Witches' Ball, a/k/a Halloween - Part 3

Last night was the Witches' Ball in Montclair, NJ, co-hosted by Mystic Spirit Metaphysical Shop and Everything Akasha. I'd never been to it before, because it usually conflicts with my own Halloween party, but this year they held it a week later, and so I was able to go.

Me, miss a costume party? Not if I can help it!

My friend came over earlier in the evening, to be painted as The Morrigan, and Irish goddess. This was the picture from which I was working:

Kerry didn't have the head circlet or armbands, so here's what I did:

For myself, I saw this as another opportunity to wear my new pirate garb, so I went as a dead pirate:

Simply because I didn't feel right going to a costume party unpainted!

It was hilarious how many people apologized for saying it was creepy, when that's exactly what I was going for!

After the party, my husband and I stopped at the Wendy's drive-through because he was hungry. I was driving, and scared the bejeezus out of the two women at the window, who then proceeded to call over other employees to look at me.

All in all, a good night!

Halloween - Part 2

My morning clients from Friday liked their paintings so much that they asked to come back Saturday and get painted again! They came over in the afternoon, and this time the husband (who'd been a Jack O' Lantern) requested a face from the Insane Clown Posse. This one:

His wife, who had to be convinced to get painted on Friday, requested this geisha on Saturday:

And this time, they brought a referral with them! The husband's manager at work loved the Jack O' Lantern so much that he wanted to get painted too. He saw the skull face I'd done on Friday and wanted something like that. Doing it again gave me the opportunity to change some details and improve on the design a bit.

He was apparently heading out to the Halloween Parade in NYC to scare some of the city folk.

Later, I was able to do my own face before my Halloween party. I was a vampire.

Unfortunately, because of all the party prep, I was not able to do my husband's face as intended. I'm planning to give another go this Friday when we attend the Witches' Ball in Montclair, so check back after that to see if I accomplished it!

Halloween Appointments

This morning, a great couple came over to get painted before going to work. The husband wanted to be a full-headed scary Jack O' Lantern, and the wife just wanted purple streaks in her hair.

They came with their own orange, green, and purple hair spray, all prepared to go.

So I got to work on the husband, and this is what we achieved:

He and his wife absolutely LOVED it! After I finished this, I did the purple streaks in his wife's very dark hair. Subtle, but cool. Well, he was so excited, and she was so impressed, that he convinced her to get painted too. She just wanted a cool eye mask, something with tribal.

Then, this afternoon, I had another husband/wife team come by for paintings for a party tonight. They contacted me after seeing me paint their granddaughter at the Cabbage Night Festival on Saturday. The wife has a gold and black webby and gauzy dress, and a gold crown with various colored stones. She wanted to be a Butterfly Queen. This is she...

Her husband, on the other hand, went the opposite route. A man after my own heart, he got himself a black hooded robe and was looking for a skull face.

His wife sat behind him on a chair as I painted, and then he turned around. She literally jumped, she was so startled by what I'd done. They decided they couldn't go visit his mother today, because it might do her in!

Meanwhile, my pumpkin head emailed me, to tell me that the people at work were very surprised, and that security wouldn't let him in. He told them, " You know me man!! I've been coming here for years!!" A few of his co-workers got scared, and on the NYC bus it was hilarious. A few people spotted him on the bus and didn't want to get on! The bus driver was laughing so hard. He's been getting lots of stares and most people say, "Great job, who did it?" According to my client, "It's been so much fun man I haven't had this much fun in Halloween since 1998."

Halloween Season

It's begun!

My husband and I went to a haunt in NYC, Blood Manor. It's a popular event, with a line on which we waited nearly two and a half hours. In the drizzle. And chill.

The event planners, sponsored by Club Planet, tried to keep us entertained, with wandering actors and some fairly sick entertainment. Some of the creatures were very well done,

Some, not so much so.

There were also some rather truly gruesome "attractions" happening in the street. Suffice it to say, the men who were having dollar bills stapled to their skin were not the worst of it. This was.

 

 

Yeah, it's called Blood Manor for a reason.  This event is not for kids.

Inside, the walls were covered in UV-reactive paintings on black canvas, with blacklights lighting the way. The paintings were terrific.

