Shelley's Faces Fantastic! Face Painter and Henna Artist 85.00 per hour

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. Since I do both facepainting and henna, I get called for all sorts of things where an entertainer is needed. I do events, birthday parties wedding and baby showers and weddings. I also do fundraisers and go over to the local grade school for school functions

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. If you've got a huge party, you might do better with 2 artists for 1 hour than having your guest wait for 1 artist to finish in 2 hours. I have another artist that I can call.

Artists often have a warm-up time. So, that special design you want on the birthday girl....have her be the 2nd or 3rd person the facepainter works on.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. I would advise people to check the types of paints that the vendor is using. Paints from China have been found to have excessive levels of lead in them. (The lead makes the paint more vibrant). So look for makers such as Mehron, Wolfe, Snazaroo, and Ben Nye,

Also, check out the sample pages - If every picture is a studio shot then your artist is probably slow. You want pictures from fairs and parties....they won't be perfect, but they're a great judge of the artist's quick skills.

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. I get told all the time what a wonderful face painter I am There's alot of good face painters out there but I think I stand out because of the joy it brings ME. I do this because it's fun. Its not for the money, it's not to promote the other side of my business. I do it because it makes me smile and I get to interact with all these people who are somewhere specifically to have fun.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. I love to see people's expressions when they see themselves transformed. Kids love to get face painted and readily fall into having a good time with it, but when adults give in to their inner child, they absolutely beam with fun. Women suddenly transfom into the Mardi Gras queen, the little girl they used to be and the Vegas Show Girl all at once. There's no age limit on face painting:)

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. IS YOUR PAINT SAFE?
I only use professional face paint...none of the cheap paints made in China and full of lead :(

My paints are hypo-allergenic, professional grade Ben Nye, Wolfe, Snazzaroo, and Mehron. The brushes I use are normal painting brushes.

IS HENNA DANGEROUS FOR THE SKIN?
Henna is actually good for the skin if it is mixed properly. My henna is made with eucalyptus, tea tree and lavender oils, is pure henna leaves and mixed with strong black tea, lemons and sugar. So this stuff is actually beneficial to the skin. I do not put any "darkeners" in the mix...no dye, no chemicals, nothing harsh.

WILL YOU DO BODY PAINTING?
I will do body painting, but only in a private setting and only in a setting that is considered safe for both me, the artist and you, the client.

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. I stumbled into it at my son's band booster's Fall Music Festival. Phyllis Fowler was one of the school board member in Sunnyvale She was doing face painting and I was asked if I'd help her...I was terribly slow and clumsy, but had so much fun, I determined to get better at it and quick. Now I do birthday parties (mainly), school functions, fairs and corporate functions and work a couple of parties a month.

Q. Tell us about a recent job you did that you are particularly proud of.

A. I worked at a fundraiser for Butterfly Children (children with a disease that makes their skin tear by just touching them). There were a couple of the kids there. They were entranced by the entire evening and we raised many thousands for these poor families. It was a wonderful success and I was ery thankful that I had something to give that would help.

Q. Do you do any sort of continuing education to stay up on the latest developments in your field?

A. There are sites dedicated to face and body paint. I surf those about once a week, gleaning new ideas and trying them out on my kids....poor kids.....the shrink is going to love hearing the stories how I traumatized them at such a tender age)

Q. If you were advising someone who wanted to get into your profession, what would you suggest?

A. Only use good quality paint and henna. It's not worth the couple of dollars you can save with the cheap stuff to put a product on someone's skin that might be laden with lead and nasty chemicals.