06/09/2026
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FACE PAINTER
This was a very busy event yesterday. Queue was not too bad, but I was non stop. I really speeded up at the end to get everyone finished. At 3.45, I painted around 7 children with my usual designs.
One little 2 year old was covered in chalk on her face. I had to tell the grandparents that she wouldn't be able to have a face painted anyway because she wasn't free but I would paint her arm as long as it wasn't covered in chalk.
They nearly went for the wipes and I said no don't do that. I think they were pampers! I advised them that it's likely that wipes are culprit when a reaction occurs on the skin.
One parent quickly wiped sun cream on their child's face before they had their face painted and I had to advise them that they would need to wait at least another two children in for that to sink into the skin. The sunscreen creates a block for the paints and really hinders us to get it looking right.
I had the choice at this event to sit inside or outside but I do know they wanted me outside. The weather was fine but for the last two hours the sun came over to me and I could feel it on my shoulders and back. I should have probably moved inside but there was literally no time. I just wanted to get the job done.
The team they were really good though and was offering me drinks to keep hydrated. I think I managed to drink some tea, despite it being cold most of the time. I also had my thermos of water with me.
This little video shows me coming back to get my kit after having visited the toilet, which was very much needed.
As you can see if I'm just this little video it was a very busy event for a small town.
Apparently, the guests were saying there was no other face painters there which did surprise me a little. However this just shows how different the Cotswolds is to lots of other areas.
One Dad told me that the unicorn I painted on his little girl's face was one of the best face painting you've ever seen. He said he was at The Big Feastival last weekend and had to pay £20 for some simple glitter on her face. He said there was three face painting at the Disney+ stand (which I did actually quote for). However the company, didn't like the quote, even though I quoted very fairly for what it entails being at a festival. I wanted three face painters working very long days. This can be gruelling in face painters. Also did you see the weather last weekend at all the festivals 🙈🙈🙈🙈.
We also know that free face painting at festivals means very very long queue!
The Dad said that the queue for the free face painting was huge and it was only little designs.
I did try to explain to him that although I felt £20 was quite steep! The people who are charging, have to pay really high pitch fees to be at festivals such as this. This is also the trouble isn't it? The customer feels ripped off, but do not know all the costs behind the scenes. I feel it's even worse if you are a local artist in the area and then you were charging high prices. I doubt very much they're going to want to book you for a private event/party. 
I painted at the Big Feastival for two years many years ago and even then the pitch fees were £450/£480. I remember back then I was charging £5 a face. It took a lot of faces to be painted before I recovered this cost. Then one day it rained, so this can reduce your income.
One year we were the only face painters there and I was told we had exclusivity. The next year, we assumed the same but there was about seven different face painting/glitter stalls 🙈🙈🙈. We were pitched in the Little Dudes Den. This was when Jamie Oliver also helped run it with Alex James from Blur the group - whose cheese farm it's on. I painted his kids.
So we did okay, despite the rain. However, they are such hard work. Back breaking hours!
Then I remembered the sales team who are called Taste. They came round with the booking form and asked us if we wanted to book again. They said if I booked there and then the price would stay the same otherwise it would go up. I said no thank you. I advised them that there were far too many other face painters and glitter artists all competing. We had also been named in there 'what's happening' brochure back then. So I said it was too risky as well. If somebody had an allergic reaction, we would be remembered for being in the booklet and could result in a claim. Also the risk of bad press! So for me this created a conflict of interest.
I was told a couple of years ago by a face painter that they asking over £1000 for four days 🙈. It did used to be 3 days but Friday a bit of a non starter.
NO THANK YOU!
Whilst I was busy yesterday, I still felt it was manageable and as mentioned above, I was the only face painter there. I was of course paid like I am for all face panting jobs I/we do. This is just how I prefer to work and working any other way in the Cotswolds just doesn't really work.
Getting in and getting out was a nightmare too. Looking for the stand, was like looking for a need in a haystack. No signal either to call anyone.

