Toyologist Review: Snazaroo Face Painting Sticks

Marmite. Jedward. Let's Rock Elmo.

There are no in-between opinions on any of these. You either love them or hate them with a fiery vengeance. There's another thing that can be added to the list: face painting.

Some kids love face painting. They form large queues at fairs to be transformed into tigers or butterflies. Others, however, run in fear when someone approaches them with a paintbrush in a way someone might from a man wearing a William Shatner mask.

My children, well, they never like to make my life easy and thus have decided that face-painting is one step above 'having hair washed' on the Hate Scale. This made reviewing these face painting sticks potentially a little difficult.

Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I shouldn't have scribbled a little Tony Stark goatee on my youngest son's face when he was tiny. How was I supposed to know permanent ink would be so difficult to remove?

So, in the end, it was down to me and me alone to test. Applying paint to my own face in front of a mirror proved a little problematic, but the results...  Well, they weren't too bad.

Yes, there was a slight theme with the painting. Who dares to admit they know what it is?

After seeing the above and being given the chance to Draw On Dad, one little person was slightly more inclined to join in...

These sticks aren't designed to be used for intricate designs. For detailed work you'll require instead a) a set with a brush, and b) the steady hand of an older child or adult. Instead, the sticks are meant for kids whose only desire is to slap paint on one another's faces.


I guess it's like drawing a picture with crayons rather than watercolours.


Getting the wrapper off the end of the sticks is not particularly easy. If you've ever spent hours trying to find the end of a roll of tape, then you'll know what it's like. There are 6 sticks in the pack, covering the primary colours. Mixing colours isn't easy and if this is something you want to do then again you'd be best getting a 'brush' set.


The colour transfers onto skin well, although 2yo found it a little difficult to apply enough pressure. Washing off is fairly easy to do with a bit of soap (it took a lot more effort to clean - what turned out to be - my sister's expensive sponge after I'd used it to help remove the paint from my face). It would have been nice if the sticks had come in a box of some kind as once opened you're kind of stuck on how to store them.

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