Face painters enjoy events which allow them to bring their full artistic resources to bear in order to dress up their normal designs, taking them from special to spectacular. Marcela Murad of FABAIC calls this “adding value,” and it is one of the most powerful concepts for any face painter. Not only is adding value certain to delight the children and adults you’re face painting, but it will cause guests at parties to take your cards and hire you for their own events.

Today we’re going to begin with a commonly used princess design and transform it by using extra details, stencils, glitter, liquid bling, and gems.

Tools:

• 3/4-inch or 1-inch flat brush
• #4 round brush
• TAG Pearl White Face Paint
• Bad Ass Mini Stencil—Swirly BAM 2028
• Diamond FX Blurred Lines Small Split Cake (or any favorite small split cake)
• Diamond FX White Face Paint
• White holographic glitter
• Amerikan Body Art Liquid Bling
• Gems
• Glitter tattoo adhesive

Application:

1. Load your flat brush with the Diamond FX Blurred Lines from the small split cake. Apply in a curved half-circle shape to the forehead to create a tiara. (There are variations for this design, so feel free to experiment with the shape.) Add glitter while the design is still damp.

2. For the eyelids, beginning by holding the edge of the 3/4 inch brush in a horizontal position at the inner tip of the eyelid and twist it to sweep it over the eye lid, drawing it up toward the temple and away from the eye.

3. Clean a spot on the tiara with a cotton swab and add a drop of glitter glue adhesive before placing the gem. If your gems already have adhesive, you can skip this step, but if you use the adhesive, the party guests will be less likely to come back to get replacements for lost gems. (You can also add more than one gem by repeating this process wherever you’d like to place extra gems.)

4. Spritz your sponge lightly with water and load it with your TAG Pearl White. Hold the stencil still with one hand while tapping the sponge over the design to create a lacy textured effect.

5. Place three teardrops at the corner of each eye, and add scallops, swirls, teardrops, or dots to create a design on your tiara. Again, there are many variations for this, and as you experiment, each tiara will become unique.

6. Finally, use liquid bling to outline portions of your design. Try to apply it in a thin line, since a thicker applications will take longer to dry.

Depending on the amount of time you have for your design, you could stop at an earlier stage if necessary and still have a pretty design, but the greatest value is added when you have the time to follow all of the steps.