For Christmas I thought it would be nice to have a glittering angel design for your clients and events. This design is lovely with it’s shimmering pearl colors, and if you’d like to add even more sparkle, outline it with liquid bling.

Materials

• TAG pearl purple
• TAG pearl lilac
• TAG skin tone palette
• TAG purple
• TAG yellow
• TAG light blue
• Wolfe white
• Paradise light brown
• Diamond FX black
• #1 round brush
• #2 round brush
• Large round brush (Paradise Makeup AQ 815 round brush)
• #5 round brush
• Sponge
• Cosmetic glitter

Tutorial

1. Begin by sponging your pearl colors on the forehead with the lighter pearl lilac on the bottom and near the eyes and the darker pearl purple and regular purple near the hairline. I use a homemade split cake with these three colors, but you can also apply them one at a time and blend them together with your sponge.

2. Choose a skin tone from the TAG skin tone palette and load your #5 round brush to make the face and hands of your angel. The face is a half circle with a triangle on the top, and the hands are just a circle below this. It may take a little practice to position it correctly, but the bottom of the angel’s face should not be any lower than the center of the eyebrows.

3. I used TAG yellow for the hair of my angel, but you could pick any hair color and skin tone for this. I loaded my #2 round brush with Diamond FX white for the robe of the angel and the halo. I added a pale blue cosmetic glitter to the sky and some gold to the hair, also.

4. One of the most challenging design issues for me as a face painter is the symmetry which a mask like this one require. Some face painters recommend painting the more difficult side for you first. For me, this is the left side since I’m right handed. Load your large round brush with Paradise white and create two curving teardrops which come down toward the angel in the center.

After the first two teardrops are in place, it will be easy to build the rest of each wing with more teardrops, gradually making the shorter. Dust the wings with iridescent white cosmetic glitter.

5. Use your #2 round brush to add dots and starbursts in the sky behind the angel while the wings are drying. After the wings seem sufficiently dry, add a second, lower layer of teardrops with the large round brush.

6. With your #1 round brush add detail to the hands and chin with the Paradise light brown. For the hair details and facial features, I choose to use black and the #1 round brush, but a dark brown would have looked nice, too. To provide a little definition to her clothing, I used a light blue face paint.

The design is beautiful as it is, but you could also add gems and liquid bling for a more intense holiday gleam.

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. She also writes for Examiner.com as the Chicago Face Painting Examiner.