Face Painting and Glitter Art Supplies

Hey and welcome to today’s blog post (more of a list)!

Below is a list of suggested suppliers that I use and would recommend for face painting and glitter purchases.

The majority of these suppliers I use myself. There are a couple on here I haven’t purchased from, but they come very highly recommended from other face painters. (Please note none of these are affiliate links, they are just suppliers I love).

General face painting suppliers

Magic Box face paints– Magic box has excellent customer service and is one of my favourite places to shop!! I always find what I want as their selection of paints is MASSIVE! They also supply glitter (including bio) & tattoos, large custom one stroke kits and palettes, special FX and loads more! Pop over to their site and have a mooch.

Face paints direct Another great store with an excellent selection of paints and supplies.

The Face painting shop– The Face Painting Shop is another great one stop shop for all your supplies. 

Dauphines- I haven’t shopped at Dauphine’s for a while now, but they definitely need a mention as their customer service is so great! I still remember a call I had 5 years ago with a gentleman that worked there. He was exceptional and really brightened my day.

Yorkshire Face Paints– I placed my first order last night! I have only ever heard amazing things. Lots of painty, as well as bling supplies and double sided medical tape. Donna also does some ace tutorials on her Facebook page too.

Festival Glitter

Rainbow Sparkles– Their glitter gels are to die for! They are heaped full of sparkles. They also do some amazing coloured fine glitter too which is great for tattoos. Rose who sells rainbow sparkles really knows her stuff and often does glitter demos on her Facebook page.

LG London– a massive selection of festival, fine and bio glitter with bling added in too, all at very reasonable prices. Definitely the place to shop if you are putting together a glitter bar.

Cazi’s Crafty Creations– Has just started selling her own glitter pots and mixes. She is adding bio glitter to the catalogue soon!

Bio Glitter

Glitter Lution The original bio glitter. A massive selection including different sizes and mixes.

Bespoke One Stoke Palettes

Sally- Ann Lynch Sally’s palettes come in an array of original and beautiful colours. I believe if you have a specific request you can get in touch with her to order.

Cazi’s Crafty Creations– Cazi has recently started making bespoke palettes, and people on the painty Facebook groups are loving them. Her main palette includes all the one strokes you need to get started.

Practice Boards

Sally-Ann Lynch- Loads of sizes, good quality and great to use as a display. Sally does a large A2 board with 12 faces on that is excellent for this.

The Fancy Fairy Boards- Great and affordable practice boards. I often decorate my plain A4 boards and use them as signs that are part of my display.

Cases and kits

Craft N Go Craft N Go are awesome paint stations made specifically for face painters. They are imported from America and are on the pricey side, but man they are beautiful, sturdy cases in amazing colours!

Fantasy Face Paint Case- I haven’t had the pleasure of using the Fantasy face paint case, but I have heard great things. Emma and her husband who supply the cases have great customer service and reply quickly to queries.

Glitter tattoo suppliers

Glitter Body Art Online Their glitter tattoo stencils are the cheapest I have found. They have a huge selection of glitter including festival and bio glitter at awesome prices. All my orders from them have always arrived quickly and well packaged.

 

Building Your First Face Painting Kit

If you are thinking about getting a few face paints or putting together a small kit, but are overwhelmed by all the options, then this post is for you.

There are so many different brands, pallets, cases and types of paint, it can be really confusing. A lot of painters start out by practicing and using Snazaroo’s mini party sets. These sets are readily available for around £15. They are great if you want to get a feel for face painting, but the small volume of paint included in the kit does not last very long.

You can find awesome little Snazaroo kits here  (please note this is an affiliate link and should you purchase the kit a small percentage of the cost will be returned to me, with no extra cost to you)

I originally started with one of these to practice with, I then picked up the colours of the rainbow along with a black and white and made my own mini kit. I repotted the paints from the small kit and from the larger colours, made rainbow cakes and popped the remaining individual colours in to a small craft box. These can be purchased from craft stores and places like Home Bargains & Poundland.

Once I started getting invited along to paint at parties and events, I realised I needed some good quality paints and a range of split and rainbow cakes. For this I purchased the Diamondfx palette shown below.

 I then also purchased an empty palette and cut in to the individual paints to make my own one strokes. I used this, along with a large split cake, at my gigs the summer I first started. This was my basic working kit.

 

I then went for years without painting (life, university and work took over). When I finally decide to put together a face painting kit and kick start Cosmic Faerie I purchased quality brushes and slowly started to buy individual paint, one strokes and rainbow cakes. I then set up all of this in a DJ Hero case. 

If you’d like some information on how I converted my case check out my blog post here

For my latest set up, I have invested in a CraftnGo. I love it as it is colourful and bright and fits in perfectly with Cosmic Faerie colours and branding.

To round up, the items below are a great place to start if you’d like to invest a little more than a small Snazaroo palette, but do not want to buy everything in sight (but let’s face it most of us do as there as soooooo many pretty colours!)

 

  • A good black and white for line work- Diamondfx is perfect for this
  • Some basic colours, blue, green, red, yellow, orange, pink & purple. (I have never purchased large brown or grey paints, as I have found a lot of the designs I do don’t require them much. When I do need them I mix my own from the colours I have available). You can purchase these in a kit such as the one I used to start
  • Stencils. Don’t go mad, just a few basics to help enhance your designs such as stars, snow flakes, skulls or hero logos are helpful.
  • A water pot (a dual or triple water pot is helpful although not essential)
  • Good quality brushes. Some people love brushes and collect loads, but I find that have around 8 or 9 brushes I use regularly. It is good to practice with different sizes and shapes, but you only need the basics to get started. For ages I used the DiamondFX round brushes that came with the palette. Saying that, I must admit purchasing a few high quality brushes has really helped me to improve my painting. A round 1,3 & 5. A ½ inch flat brush and a ¾ inch flat brush & a petal brush. Lowel Cornelle and The Face Painting shop’s brushes are my favourite. 
  • Sponges. I pick up baby sponges from my local Wilkos, Tescos or Savers. They are around 50p each and I cut them in to 4 pieces. The rounded edge fits perfectly in to rainbow cakes.
  • Some basic one strokes and rainbow cakes. If you have limited funds try just a few to start with. These ones are always helpful: a rainbow, a green for leaves, Reds and yellows for fire and one stroke Spiderman designs, a blue for the sea and Frozen designs, shades of pink to use for creating roses, and a typically ‘girly’ colour that can be used for Princess crowns and unicorns. If you already have single colour paints you can make your own split cakes, there are lots of tutorials on YouTube that will show you how to do this. If you’d prefer to buy your one strokes ready-made, Global colour make some brilliant palettes that contain all of the above combinations and extras. .

I hope this has helped! Feel free to comment with any queries or questions you have.

 

 

Dj Hero case conversion.

You may have noticed on a lot of face painting groups people talking about their DJ Hero kits.

The DJ Hero is a game that was released with a DJ deck that came in an awesome box with legs. These boxes make brilliant face painting kits with just a little work.

Below is my video that shows you how I converted my DJ Hero case. Enjoy!

 

If you would like to pick up some awesome coloured Duck Tape, check it out here. I use the dye explosion in my case!

Why not grab some spray paint too! I went for silver in my case and then covered it with glitter.