Makeup tips and ideas for great carnival faces

Painting fun carnival faces to match a costume is not difficult. With a bit of practice, a detailed face painting guide and a healthy dose of fun, kids' face painting will definitely come easily to you. It's best to choose the makeup to match the costume or the theme of your carnival party .

But when it comes to face painting for Fasching or Carnival: your children should decide, which mask they want to wear. If your kids prefer something wacky and want for the homemade carnival costume to have a completely different face painted, that's also perfectly fine. Other children may not like the colorful paints at all: therefore never force your little ones into face painting.

Good to know:Children's skin is very sensitive. Therefore it should only from the age of two come into contact with makeup.

Depending on age, painting children's faces can also become a real test of patience become. But don't let it get you down; see it as an opportunity to perfect your makeup skills.

Choose the designs and face painting instructions to match your child's age and personality so that painting doesn't lead to friction. In general: a good preparation pays off.

Take your time and practice children's face painting together with your little ones. Before the big carnival party kicks off or you prepare for the street parades, you can thus perfect the carnival face from one attempt to the next.

This way you can be sure it fits perfectly for the party or as part of the street carnival costume and you won't get frustrated.

If some things don't go as you wish, stay calm and simply remove the makeup from your little ones and start again. Because: if you stay calm, your children will too. Whether the make-up looks perfect is usually not as important to the children as it might seem to you.

Also keep in mind that not every template fits every face. Your child has a unique face shape and often it's necessary to modify certain details of the templates for Fasching and Carnival slightly. So feel free to omit some details or interpret them differently. Your creativity knows no bounds when it comes to kids' face painting.

Popular designs for carnival face painting

Whatever design you choose for Fasching or Carnival, always keep in mind: Nobody is born a master. With each attempt you'll become more practiced at painting your children, and then you'll naturally dare to try the most imaginative ideas.

Especially for toddlers, simple and small designs work well. With as few strokes as possible you can achieve a huge effect. Because especially with the smallest, it often has to be quicker, since they don't like sitting still for long. Especially popular with little carnival-goers are designs with dots like ladybugs or Dalmatians. Quick and effective is the name of the game here.

From three years old it may already be more extensive face painting ideas be. For animal costumes the face can be painted in a uniform color and beautified with fine strokes. In the following years the children will be more practiced in their patience, which is why you can then tackle larger and more detailed designs. Butterfly wings can be painted so wonderfully in all their details. That is sure to make every child's heart beat faster.

Which carnival face paint is right for my child?

For Fasching and carnival, conventional makeup is rarely used, because delicate children's skin should only come into contact with it late. Thus, water-based carnival face paint, also known as theatrical makeup known, is exactly right for you.

Whether a face paint stick or face paint pen, both should be free of parabens and harmful substances. When buying, therefore look for face painting products that CE-certified and thus legally approved as cosmetics. In addition, the paint should have high color intensity and coverage and be well tolerated by your child's skin.

Do not use oil-based paint and use powdered makeup only in the rarest cases, as it would clog the fine pores of even the most fastidious children's skin. Face paint sticks are especially suitable for precise contours and for roughly sketching individual motifs. With water-based carnival face paint you can even work in detail with fine brushes. Wet paint is therefore also the easiest to apply and to remove.

Overall, however, you don't need to buy masses of children's face painting products in stock. In general, quality over quantity. So it's perfectly sufficient if you first only have the basic colors and individual colors like black and white , with which you can mix the other colors yourself and implement most ideas without any problems. If your child wants to decorate their face with glitter, opt for cosmetic or polyester glitter instead. These can be purchased in jars or spray bottles.

Attention: Please do not use craft glitter from hobby stores, as it can cause skin irritation.

Once you've found your child-friendly carnival face paint, you can apply it with synthetic-hair makeup brushes in different sizes. Especially the brush sizes 2, 3 and 5 are often used for carnival face painting. After all, the brushes should be able to produce small, precise as well as large and coarse strokes.

If you want to evenly prime the entire face in one color, it's best to use antibacterial cosmetic makeup sponges . You should wash and dry these thoroughly after use. Then the sponge is ready for your children's next face-painting idea.

Since no makeup lasts forever, always pay attention to the expiration date of individual products when face painting for children. If you've had carnival face paint for a long time, a test on less sensitive areas like the forearm is recommended. At the first sign of even the smallest redness, you should dispose of the paint.

This is what to consider for sensitive children's skin and allergies

Sore and irritated children's skin can be irritated even more than it already is. The skin then often reacts with pain, tightness and, in the worst case, even eczema or infections. To prevent this, it's best to pay attention to the ingredients already when buying.. Especially with known allergies or skin conditions, a close look can prevent unpleasant side effects.

