Here’s Tamar Adina again, with great ideas for Purim costumes and also some essential safety tips for you and your family to ensure that you have the happiest Purim ever!

Hey Wrapunzel!

Purim is coming up, and as a professional face painter and make up artist, Purim (and Halloween) are two holidays where I have a lot of experience and a lot to say.

First of all, there are SOOO many exciting costumes that allow you to fully cover creatively!  Cheap costume wigs, veils, baseball caps, helmets…So let’s get started.

Perhaps one of the easiest hair wrapping costumes is The Girl With a Pearl Earring.  I wish I could claim that the popularity of this costume arose from Johannes Vermeer’s enigmatic painting: Girl with a Pearl Earring, but that’s not quite the truth. For anyone that has been living under a rock and away from all media influence (you LUCKY person!), the protagonist in this bestselling novel (and major feature film) is none other than that particular subject for Johannes Vermeer’s enigmatic painting: Girl with a Pearl Earring.  The oil painting features a young, European girl wearing a very Wrapunzel-esque tichel and (drumroll) a pearl earring.  The reason that I say “drumroll” is that the pearl earring is actually a subject of debate among scholars – it might actually be a tin earring.

Rock this costume with a light blue lakeshore bliss and a taupe 2-in1, a white shirt, a brown jacket, and an oversized earring.

Next on the agenda – the Renaissance costume. 

Although at first glance it appears that Renaissance costumes all feature women with corsets, plunging necklines, and a gold circlet, the truth is that those are the sexy-Halloween versions of those costumes.  More traditional Renaissance outfits come complete with hair coverings.  Mimic these looks by trying Andrea’s video for a Princess Wrap (which is one of the older, original, Andrea wraps).  Pair it with one of the new Wrapunzel lace! 

If historical costumes aren’t for you, try a Star Wars Princess Leia double bun done with a pashmina! While Wrapunzel doesn’t have an example, Nye’s Old Channel made an awesome tutorial for that!  (I would actually move the buns so that they’re not perfectly covering your ears and so that you can hear what is going on around you!)

If Star Wars isn’t your thing and my other options are also not for you, try cyberlox! What are cyberlox? Cyberlox are synthetic dreadlocks that are MEANT to look like random pieces of technological tubing.  These hair pieces can be made of plastic tubing, tubular crin, rubber and foam strips, and event belts.  Traditionally, cyber lox slip around a ponytail.  But…for those of you that don’t want a partial covering (and don’t have an abuse-able ponytail sheitel), this tutorial gives a full explanation using a wig cap.

But most of this post is actually not going to be about hair covering (sorry folks!).  See, while most of the costumes and themes (yep, themes, for those of you that are looking at me in confusion, some people have wayyy too much time on their hands and they manage to create a yearly theme that ties their families costumes and their food packages together into one neat and hilariously rhymed poem) that I’ve seen are rather cute, I’ve also seen a lot of costumes that are downright dangerous.  Most of the time, people don’t even realize that a particular costume quirk can be a HUGE safety issue!  So, today’s blog post includes a list of safety considerations for you and your children. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! I can usually be found lurking on Facebook…

Clothes:

Prevent falls by shortening overly-long skirts, pants, dresses, veils, tails, and anything else that can trail on the ground.   

Many costumes come with small detailing or accessories that can be hazardous to young children.  Infants and toddlers should not wear costumes with removable detailing.

Shoes:

Choose safe, sturdy shoes for children; ditch the high heels or too-big adult sized shoes.  Cheap, plastic costume shoes may look adorable, but they can serve as tripping hazards.  Purim is too special to spend in the ER.

Accessories:

A long cape can be a serious choking hazard.  Even a short cape can cause choking if it is stepped on while someone is walking down a flight of stairs.  Minimize that choking hazard by making a cape that has arm loops to keep it in place instead of a tie that fastens around the neck.

Avoid overly-floppy hats.  I know, they’re cute, but they limit a child’s field of vision and thus pose as tripping hazards.  Don’t wear one for yourself either.  They can interfere with driving, and even if you are not planning on getting behind a wheel, they can prevent you from seeing things in your peripheral vision.  I’m going to be honest, there are sometimes inebriated drivers on the roads on Purim, you do NOT want to limit your ability to see a car coming towards you.

If your child is carrying a wand or sword, it should be made from cardboard or flexible rubber – not metal or hard plastic.  The key here is to avoid anything that has sharp edges.

