Hiring a face painter

[JenSlade]

Hello just some tips if you're thinking of hiring a face painter for your children's party or Christening. I'm a professional face painter and I've had a call today from a devastated mother who's face painter has let them down for a Christening, after taking a deposit. It's a well known call in the face painting world and we all feel so sorry for the mums and dads on the other end of the line, trying to find someone at literally the last minute. There seem to be some common factors in these painters. They charge low rates, knowing that cash strapped parents will often go for the cheapest painter. People who charge these low rates will often not show up, or will show up and be of a standard that you could probably have done yourself and you'll be wondering why you bothered hiring someone!

Snazaroo advertise on this website. One option for you is to have a look for easy designs on line, and buy snazaroo paints, some sponges and a two or three decent brushes of different sizes, and have a go yourself.

If you're going to hire a painter, have a look for painters in your area, check out their websites and/or Facebook pages. If the photos on their websites have wildly different standards and styles, they're probably photos they've got from around the web.

A reasonable face painter will charge you about £40 an hour, for a minimum of two hours. That's the going rate. This covers the cost of their kit, insurance, travel (within reason), the training they've paid for, and the years spent honing their skill. It seems like a lot of money but facepainting is not like other jobs, it isn't all day five or six days a week. Face painters have to earn all their pay in those few hours. And it's like hiring any other self employed trade.

The point of this is to say, kids enjoy having their faces painted. You will usually want to hire a face painter to get a really good job done without you having to do it yourself, so be careful and do your research, or have fun doing it yourself. The last thing you want to do is pay peanuts for someone whose standard is low or they don't turn up. I hate taking the calls from distressed parents, and my only hope in posting this is that more mums have a hand in understanding what they're looking when hiring a face painter.

HOpe this is helpful.