Many parents booking face painters or balloon twisters in CT, MA, and RI are booking party entertainment for the first time, and aren’t sure what questions they should be asking! We’ve done over a thousand birthday parties, so we know exactly what questions to ask any company–no matter who is doing your entertainment.
Face Painting & Balloon Twisting Logistics
1. How many faces or balloons can they do an hour?
3. If you have children with special needs, can they provide ASL or Spanish language services? Are they trained to work with children on the autism spectrum?
5. What sort of sanitation procedures do they have?
The answer should be one sponge per child (sponges are used to apply paints but can trap germs), using sanitizer for brushes between strokes, and cosmetic-grade paints. Read about our safety standards here.
6. Are their products FDA-compliant and water-based?
Don’t walk–RUN away from any company that uses acrylic paints or any other store-bought paints. All products (yes, “face paints”) should be cosmetics, not paints. All cosmetics should be water-based and NEVER oil- or alcohol-based. Read about our safety standards here.
7. How are paints removed?
Water-based paints should be water-soluble, meaning that you only need water (and perhaps a tiny bit of whatever you normally use to wash your child’s face) to remove them. Read about our safety standards here.
8. Are their products tested on animals, or contain any allergens including oils, heavy metals, or animal byproducts?
Any company with princesses worth bragging about should be able to provide vocal samples upon request.
10. Do they clean their costumes and style their wigs in between visits?
The answer should of course be: yes!
11. How long have they been in business for?
Any company that answers less than five years is jumping on the princess-party bandwagon and likely won’t stay in business long. They came for the post-Frozen craze and are likely not experienced enough to provide polished entertainment.
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Safety for Every Entertainer
13. What if they have to cancel your party?
Anyone can get sick, have their car break down, or even just accidentally mess up their own schedule. Ask if they have a “back up” person in the office for any last-minute emergencies that are out of their power. (You’d be surprised how few entertainers have a back-up plan for these sort of unforeseen problems.)
13. How high are they insured?
The average face painting and balloon twisting insurance amount is $2 million. This is to protect families from any mistake that could possibly happen.
14. Do they do background checks (including against child abuse) on their performers?
Checks should be done in the federal offices within each state that they work in (and the artist resides in).
15. Are they accredited with the Better Business Bureau or any local chambers of commerce to help protect their customers against fraud?
