Face paints tin exist fun on Halloween and other special occasions. Here are tips to help keep your fun from leaving yous with a rash, swollen eyelids, or other reaction.

Two girls with face paint.

Painting Your Face up: Special Effects Without Aftereffects

Decorating your face up with face paint or other makeup lets you come across better than you tin if you're wearing a mask. A mask tin make it hard to run across where you're going and lookout man out for cars. But make sure your painted-on designs don't cause issues of their own.

  • Follow all directions advisedly.
  • Don't decorate your confront with things that aren't intended for your pare.
  • If your face paint has a very bad olfactory property, this could be a sign that it is contaminated. Throw it abroad and use some other one.
  • Like soap, some things are OK on your skin, but not in your eyes. Some face paint or other makeup may say on the label that it is non for apply well-nigh the eyes. Believe this, even if the label has a picture of people wearing information technology nigh their eyes. Exist careful to go on makeup from getting into your optics.
  • Even products intended for use near your eyes can sometimes irritate your skin if you employ too much.
  • If you lot're decorating your skin with something yous've never used before, you might try a dab of it on your arm for a couple of days to cheque for an allergic reaction Before you put it on your face up. This is an especially smart thing to do if you tend to accept allergies.

Color Additives: The "FDA OK" (Or, A Picayune Detective Piece of work Won't Hurt)

A big part of Halloween makeup is colour. But this is your skin nosotros're talking about. Think about what y'all're putting on it. Yous might not desire to put the same coloring on your peel that a automobile company uses in its pigment.

Luckily, y'all don't take to. The law says that colour additives have to be approved by FDA for apply in cosmetics, including color additives in confront paints and other cosmetics that may be used around Halloween time. It also includes theatrical makeup.

Plus, FDA has to decide how they may be used, based on safety information. A color that's OK on your tough fingernails or your hair may not exist OK on your skin. Colors that are OK for nigh of your peel may non exist OK well-nigh your eyes.

How do y'all know which ones are OK to utilize, and where? Do some detective piece of work and cheque two places:

  1. The list of ingredients on the label. Look for the names of the colors. Then...
  2. Check the Summary of Colour Additives on FDA'southward Web site. There's a section especially on colors for cosmetics. If there'due south a color in your makeup that isn't on this list, the visitor that made it is non obeying the law. Don't apply it. Even if information technology's on the list, check to see if information technology has FDA'south OK for use near the optics. If information technology doesn't, continue it away from your eyes.

For That Ghoulish Glow

In that location are two kinds of "glow" effects you might become from Halloween-type makeup. Ready for some ten-dollar words? There are "fluorescent" (say "floor-ESS-ent") and "luminescent" (say "loo-min-ESS-ent") colors. Here's the difference:

Fluorescent colors: These are the make-y'all-blink colors sometimes called "neon" or "day-glow." In that location are viii fluorescent colors canonical for cosmetics, and like other colors, in that location are limits on how they may be used. None of them are allowed for apply almost the eyes. (Check the Summary of Color Additives over again.) These are their names: D&C Orange No. 5, No. 10, and No. 11; D&C Red No. 21, No. 22, No. 27 and No. 28; and D&C Yellow No. 7.

Luminescent colors: These colors glow in the dark. In August 2000, FDA approved luminescent zinc sulfide for express cosmetic use. It'due south the simply luminescent color canonical for cosmetic use, and information technology's not for every twenty-four hours and not for near your eyes. You can recognize it by its whitish-yellowish-greenish glow.

When the Political party'southward Over...

Don't become to bed with your makeup on. Wearing information technology too long might irritate your skin, and bits of makeup can scrap off or smear and get into your eyes, non to mention mess up your pillow and badger your parents.

How you take the stuff off is every bit important as how you put information technology on. Remove information technology the fashion the label says. If it says to remove it with cold cream, utilize cold foam. If it says to remove it with soap and water, employ soap and h2o. If it says to remove it with eye makeup remover, apply eye makeup remover. Yous get the picture show. The aforementioned goes for removing glue, like the stuff that holds on fake beards.

And remember, the pare effectually your optics is delicate. Remove makeup gently.

Merely Just in Case...

What if you followed all these steps and still had a bad reaction? In March 2005 and May 2009, some face up pigment products were recalled from the market because they caused problems such as a peel rash, irritation, itching or modest swelling where the paints were practical. If you have a reaction that seems to be caused by face up paints, your parents may want to call a doc, and they tin can call FDA, too. We similar to continue track of reactions to cosmetics so we know if in that location are problem products on the market place. To study a bad reaction to face paint, novelty makeup, or any other cosmetic product, run across Your Guide to Reporting Issues to FDA.

Desire to Learn More? Cheque out These Sites:

  • Temporary Tattoos, Henna/Mehndi, and "Blackness Henna"
  • Decorative Contact Lenses
    • Decorative Contact Lenses: Is Your Vision Worth Information technology?
    • FDA Reminds Consumers of Serious Risks of Using Decorative Contact Lenses without Consulting Middle Care Professional person
    • FDA Warns Consumers of the Dangers of Using Decorative Contact Lenses Without Proper Professional Involvement
  • Center Corrective Prophylactic
  • Temporary Tattoos/Henna/Mehndi
  • Tattoos and Permanent Makeup, from FDA's Office of Women's Wellness
  • FDA Authorization Over Cosmetics
  • Color Additives in Cosmetics

September 25, 2001; updated Oct ane, 2003, September 28, 2005, October 31, 2007, and October 8 and sixteen, 2009. This certificate is current; updates are made only as needed.

Resources For You

  • Halloween Safe: Costumes, Processed, and Colored Contact Lenses
  • Halloween Nutrient Prophylactic Tips for Parents
  • Hypoallergenic Cosmetics