Young Lady's Make-Up

When I was little, my mom would NEVER let me play with make-up. She gently discouraged it and appealed the athlete inside of me. Still, my friends had play make up and my aunts and grandmothers would periodically send some play make up (and eventual real make up) my way for birthdays and holidays.

I was busy perusing my favorite website for other people's ideas and thinking about my fiance's nieces (Well, let's face it. At this point they are my nieces too and I love making them things). Usually, I send the same type of gift to both girls and intended to do the same this year. Of course, I checked with my future mother-in-law to see if she thought tutus would be appropriate for both girls. While the kindergartener would certainly appreciate the tutu and wear it around the house until it was no longer cool, perhaps the nine year old would not want to wear such things. Considering how I was more interested in the US Women's National Soccer team than ballet and princesses when I was nine, I heeded her advice. My mother-in-law is full of great suggestions sometimes and today proved to be one of them. She suggested either sending beads to make jewelery or sending kid friendly make-up. The latter would also appeal to the girl's mother since she sells make-up.

So, once again I went parusing around the interwebs and came across LuBirdBaby which showed how to make play make-up out of nail polish and empty make up containers.

Well, I hate to say it but as a fully grown woman my nail polish and make-up container supply is rather limited. So I headed to the local store and purchased the following:

1 Compact mirror
1 Custom Compact
Both are made by Elf and were $1/each.
Additionally, I picked up:
5 bottles of nail polish in appropriate colors. The nail polish, by NYC and was their rapid dry, ran about $1.75/bottle. I also made sure to pick colors that in the coming spring I might be tempted to wear.
1 package of eyeshadow sponges

What I love about this project was it took about five minutes to actually get it put together and then I just let it sit overnight to dry.

So here's what you do:

 For the compact, I took a nude/fair colored nail polish and simply poured it slowly into one of the compact mirrors. I tried to not fill it too much but it did end up filling the spot where the compact closes shut. When it dried the next day, I took my craft knife and carefully carved the polish out. The compact closes nicely now.

 For the "eyeshadow" container, I took my four shade and simply poured slowly each cavity with the polish.

 For this container, there were little low spots between each area. I filled to just below those areas so they polishes wouldn't blend in the middle.

 Simply repeat the filling process for each cavity.

 Finally, you will end up with two pretty "make-up" containers. I left them to dry overnight.

I won't know until Christmas if my niece will like them or not but I am sure her parents will appreciate that this is non-spilling, not real, and still not toddler style make up.

Tips: Choose colors that are appropriate and you think the child will like. For the compact, I would have actually gone a little darker because of the skin tone of my niece. However, for the right price and since its play make-up, I was not so picky. Additionally, my niece really likes pink and purple. However, if the child you are thinking of prefers blue and green or yellow and orange, or super glittery polish, than by all means go for it. 

Oh and yes, I will post soon about how to make the tutu for my five year old niece. :)