Chat with us, powered by LiveChat

How to Naturally Get that Halloween Face Paint Off – with No Tears!

Halloween Face Paint - A Good Natural Alternative?

When your little clowns, pirates, witches and kitty cats are tuckered out and ready to hit the sack next Monday, how will you get their face paint off?

For young children especially, a tear-free method, without stingy soaps or sandpaper-esque scrubbing, is a necessity.

The first year my little guy wore Halloween makeup, I wasn’t sure how to get it off. We ended up borrowing a nearly empty tube of cold cream or some such fragrant, certainly toxic, makeup remover from my mother-in-law. It sort of did the job, but I wouldn’t call it tear-free.

Since Halloween and face paint are only once-a-year occasions, I’ll freely admit that I haven’t taken the time to research and figure out natural face paint options. Same with Easter eggs. Both of those colorful practices fall squarely into the 20% “compromise” portion of our lives, and I’m quite happy with that. I’ll expend efforts and energy on foods and products that affect us daily.

That’s what I love about this little secret – it didn’t take any thinking, research, special ingredients or a recipe. It ended up being easier than finding something to replace the old tube of cold cream and was much more effective.

Halloween Face Paint - A Good Natural Alternative?

Last year, when little one number two wore Halloween makeup for the first time, I wasn’t at all prepared. I knew I didn’t really want to use a caustic cleanser, and I didn’t think it worked all that well anyway without a lot of elbow grease. *Think, think, think* Channel inner Winnie the Pooh…

I realized that since I had been using coconut oil for some time to remove eye makeup on myself – and it worked wonders, like seriously miraculously easy – maybe the same system would work on Halloween makeup.

How to Remove Halloween Face Paint from Young Children (& Young at Heart)

Halloween Face Paint - A Good Natural Alternative?

The system is pretty simple:

  1. Apply virgin coconut oil to face.
  2. Wipe with wet washcloth.

That’s it!

Oil adheres to oil, so the greasy face paints literally slides right off the face! Nothing stings the eyes, nothing burns the cheeks, and the elbow grease can be saved for the dirty dishes. Besides that, coconut oil is a moisturizer, and in the words of a Facebook community member:

“VCO [virgin coconut oil] nourishes our skin and at the same time is hostile to pathogens. I use VCO to sanitize wood and condition cutting boards and wood utensils after they have dried – I never use soap on wood or cast iron.”

I love that! Yet another use for one of my favorite fats, one that I didn’t even know existed 3 years ago!

What are your kiddos (or you?) dressing up as for Halloween? Got any green and natural tips for the community?

Was this a helpful idea? Share it with friends using the buttons below:

Disclaimer: Yep, I’m Catholic. Yep, I live my faith on Kitchen Stewardship®. Yep, my kids dress up for Halloween. No, I don’t think we’re pagans because of that. Don’t bother being feisty in the comments if you don’t agree, okay? This is just a fun and helpful post about removing face paint, whether you’re dressed as a clown or as a mime for a youth group skit. Thanks!

Other Halloween ideas:

Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.
Category: Save the Earth

9 thoughts on “How to Naturally Get that Halloween Face Paint Off – with No Tears!”

  1. Erin@TheHumbledHomemaker

    We’re not using face paint this year, but I’ll remember this for the future. Your kiddos are so cute!

  2. If you have run out of coconut oil, another thing I know of that takes off almost everything is A&D cream. (Baby oil is my second favorite). Both also work on eye makeup. 🙂

  3. Olive oil does indeed work as well. My son uses face paint year round (he REALLY enjoys the stuff!), and olive oil always does the trick. It also removes the enormous amounts of stage makeup that are used by the high school drama club. I’ll buy a nice big bottle of the cheap stuff for use en masse.

  4. I love your disclaimer as well! I went through a “Halloween is evil” phase myself when I was a Protestant, but now as a Catholic, I realize that what my family participates in is not evil, but good wholesome fun. At the same time, I do know there are elements of evil, but that is also in our everyday living! Love your blog! Love, ~Nana~

  5. For those who don’t happen to have coconut oil on hand, I would venture to say that olive oil or grapeseed oil would work as well. I’ve used grapeseed oil for eye make-up removal and olive oil will even remove Sharpie marker ink from skin. It’d be worth a shot at the Halloween make-up, I think. :0)

  6. Hi, lurker here 🙂 Love your blog! As soon as I saw the title I thought “Oh, poor child, somebody’s going to ping her on the whole ‘halloween’ thing”. Then I read your disclaimer and laughed out loud!! I went through a radical no-halloween phase but truth is, I always loved putting together costumes and dressing up for halloween – why should I take that fun away from my very Christian daughter? (even when she wants to be Morticia Addams) I know the history blah blah blah, but honestly? I think the commercialization of Christmas is more damaging to people’s faith and the reputation of Christianity than this once-a-year opportunity to dress up in funny costumes and eat candy. Oh, BTW, as an actor I can totally vouch for coconut oil taking off GOBS of stage makeup without burning your skin or making your eyes tear up. Have fun and be safe out there!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.