Face Paint Trauma

The children and I attended a family fun day yesterday and we had a great time and the kids got involved in all the free activities including free face painting.  When I awoke this morning I really regretted my decision to allow them to do this.  As you can see from the picture below this has caused a really nasty reaction.  These include angry red lines, raised bumpy skin and a terrible itch.  I ensured last night that the face paint was thoroughly removed before they went to bed and thank god I did. I dread to think what damage it would have caused if I hadn't.

I'm writing this to make all parents aware that it really can happen.  My children have had their face painted on numerous occasion's and it's never been a problem.  I've always viewed it as being a bit of harmless fun. The consequences when things go wrong are quite severe as I've now found out.

My daughter has also had a reaction and currently has the vivid red angry lines of a once beautiful butterfly plastered across her face.  She is mortified and as a result we have barely left the house all day.  Her words to me this morning were, "Mummy, we can't go out today I look horrific."  Needless to say she won't allow her picture to be posted on here.

The event I attended was well organised by our local council and I'm shocked that this has happened.  Maybe at a less well structured event I wouldn't have allowed them to have it done but I assumed that everything here would be covered by strict guidelines, after all, the event was all about parents and children.  I have taken this matter up with the organisers and they j have promised to
investigate this further so hopefully this won't happen again in the future.  It may possibly be the case that the correct type of face paints were used and it is just an unfortunate reaction but I struggle to believe this.

I have spent some time researching children face paints today and I am actually shocked by my findings. Face paints have been recently recalled due to containing too much lead and other metals which can be damaging to children which is terrible and there are a whole host of other horror stories. I will certainly think twice before allowing my children to have their face painted again.  Although I have a feeling that after this they won't want it doing again.

To make matters that little bit worse, I was unsure what lotion / cream to apply to the inflamed area for fear of irritating their skin further so I took them along to the local pharmacy for some advice.  The young lady that we were seen by actually seemed to find the encounter very amusing and practically laughed me out of the shop saying there was nothing that could be done.  I certainly wasn't laughing and I don't see any humour in it at all.  I found it to be totally unprofessional and I certainly won't be going back to that store again for any further advice.  I am finding that loritidine and a water based lotion is bringing the redness down a little and reducing the itching but I fear that these marks are going to be with us for a fair few days yet.