Add-on services to face painting

I've seen that some of you offer add-ons to your face painting (like balloon art or glitter tattoos) and was curious as to how you worked it. Do you have a helper/employee to do the add-on while you paint? Or do you perform both services yourself and just have each person at the event choose one service or the other?

Also, how did you figure out the add-on pricing?

Thanks, guys!

Dont know the answer to your question, but I do love your purple eye mask! =0)

I only do one thing at a time. If they want face painting AND glitter tattoos at the same event then they need to pay for two artists. I don`t set-up to do both on my own - one or the other.

And I charge 25% more per hour for glitter tattoos as more cost is involved.

I offer face painting and balloons at the same time. Kids in line choose which one. If they want both they get in line again, which is fair. Never had a problem with that. Saying I'll be doing both face painting and balloons at your event (during the time I'm paid to be there) seams like I'm offering more for the money; but not really. Most want face painting, anyway. I may end up doing a few or no balloons. Occasionally, I get a party where there isn't much interest in face painting. These have been family style celebrations mostly adults and a few young children. Then I take out my balloons and start twisting balloon critter hats and crowns. Adults won't get in line but even great grandma smiles when I head her way with one. To include glitter tattoos cost more but even with those, unless there's water and kids don't want their paints washed off I won't do many of those either. So basically I offer everything at once knowing full well, I can't do but one at the time. Perceived added value but not added work. By the way I am kids and family entertainer (not all comical like a clown but not all serious either). So my business is not all about just face painting.

I find the cost of the glitter tattoos and the face painting to be the same.
Since I don't like glitter I should charge an annoyance surcharge.
Airbrushing is the one that costs more for me.

I have people who work for me. Despite having to pay them, I am making more money. We have a 5 year expansion plan as well for more add-ons. However, I know and will do all of the arts we offer. We have a line (and a hawker who manages it). If two people want glitter tattoos, then I do one. No one has every argued with the line and switching between them isn't a problem or pain or anything. It's all right there on my table so it isn't as if it's putting me out any to change between them at all.

Right now, at every PPP event, we offer:
Body/Face paint
Henna
Glitter/Velvet/Pearly (Mica) tattoos (freehand and stencil)

Most of us are trained in all 3, with the hawkers also being trained in the stenciled ones.

For what I pay the people, at PPP they get a percentage of net profits. Low daily intake equals low pay. They work their butts off for me and are truly an amazing crew.

At paid events, they get a percentage of net for that as well (say we charge $130 for a two hour event- she gets $80 of that and the business-and me- get the rest).

If I have a separate "art", a balloon artist or a certified massage therapist, they pay me 20% of their take and they deal with their own money.

Lynnie, when you go 130 - 80 aprox 60% Is she on her own?
Is she using your paints?, which % do you pay when PPF and she is using your supplies? I am training a partner and because I am teaching her and I am the one who gets the work, I have a kind of funny deal with her, but she is becoming very good, I have to watch her less, and I want to be fair. (Don't want Karma to get mad at me) In your experience what would be fair?

For me, airbrushing is the one that costs least (or maybe just stresses me least working at speed so I prefer it), but we do any combination of airbrushing (face paint or ink), painting (brush of face paint or ink) or glitter/mica depending on what is booked.... not working small parties as much as corporate events - and if they want quantity done, it all depends on how many are hired and how many services they want. More people = more hired or fewer services. PPP I do whatever I feel like based on the event. When I have done a birthday party, SFX, airbrush, face paint and nails were all included.....

artyfacesbyluz wrote:Lynnie, when you go 130 - 80 aprox 60% Is she on her own?
Is she using your paints?, which % do you pay when PPF and she is using your supplies? I am training a partner and because I am teaching her and I am the one who gets the work, I have a kind of funny deal with her, but she is becoming very good, I have to watch her less, and I want to be fair. (Don't want Karma to get mad at me) In your experience what would be fair?

Yes, she's is on her own. I have 3 girls that I've trained who work for me. They only use products and set-up I supply to them. They are under my insurance. I get the bookings and send them out to ones I don't take. They are amazing and work really hard promoting our private parties at events because the more calls I get, the more work they do.

PPP is where the percentages get trickier because we have a hawker (he stands in front of the booth and gets the attention of people, handles the money, acts as line manager and will help with the temp tattoos), and sometimes 2 artists in a booth. Therefore it fluctuates a lot depending on how many people are in the booth.

I just offer both face painting and glitter tattoos, if I'm hired to do both I do.

I just got back from a party tonight where she decided she wanted glitter tat's in addition to the face painting last minute - so I just packed both supplies up and took them to the party. I did the face painting first and then did the glitter tat's afterwards.

The dad, neighbour and teen sons got interested when the tat's came out and had some too.

They took about the same length of time in the end. I must say, I don't like tat's that have 'bits' to them - I only have one or two where I have to dig around to find the floating bits of purple to pull out and base my stencil ordering partly around how many floating bits there are.

(Extra time and annoyance.)

