It’s happened to nearly everyone: you make an extra special effort to make your costume as authentic as possible, only to wake up in the morning with your bed covered in body paint. On top of this you only have a short time to make yourself look half way respectful before your lecture starts. Here are some tips on how to rid your body of the paint.
Heavy make-up such as face paint is oil based therefore it resists the traditional washing up mechanisms of soap and water. Oil is even immune to most make-up removers as they are soap based.
Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline)
Cheap to buy (£1.85 – Boots Own Brand Petroleum Jelly), petroleum jelly is a good option for removing face paint off your face. It’s not filled with chemicals and will therefore not damage any sensitive areas of your skin. To use, keep hair away with a hair band, cover your face with the jelly and slowly wipe away using a face cloth using warm water and circular motions.
Olive Oil/ Coconut Oil/ Vegetable Oil
Oil is actually easily broken down using other types of oil as they attract each other and separate from your skin cells. Using
Salt/ Sugar
cotton wool and baby oil is a guaranteed way of ridding yourself of any paint residue left on your skin. For an all over body wash apply the oil to a dampened face cloth and rub gently over the skin and rinse. DO NOT pour directly onto skin as this is likely to create slippery surfaces in showers and bathrooms and can be dangerous. Olive or Vegetable Oil can also be used.
If you find some patches are refusing to budge add some salt into your oil mixture; this will create a natural scrub that will remove the most stubborn of paint stains.
Mayonnaise!
Another good way of removing face paint is to use heavy moisture based creams such as Nivea. A cheap and often more on hand version of this is to use mayonnaise. Apply it to you skin and leave for a minute, then simply wipe the mayonnaise and paint right off. Simple!
