Grimas

We have found this to be the best all round face painting product. Our descriptions of each product give you a little extra information when you're choosing.

The face paints are a glycerine based product, the matt colours have good opacity and are easy to apply with a sponge. The black and white have been surpassed by other brands for linework, (we suggest Paradise or DFX) but remain our preferred product for sponging bases.

The pearlised colours are the best thing ever for quick and lovely princess bases and more, they are translucent with a gentle sheen. The metallic colours (Gold 702 and Silver 701) are not the same. In general, the consistency of Grimas face paint is good; they don't melt or dry out in the sun and have a high pigment content so a little goes a very long way. The colours are bright and the packaging is wonderful.

The little pots clip onto trays that can stack onto another tray so that setting up and packing away is a doddle, no lids to match to pots, and 12 colours at a time magically appear (or disappear). They are very robust to suit us seasoned travellers, and the whole range comes in the same format. They are so good that we use Grimas products as the mainstay of our face painting kits.

Their ‘Cake Make-up’ is designed to be used almost dry as a sponged base. It is very easy to apply with super-smooth coverage, and can be painted over without colour transfer, even black over white. It also acts as a barrier against potential staining.

Grimas also produce theatre make-up. These are known as creams (or crèmes) and appear similar to the water-based face paints. However, they perform completely differently, are applied with a latex sponge (or brush) and need to be fixed with a powder. They also need to be removed with a cream, theirs is called Afschmink. They are sweat proof and water proof.