Apply the carnival face paint to children never in the areas directly around the eyes and use it sparingly. You can apply the paint in layers and thus react immediately to skin redness or altered skin areas and carefully remove the paint. For cleaning, it's best to use clear water. If your child already complains while being painted about a feeling of tightness or even swelling, a cold compress after immediately removing the makeup is the best solution.

Step-by-step face painting instructions & templates for carnival

Now you probably want to reach for your makeup tools right away and start face painting with the kids. We have put together some instructions of popular face paint motifs for your kids. Get inspired and create your own individual 'works of art' for Fasching and carnival.

Important: If you paint in the eye area, your child should definitely close their eyes.

Lion

What you need:

• carnival face paint in white, yellow, orange, black & brown

• brown eyeshadow (optional)

• makeup brushes

• sponges

How to do it:

1. With a damp sponge, dab yellow color onto the nose, forehead and cheeks. Always start from the center of the face and dab the color step by step outward.

2. Next, work out the contours by using the same sponge, but now with orange color. This causes the shades to blend into each other and the face gains the fur-like texture of a lion.

3. With black color, generously paint lion eyebrows on the forehead above the eyebrows with sweeping lines.

4. With brown brush strokes, emphasize some of the black lines. You can also add brown strokes on the chin and cheeks, because a lion can never have too many little hairs painted on.

5. Now it's the white color's turn. Apply it with coarse brush strokes - similar to the fluffy fur of the lion - under the eyes and very lightly on your child's nose bridge.

6. Paint the lion snout with white color: for this, paint the chin up over the upper lip and under the nose.

7. Give the tip of the nose a black outline, which is connected to the lips with a thin black line.

8. Then paint your little lion's lips black. Extend the corners of the mouth to the level where some children have dimples.

9. Above the lips, paint small black dots. Paint the whiskers with thin black and white strokes.

10. If the child likes, you can add depth to the eyelids with brown eyeshadow. This makes your lion's eyes stand out even more. ... Grrr!\n

Ladybug

What you need:

• carnival face paint in red, white & black

• makeup brushes

• sponges

• skin adhesive (optional)

• wooden ladybugs (optional)

How to do it:

1. Turn both eye areas into a ladybug each by painting two red ovals generously over your child's closed eyelids and brows. These are the ladybug wings.

2. Dot small black spots onto these red ovals with a fine brush.

3. Then paint a ladybug body and a bug head with antennae next to each oval in the temple area using black and white paint.

4. Draw six thin black lines at the lower end of the red wings across each of the two lower lids. These are the bug's little legs.

5. If your child likes, you can additionally stick small wooden ladybugs onto the face with skin adhesive. Done!

Snake

What you need:

• carnival face paintin various yellow & green tones, in black & white

• makeup brushes

• sponges

How to do it:

1. Take a sponge lightly moistened with water and first dab dark yellow ovals generously around both eyes - including the eyelids.

2. Then dab alternately with different yellow and green tones the forehead and nose area as well as the cheeks evenly in broad arcs under the eye ovals up to the temple area, so that a closed surface is formed from the forehead almost to the mouth. By repeatedly dabbing the different yellow-green tones, the face gets a beautiful and dense snake-skin texture.

3. Now continue with the brush. Paint lines on the green facial area with dark green and white paint so that a scale-like pattern is created.

4. Paint the area between the dark yellow eye ovals and the green-painted area as white eye rings.

5. Finally, paint in the center of the yellow eye ovals two thick, pointed strokes on the upper and lower eyelid each. This makes your snake look even more dangerous. Done!

Pirate

What you need:

• carnival face paint in black, white & orange (or as desired)

• makeup brushes

• sponges

How to do it:

1. Start with the headscarf. Take a sponge lightly moistened with water and first dab orange color on the forehead area down to the hairline.

2. With a brush and black paint, paint the lower contour of the orange area. It can be a bit crooked, because a pirate certainly doesn't have a perfectly fitting headscarf.

3. On one side, paint a black knot and a tail end on the scarf. Color the tail end with orange paint.

4. Now paint white dots on the pirate scarf and outline them in black.

5. Next is the mustache. You can artfully curl it with black paint and daring brush strokes.

6. Then add a few black brush strokes on the chin. Your pirate is ready!

7. Tip: If you want the pirate to look a bit more daring, you can give him a scar. To do this, simply paint a horizontal black line across the cheekbones and place additional lines vertically on this line.

