Newest Incarnation : Minimalist Face Painting Kit

I do love my ever evolving face painting kit. This is the latest going back to the basics kit. I really enjoyed the two hour and three hour jobs that I worked on Saturday with this kit.

Here is the biggest drawback that traditional face painters face – traditional cake face paint is water activated. This means a damp sponge or brush must be swiped across the surface of the makeup to get the makeup onto the brush or sponge. Then the dampened, makeup-laden brush or sponge is applied to the skin and the face paint dries in a few minutes.

But! After the face paint on the guests’ faces has dried, it is still water activated makeup. So if the dry face paint design gets re-wet through rain, sweating, swimming, water balloon fights, runny eyes or noses, or pie eating contests, well then that face paint is going to run for the hills (and sometimes it’ll run straight onto the only clean outfit that kid has had on all week!).

This isn’t usually a problem for indoor events or winter activities but, come on! Most Spring & Summer parties and picnics have some kind of shvitzing, spritzing or swimming involved.

Behold the mighty Airbrush! A tool too cool for school. (Or a too cool for school tool…)

Airbrush face painters and temporary tattoo artists used to have only two options – water-based airbrush face paint makeup (essentially liquid cake makeup) or alcohol-based airbrush tattoo ink/makeup.

The water-based option is wonderful because we can use it on the face and still be super fast about face painting. But! It still has the old familiar drawbacks of regular face paint : re-activating with water and therefore running and smearing at the first hint of moisture.

Alcohol-based airbrush temporary tattoo ink’s special formulation is wonderful for longer lasting BODY tattoos but it is irritating to the sensitive skin of the face – and who wants to deal with removal of a stubborn green snake tattoo on a five year old’s face before school picture day? Not this mom. To remove the alcohol-based airbrush temporary tattoo inks from the body you really have to go with rubbing alcohol or baby oil, but boy does it hang on through all those trips to the pool.

Welcome our New Water-Resistant Airbrush Face Painting Makeup.

This stuff is amaaaaazing. It has the longevity of the alcohol based tattoo inks but just like water-based airbrush face painting makeup, it is gentler on the skin and requires only soap and water on a washcloth to remove. It takes the gentle natured outlook on life from the water-based airbrush face paints and combines it with the rugged tenacity of the alcohol based airbrush tattoo inks. It contains the same cosmetic magic ingredient that water-proof mascara does.

So what does this mean for our customers who are used to our amazing traditional face painters? Well, it means that we have a sweet new option to offer them for summer time Company Picnics, Pool Parties, B’nai Mitzvah, School Dances and other events where perspiration or environmental precipitation might be involved.

And our airbrushed designs are super fast – our artists can blaze through 40-50 kids per artist per hour with the simpler airbrush face painting designs a.k.a. “Cheek Art” or “Tattoos”. And they can still do the cool “Full Face” airbrush face painting style at 20-30 kids per hour as well! With traditional sponge and brush face painting, at 30-50 kids per hour, those guests would be lucky to get a pink teardrop and spritz of glitter. We have encountered SOOOO much less grumbling from guests in line when the service is fast and the line moves quickly.

Now is the time to book your date and ask if Airbrush Face Painting and Tattoos is the perfect fit for your event.
~Michelle.Heffner@gmail.com

Here is what Ken, the VP of Membership & the Purim Carnivals’ organizer had to say about our services:

“Thanks again for yesterday… everyone loved it! You guys were awesome…heard of a lot of compliments!!!”

~Ken B., VP of Membership, Shaare Torah, Gaithersburg, MD

I really enjoy this convention because I know that the folks I meet are close by and are as serious as I am about making our professional children’s entertainment companies in Maryland, Virginia and DC exceptional and ever-improving.

Michelle Heffner Teaching New Face Painting Techniques

I had such a great time talking about my “Pretty Little Somethings” – designs for when clients don’t know what they want but they still want to participate in the live creative process of face painting. It was lovely to show off and get “oohs” and “ahhhs” of course, but it was also gratifying to hear the feedback from the class participants :

“…your workshop was great! The rhythm of the step-by-step with the ‘this is how I would normally do it’ was really good, and your explanations were better than the other ones I went to! Excellent job and a good topic too.”

Michelle’s special “One Stroke” rose technique which WOWWED even the most seasoned painters

One of Amanda's Guests

Oh what a lovely surprise!

My lovely client Amanda posted a surprise review for me on Yelp.com. I am so happy and excited about that.

In the past, Yelp has not allowed my clients’ reviews to show. I think Amanda’s made it through because she already had an account there and she had reviewed other establishments. They are very picky about reviews and reviewers.

Yay! Here it is in all it’s lovely glory: Yelp Reviews for Bright & Shining Face Painting

Thanks, Amanda!

“I hired Michelle to do face painting and balloons at Chickfila for my son’s birthday party.  I had to get approval from Chickfila to bring her in but they were ok with it since we didn’t have a huge party.  We had 7 kids and a couple of adults getting their faces painted.  She also does balloons for parties but, in our case, made them ahead of time since they don’t give you a huge window of time at a Chickfila party (an hour for the party and 30 minutes for clean up).  I paid Michelle using paypal (easy!) and gave her plenty of info via email on what the kids are into.  My little one is a Yo Gabba Gabba fanatic.  My older boy (and his friends) are crazy about Mario.  She arrived promptly and did a fantastic job painting faces.  After painting was done, she brought in the balloons she had pre-made.  She made a balloon for EVERY single character from Yo Gabba Gabba.  And she made a Mario balloon as well.  Amazingly, all of these balloons really were identical to the characters!  She obviously invested a lot of time looking at images so she could be sure to get it right.  I highly recommend her for entertaining if you’re looking for a face painter or balloon maker.  Fantastic job!”
~Amanda in Columbia, MD

“Hi Michelle,

We had a great time with you yesterday, thanks again for doing such a special job with the kids.  So funny that ALL the girls wanted to be butterflies!  It was wonderful that you were able to create variety amongst all those butterflies, I could see how you really thought about each girl and gave different touches and flourishes to suit their personalities.  But I was most taken by the design you chose for our Lucy girl.  Not sure if my husband explained our situation with Lucy, but she was born with a devastating metabolic disease and she is profoundly disabled… Lucy is in her own little world most days, comfortable and at peace, but very very fragile.  She is the center of our lives and our family, and we feel so lucky that she is comfortable and at home with us.  The winter angel / fairy design was so touching to me – it looked so beautiful on her but it almost enlivened her facial expression a bit (she does not make eye contact or smile…).  I really loved it, so thank you.

The other Moms were really impressed as well.  Everyone kept saying how professional the work looked and I told them that you were the consummate professional throughout.  I was just so impressed by your work.

And thank you again for being such a special part of Audrey’s party yesterday.

Warmly,

Christine T., Washington, D.C.”

The Littlest Zombie!

“Thanks, Michelle.  The kids loved it.  Great pics too!  Next time I want to be a zombie.”

~Reed R. in Columbia, Maryland

“I could not have had it any other way, everyone said my best party ever. Thanks to you, all the mums I spoke with today said the kids did not want to wash their faces! I would call you again in a heart beat you are the best. The kids would have taken you home if that was an option. Thanks so much, Michelle.

Kome O. from Clarksville, Maryland”

no swirls, curls, teardrops from me…

time to stretch my wings

Thanks Brady :)