I can do all three but some events make it impossible. When I know there will be a lot of kids, I get another artist to help. Most of the people I work with aren't balloon twisters, I usually have them facepaint and do the glitter tatts, and I twist. One event I did was so super slow that I was glad I had everything with me. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have even covered my booth fee.
My best advice : Listen to everything Lynnie writes. She has the best advice and has the experience to back it up.

Wooo, so much great info here. Thanks, everyone!

MeeMee - I really like your method, that's pretty much what I had in mind. I always bring extra stuff just in case the face painting is slow at a party...I'll usually start twisting balloons and that gets people's attention. It impresses them because it makes it seem like you can do it all, and the client loves it because they feel like you're going above and beyond for them.

Lynnie - You're just an all-around genius and I appreciate the detailed info you always share!

I have and add-on.... I am a family entertainer too, not a clown just because English is my second language and my speaking is limited - but when they ask me for those things that a clown does like magic, parachutes etc. I do offer a ROCK STAR party. It needs a little more investment (I got my karaoke machine on march and I only have done 3 rocks parties) but I think that will be my hit for the winter.
I offer : Face Paint, Hair Spray and one sing along song for kid, Older kids and adults LOVE IT !!!, I dance (jump around) with the other kids while one is singing, we scream out loud and for sure I act like a clown. -In a paid large event I offer color hair I have found out that when they have to pay for it they don't get it but when it is free they go for it even more than for glitter tattoos, and for me it is great because it is faster and cheaper than a FP.

At the last event where I thought glitter tattoos would be a good idea (and they were) I had them pay an extra $25 per hour on top of the $50 per hour for the face painting. I bought some stencils (with too many bits Helena!) that were specific to the event and brought my daughter along to help.

We were trying to switch back and forth doing glitter and paint but the table got to be a huge mess. So about half way through (because it was pretty even glitter and paint) I divided the lines up into glitter and face painting. It was a pain (I HATE it when checkers make you move lines and don't keep people in order) but it was worth it. I was able to whip out face painting and my daughter had to deal with a whole girls soccer team with glitter tattoos (and bits!) but we didn't have to chase down paints and glitter bottles, etc.

So, after that experience, I'm going to make signs and keep her and I separate if we are doing glitter tattoos. I figure if one line is longer than the other the crowd will adapt and choose one over the other to get through quicker.

On a silly note, one poor kid changed his mind a few times and had to pop back in line...his mom came back to the tent expecting him to be done and he was back in the glitter line! He ended up with a mica panda. She was like "you're not moving again!"

I tried balloons but I must be a scaredy cat! I don't like the popping noise or the squeeking. Even the balloon artist at my last b-day party was getting to me. I should probably get my teen son to learn and charge $25 extra like I do for my daughter.

D.

We keep our paints and water in the middle.
The glitter/mica/velvet case is in the middle.
Each of us has our own set of brushes, sponges, mirrors, black and white paint and henna bottle.

Our hawker handles all the stencil getting and money.

We've never had a problem sharing with this method and when you know where things go (and put them back there) things don't get messed up too badly.

Thank you so much for the compliments, Tamara and Flopsie. I'm happy to share anything I can.
Thank you.

Do you guys find that adding glitter tats = more income, or does it just split your efforts into doing 2 different things?

I only ask because I have a PPF kind of thing going on, but the person who's actually running the tent INSISTS that glitter tats be a buck less than everything else...and I hate the stupid things. (If I didn't need the work, I'd refuse to do them outright.)

Not only that, but the line doesn't move any faster. The only real end result, when we do a big run on glitter, is nothing more than making a buck less per customer. The tent owner's logic escapes me completely.

I don't think so, glitter tattoo has a different market, usually for the ones that don't like face painting, so if you don't offer them, you don't get their money, and I found out that glitter last long time and if you find cheap stencils or do your own, you can increase your profit.

Glitter tatts cost more... the stencils run on average $0.50 EACH, so right off there is that cost for each one, then the glue, then the glitter... so, for the sake of argument, the cost to do one is, let's say, $.65.

I can do a fast butterfly in face paint probably for about $0.05 in product.

So... glitter tatts are more expensive if you are using single use stencils. If you are doing freehand the cost in materials is probably pretty close but doing freehand is way more time consuming for me anyway.

Which is why I charge more for glitter tattoos. I don't combine FP with tatts... I am booked for one at a time so if I am doing glitter tatts, I will be using up stencils so it offsets the cost of them.

Ahhh...we reuse stencils and freehand which, since we do henna is just as fast as everything else we do, hence the cost being about the same for us.

Plus I don't buy my glue from any of the "body art" supplies but from our prosthetic making supplier, which tends to be gads cheaper.

We do offer other services in addition to FP. My daughter does balloons and I paint and we both do the glitter tats. She does all the small/easier $5 - $7 designs. Anything over $7 or has floating pieces, or if someone wants alot of colors I will do them. Glitter tats have always done well for me. I actually am needing to re order very soon.