All of the elements of the haunt inside were great - the actors, the costumes, the makeup, the props (I want those props for my house!), the various room themes, the use of UV-reactive paint and 3D glasses, the inventiveness of some of the themes. It was all the more odd to me, then, that I wasn't scared. I'm an easy audience, too. I'm very easily startled, and I do scare. I'll be afraid of a dark street or driving alone after watching The Grudge. So the lack of fright with this event was disappointing. My husband thinks it's based on the speed at which we were herded through, though I understand that the tour couldn't be too long or the line outside would be even less bearable.

I'm not sorry we went, though. I did enjoy the various pieces of it all, and appreciated the work and expense that obviously went into it.

When is Body Paint Not Body Paint?

When it's craft paint!

When is it dangerous even if it's not craft paint? When it's not FDA-compliant or used improperly!

There's a good article in Monday's USA Today, that you can read here. It explains the allergic reactions - red rashes, etc. - that can result from using craft paint or face paint that's not the good stuff.

Face and body paint, after all, is not all created equal. That stuff you get at most Halloween stores is usually from China. Remember all those issues we had a while back with products from China? The pet food? The paint used on children's toys? Yeah, same country, similar issues.

The products I use are all labeled as makeup, not paint. So that's a start. If you're looking for face and body paints, look for makeup. Something to note: Face paint (as other cosmetics) are not FDA-approved. Under the law, the FDA does not approve cosmetics. What they approve is the pigments used in the cosmetics. This makes the makeup FDA-compliant, if one is being accurate. If someone tells you that the face paint he or she is using is FDA-approved, s/he's wrong.

Now, I'm going to assume that anyone reading this is bright enough to never, never, never use craft paint on his face or body or the face of his child. That means no acrylics, no temperas, no watercolors, no markers, no Sharpies. Non-toxic doesn't cut it. As a good friend of mine in Minnesota likes to say, habanero peppers are non-toxic, but you wouldn't want to rub them all over your face!

So... what about those Halloween kits you see at the stores this time of year?

They're... potentially OK. But pay attention.

If you buy a great-looking kit to do your son up as Darth Maul, and there's an awesome photo of just such a face on the packaging - read the entire package before you buy. If the label or packaging says to avoid the eye area with certain colors (like red or black, which is very common), listen to the packaging, no matter what the photo shows. The packaging and labeling trump the photography every time. Take it seriously.

If the makeup smells funny, ditch it. Do not try to use it, since it could be infected with bacteria or simply old and past its shelf life.

Your best bet? Hire a professional. Even if it's not me (there, now you know I'm not biased). Ask him or her what's being used. If you hear Snazaroo, Grimas, Paradise, Mehron, Fantasy WorldWide, Kryolan, Fardel, Wolfe Brothers, Diamond FX, or several other brands (do your research if you hear something unfamiliar), you're OK. If it's craft or art products, run. Run like the wind. Run like they're trying to give you the Swine Flu.  There are some allegedly "professional" face and body painters who'll tell you that non-toxic craft and art paints are perfectly safe for use on the body.  They're wrong, and they're the scourge of our profession.  Run like the wind.

And the same goes for face and body painters who won't tell you what they use. If they won't tell you, it's because they have something to hide.

Ghouls for the Season

As a fan of Halloween, I start thinking about the holiday early, and it reminded me of a former Halloween.

A few years ago, I was requested to create some zombies for an event called "Halloween in December." It was a multi-themed convention, running on the theory that you can never have enough Halloween.

I'm inclined to agree. In fact, that year I attended FIVE Halloween events.
So I obtained some supplies - fake skin and blood - from Bloody Mary and Ben Nye, and I went to work. Here are the three who became the walking dead at my hands...

It's worth noting that at that same event, I won "Best in Show" at the costume contest, not the least because I painted my own face to match my costume!

Afternoon of Henna

I was hired to do henna today at my client's daughter's 50th birthday party. Yes, 50th. I was a surprise, part of the birthday gift, because the birthday girl is a huge henna fan. It showed when my client introduced me to her daughter, and she kept looking back and forth between me and her mother saying, "Really? Seriously? You have henna?" and then sort of squealed.

She wasn't the only one; I was a hit at the party in general, and people got henna even though it meant they couldn't get back in the pool on a nice, warm day. My takers were mostly girls and women, though some men went for it too.

I think the only person who might not have loved me to death was a teenage boy who wanted to use my henna himself to "graffiti" inappropriate words or pictures on another boy. With young kids at the party, I didn't think this was the proper venue for such things and refused.

I do lament the fact that I wasn't able to get good, clear photos of these last two. I really liked them, but it was headed toward evening and with the dim light, I had trouble getting the camera to focus properly. I figure they're worth posting anyway.