DIY Pretend Makeup! Rainy Day Activity

My toddler loves to “help” me put on my makeup. She loves scrubbing my favorite powder brush into my only blush until there’s no blush left in the pot and then wiping the brush onto anyone and anything that will stand still. So, after replacing some of my favorite makeup and brushes, I decided to think up something for her to play with that is like Mommy’s makeup. I turned to my ever trusty Pinterest to give me some ideas and tutorials! Lo and behold I stumbled across a fun little blog called Momma Rake which included some simple directions and cute pictures. I happened to have all the materials needed for this project but if you don’t, a short trip to your dollar store would take care of everything you would need! You may want to do this activity outside or in a ventilated area. The nail polish smell can get a little strong!

You will need:

Empty makeup containers (i.e. blush compact, powder compact, eye shadow compact etc…)

Nail polish

New or barely used makeup brushes

Here is what to do:

1. Thoroughly wash and dry your empty makeup containers. For this example I chose an empty blush pot and a powder compact.

2. Cover your work surface.

3. Once your empty containers are dry, select a bottle of nail polish. Slowly pour some polish into the empty makeup well. You will use most of the polish, but probably not the entire bottle. I used old cheap-o polish that I already had on hand. Or if you are concerned about toxicity and want a more natural product you can use Piggy Paint!

4. Set the polish filled container to the side (somewhere no one will mess with it) and let dry over night (24 hours). As the polish dries, it seems to settle, so it will not appear as full after 24 hours as it did when you originally filled it. After 24 hours you can pour more polish in if you want the makeup well to be fuller. For our purposes, we were satisfied with just the one fill up. I decided at 24 hours that the nail polish was firm to the touch but I let it sit for two more days until I was satisfied that the polish was solid.

5. Once your polish is completely dry, pair it with a new or barely used makeup brush and let your toddler or little one go to town!

I made three pretend makeup compacts  for my daughter and she just loves them! I put them in her own little makeup bag that I keep in my drawer with my makeup. Now getting ready to go out is not such a traumatic experience for Mommy and it seems to be a lot more fun for my daughter!