Karla Powell Make-up Artist

Karla Powell Make-up Artist

Take a look at this fab blog post by Karla Powell about Superstar face paints

Diamond FX White 90g

Diamond FX White 90g

The ever popular Diamond FX white is now back in stock.

Paintopia visits the 2012 UK Face and Body Art Convention: Paintopia recently set sail from a blustery Norf...

Paintopia visits the 2012 UK Face and Body Art Convention:

Paintopia recently set sail from a blustery Norf...: Paintopia recently set sail from a blustery Norfolk across country to the fair town of Dudley near Birmingham to join in all the f...

Helen Elvins Paints at the UK Face and Body Painting Convention with Superstar

well, its been a long time comin, and for that I apologise, but like so many other painters, we've suddenly been engulfed in Halloween and bookings for Christmas. 

My time at the convention was spread between body painting with the lovely Lesley, and helping people to choose some fabulous colours to add to their kit.  Whilst some would say I was a very bad influence on their failing fight not to overspend on just one more colour, but if ever there was a product where you can do that without a pang of guilt then this is it !!  Just seeing the paints laid out on the table was too much for some - the majority of the delegates found it really usefull to be able to play and try out the colours before buying the right ones to both compliment and replace other brands.  Lots of positive comments about the paint, and some lovely ideas for future colours too, and lots of promisses to practice with their chosen colours, I just knew everyone would love being able to play with the paints and working with these paints on the lead up to the convention has had my customers clammering to get involved, and watching the childrens faces light up after each face painting has been great fun.   The mums love the paint too as its so easy to remove.  Over the few days we were there, and actually using the paints as you would on a booking, both body painting and face painting, enabled me to show what the possibilities are and I know that many of the VIP demonstrators loved the bright density of the colours too.  It was great to see so many painters - both newbies and all our long standing friends having a play with the kit and as time goes by and everyone gets used to using it I'm sure there will be more colours on the way to enhance and suplement the range of 80 colours to choose from.   

Hot favourites over the weekend were deffinately the Ziva blue and the new Ploppy Orange which has all the beautiful density of the Ziva together with endless blending posibilities - I've fallen in love all over again and my absolute favorite at the moment is the Ploppy orange and old red which blend really well, and I for one know there are lots of you out there who would love to see more of it being used on pumpkins and halloween butterfies to name a couple of ideas over the coming few weeks.... Can we do a comp Nat ?? would be great to see what people do with it ... lets call it - ploppy orange posibilities  !!  anyone with a ploppy orange face paiting send it over - lets share !! 

It was great to see Marco again and to meet and put faces to names we talk to on chat lists and facebook.  

I've put in a couple of pictures of our piece on Saturday to reflect the theme of the weekend, and special thanks toour model, Karen Whittingham, who has just landed a fabulous role in the new film Bogo and Flit being released next year (a bit like shreck but in real people rather than annimation) so well done and respect to you for being able to manage to model wearing that hat !! (which is for sale BTW ! - offers please - and all of the proceeds will go to Brian Wolfe's medical fees fund)

I'm looking forward to painting over the coming couple of weeks mostly for Halloween events and parties - and I promise i'll get some ploppy orange paintings over to you all, but first of all this ....

Everyone waits for the one big phone call in their career and what ever your goal or dream mine came true on Sunday Night.. it would be an understatement to say thiat it threw the Elvins household into a state of shock !

the conversation went something like this..

Me;  Hi Lisa, whats happening ?  

Lisa;  Are you free on Thursday to come and do some body painting for me ?

Me;  Yea should be able to fit somthing in, what do you need?

Lisa;  Im working on the James Bond Premier in Birmingham, can you paint some models gold for us?

Me;  Just try and stop me !!! - how many and what time do you need them ready for ?

(have to say - what ever she said next I didnt hear as it was spinning around the lounge, and jumping up and down!) 

Lisa; As many as you want babes, we know you'll do a great job.  Shall I leave it with you to sort - just have them ready for 6pm so that they'll be able to greet the VIP's 

Me; No problem matey - see you very soon then 

END OF CALL 

From that moment on - things have been very sureal in our house, things have been coloured gold, discussions about what to stand on, shoes and hair styles even the size of the models, has taken precidence over what do you want for tea? and shall I take you to school now ?   

I wonder if i'm going to wake from a wonderful dream and am as i write, packing my bags to make sure I have every shade of gold paint (Superstar of course) and enough of it to cover the models we've lined up.

