HELP MY EYE IS BADLY SWOLLEN

Last night I painted a large star over my right eye with Paradise yellow. 10 hours later (this morning) my eye is really swollen and I have a night club gig tonight. My kids think it's hilarious . They reckon I won't need a costume tonight.

Has anyone had a bad reaction from this paint. I used Huggies baby wipes to wipe it off. These wipes are cucumber fresh fragrance and can be used for hands and face according to the packaging.

I'm a little bit concerned. I've never had a problem with Paradise paint. Tonight I have to paint someone as star child from the band Kiss. I'm worried that this person could have a swollen eye from the black paint. I have to paint a large star over his right eye.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

In most brands, yellow is eye safe, but it depends on the shade. If there is any red in it, it would not be useable around the eye... Like many brands will say not to use blue on lips.

Check to see which colors have restrictions, you might be sensitive to the pigment.

Potato, shreaded up and placed on the (Closed) eye under a warm wet compress will draw out many irritants.

With paradise, could be the fragrance too.

I would actually say the culprit might be the wipes if you've used the paints before with no reaction. Wipes have been known to irritate the skin on the face.

it was the wipes, i had a similar incident removing my regular make up with them and look like I'd been stung by a bee both eyes, try taking a benadryl

Yes I agree it was the wipes, I only use water and soap and maybe a cleanser to get it all out. I hope your eyes gets better hun

I agree too.

Several times, after wearing my clown make up a whole afternoon (I use Kryolan watercolor), I noticed spots on my skin that weren't here before.

Then I decided to try and use soap and water right after the wipes and I did not have any problems any more.

Wipes. I have a friend who used to let me paint her 10 year old and usually I was there to wash it off. One day I painted her a couple of times and she wanted to keep the last one on her face for the rest of the day. Well she decided to wash it off with a face wash wipe and said it stung her face and her eyes got all puffy and swollen...she blamed it on the paint....and said I couldn't paint her anymore because she thought she was surely allergic to the paint. I was skeptical. Well long story short she needed to be a clown for a birthday party where I was doing the face painting and I was suddenly allowed to paint her again and voila...I gave the lecture about using soap and water instead of wipes...she was fine. When I was a total newbie I used baby wipes to remove everything and had the same problem. I now try to tell everyone I paint "gentle soap and water...NO WIPES" and hand them my card with the washing instructions that say the same thing. Put an ice pack on your face for a few minutes here and there, take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen or something...you should be able to get the swelling to go down by tonight.

on the topic of wipes.... just thought I'd put this out there. There is mention of the "tried and trusted Huggies Natural" wipes that might surprise you.
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2011/lousylabels/

OMG I just watched that Perry! Crazy! I just checked my Up&Up Target brand unscented wipes I use to wipe my own hands when I'm face painting...and they don't have that particular chemical in them that the Huggies brand had...but still makes me think of all of the other things I use in my house DAILY.

I am so allergic to baby wipes. In the beginning of Facepainting 14 years ago, there were face paints I would react to. It got to the point that I could trust only a few manufacturers (MAC, some Ben Nye). I would react with itching, stinging, burning, then small red blisters (as happened in front of Ben Nye Jr., in Toronto to promote his new line and he misted my hand with his Liquiset and tried to tell me that a little "tingling" is normal. When I dipped my hand in water to wash away the paint & Liquiset, small blisters had begun to form on my hand. He apologized. He also gathered up about 30 of his brand new line of brushes and gave them to me, along with one of each of his large color cakes. I sent back the three colors that made me itch; orange, red and a violet. The formulation of these products appears to gave changed since our encounter.)
It seems weird to have a face painter who is allergic to face paint. I can now use a few more brands than I used to. Baby wipes are a definite no-no for me. Wrap a baby wipe around the inside of one of your arms and check underneath at the 1, 5, 10, 20 & then 1 hour time to check for a skin reaction. Do the same thing for the yellow Paradise paint.
I leave the face paint on my arms and neck over night to check new colors. (I bring out the ugly floral pillowcase when ever I do my product tests to avoid smearing my good linens with face paint.
I hope this helps.
Lisa

Ouch Lisa! I'm glad it's gotten better...that sounds like a serious bummer!

Wow! Perry, thanks for sharing that, it was shocking. My mom is a big organic products advocate and she has bought me a couple of those. Tsk. I will have to show her the clip. Go CBC!
PS. I have also reacted badly with some wipes around the eyes..

Perry, thanks for sharing! I knew some of this and I've always read labels, but this is more than I thought.

Hi Everyone, thanks for all your replies. Sorry it took so long to get back. I was painting all weekend and beyond. Here in Ireland Monday was a bank holiday so everyone was off and this week kids are on mid term break so schools are closed. I've been painting like crazy and my skin has been sending me crazy.

I'm pretty sure now it was the wipes or more specifically the perfume in the wipes. Unfortunately I was left with skin that looked as though it had the worst sunburn. The skin has peeled off my eye lids and my lips are taking a while to heal because all food seems to burn my lips. My eyes are really itchy.

I've put a sign on my table warning against using perfumed baby wipes.

Thanks again for all your comments.

G x

Stacia wrote:OMG I just watched that Perry! Crazy! I just checked my Up&Up Target brand unscented wipes I use to wipe my own hands when I'm face painting...and they don't have that particular chemical in them that the Huggies brand had...but still makes me think of all of the other things I use in my house DAILY.

is use these exact same ones! They are the best! Up and UP! They are more like a wash cloth then a wipe.

I have my house littered with them for painting and ....well baby diapers

great link Perry, thank you and I have had my eyes opened !!

Sorry to hear of your reaction.

I use "nice and clear" all purposes wipes (they appear to be made in Ontario) - "for kids and adults for all ages' - hypoallergenic, fragrance free, does the trick quickly and is CHEAP!

yeah, that particular chemical isn't in my Kirkland wipes either, but we still need to be careful with using wipes on the same area of skin more than once or twice in a short period of time.

I made the mistake of using wipes because it was eaiser...never do that again! My face stung like crazy. Soap and water, wipes are fine for cleaning up little things, and dirty faces before you paint, but taking it off...terrible!

I couldn't get the clip to play it shows the to lady's then goes black then the red replay button comes on no sound. So don't know what chemical but always get unscented products because I have sensitive skin.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2011/lousylabels/responses.html#huggies

this is a readable page, it might be helpful. It took the video a couple of times to play properly on my lap top