A Guest post for MWWAH (Mother's Who Work At Home)

 

My almost-five year old came home from school recently, requesting I paint his face like a dragon.  Why not, I thought.  How hard could it be?  I found a few recipes for home made face paint on google (the modern mother's life raft) and we decided to give it a go.  Making your own face paint, so I discovered on Pinterest, is cheaper than buying those face paint crayons at the store.  Oooh economical.  We were in. 

 

Making the paint is child's play.  Painting a child's face is more like walking in a straight line.  Sober, anyone can do it.  Painting a wriggling child, while googling instructions in 36'c heat with shaky hands and sweat running down both your faces is more like a completely inebriated mess.  It's great fun; you just need to know when to stop.

 

We decided to go for a bright, aquamarine blue - as opposed to say, a light, sky blue.  We added some dragon eyes.  Next for scales...  Finally, we added the best dragon nose I could do and some scaley polka dots.  I'll admit it wasn't quite the callibre of a professional face painter, but we were having a great time.  So much so, that when my son asked to take a turn at painting my face red, I didn't hesitate.  I've always had a thing for Spidey - the epitomy of calm and collected, scaling those sky scrapers with the greatest of ease.  

 

For awhile we had a blast, creeping up on daddy and waking him from slumber, scaring the absolute bejebus out of him (yes, that's a word).  But soon we began to melt.  The home made face paint was starting to thin, mixing with sweat and sliding down our faces.  And that's when it all started to unravel.  Peering a little closer, I watched as the paint trickled down my son's face, leaving a bright watery trail.   It was time to farewell Spidey and the dragon before both our faces ended up on the floor.

I gently rubbed my son's nose with a face washer.  The top layer came off easily enough.  But the skin underneath was stained.  Bright, aquamarine blue.   I rubbed again, this time a little harder.  Still blue.  No one mentioned this on any blog spouting DIY face paint recipes. 

 

"Just mix a little face lotion and water to take it off" they all said.  I mixed a little more.  Nothing.  I added some shampoo, barking

"Just keep your eyes closed!"

 

Still blue.  I panicked, turning to the mirror. Not only was my son blue, but I was red.  Cool, calm Spidey was gone, leaving panic stricken Spidey in his wake.  Perhaps permanently.  Then it dawned on me.  The realisation that today was not just any Tuesday, but the night before parent-teacher interviews.  With a new teacher.  At a new school. 

 

The face paint eventually came off, with a strange concoction of washing up liquid, shampoo and face cream.   Two days later I found face paint crayons at Kmart for about $3.  I have learnt many things in the past five years of motherhood.  Not trying everything you read on Pinterest is now one of them.