Fall is in full swing, and Halloween is just around the corner. From carving pumpkins, to costumes to candy, it’s no wonder kids love Halloween! This year, step up your “costume game” and incorporate homemade face paint to any costume or character.

Homemade face paint is an affordable, easy way to celebrate Halloween, without the toxins of store-bought face paint. Because this paint is made from household items, it is easy to wash out with soap and water, which makes it great for younger kids or kids with sensitive skin. That being said, it’s also easier to rub off, so it isn’t the paint you want to use if you want the design to last for an extended period of time.

You’ll love how easy it is to whip up this homemade face paint, and they’ll be excited to try out fun patterns and designs! To find out how you can create your own homemade face paint, follow our step-by-step guide below.

Homemade Face Paint Recipe

To create a homemade, natural face paint, you’ll only need a few household ingredients. Begin by collecting all your materials, and place a rag down to prevent stains when mixing colors!

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup lotion
• 1/4 teaspoon vegetable oil
• Food coloring
• Spoon
• Bowl
• Container

Directions

1. Add water, cornstarch, flour and lotion to a bowl.
2. Mix together ingredients and make sure the paint consistency is to your liking. If you want to thicken, add more cornstarch. To thin out the mixture, add water.
3. Add food coloring.
4. Store in an airtight container.

Homemade Face Paint Coloring Guide

No matter the costume you plan to wear, the color options are endless for homemade face paints. Try a few drops of yellow for the ultimate bee costume, or a mix of yellow and red drops for a tiger design.

Face Painting Designs

Once you’ve made your paint, it’s time to get started! Use a generous amount of paint or paint on a couple of layers to get an extra vibrant color. Here are a few design tutorials to inspire you!

A ladybug is a fun face paint design that can be drawn on the side of your child’s face, and can be used for dress up or with her favorite costume. Ladybugs are considered good luck, so your little one will love the design and you’ll be thrilled with how easy it is to recreate.

Step 1: Create the ladybug body. This can be done by creating red circles. If you’d like to add a black layer under the wings, leave a section of the circle unpainted like the first ladybug body above.

Step 2: Add details. With black face paint and a small paintbrush, add spots to the ladybugs’ bodies, along with the eyes and feelers. If you’d like to add more details, feel free to add sparkles or small designs as desired.

Step 3: Paint the flowers. For a flower design, use a small paintbrush and take the white face paint (or the base without any food dye) to create small petals. Add light pink face paint to the insides of the petals once dry.

While a regular princess is fun, an ice princess adds that extra pizzazz. With a simple, elegant crown on their forehead, you can still see her face, and grab a few snapshots of her in her favorite princess dress. Bonus points: keep her hair up and away from the paint to keep the paint from getting rubbed off.

Step 1: Outline the crown. With a small to medium sized paintbrush and deep yellow face paint, create the princess crown base. Make sure to leave empty spaces for gems. Once dried, add glitter for extra glam.

Step 2: Add the diamonds. Using teal face paint, create the diamond shape in the crown. Once dried, add a white sparkle to make it shine!

Step 3: Add fun accents. Using the white face paint, create designs on the sides of her eyes, and forehead. Try stars, or a snowflake for a snow princess look.

Another classic face paint idea is a puppy. With just two colors, it’s an easy go-to, with many ways to customize. You can DIY this costume, with black or brown clothing and dog ears to top off the look. Find out how simple it is to add the muzzle and other additional features below.

Step 1: Paint the muzzle. Using white face paint (the base without food dye), paint on the muzzle. It will look similar to a bow tie.

Step 2: Add the nose. Using black face paint, paint the tip of the nose and above the lip. This gives the illusion of a dog snout. Add a black dot for the nose.

Step 3: Add the whiskers. Using black face paint, create whiskers outside the mouth, and repeat with white face paint.

For a fun sleepover night or birthday party, try painting flowers for the kids. They’ll be thrilled to see a beautiful intricate design that you can vary based on the child’s preferences. This is a design for the side of their face, and uses pink, green and white face paint, but the colors can be interchangeable.

Step 1: Paint the flower petals. Using white face paint (base without food dye), create flower petals on the side of the face.

Step 2: Add the leaves. Take green face paint and create leaves coming off of the flower petals.

Step 3: Add the accents. Add pink to the inside of the flowers, and dots outlining the flowers.

Now that you know how to create homemade face paint, you are ready to take on Halloween! Try painting your favorite animal or a superhero mask around the eyes. Experiment with different colors to find your perfect match and let the trick or treating commence! Don’t forget the fun trick or treat bags to complete the experience!

Thanks to Personal Creations for this activity!

DIAPERS. This is definitely one of the most important things to remember to pack. With a newborn, we went through A LOT of diapers. It never failed that our girl would have a massive poop while we were out and about somewhere.

Wipes- never underestimate the amount of wipes you’ll need. We always carried more than we thought we needed because not only are they necessary for diaper changes, you can use them for quick clean-ups, sticky hands, scrubbing minor stains out of clothes, etc. It’s worth a little extra weight in the bag to have enough wipes!

