Painting the face and body

By RainbowMoonDust. 13/10/09, 12:56 am

For saturday of Auckgeddon I will be cosplaying as Nelliel Tu from Bleach.

I have already made the costume, now I need to figure out what to do her face markings with like in the picture below:

Spoiler:

It doesn't matter if they are red or dark pink, it depends on what fanart you look at, I will be doing the latter myself. However I'm not sure if I should use face paint or lipstick for this.

Face paint I am worried about cracking and I'm having a hard time finding the right shade. Lipstick, I am concerned will smudge but it will be much easier to find the colour I want and maybe easier to reapply too? These are options I'm looking at thus far.

I also need to paint a huge number 3 on my back, naturally I can't do this myself as I don't have rubber arms,

luckily Olli has kindly offered to do this for me so big hugs go out to her.

However I'm not sure what to use for this as I'm worried about face or body paint cracking or flaking, are there any other options I can use for this? See image below.

Spoiler:

So these are my options so far or the only ones that I can think of anyway, if anybody has any ideas on how I can do these then post away! Any help will be appreciated.

By Tails. 18/10/09, 03:32 am

Hey! Wish I saw this post sooner. I recommend using acrylic paint, go to your nearest Resene & get test pots, they're only $4 & they have colour charts so you should be able to find the exact shade of the colour you want. & don't worry about using house paint on your skin, it comes off with warm water, but wont smudge like lipstick, & will stay on a lot longer than facepaint & will barely crack. I'm using it for my Ultimecia cosplay, crazy woman has tattoos all over her body. Sigh. & my Dad's a painter so I grew up covered in this stuff. Hehe. Hope this helps!

By Static. 18/10/09, 11:51 am

Is acrylic okay so close to your eyes? oO!

**Guest** Guest

A safER alternative would be lipstick/lipliner/eyeshadow, you can get some that pink. Then maybe a coat of hairspray (EYES CLOSED!) to set it. For the back, eyeliner pencil will be safe but tedious, but I seem to recall someone at Geddon doing ink tattoos?

Shane was once painted entirely white using house-paint and he suffered no short-term ill effects. Although I couldnt tell you for sure about long term effects...

By Tails. 18/10/09, 02:02 pm

Yeah it's safe near your eyes, just gotta be careful when washing it off that you don't wash it into your eyes!

By deceptivemagick. 19/10/09, 08:50 am

By neimhaille. 19/10/09, 10:59 am

Artists acrylic, not house acrylic! Chromacryl and that.

And mix it with either Prosthetic Aide to make PAX (which no one here believes me is real ;)) or with that Johnson and Johnson's teen moisturiser (with the purple lid has toners and such you can buy with it). It makes the best and cheapest body paint ever. I have been mixing testers for my Mystique for the last few years and it works well enough that you can sleep in the stuff and only have a few bits peel off.

By Madam Madhatter. 19/10/09, 11:17 am

I painted my body blue with facepaint mixed with moisturiser.

It worked well, it did not peal at all.
I just had to be careful not to rub against things to much, because after awhile it would rub the colour onto it.

Washed off easy with soap in the shower.

By Le_Saboteur. 19/10/09, 11:35 am

No one believes Pax is real?! I lol'ed. I've used it many a time.

Yeah, if you're gonna use garden variety paint, I'd go for artists acrylic, too.

If you're after really good body paint (okay, it's waaay too late to get it now, but for future reference haha), the stuff used for airbrushing is... so amazing, and works just as well being sponged/painted on. Last year I did bodypainting for cup day in Christchurch and nothing at all came off, completely smudge resistant once it's dry and it's actually made for skin and people, so it has to be 100% safe. Hella expensive, though.

If you're worried about artist and house paint, maybe use a skin primer, if you have one (err, not paint primer Razz

). If not, apply a sheetload of moisturiser before you start painting -> wait for it to absorb, and then your skin won't be looking for moisture and suck so much of the paint in.

By Tails. 19/10/09, 03:43 pm

Ep sorry if what I suggested isn't safe, I wouldn't reccomend covering the whole body with house paint...It's just what I've always used, & I've never had side effects. But guess it's different for everyone.

**Guest** Guest

Eh, go and read what they put in makeup one day; I doubt it's much better than house paint.

By Bishkip. 19/10/09, 03:53 pm

hurhur, mudkip.

By RainbowMoonDust. 20/10/09, 02:20 am

By neimhaille. 20/10/09, 10:29 am

Actually make is designed for the face, funnily enough. There may be chemicals in it but house paints are designed for well houses. There are solvents and all sorts of chemicals in there to make sure it lasts for say 10 years under extremes of weather.
Make up goes moldy after six months and you are supposed to throw it away.

Aryists acrylic for students is non-toxic in case littlies eat the stuff. Some pigments used to be made from lead or other noxious substances (even for make up and houses ;) ) I wouldn't recommend eating it because it is essentially a kind of plastic but a day on the skin is fine.

Art shops will have it. Just make sure to get a known brand.

By RainbowMoonDust. 20/10/09, 04:04 pm

Just wondering, would I be allowed to carry paint on a plane?