essentials?

what would be your top picks for your face paint kits? Or otherwise what brush, paint, glitter,etc. can you NOT live without?

(bear with the newbie here!)

Wolfe white/black, snaz, hand sanitizer, wipes & headbands. Oh ya, lotsa duct tape

I have a very basic kit that I take with me that includes:
DFX White, Black, Silver, Metallix Red, Red
Snaz: Sparkle Yellow, Sparkle Orange, Torquoise, Fushia Pink, Sky Blue, Dark Orange, Orange, Bright Green, Grass Green, Copper, Dark Brown
Paradise: Wild Orchid, Lime Green, Yellow, Silver Bullet

Most of these are split cakes I make and put into my own palette.

Three irridescent glitters: White, yellow and pink
Baby Wipes
At least 3, #4 round sables
At least 3, #5 round sythetics
At least 50 sponges

One each pastel, neon and regular rainbow cake.

Mirror, Sign, Black twin sheet for a table cloth, cards, card holder, brush basin.

add a spray/dripper bottle for wetting paint and a camera to Metina's list.


I'm still a newbie really. I started with the snaz pallet wit large red/green/white...etc. Then I added brown, purple. DX/Wolf for white and black details. (I've added a few more as well). I've got 3 rainbow cakes, but you could probably just start with one for now. The dimondy glitter will go on a lot of things. Lots of sponges and brushes. I'm starting to become a brush tart I think.

Great list ladies!

What's the duct tape for?

Holding the kids in the chair?

lol!

I need round sables #2, 4, 6, 8... and proper sponges. Other than that I could paint with any brand.

I have a list of my favourite colours/brands on my resources page - with the reason I like them.

My favourite colour is Kryolan Interferenz Bach Blue...

Instead of headbands, I bring a bunch of bobbi pins to pin back bangs, and the girls can keep them in and show off their design.

I use wet sponges generally, so to large events I bring a small office waste basket (prettier than a bucket) filled with sponges, then I put water in it. It's clean water, so if I need to do a water change, I can dip a cup and grab some. Or, I grab a sponge and squeeze out all the water and it's ready to use.

I also have a fan, the folded-paper hand kind, in case the paint isn't drying quick enough (or it's a sweaty day). It's small and travels well.

Sometimes the duct tape is for the chair.......lol

I live in a very windy city, so I have to make sure I tape every damn thing I own down, or it ends up in the next town. I tape my boards to my easels, my easel to the table, my card holder to the table, even my towel to my table. Everything ends up taped. Plus it works well in a pinch if there's anything you need to temporarily fix..............besides, it's the Canadian way hahahaha

Red Green RULES!!! I bought some turquoise duct tape yesterday. I am making a new table top display...

Red Green totally rulz! There is so many amazing colours of duct tape now, i love that. Even pink

I never thought of having prewet sponges. Seems like that would save a lot of time and constant spraying the paint, and then having it to dry out afterward. Do you find the sponges are every too wet. This sounds like the only delimma in this.

Waiting for more input JBax!

I would rather use bobby pins or hair clips, but regulation requires me to clean between each and every use, and 1 head band is easier to clean.

I use bobby pins but don't expect them to be returned. They are very cheap at Walmart or the dollar store.

I use long metal "duck" clips... no hair bands! You can transfer critters....!!! The metal clips are easy to clean - just dump them in my alcohol container.

The pre-wet sponges I first saw Lynne Jamieson do - she has a huge bucket of sponges in water, grabs one, squeezes it in a towel (which is hanging off the edge of her table) to get rid of excess, then loads it from her cakes... she multi-loads one sponge from several cakes... and then applies. She also uses really large (by comparison to most) sponges which are chopped up car wash sponges. She's one of the fastest painters I've ever seen - and it is not "fast designs" it is top quality gorgeous stuff.

Metina wrote:I never thought of having prewet sponges. Seems like that would save a lot of time and constant spraying the paint, and then having it to dry out afterward. Do you find the sponges are every too wet. This sounds like the only delimma in this.

Waiting for more input JBax!

Not really. I am very careful to completely wring out all the excess water in the sponges. (I don't use the white cosmetic squishy-when-wet sponges, I use the round kind) And I cut my sponges up small. Most demos I see shows the round ones cut in half... I often will cut mine into 3rds, and sometimes 4ths. It's how I roll And I keep a tea towel tucked in my apron pocket or over my shoulder, which helps if I didn't do so good in wringing or to dry my fingers. I still keep a spray bottle handy in case my sponge runs out of juice. I think my husband thought this one up!

Hair bands have to be hard plastic, impervious materials, not fabric or your right, they can transfer critters

I really love the pre wet sponge trick! Makes things so much easier! I need to get a spray bottle though!

I think I'm going to give the pre-wet sponge thing a go...sounds like a great idea...and it gives you an already wet towel to wipe my fingers on.