Just a few weeks until Carnival and the costumes are already flying off the shelves. Maybe you also bought a box of make-up paint this year or you even have an appointment with a make-up artist. Face paint is becoming increasingly popular during carnival. And people are willing to pay more and more money for it, says make-up artist Agnes Adriaans of Brabant Schmink.
Agnes was a guest on Tuesday morning in the radio program Wakker! from Omroep Brabant. There she said that she is busier than ever this carnival. “Last year I had about ten faces. Now there are already thirty in my agenda,” she says.
“You also go to the hairdresser for beautiful hair.”
According to her, people find it increasingly important to go extreme during carnival. “If they can’t paint themselves, they come to us.”
And those carnival revelers are willing to pay more and more money for that. You can easily spend around 50 euros to have your entire face painted. “You also go to the hairdresser for beautiful hair,” says Agnes. “More and more people are choosing face paint during carnival.”
While face painting was already the most normal thing in the world in Limburg and Germany, it is slowly but surely spreading to Brabant. But the way in which this is done differs from the extreme south of the country. While in Limburg they mainly wear striking colors on their faces, the make-up here must mainly match the costume.
“Men often want to be painted as crazy, scary and unrecognizable as possible.”
Usually it is the people with creepy costumes who knock on Agnes’s door. And she also had that in store for radio DJs Koen Wijn and Mark Versteden. Mark became a zombie, Koen The Joker. “If you also paint your face with such a Joker costume, it really completes it,” says Agnes enthusiastically.
According to her, there is still a difference between what men and women want. “Men often want it to be as crazy, scary and unrecognizable as possible. While women usually still want to be beautiful,” says Agnes. For example, she is often asked by women to make a Mexican skeleton. “That’s creepy, but still feminine with some glitter and flowers around it.”
