Which brushes and sponges do you use for face painting?

More important than how many brushes you own is that you paint with proper face painting brushes. That may sound like nonsense, but there really is a difference between brushes and what they're made for. I'm so picky about face painting brushes that, after more than fifteen years of face painting experience, I developed my own complete line, the FBFX face paint brushes.

A good brush sits comfortably in your hand and has synthetic bristles that hold enough paint and water, so you don't have to reload your brush for every single line. The bristles spring back into shape after cleaning. And they're soft enough to follow the movement of your hand, yet firm enough not to fly out of the curve with every swirl you paint. Real face painting brushes are also made for cosmetics and pick up water and paint better than hobby or art brushes.

Just starting out with face painting? Then you'll get a long way with a set of round brushes in different sizes, a filbert brush for larger areas, a flower brush and a good sponge. You can create dozens of designs with those, and the other shapes will follow naturally once you start trying more techniques.

My collection has grown quite a bit over the years, so let me explain what each brush in my line is for. All the brushes are named after people who matter to me, which is why every brush carries a name.

• Round brushes (the Linda): the backbone of every kit, for lines, teardrops, swirls and dots.
• Ultra liners (the Alex): extra-thin bristles for hair-fine lines and delicate details.
• Long liners (the Anna): extra-long bristles for long, sweeping lines and elegant details.
• Filbert brushes (the Jerry): oval with rounded edges, for filling areas, blending and soft transitions.
• Flower brushes (the Eva and the Poem): round or flat, made for petals using the double-dip technique.
• Dotting brushes (the Koko): a brush without bristles, with a foam tip for painting dots.
• Flat and angled brushes (the Floor and the Simone): for one-stroke work with split cakes.
• Tiger brushes (the Astrid): a tapered triangle dagger (that sounds complicated, but it simply means the metal ferrule is triangular and the bristles are cut at an angle) for tiger stripes and realistic animal designs.
• Dagger brushes (the Bram): angled bristles in a dagger shape. By pressing harder or softer you paint broad leaf shapes, grasses, teardrops and elegant lettering, anything that needs to look more organic than a straight flat brush can manage.
• Stippling brushes (the Tim): dual-fibre brushes with two different bristle lengths for dabbing colour onto the skin in layers, for freckles and realistic skin texture.
• Powder and blending brushes (the Monique): for applying setting powder, contour and highlight, and softly blending eyeshadow.

Sponges come in two main shapes. With a round face painting sponge you dab the base colour onto the skin quickly and evenly. A petal or butterfly sponge is shaped a bit like a teardrop. Thanks to that teardrop shape, this sponge is ideal for painting butterfly wings. It also works beautifully for designs where you want to work outward from the corner of a child's eye, because the sponge ends in a neat point. Painting several children? Use a clean sponge for each child.

Want to know exactly which brush suits which technique? In my ultimate brush guide (in Dutch) I go through all the shapes one by one.

One last tip: clean your brushes after every session with lukewarm water and brush soap and let them dry lying flat. That way good brushes last for years.