This weekend I’ll be performing at a high volume event with far more kids than I can get through. While that’s the kind of situation face painters don’t love, because they can’t take time to make each design great and to enjoy the creative process, it is part of the business and so has to be addressed. In order to help my line move more quickly this weekend, I created a simple, glamorous design which I hope will satisfy the blingsters out there who love glitter and shimmer.

Materials

• Kryvaline Glowgaze split cake
• Diamond FX black face paint
• Diamond FX white face paint
• #5 round brush
• #2 round brush
• 3/4-inch or 1-inch flat brush
• Cosmetic glitter

Tutorial

1. Load your large flat brush (or filbert, as some artists prefer a filbert for this use) from one end of your Glowgaze split. I chose the end with yellow, green, and purple. Place the edge of the brush lined up with the inner corner of the eye. As you sweep back and away toward the temple, turn the brush so that it covers the lid, and then goes back to a point as it goes away from the eye.

Below the eye, add three leaf shapes, the last of which will come back toward the center corner of the eye.

2. Placing the edge of the brush at the top of the first shape, pull back and toward the forehead in an S-shape swirl. Your basic shape is now finished in five strokes with the large brush.

3. Add some metallic rose outline from the Glowgaze split cake, defining the shapes a little more. This isn’t necessary, but I wanted this color as well, and it didn’t pick up with the flat brush I was using.

4. Use your #5 round brush to add some high-contrast swirls and outlines. The recent discussion in one of the face painting groups I’m a member of has questioned the use of the blacks as liners right next to the eye, as some parents have expressed they have a tough time removing it. Because of this, I used a cat’s eye shape, but kept it up and away from the edge of the eye. It still looks pretty, but it won’t be a headache for the parent to help the child remove later.

5. Finish up with some white dots and glitter for extra sparkle.

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.