Butterfly

What you need:

• carnival face paint in pink, white & yellow (of course you can get even more colorful)

• blue eyeshadow

• glitter (optional)

• pink lipstick (optional)

• makeup brushes

• sponges

• 2 small hair ties (optional)

How to do it:

1. Dab blue eyeshadow generously on both eyelids - up to the brows and sideways to the temples.

2. Moisten the sponge for painting with some water. Dab pink color in nice arches over your child's eyebrows onto the forehead and likewise to the sides under the eyeshadow in the temple area.

3. Now take a brush for the details. Trace the dabbed arches in white. And design these outlines creatively with further small arches, dots and decorations, some of which you can fill in with yellow. Always make sure that you design both sides evenly. This way, the arches gradually become magnificent butterfly wings.

4. Now you can paint a body for the butterfly on the bridge of the nose with white paint and finish it with a large white dot as the head just above the bridge of the nose.

5. Also with white paint, place the antennae into the middle of the forehead with 2 brush strokes. Ready to flutter away!

6. More tips:

• Many butterfly kids love glitter as the finishing touch. Simply apply it to the bridge and tip of the nose as well as along the cheekbones.

• Boldly pink-painted lips also go well with it.

• With the right hairstyle, you can also better showcase the makeup. To do this, separate two strands of your child's front hair and tie them into two braids with hair ties. Now it looks as if your butterfly has two very special antennae.

Mexican skull mask

What you need:

• carnival face paint in white & black

• makeup brushes

• sponges

• rhinestones to stick on the skin (optional)

Here's how:

1. Prime one half of the face with white makeup and a sponge. Leave the eye area free.

2. Then paint this with a brush and black paint.

3. Around the black eye oval, paint a flower shape as well – also with black paint.

4. Paint the upper lip on the white side of the face black and extend the line over the cheek so that a smile is created.

5. Paint several vertical lines over this line that get progressively shorter toward the back.

6. If you like, you can stick small rhinestones on the outer edge of the black eye area. Done!

DIY: How to make carnival face paint yourself easily

If you don't want to buy carnival face paint, you can easily make it yourself. Maybe you even already have the required materials at home. The best part: you know what ingredients the carnival face paint is made of and can almost always be sure that it will be tolerated by your child..

Materials:

• baby cream

• food coloring

• starch (for white color)

• activated charcoal tablets from the pharmacy (for black color)

How to do it:

1. You can create various shades from the materials mentioned. For each color you need 1 tbsp of baby cream.

2. Put the baby cream either into a porcelain egg cup or into containers made especially for cosmetics.

3. Melt the baby cream for about five minutes on low in the microwave or in a warm water bath.

4. Once the mixture has melted, stir the thick mixture smooth and let it cool.

For colored paints stir the respective food coloring well into the melted cream. The more color you use, the more intense the shade becomes. You can of course also mix primary colors together to create various color nuances yourself.

For white paint mix the baby cream before melting with a teaspoon of starch. After the cream has been melted together with the starch and cooled, the color is immediately ready to use.

For black paint take one to two charcoal tablets, depending on desired color intensity. Grind the tablets very finely using a mortar or coffee grinder. Only then heat the baby cream as described above. After the baby cream has cooled, add the ground charcoal tablets and stir the mixture for a few minutes until no lumps are visible. After that the color is ready to use.

Makeup tip: For an even application of your homemade carnival face paint, it's best to use makeup brushes for fine contours and sponges for large areas.

Makeup removal tip: How to remove the paint

As easily as carnival face paint can be applied, it can be removed just as easily. For removing makeup, it's best to use simple makeup wipes or a oil shower gel.

Put a little of the shower gel on a wet washcloth and gently wipe the paint from your child's face. At the end, remove the last makeup residues with clear water. Then dry the face with a towel by dabbing motions off to avoid skin irritation and blemishes.

Image credits

Little girl with her face painted as a cat, with orange, yellow and blue streaks © Gorilla - AdobeStock

Girl having her face painted as a tiger with a brush © Pixel-Shot - AdobeStock

Child with green clown wig having their face painted as a clown © Victor - AdobeStock

Face painting supplies, sponges and cloths in the box, brushes in a jar, colorful face paint in small pots © pegbes - AdobeStock

Girl painted as a ladybug on the face - eyelids red with black spots, plastic ladybugs are glued on © nedomacki - AdobeStock

Red-haired boy having his face painted as a snake - green, orange and black © Prostock-studio - AdobeStock

Boy with pirate hat, face painted with a mustache and bandana © nata_zhekova - AdobeStock

Little girl having her face painted as a butterfly © New Africa - AdobeStock

Child with black hood and face painted as a skeleton © V E R S H I N K A - AdobeStock

Boy paints dad's face as a lion © TommyStockProject - AdobeStock