Nothing says adventure on the high seas like a mermaid sighting or two, and your mermaid aficionados will love this Big Nose Buddies design, which is sparkly mermaid to the core. 

Materials

• Skin tone palette (TAG)
• Red face paint (TAG)
• Yellow face paint (TAG)
• Teal/blue/purple large split cake (Kryaline Fairy Garden Pearl, or SillyFarm Dragon Pixie/Mystique, or Global Sri Lanka)
• Small split cake with dark blue and teal (Diamond FX Blueberry Hill)
• Gold face paint (Paradise)
• Black face paint (Diamond FX)
• White face paint (Paradise and Wolfe)
• 1/2-inch filbert brush
• #2 round brush
* #4 round brush
• Small filbert brush
• Sponge
• Cosmetic grade glitter
• Star stencil (TAP)
• Scale stencil(HAS5001)

Tutorial

Begin by loading a small filbert and creating the face with the skin tone of your choice. Fill in the eye area with white using a #4 round brush.

Sponge the greens, teals, and purples into the background with a sponge, taking the color up to the hair line and close to the face of the mermaid. Keep the lighter colors around the of the eyes of the person you're face painting.

Use your #2 or #4 round to add some lavender eyelids to the mermaid, and then use the #4 round or a small filbert to add red hair to the mermaid.

After the red paint is partially dry, add some yellow highlights and a golden sea star to her hair.

Add glitter to the background and hair. I used Mama Clown Ice Blue for the background, because it's one of my favorite glitters. Use pink or red on the hair.

Use your 1/2 inch filbert brush, loaded from the Diamond FX Blueberry Hill or another small split with light and dark blues and teals, and create the mermaid's tail coming down by the eye.

Sponge gold over your scale stencil on the mermaid's tail.

Load the #2 round brush with black and create your outlines. I did this before adding the mouth so I would know how much room I had to work with. 

Add a tiny rosebud mouth below the nose. Use the #2 round and red to do this, and make sure you keep it small. It's really two teardrops with them meeting in the middle. 

Complete your black outlines with the #2 round brush.

Sponge white or silver stars in the background with your star stencil, and add white highlights to the design.

Enjoy your lovely mermaid!

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in Elgin, Illinois, and her artwork has appeared in The Colored Palette and SkinMarkz magazines. She services the western and northwestern Chicago suburbs, Chicago’s north side, and the eastern and southeastern suburbs of Rockford. Stop by Clownantics.com to enjoy more of Beth’s face painting tutorials.