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!