A crack team will be arriving at Cineworld (IMAX) on thursday afternoon and having tickets to the after party thoughts go to what we might wear, the Cornish Pixies (AKA Nic & Pete (who gets to be a bond lookalike for the night! (body painted of course!) Jus, Alice, Jen and me, all painting, our other models, and Nathan, (Jens other half and my little helper) with a photographer will rock up and paint like mad, producing some pretty spectacular bond themed paintings for the guests to have photos with over the course of the evening.  - to say we cant wait would be an understatement.  I'll blog again next week (I promise! ) and let you know how we got on - in the meantime, Happy Halloween everyone ...

Illusion Magazine Premier Issue

Illusion Magazine Premier Issue

Now on line, the premier issue of Illusion Magazine.

All copies we have in stock are hand signed by cover artist Lynn Jamieson

The New colour from Superstar has arrived

Superstar face and body paint have created a brand new shimmer paint called Ploppy Orange.

The Face Painting Shop is proud to announce the arrival of the highly anticipated new colour from Superstar.

 

Ploppy Orange is a new shimmer face and body paint from Superstar, a vibrant orange, fabulous coverage, no staining,  and no smell.

 

Ploppy Orange is a must have paint in every face and body painters kit.

 

This new colour is exclusive to The Face Painting Shop in the UK.

Ploppy Orange BY Superstar

 www.thefacepaintingshop.com

Catriona Finlayson talks about Superstar

Hi I'm Cat Finlayson; I started face painting in 2006 & was lucky enough to win UK Face Painter of the Year & 5^th in the World Face Awards in 2007. That year I painted my 1^st body too, and got hooked. I quit science and since then face & body art has become my sole income as well as hobby. The last few years I started placing in/ winning body competitions too (e.g. the Welsh Festival, Phizzog, Body Factory, Paintopia), and I love it.

                                  

I tend to keep a body-paint kit as well as a face paint kit as I prefer slightly different brands/effect for each side of the art. I have tested/ tried most products in the years. I now mostly stick to Grimas, Paradise and Kryolan for my face kit, with some DFX/ TAG split-cakes (mainly DIY'd as I use them up so fast – my almost-full-time summer booking is 70 faces daily). My body kit is mostly DFX and Grimas as I find they seem to 'stay' slightly better on bodies where they get rubbed more etc.

I recently had a last minute booking to paint 200+ dancers faces for the launch of a Norwich Dance School, Dynamic Dance, which also doubled as a fund-raiser for Meningitis. There were 2 performances, matinee & evening, with several different 'acts' in each, repeated,and a whole-cast stage call at the end.

About 100 of the dancers had to be simple ½ -face robots in silver with black & white line-work, with several needing to wipe it off between dances and then get it re-applied for the final performances. The rest needed simple spiderwebs in black, or silver & black gothic swirly eyes.

I haven't liked most brands of silver I have tried, the only truly metallic look being when I mix Graftobian or Mehron metallic powders with their matching liquids for the 'living statue' look we often get asked for. But both brand's mixers were not great on faces near eyes etc- I usually use their powders dry instead which is a bit messy. Kryolan's metallics are good, but not so much their silver, and the last Wolfe silver I had didn't work at all (not sure if it was a bad batch though).

So, I thought I'd give Superstar a try and ordered the silver & the silver glitter. At the event I had a sort of production-line going, as its faster when doing lots of identical faces. I'd sponge 3 at a time silver, then do all the black (paradise) line-work, then the white highlights – as you can see very basic as I only had a couple of hours before the matinee to do the 200 dancers in! It was a nice easy booking to carry kit in for though – Superstar silvers, Paradise black, Grimas & DFX white being my only paints!

I found the Superstar quite soft compared to some brands, but it gives a beautifully shiny silver coat when applied with enough water – thicker when damper. The more sheer drier application was also quite effective although its slightly more difficult to get a smooth pale base than it is when using Kryolan or Snazaroo sparkle white, for example.

Superstar seemed to last quite well, even on active sweaty faces, as I only had a couple of the 100 robots come back to get 'fixed' between dances. The finale shots from the 2^nd performance show it had blurred a bit but the silver was still shiny, and the kids all said it felt fine on too. It washed off easily just with soap & paper towels in the changing room loos, as no trace was left on the dancers who I had to decorate in other styles for their other acts.The only drawback I can see is the smell – I really do not like the 'perfume' added to the paint. Its quite sweet, sickly and very noticeable. Superstar have removed it from the new batches I hear (indeed my original Ziva Blue had no smell but my new bigger blue still has it).

