DIY Pretend Makeup Tutorial

I'm pretty excited about this post.  I love to craft and, unfortunately, I haven't gotten to really make anything (that wasn't for a 28th and Hudson painting order) in quite awhile.  Easter was coming up though, and I'd had this craft in mind for awhile for part of Avery's Easter basket.

Presenting!

DIY play makeup! 

In my house, I have a two year old.....who thinks she's 19.  She has the attitude, the sassiness, and the fascination with makeup.  If Avery's awake in the morning while I'm putting on makeup, she normally wants to sit right beside me and do "her makeup too."  Of course, in my makeup bag, there's very few things I'll actually let her have, out of fear that, if I gave her eyeshadow or powder, the entire contents would end up on my nice clean bedsheets.  So the idea was born that I would make Avery her own makeup. 

Now.  Let me stop with the crafting tutorial right there and just say this, because I know some of you are thinking it, have thought it, are gonna say it......No, I am not teaching my child that she HAS to wear makeup.  No more than buying her that pretty pink dress teaches her that she has to wear dresses in order to feel pretty.  My child is beautiful.  She has a vibrant personality that matches her outward beauty.  She's also two.  When she's old enough, I'll tell her all about her inner beauty and explain to her that we need to spend more time perfecting our inner beauty than covering up any outward blemishes.  I'll explain about the world and how society will tell her she's not pretty unless she has her hair done perfectly, her makeup done flawlessly and her clothes always at the height of fashion.  I will do everything I can to build her confidence and help her understand that she is a beautiful child of God that doesn't need the world's approval to tell her she's beautiful.  But for now, she's my two and a half year old toddler that loves all things girly.  She's a toddler that wants to sneak into Mommy's makeup bag and start taking things out that I don't want her having.  For my TWO year old, that loves Mommy's makeup....and for saving my sanity.....that's why I made this makeup. 

[puts away soapbox]

Back to the tutorial.  

When I first had the idea to get Avery some play makeup, I looked into buying a ready made kid.  Turns out, stores don't really sell them.  I found a couple of plastic lipsticks, but they mostly came in a set with a pretend purse, credit card and car keys.  Not really what I was needing.  So, I turned to Etsy.  And I found some awesome options like this set from Little Cosmetics Shop, this felt set from Kidn Around Creations, or this set from Lipstick and Bowties.  Problems with these:  I don't want to spend that much and I didn't really love the felt look.  I wanted something more real.  

So, I went to my next favorite place on the Internet:  Pinterest.  If you look up DIY play makeup, there are a TON of tutorials on making pretend makeup using nail polish.  Not my favorite idea.  Yes, the makeup looks real, but it's stinky and messy and can get expensive.  Then I saw this idea for making it out of craft foam.  Genius.  To be honest, I saw the picture on Pinterest and didn't even click the link, but the original inspiration came from Playing House. 

This is a VERY inexpensive and fairly easy project to complete.  Let's get started! 

Supplies Needed:

• Sheets of craft foam (I'll explain how many in the steps).
• Craft glue
• Makeup compacts

X-acto knife or scissors

How To:

1.  Remove the makeup. First, take your makeup compacts.  I chose to go with the "Elf Cosmetics" brand that I picked up at my local Target.  The powder, bronzer and brushes were all $1.02 apiece.  The eyeshadows were $2.05 (or very close to it) apiece.  

Obviously, you're going to be replacing the real makeup with foam, so you gotta get the real stuff out of there.  I found it easiest to use a butter knife.  I cut lines across the makeup and rimmed the knife around the edges of the makeup.  This made it easier to cut out. 

2.  Wash the remaining makeup out of the compacts. After cutting the makeup out and dumping it, wash all the compacts out with soap and water. At first, I tried using a sponge and then a wet paper towel and neither one was getting into the sides and getting all the makeup cleaned out.  Finally, I took a hard bristle paintbrush, which worked wonders. 

3.  Let the compacts dry.  Pretty self explanatory.  I let mine dry overnight. 

4.  Cut and glue foam.  This project is fairly simple, but this is the step where things get a little tricky.  After buying my makeup, I decided what colors I wanted to use (one "powder" flesh color, one pink blush and eight eye shadow colors).  

Let's start with the eyeshadow containers.  I lined up the corner of the craft foam sheet with one section of the eyeshadow container.  After lining the corners up, I pressed the sheet down into the compartment and then cut around the edges with my X-acto knife.  

When I had my piece cut out, I pushed it down into the section.  If there was any overhang, I trimmed it down with my X-acto knife.  After it was the shape I wanted, I took the piece back out and applied craft glue with a fairly heavy hand into the single section of the container.

When the glue is down, push the craft foam piece back in.  And voila!  You're done with one eyeshadow color.  

Repeat this process for the other three colors.

Now, for the tricker part.  The circle compacts.  This took a bit of trial and error before I was finally happy with the shape that came out. 

This is the process that seemed to work best for me.  I took the circle compacts, laid a sheet of the craft foam over it and pushed the foam down into the compact.  When you push the foam into the compact, you can see the outline of the inside where the "powder" will go.  I took my X-acto knife and cut around this outline.

Once it was cut, I pushed the circle down into the compact and cut down any excess to make the shape fit into it.  Same rule applies as before.  Once you get the shape you want, lift it back out, put glue down and then put the circle back in.

You're done!

I bought Avery a cute little pink zipper pouch to store her makeup and two makeup brushes to make her feel like an official big girl like Mommy.

Ready for the cost?  Did you see the sets from Etsy that cost $22 and $28 (and up??).

For the makeup, I spent $6.14 (one blush, one bronzer, two eyeshadows).  For the brushes, I spent $2.04.  For the craft foam, I spent $7.11.  BUT.  I'm only going to count what I used of the foam.  I probably used 1/10 of each sheet (and that's being generous.  I only used a sliver of the sheets for the eyeshadow colors).  If I used 1/10, at 0.79 apiece, and 9 colors, I used 0.72 cents worth of foam.  The bag cost me $1.97.  I already had the X-acto knife and the craft glue.  Bringing this total to $10.87.  I can live with that.

And it made one very happy, one very grown up feeling Avery.

Mom win.