Buying your first set of glitter

Adding that extra sparkle...

Glitter is an absolute essential in your new face painting kit. You can paint a pretty butterfly with lovey colours and then just a sprinkle of glitter will make it become a stunning butterfly. Glitter will allow your design to sparkle in the sun; the more eye-catching your designs the more children will see them and the more customers you will have.

Glitter can also be used to cover up small mistakes. When you are face painting, mistakes are GOING to happen. The skill of a good face painter is not to immediately jump in with baby wipes but to correct the mistake, incorporate it into the design or simple cover it up and draw attention elsewhere. If you have a tiny smudge or you have transferred paint from your hand onto the design then glitter can sometimes be a good "quick fix" option.

A little fairy dust goes a long way!

Superstar Aurora glitter in a "Puffer Bottle"

The wonderful thing about glitter is it really will last a long time. When you are applying glitter to a design it only needs to be a light dusting (anything heavier will cover up your line work and fine details), so your glitter really does go a long way.

In terms of colours, you don't need to have an entire rainbow (as sorely tempting as it is!). In fact, you can get away with just having one pot of iridescent or white glitter. Because this type of glitter doesn't have a particular colour it will accent any colour paint that you apply it to. 

Glitter comes in two types of "dispensers". You can either buy glitter in a pot and apply it by unscrewing the lid and using your finger or a paint brush to pat it onto the design, or you can use a "puffer" bottle (shown in the picture) which you squeeze to shower your design in glitter, like a tiny water bottle full of glitter! The first option is for precision and the latter is for larger areas, and the one I would recommend for beginners.

All glitter that you use must be COSMETIC glitter!

I really do feel like the above statement needs to be bold with the FORCEFUL CAPITAL LETTERS as it is so so important. Luckily, face paints like Snazaroo are so widely available that stories of parents painting their children's faces with acrylic paint are thankfully less and less common. However, to someone who has never face painted or does not work with makeup all glitter can look the same, and this is where face painting can turn very nasty...

Cosmetic glitter is, as a general rule, significantly more expensive than regular craft glitter. This is because it is made from very fine particles that you can barely feel when you rub it between your fingers. The importance of this is that if any glitter gets in children's eyes or mouth then it won't cause any damage.

3 of many reputable brands that sell glitter are Mama Clown, Superstar and Snazaroo. My favourite current glitter is Superstar Aurora which you can buy here in the UK.

Expanding your glitter collection

Most face painters have a few different colours of glitter to compliment their most popular designs, for example a blue glitter for a Frozen mask, red for Spiderman (don't be afraid to ask boys if they want glitter!) or gold for princess crowns. Beyond that you will only expand your range of glitter if you start doing glitter tattoos, something I will touch on later. 

For now though, one beautiful glitter will boost the quality of your designs at a low cost.