Superstar Ziva blue has now replaced my fave sparkly blues in my face kit, and added a beautiful sheen (darkened with DFX blue) I used on “Queen' Laurence at Painswick Art Couture. I use it as a base where I sued to use DFX metallic baby blue, a Kryolan Interferenz or Snaz Sparkle Turquoise. It can be a little patchier when dry but then it is a stronger/ darker shade so thin areas let more skin show through.

I made some split cakes with shades of brown and those are looking good so far; I'll see if they last as long as DFX etc splits do over the next few weeks.  It is definitely 1 of the 'softer' brands – if you transfer paints between pots of make split cakes you will know what I mean. Kryolan (& Paradise metallics) tend to crumble, most UVs are crumbs, some matt colours in most brands can be extra-hard & very very difficult to cut up. Superstar has a 'chewy' texture like a stiff DFX metallic/ Grimas white or a softer DFX non-metallic, if that makes sense. Which means its perfect for cutting up!

I tried the Superstar Line white to replace my beloved DFX white. I work with it 'wet' – at the start of the day I plop a chunk of DFX white into an empty pot in my palette, squirt on some water, and without mixing, usually end up with a lovely creamy liquid DFX white ready to use when needed. I tried this with the Superstar line white and it did that sort of slightly 'curdled' clumpy liquid thing that's more like the texture Grimas white/ paradise goes if you try to make them liquid. It also seems to clog up and plump up my brush, which I didn't like – the DFX keeps the brush slim and ready to do fine lines with (sorry hard to describe this). However, the liquid Superstar line white DID seem to be nearly as strong as DFX over other colours (shown here on my arm over Superstar Ziva blue – DFX to the right,Superstar to the left). Not quite as opaque, but better than Grimas/ Paradise white.

So overall – naff smell, (glad that is going), gorgeous metallics,  a close 2^nd to non-bleeding-through-colours line-work favourites...... a good addition to your kit!

How Brierley Thorpe Created Her Wining Design

Here is how the winner of our Superstar Pure Silver competition Brierley Thorpe created her winning design:

SuperstarSilver Competition for the Face painting shop & Illusion Magazine : 

I only had a rough idea for this robot (who we decided, afterwards, was in fact a robot- pharaoh), and didn’t sketch out any ideas beforehand, as I was so up against it, time-wise. I was aiming for a sleek, smooth, sci-fi look, which would follow the facial contours, using the Superstar Silver and other complimentary shimmers from the range (I have a few, now!).

I started with the eye areas then drew the main sections in black straight on, without blocking. Next, I painted a wider line of Silver Shimmer inside my black lines with a wide flat ‘Tag’ brush, then dragged this line of colour into the blank spaces, before sponging, to fill. I then darkened certain areas with Ziva (my favourite Superstar, and currently my most frequently used face paint) a dark cherry from Grimas, plus Paradise black, to intensify the colour and ‘sink’ the low areas.

All detailing on the design was painted in Diamond FX black, using a Grimas No.2 brush. The forehead was painted last,with the aim of creating a slightly raised convex disc made up of control panels.

I lightly sponged another layer of silver over some of the areas painted with Ziva, painted the hair, ears and neck, and finished with white highlights and glitter.

Products used:

Superstar Silver Shimmer

Superstar Ziva Shimmer

Grimas 507

Diamond FX Black

Diamond FX White

Paradise Black

Grimas Silver glitter

Brierley x

www.furfangfairy.com

 Well done to Brierley on her winning design

Roxanne Horn talks about Superstar paint

Superstarpaint

Every time I open a container of Superstar paint it brings me back to when I was a child.

My mother, who painted me and my sister two times a year, always used Superstar paint.

Today I still hear the mothers of the children I paint say that the smell brings back memories.

Superstar nowadays is a global brand and is still made in the same factory by the same people. Sometimes it’s just better not to change a successful formula.

