4 ingredient DIY natural face paint for kids

If you're looking for the best kids makeup set in Australia, we have you covered. What we don't have in store is natural face paint for kids. We used to stock the face paint from No Nasties Kids, but it is not made anymore and wasn't a great seller for us. Don't worry, with a few ingredients you probably already have at home, you can just make your own.

What ingredients do you need to make your own natural face paint for kids?

We haven't physically road tested these recipes, but we did some extensive research and found that pretty much every recipe for natural face paint for kids is based on corn starch, a body lotion, a little water and some food colouring. We have also seen some recipes with kaolin clay, which is a little harder to find in most people's homes, so for the purpose of this blog post, we're going to leave the clay out.

The smart option for the body lotion option if you're going to be outside with this face paint on is to apply a natural mineral sunscreen to your kids whole face first, and then use the sunscreen in the face paint. We sell some of the best mineral sunscreen in Australia here in our store, so that's our pick for the base. Otherwise, any baby cream or nappy cream for little ones works like a charm.

What ratio of cornstarch to lotion should I use?

This does depend on the lotion you're using, so always use trial and error until you get the consistency you want. The simplest recipes we found used 1 part lotion to 2 parts cornstarch (also called arrowroot) and 1 part water.

What can I use to colour my natural face paint for kids?

If you already have it at home, Hopper Natural Food Colour will solve all your problems. If you don't already have it in the home for some other reason, there's some fun & easy ways to make your own colours.

Can I make it in bulk and save it for later?

No. It's not safe to do that. As soon as you're mixing a food and water in to a lotion, the opportunity exists for bacteria to start growing. By all means, make one giant batch and then portion it out in little pots to make different colours on the same day, but when you're done, store it in the fridge for a couple of days if necessary and then dispose of it.

If you save it and bacteria grows, it could cause a skin infection or worse, if it gets in their eyes, an eye infection. We haven't tried this, but I imagine you could freeze unused paint and defrost it and see if it stirs back in to the same consistency. Be aware if you use sunscreen, we are not 100% sure what happens to the SPF rating after it has been frozen.