Changing Pad- this is a necessity for us. I’m not a total germophobe or anything, but, public places are dirty. Simple as that. By using a portable changing pad, I always have a nice protective layer between the grimy public changing table and my kiddo. Most of these changing pads fold up super small so you can just tuck them away when you’re done. Don’t forget to wipe them down frequently!

Daddy Caddy

Kandoo Wipes

Germbloc Spray/Hand Cream

Tissues

Mommy Cards- these are a somewhat new concept for today’s mamas. These are basically business cards for moms. You can hand them out to fellow mamas at playdates, parks, group outings, etc. and they include your basic contact info so you can either get the kids together again or get some coffee together! You can get some super cute ones from various sites like Vistaprint, TinyPrints, etc.

Snacks

“Butt Cream”- or if you want to be proper, diaper cream 🙂 from day 1, we have always slathered on a nice layer of the Equate version of Aquaphor on our girl’s tush. She’s never had diaper rash (besides the one time she wore swim diapers and the time she had a stomach bug and was pottying non-stop). To this day, at almost 2 years old, she still gets a nice layer of butt cream at each changing!

Germ X Wipes (or any other brand you prefer)

Light Blanket

Clothes

Extra boob pads if you’re nursing

Sunscreen

Diaper bags for soiled diapers

Wiping down counters. Sweeping the floors. Vacuuming. Laundry. Dusting. Washing dishes. Cleaning the bathroom.

Getting the above tasks done before kids was a BREEZE. Housework never took me long and then I had the rest of the day to read, cook, what have you.

Now, add a miniature human to the mix and my daily housekeeping routine has been tossed out the window. And you know what? That’s okay.

When we had our daughter (first time parents right here!) in February of 2014, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and desperate to keep up with my original routine. I refused help around the house because I was so set in my ways of how I did things, from folding laundry to washing the dishes. I always ignored the “Sleep when your baby sleeps” because I thought “Well, then when will I have the free time to clean, straighten up, shower, etc!?”

As a new mom, you want to have it all together (or at least LOOK like you have it all together). You want to have the perfectly dressed baby who looks adorable and ready for a photo shoot at any given time. You want to have the perfectly organized and clean house so that everyone who stops by is impressed by how well you’re handling this new parenthood thing! You want to be able to do your makeup and hair each day while fitting into your pre-preggo clothes and looking flawless. You can still go out for coffee dates with your girls because your baby will be a perfect angel and you can just grab him or her and go!

And then, you get the biggest reality slap you’ll probably ever receive.

Your baby spits up and has blow-outs so many times during the day that you’re lucky if he or she is even wearing clothes anymore. You are so sleep deprived and overwhelmed that you have a weeks’ worth of dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter, a heaping pile of laundry (you’re not sure if it’s clean or dirty) laying on your dining room table, and your bathroom hasn’t been cleaned since you came home from the hospital. When you get up for the day, you’re lucky if you can even find a hair tie to put your hair up in a ponytail/bun/who knows what that is, and you’ve shoved your makeup to the back of the cabinet because you feel so gross that you don’t plan on leaving the house any time soon. Speaking of never wanting to leave the house, those coffee dates are not happening because by the time you get the baby and diaper bag ready, you are exhausted and baby wants to nurse and take a snooze and you plan on joining in with that nap.

Granted, some new mamas have no problem with the first scenario and I’ll be the first to say “Go mama! Keep it up!” But, the reality is that most new mamas fit into the second scenario and really struggle with balancing their new daily responsibilities while trying to do the rest. And you know what? That’s okay.

As my mom always tells me when I’m having a rough day- “Everything else can wait. Snuggle that baby.” That couldn’t be any closer to the truth. Some days, I have SO much to do around the house- dishes, laundry, food prep- and of course, those are the days when my girl is the grouchiest and doesn’t want to be put down.

Our house is overrun with toys on a daily basis. As soon as I put them away, they’re back out. Meals are chaotic and the dining room table is covered with our meal, our girl’s meal, sippy cups, toys, mail, you name it. I have laundry upstairs, as we speak, that has been washed for a week but remains on the floor to be folded (and the dog MAY have been laying on it last night). Our dining room table is covered with ‘stuff’ 98% of the time. I use our dishwasher more than I’d like simply because taking the time to do the dishes by hand doesn’t always work with my girl’s ‘tude for the day. The bathtub is long overdue for a scrub. The reality? A messy house comes with the territory of having kids sometimes. Your house is clean one day, then, a disaster the next. That’s okay with me. Our house is full of love, smiles, and laughter regardless of how neat my house is on a daily basis.

It has taken me almost a year, but, I am finally accepting the fact that the house can wait and if it takes me a few extra days to get that laundry done, that’s okay. If I don’t get a shower every day, that’s okay (that’s why they make dry shampoo!).

It’s all okay, mamas. Love on your babies. Snuggle your babies. Nap with your babies. Enjoy your babies. Soon, those sweet babies will be growing up and trying their best to avoid those snuggles and smooches from their mama. They grow up too fast and before you know it, you’ll wish you had pushed all that housework aside to sneak in some snuggles before they’re too big to protest against them.