It makes you greedy. Just try and decide for yourself, when you want to buy paint, to only buy max. six colors. You can’t. I bet you decided to buy black, white, red, blue, green, yellow..and okay..pink for the girls. So with a color list in hand you go to the store, but when you arrive you are overwhelmed by more than sixty colors! Not only standard colors, but also metallic’s and what?! metallic with glitter! :O

They have every color you can think of and also colors you didn’t even know existed.. They didn’t, your right.. But Superstar invents their own colors! Ziva for example. And because it’s a color you’ve never seen before, you just have to have it so you can show everyone that you are such a pro face painter, you have an unique-never-seen-before color. ;) 

 

So everybody knows that black is black and white is white, right? But of course Superstar has to break that rule.. They have two blacks and two whites. :/

A normal white for skulls and vampires and a deep white for pretty crisp lines and teardrops.

And of course a normal black for shades and a deep black for tiger stripes and batman.

You might think you don’t need all four..you don’t..but when you do, you don’t want to go back to two. ;)

What’s good to know about Superstar paint is that you don’t need much water to activate the paint and when you apply it it takes only seconds to dry. Because of the deep pigments some colors leave a trace on the skin, but I’ll bet girls don’t mind when you put that pretty raspberry pink on their lips. ;)

Also every color is different, some have a soft substance and others are quit hard. Last but not least, the good thing about Superstar paint is that you can leave the containers open for days and they will not dry out!

Roxanne x

You can keep up to date with Roxanne at :  http://roxarosa.com/ 

or her Facebook page :  

http://www.facebook.com/RoxSH.creative

 The whole range of Superstar paints can be found at www.thefacepaintingshop.com

Superstar Face & Body Paint: Helen Elvins - The Lorax Film Premier using Supers...

Superstar Face & Body Paint: Helen Elvins - The Lorax Film Premier using Supers...: So when a team of painters get together to go on a job - what do we take?  the usual table and chairs, a nice black table cloth and of...

Helen Elvins - The Lorax Film Premier using Superstar Face Paint

So when a team of painters get together to go on a job - what do we take?  the usual table and chairs, a nice black table cloth and of course the superstar paint range......

The first UK premier to be held outside of London was last Sunday at Cineworld in Birmingham.  They closed the roads, had Danny De Vito flying in to walk up an 80m orange carpet, and the film .... THE LORAX 

What a gift for facepainters this will be, so after a few weeks of preparation and designing new face designs specially for the film premier day, off we went.  Of course, this is me, so it wasnt just the table and chairs and paint that went with me but the following really made a difference..... 1 photographer....2 excited girls and their dad, pretty pastel coloured newly printed tops for the painters, a couple of fabulous balloon modellers, none slip pastel coloured mats for the paints to sit on, flowered t-towells for us and clothes to put over the childrens laps in case of spillages, little pastel pots and a big flowered bowl in the centre of the table for us all to take our sponges from.  Two mobile tray kits and small selection of Superstar paints for outside painting, along the orange carpet.   Various pots of glitter, brushes and a light up display board with the Lorax faces stuck on, water carrier. 

We arrived at the Cinema in good time, set up our inside painting area and shared out the paints, what a choice, the pictures went down a storm and almost immediately we had a queue of people all wanting to be painted.  The painters, Sandra Crofts, Alice Elvins, Jen Roberts and myself - painted solidly for 4 hours mixing and mingling with footballers wives, wags, stars of TV, including (and I know you'll excuse a little name dropping here...) Susan Collins (the bill), Daniella Lloyd and her gorgeous boy Archie, Emile Heskey, the USA Olympic team, Foxy & Juliano from Free Radio, to name a few and of course Danny De Vito - who was keen to have his photograph taken with one of our customers, were all among our stream of happy customers.  

The faces all beautifully executed using Superstar paints, all intense colours and entirely suited to this beautiful and thought provoking film.  A must for kids of all ages, and which will be a very popular theme for parties and events, so in order to help those of you who'd like to get in on the Lorax action, I've created a step by step walk through booklet suitable for new and experienced painters, to look at as a preview to what would be suitable faces to do.  Even if you haven't seen the film, these designs will enable you to do some beautiful faces with detail and the colours to match.  

Hope you enjoy looking at some of the pictures - for more in the book -which will be available this week, either on download, or printable PDF go to http://www.facesunlimited.co.uk/ or e mail helenelvins@yahoo.co.uk   thanks Superstar & The Face painting Shop - the paints are fabulous  - absolutely cant wait until the next one ! 

Helen Elvins - Superstar

Have to admit I was a bit aprehensive about travelling to Austria once the decision had been made to go, let alone doing it with a completely new set of paints waiting for me when I arrived, but the Tackle Tart in me wouldnt let me leave without some of my every day kit - just a few favorites you understand ! just in case ! so off we went.. across mountains and rivers ... the longest drive we've ever had ! 

