases and each one contains 12 slots i divided them by brand and colors. then the top has my sponges and brushes and sprays. For brushes i get all of mine at A C Moores, alond with sponges which i cut in half. you will need a mirror also and baby wipes, i use Q-tips sometimes also. Then for glitter you can shop online and look around i forget what site it is but you can get a whole set of diffrent colors along with the brushes and glue all for 25$. Also you deff want to get the bling it glitter & the detailz for bots to just give it more pizazz! lol. Well i wish you the best of luck and hope this helped you a little bit. Happy Painting!

If you haven't already, try typing in key words like "best brand" or "yellow" into the search box at top right. You will get back loads of information. I started with a little 8 color pallette from Paradise.

I think it's a good idea to start out small. It sucks to end up with 32g of something you can't use! And you really don't need much to get yourself going. Any color can be made by mixing the primaries (and it makes you good at blending).

As a general guideline (def not a rule), Paradise and Snaz are easier for bases. (And I second the snaz being all melty). TAG and DFX are great for lines. So you can keep that in mind when deciding what colors you want of what paint.

Oh, and I LOVE your purple hair.

Wow, great point JBax, now that you mention it and I actually think about it, my starting out with just that 8 color snaz palette really DID help me with mixing and blending later when I got better paints. I mix colors all the time (most of your would die if you saw some of my cakes ) but I get great end results because of it, plus, I don't always have to go out and BUY every single color in creation... I can just creat it my self as I need it.

So true, I also started with a little snazaroo palette

Ditto the little snazaroo pallete.

Ashley Marie - How did you manage to make snaz into split cakes? I tried doing it and they literally just crumbled
Did you just do 2 colors or did you do rainbow/3 color cakes? What size cake were you making them from? Did you try using a new cake or was it for leftovers? (and hopefully that last question made sense).

I actually really really really like snaz light blue for bases. On the other hand I was NOT a big fan of their silver and am awaiting an order of some DFX metallics.

Punky - why don't you like DFX red?

Tracey - with regards to poofer bottles: I find (and maybe it's just me and I'm doing something wrong here) that they poofed more glitter onto the floor and onto the kids clothes than they did onto my design. Cleanup was messier and parents were slightly more annoyed (does anyone else also love the question: will this come off my child's favorite xyz article of clothing?) I currently have a few designated 'glittter brushes' (which i got on sale at Michaels) and I use them to apply glitter.