It seems that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is too short to be enjoyed properly, and I wanted to bring in a few Christmasy designs for you to share with your clients this year. Whether you have snowy cold or sunny warmth for the winter months, I hope the children you face paint, who love all things golden and glittery, will enjoy this Christmas design.

Tutorial

1. Begin by spritzing your gold with water and adding a sprinkle of Mehron gold glitter powder. You don’t have to use the Mehron powder, but it will add a more opaque quality and a more intense metallic sheen to the design if you do. Sponge the gold around the eye area, creating a small peak in the center of the forehead. Before the paint is entirely dry, add some cosmetic gold glitter for extra sparkle.

2. Load your #5 round brush with Paradise red and create the swirling design around the eye area. Although the glycerin-based face paints are generally not the best liners, and you may find it easier to do this with Wolfe, TAG, or Global, I chose Paradise because it’s a deep, rich red.

3. Place three red holly berries in the center of your design and also by the corner of each eye. Double load your flat brush with the light green and regular green from TAG. You can use other brands of face paint for this, but I like TAG because it has such beautifully brilliant greens. To create your holly leaves, make two scallop shapes on the side of each leaf which end in a point as you twist your flat brush up and away.

4. Using your #2 round brush, load with white and add some white “shadows” to the red swirls. I felt the design needed the white as well to brighten it. Place several small teardrops in the center between the eyes, and add small dots and starbursts throughout the design where there are empty spaces you feel need to be filled.

5. As a final step, use liquid bling to add a line of gold around the sections of the design you feel will benefit most from them. I outlined the holly in the center of the design and the exterior lines of the mask. (I didn’t do the holly at the sides because I felt it was likely the model’s hair would get into it there and it would become smeared, even though I would have liked to outline them as well.)

Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas!

Materials:

• Paradise gold face paint
• Mehron gold glitter powder
• Gold cosmetic glitter
• Paradise red face paint
• Diamond FX white face paint
• TAG light green face paint
• TAG green face paint
• Gold liquid bling
• 1/2-inch flat brush
• #5 round brush
• #1 or #2 round brush
• Sponge

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Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. She also writes for Examiner.com as the Chicago Face Painting Examiner.