Showing a child how she looks in the mirror and seeing the delight on her face is always the high point of face painting, but when you use neons and show a child how she looks under a blacklight, the surprise and excitement for her is even greater, because there’s something almost magical to a child about how neons glow under blacklight. This beautiful princess design showcases gorgeous neons, which look lovely under regular lighting conditions as well.

Materials

• TAG Neon Rainbow Split Cake
• Diamond FX Neon White
• Diamond FX Neon Violet
• Diamond FX White
• Global Purple
• Sponge
• Petal Brush
• #4 Round Brush
• Dot Stencil

Tutorial

Begin by loading your teardrop sponge from your TAG neon split cake. Position it with the wide point at the hairline and with the small point down in the very center of the forehead. Lift and rotate the sponge, pressing it down to make two more points on either side of the center point.

Reload your sponge and press it over the eyes, patting the color up and onto the temples.

Load your petal brush with a combination of Diamond FX white and Diamond FX neon white. Load the tip with Diamond FX neon violet. The neon white won’t show up well in regular light because it’s a little sheer, which is why I combine the whites. Even with the addition of the regular white, the neon will glow under the blacklight. Make a cluster of petals at the tip of each point of the crown, at the top of the crown, and at the corners of the eyes.

Load your #4 round brush with a combination of the Diamond FX neon white and the Diamond FX white. Add a sweeping cat’s eye shape over each eye and add teardrops and dots to the crown.

Load a new sponge with Global purple or your favorite non-neon purple and place your dot stencil over the outer half of the eyelids and stencil purple dots from the eyelash line, slowly fading out as you go up and away from the eye. (Lea Selley’s Graffiti Eyes dot stencil is also great for this.) Under a blacklight, these dots will look darker. You could also use black for this, but I chose purple because I wanted brighter colors under a regular light.

Enjoy your neon design!

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. Stop by Clownantics.com to see other face painting tutorials by Beth. 

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