Painted Personalities Blog

One of my big soap boxes as a face and body artist is that of safety. I can’t tell you the number of parents that have walked up with a child, looked at the designs, and then regretfully told the child that they couldn’t get their face painted since the child had had a bad reaction the last time their face was painted.

It is so important that people don’t let their children get painted with anything but skin safe products. I tell folks that they shouldn’t let their children get painted on with craft acrylics. The craft acrylic manufacturers have said that this paint is not made for use on skin. Some acrylic craft paints contain latex. Many people are developing latex allergies. Some craft acrylic paint pigments are heavy metals, such as nickel, cadmium, or lead. Would you use cosmetics with these metals in it for your makeup? Then why would you allow these thing to go on your child’s face? Only allow your child to be painted with products that have ingredients that are approved as cosmetics. These have been tested for use on your skin.

Halloween is 2 weeks away and parents are working on those costumes for trick or treating and the festivals. People are told to use makeup instead of masks for safety. But how is a parent to substitute makeup for masks in those costumes?

Let me give you a little bit of background about me and my knowledge. Thirty years ago, my mother purchased a halloween costume for my younger brother that included facepaint instead of a mask. On Halloween, she dressed him in his costume, then put the makeup on him. He had a nasty allergic reation to the paint, his face was swollen and red. It was the paint that came with the costume. It was supposed to be fine, but it wasn’t. How do you avoid something like this happening to you or your children?

The first and most important thing is to use good paints. There are so many paints that are available at halloween, and some of them are great and some aren’t so good. Some brands of professional paints are: Mehron, Kryolan, Ben Nye, Snazaroo, Wolfe Brothers, Fardel, Grimas, Cinema Secrets. These brands have done the testing and will have listings of the paint ingredients available to check. All of of these folks use ingredients that are FDA approved for use on people’s skin. Do your research, its much less expensive to get good products than to pay for a doctor’s care after a reaction.

If you think you or your child may be allegic to a paint, you can do a patch test with the makeup. Buy a small container of the paint and put a small circle on the inner arm. Let 15 minutes to one hour go by. If the paint does not cause any redness, swelling, or itching in that time, you should be good to go. If it does cause any itching or swelling, wash it off immediately. If you are concerned about the reaction, contact your doctor!

Glitter is lots of fun, but the wrong glitter will hurt. Use cosmetic grade glitter on you skin. Cosmetic grade glitter is polyester glitter and is a smaller particle. Craft glitters are made from metals, glass, or mica and the colors are not made with pigments that have ingredients that are FDA approved for use on people’s skin. If a piece of craft glitter gets in a person’s eye, it can cause major damage.

Be smart about your costumes and makeup, and you will have a very Happy Halloween!

Oh my. Painted Personalities got a mention on TV on Friday!

I found out about it after it took place. Remember how I said that I had written an editorial for the Birmingham Parent magazine? Evidently the Birmingham Parent’s editor has a standing spot on the local ABC’s affiliate on their noon Friday news. The magazine sends a copy of the current edition to the TV station and the station personnel chose what particular article or information from the magazine they want to focus on for the spot. This past Friday, they wanted to talk about Halloween makeup safety! The editor talked about the editorial I wrote and Painted Personalities too!

Of course, I didn’t find out about it until after the spot was on the air. So I’m trying to see if I can get a copy of it to see how it went. I think I have tracked down a copy of the show to see. Hopefully I’ll see it soon.

It is finally out. The October issue of the Birmingham Parent magazine is on the newsstands and the article, excuse me, editorial I wrote for them on Halloween makeup safety is published! I wrote about safe paints and glitters. It is so important to use makeups that are made for use on people’s skin as opposed to poster paint or acrylic paints. And cosmetic glitter is so much better for use on skin than craft glitter. Moms and Dads should be very careful what they allow on their children’s skin. I’m finding that more parents have children that are sensitive to things in the environment. And that translates into parents who won’t or can’t let their children get face painted because their children have had a reaction to something put on their faces. I use facepaint and makeup whose ingredients are compliant with FDA rules for use on people’s skin.

Halloween is coming up, and costume time is approaching. You can have lots of fun with creative costumes and makeup. It’s also easy to have other problems because of those, too. So be careful out there, folks!