How to Face Paint a Mardi Gras Mask

When one thinks of Mardi Gras, the beautiful and sometimes outrageous costumes and masks come to mind. Not to mention the full on party in the Streets of New Orleans. The colors, flare, sparkles and glitz all make this a veritable playground for the artistic eye. "Mardi Gras" refers to events of the Carnival season, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday.

Did you know that Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch Romanoff of Russia chose the official colors during a visit to New Orleans in 1872? Purple=Justice, Gold=Power and Green=Faith are the three colors woven through many of the costumes and floats seen during Mardi Gras, of course the colors are not limited to just these three. Let’s see what creative mask we can create by using just the three main colors of Mardi Gras.

Supplies Needed
Applicator sponge
Medium flat brush
Small fine brush
Water for paints and cleaning brushes.
Wipes to fix mess-ups.

Face Paint Colors & Extras
Green, Purple and yellow (or gold) face paint
Stick on Face Jewels
Opal Poof Glitter
Gold Liquid Glitter

Time to paint

Step 1: Start with a clean face

Step 2: Using the sponge, cover the eyelid and area just surrounding the eye with your purple.

Step 3: Color in the green mask with the medium flat brush. Be creative by adding some detailed lines and curls. The many jester style masks at the festivities inspired me in this face paint; there is also a bit of a butterfly coming through in this design.

Step 4: Accent the mask with your fine tip brush and the yellow paint. Little dots and hi lights will bring the mask to life.

Step 5: With the squeeze bottle of gold glitter, accent your gold dots. We also have added some gold glitter outlines.

Step 6: Add some shimmer with the cosmetic glitter. This is a fine powder that you can puff gently all over your whole design.

Step 7: Time for the flare, a nice diamond jewel at the corner of each eye and one in the center of the forehead add just the right amount of glitz to our Mardi Gras mask.

This is a relatively easy face paint design to do, without too much time spent on each person. Have fun and save me some beads!