How To Turn Acrylic Paint Into Face Paint!

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A ton of people decided to take up various arts and crafts during the lockdowns as a way to pass the time with many of them having small children to also entertain. Due to this, we have seen a number of different cross over questions about using different arts and crafts materials for purposes other than what they were primarily intended for. One of the more commonly asked questions that we have seen is if you are able to turn acrylic paint into face paint.

Due to so many people reaching out to ask this as face painting is a great way to keep young children entertained, we have decided to publish our own article covering using acrylic paint as a face paint substitute. Our hope is that we will not only help our readers achieve a better end result for their face painting activities but also help to prevent any issues with your skin reacting to the paint.

Please note that some of the professional-grade acrylic paint on the market does contain potentially toxic ingredients due to it having been designed for use with canvas or paper rather than human skin. Although there are a number of non-toxic acrylic paints currently available on the market that have a smaller chance of causing a reaction, we still always recommend that our readers go with a cheap high-quality face paint.

Can You Use Acrylic Paint As Face Paint?

“Ray and the Facepaint” by joshuawoodhead is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Although we have seen people share photographs of their face and body art painted with non-toxic acrylic paint that does look good, you have to factor in that many of these people are makeup artists and do this for a living. This is not what the majority of our readers are able to expect from using an acrylic paint as a face paint substitute due to it taking a lot of time and effort to develop their skillset to get the results you see on social media.

In addition to this, the texture of acrylic paint has not been designed to hold up well against the natural movements of the human face either. This quickly results in cracking of the paint, especially around your mouth as you speak or around your eyes as you blink with this quickly spoiling the work that you have put in to make your face paint look so good.

This is another factor that people often fail to factor in when it comes to the professional photographs that they see on social media of people using acrylic paint as face paint. The professional level photographs are often taken as soon as the artists has finished their work prior to the model moving their face naturally to ensure that the artwork looks the best it can.

How To Turn Acrylic Paint Into Face Paint!

Unlike some other mediums that people often try to use as an alternative to face paint that needs you to dilute it prior to application but many people opt to just use the acrylic paint as is right out of the bottle. As we touched on earlier in the article though, we would highly recommend that you be sure to use a non-toxic acrylic paint to prevent it from causing any issues with your skin when applied.

As we mentioned earlier though, you will almost always get better results while also saving some money by using a cheap high-quality face paint instead of an acrylic paint. Not only does it also tend to be easier to apply but it is also much easier to remove after use without risking potentially irritating your skin further.

How Do You Paint Acrylic Paint On To Your Skin?

Although this is far from an essential step, we would still highly recommend that you be sure to consider using a Glove In A Bottle product prior to applying your acrylic paint to your skin. This helps in a number of different ways if you are dead set on using acrylic paint for your face paint alternative making it easier to remove when needed while also providing a protective barrier to protect your skin.

When it comes to the actual application of the acrylic paint to your skin, you usually need two sets of brushes for optimal application. We usually recommend that you use a decent broad brush for your base layer followed by a fine brush for your more detailed top layer. Depending on how seriously you are taking your face painting activities you can also get assorted packs of brushes to ensure that you get everything you need for the lowest possible price.

How To Remove Acrylic Paint From Your Face And Skin?

When it comes to removing the acrylic paint from your face and skin we usually recommend that our readers just pick up a cheap pack of baby wipes as it really does make the job so much easier. It allows you to remove all of the acrylic paint from your skin and face within minutes without having to use any harsh chemicals while also being very cheap compared to some alternatives.

If you are on a very tight budget then you can often remove acrylic paint from you skin for free by using warm soapy water but this can take much longer than using baby wipes. More often than not, depending on how long you have had the acrylic paint on your face you may also have to vigorously scrub your skin to get the acrylic paint off if you are only using warm soapy water that may irritate your skin.

Is Acrylic Paint Bad For Your Skin?

If you use professional grade acrylic paint then it can contain minerals that do have a slight toxicity to them potentially causing irritation to you if you have sensitive skin. This is why we always recommend that you try to go with non-toxic acrylic paint if you are deadset on using acrylic paint as a face paint substitute as it does not have any of these potentially harmful minerals in its paint formula.

What Will Happen If You Put Acrylic Paint On Your Face?

More often than not, if you put acrylic paint on your face you will not have any issues and you will be totally fine. That said though, some people do have skin that is more sensitive than others so just because other people have used acrylic paint without issue, it does not mean that you can expect the same.

As we mentioned earlier in the article, acrylic paint tends to crack quickly too when used as face paint due to the natural movements of the human face. If you are going to a party and you want to keep your artwork looking as best as possible just go with some cheap high-quality face paint instead as it is often cheaper and offers much better performance.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over if you are able to turn acrylic paint into face paint to an end. We hope that our article has been able to help you make a better decision when it comes to painting your face with acrylic paint as we have pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of the process throughout the article. On top of this, we have also presented a few alternatives to our readers at times too as we feel that there are much better options available than using acrylic paint.