Most parents already know to avoid peeling paint on house walls and they already worry about lead tests for their children, but walls and water are not the only things that can be contaminated. Unfortunately, all that glitters is NOT gold as far as jewelry is concerned.  But lead is not the only problematic ingredient that can infiltrate accessories.  Inexpensive metal jewelry, like the kind found in discount and dollar stores, are frequently high in cadmium, a heavy metal that can cause severe health problems if absorbed into the body. It is important to avoid childhood exposure to cadmium, and there is no way to tell just by looking at a piece of jewelry if it contains cadmium.  The best advice is to keep inexpensive jewelry away from children younger than six.  Should you be scared of the necklaces and bracelets sold in mid-range retailers?  Well, federal law limits the amount of cadmium that is allowed to be present in children’s jewelry.

But…as an extension of that, while fake tiaras and bangle bracelets are cute, if the jewelry isn’t “primarily intended” for kids 12 and under, it’s an adult product – and adult products have no cadmium restrictions. 

Avoid the use of fake teeth (such as vampire fangs) by children under age 5.  They are a major choking hazard.  ‘Nuff said.

Masks:

Masks can cut off a child’s peripheral vision.  If your child insists on a mask, make sure that it offers good ventilation and that the peepholes line up with your child’s eyes.

Face paint: (alright, this one is a topic that is near and dear to my heart)

Face paint is a great alternative to masks, provided that it’s SAFE face paint. 

Face paint needs to be cosmetic grade.  End sentence.  “Non-Toxic” does not mean “safe for skin.”  Even the words “safe for skin” and “hypo-allergenic” are meaningless where face paints are concerned.   The only language that you must always look for in face paints is “FDA (Food and Drug Administration) compliant ingredients for cosmetic use.”  There are no actual cosmetics that are approved for use by the FDA.  (If someone tries to tell you that there are, they are full of beans.  I digress though, moving on).

Acrylic craft paints are not meant to be used on the skin – nor are watercolor paints, pencils, sharpies (yep, I’ve seen teens with sharpies smeared all over their faces!) or markers.  In addition to the long-term complications from using these materials, many people are allergic to the chemicals and colorants used in craft paints such as nickel, soluble cadmium, and formaldehyde.   As an equally exciting side effect, “homemade” face paints made from lotion and craft paints are sometimes photo-toxic, and a child can wind up with a miserable chemical sunburn. 

Avoid the dollar store or party store tubs of liquid face paints or the waxy crayons that are made in China.  Those tend to be made of highly irritating ingredients.  (You would not believe some of the pictures that I’ve seen of reactions!) Plus, whenever the media discusses a recall on face paint due to some type of contaminant, 99.9% of the time they are referring to these things!

So what should you use?  Honestly, there are a large number of legitimate face paint products on the market.  Ben Nye, Cameleon, Diamond FX, DIPS, FAB, Global, Graftobian, Kryolan, Kryvaline, Paradise, ProAiir, Ruby Red, SillyFarm Rainbow Cakes, Snazaroo, Starblends, Superstar, TAG, Wolfe FX….which one is good? They are ALL good!  Most of those brands can be bought online, in local costume shops, or sometimes Snaz can be found in Michaels/Jo-Ann craft stores.  If you cannot get your hands on any safe face paint and your child desperately wants to be a cat, consider either calling a professional face painter, or hitting up the drugstore for eyeliner pencil or eye shadow.  Those two products can frequently get a very small whisker and pink nose done.  Do yourself a favor though – face paints are primarily water based and will wash off easily with soap.  Adult makeup tends to require additional scrubbing.  And whatever you do, make sure that the pencils that you grab are not waterproof!

The skin is the largest organ of the body, and it can be an entrance for germs and bacteria; do not place face paint over an open wound or scab.  By that same token do not just whip out your eyeliner and draw on your child’s nose, and then touch up your Cleopatra eye makeup.  Doing so is a phenomenal way to wind up with an eye infection.  (child’s mucus + your eyes = well…you get the picture).  Break the point of the pencil, dip in alcohol and re-sharpen the pencil. 

Nix the face paint if you or your child suffers from eczema or other skin conditions.  Reactions are NEVER worth it.

Have a happy holiday!  See you next time!

Tamar Adina

[Photo Credit – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Meisje_met_de_parel.jpg]
[Photo Credit – https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/66/1e/f8/661ef87346029cff8ba9fab34df2380e.jpg]
[Photo Credit – http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/113/8/0/carrie_fisher_princess_leia_xvi_by_dave_daring_d62_by_dave_daring-d62qtyz.jpg]