I neadn't have worried though, Marco, and the team from Superstar were really helpful and despite the van arriving a little later than planned, they let me have the demo pack they were using on the stand to practice with and get my first fix of the paint.  Until they could put together my own kit once the boxes were unpacked.  Also giving me a stock of T Shirts to paint in - I really could have left my suitcase at home! 

I got back to the tent and layed out all the colours, onto the specially cut board I'd taken with me, sorting out the ones that I thought I'd need the next day at the competition.  I couldnt resist a little play though and trying out the colours in the heat on Thursday evening was a pleasure.  No gloopy mess, the line black and white sitting perfectly on top of the colours I had chosen.  They were blending like a dream.  All of them smelling beautiful, with a delecate floral scent, and the fabulous Ziva blue standing out as my most favorite of the shimmer colours.  

Friday came and the day of the competition dawned.  Dehydration setting in we soldiered on and the painting in general went quite well.  In between drinking lots of water, and feeling very lightheaded at the prospect of the fabulous display of artwork later that day.  The atmosphere was getting more and more exciting and with seconds to spare, I finished my design and helped my model into her headwear and shoes, we put the finishing touches to her painting. 

Melanie was one of the best models i've ever worked with, she knew exactly how to stand, and how to move and be photographed and after going through the judging process ( a little daunting for a first timer !) we emerged into the photographic area.  With sets and coloured backdrops for the photographers to use, the models filed onto each catwalk and did their stuff brilliantly. 

after about 2 hours of being photographed on the banks of the lake at Portschach we made our way to the main stage for the presentation.  each model taking their turn and Melanie being one of the few models to hit the wet catwalk in the highest heels i've seen - she did beautifully !. 

Afterwards - a cold drink and wait for the results, unfortunately this time, not in the final 35 but not far off it and already looking forward to next year, having so much more experience and knowledge to work with.  

Saturday was spent recouping our energy and working out the plan for Sunday - Body painting on the stand, or Glitter body art, I chose to take part in the Y body Glitter art competition but using my favorite Ziva paint as my inspiration, once again Melanie showed off the glitter and painting to her best ability and to say that I think EVERYONE took photo's of her, was an understatement!  It took us half an hour to walk the 100 yards to the surreal stage where the prizes were being announced, and being photographed at every step was so much fun with groups of people applauding her (glittered by me - 2nd place) and her friend Angie (glittered by Kate Dean - awarded 1st place) on their body art.  

I have to say I've never used such a beautiful range of paints, and I cant wait to get back out there to try out more of the fabulous colours on my regular customers who I know will love the Superstar paints as well as other painters too.  They have the best and brightest pigments and the best brush work capabilities I've seen in a very long time.

Some pictures of our first adventure with Superstar ... more adventures to come very soon.  

Helen 

Superstar By Debra Mills

Hi there I’m Debra Mills and I’ve been face painting as a hobby for the past 2 years now.  I started of at my kids school fete’s etc Summer & Christmas times and realised that I was actually better at it than the other volunteers (if I may say so myself).  Friends would tell me I should do it professionally.  Well I’m not quite a professional but, I do give it my all and I am always learning about new techniques and different varieties of paints. In the last 6 months I have done a couple of corporate events as well as private parties.  So here I am, writing a blog on behalf of TheFace Painting shop on Superstar branded face paints.

Usually my stash consists of a mix of DFX, which is my staple also arty brush cakes, and Tag, then I found The Face Painting Shop and subsequently Superstar paints, so I thought I would give them a go.  The first thing I liked was that there is a choice of 2 sizes and as it was a brand I was not familiar with I purchased some of the smaller cakes to give them ago.  I must say when they were delivered I was absolutely delighted by the vibrancy of the colours I’d only chosen 3 colours 1 matte 105 Bubblegum pink and whoa its bright, I loved it immediately the other 2 are Shimmers 130 Blue Shimmer & 133 Rose Shimmer.  Using the paints for the first time I was surprised that I had not heard of them before.  They’re nice and creamy and have a wonderful scent about them.  Here are a couple of pictures showing how the paints look using both a brush and a sponge when applying to the skin.They also clean away with a baby wipe without staining. Hope you like. 

You can keep up to date with me on my Facebook page  

Debz.

 

Tel: 020 8333 1832 or 07515744573      email: debis1@ntlworld.com