Palmer Face Paints: Ugh...

So, I'm the face painter at our local four-season resort. I used to only do the festivals four times a year, but then they started doing a family fun night at the waterpark. Well, this summer, the waterpark has decided to do it twice a week.
Since I'm the only "free" activity during these events, I'm usually painting nonstop.
I started off with buying two eight-color palettes of Snazaroo to get me started, but they were already used after two weeks! I bought two more and used them for two nights and our big summer festival and used them all again.
Finally, I decided that I needed to try something else.
My mom found these Palmer face paints that come in 2 oz. squeeze bottles. She said that these would be a lot easier to use because there was more paint and they're "less messy" or something... She swore up and down that she had found awesome reviews for them online.
No matter what, I was skeptical about them, but bought them anyway.

What a mistake!

I tried them the day I got them, the day before the next FFN, and they were ... okay. I did a few cheek designs on my hand and I noticed that it seemed to take a lot of paint to even get them to show as vibrantly as Snazaroo. The black was horribly gunky, but when I added a bit of water, it separated and dripped everywhere. Figured I would still use them the next day.

Not only do they stain the kids, but they act more like acrylics than any other face paint I've found! They're gunky and crack when they dry. Quite a few of the smaller children that I painted complained about it being itchy almost right away, and it didn't take long before I noticed that my face design was getting pretty itchy as well. They dry almost automatically when squeezed into a palette, wasting even more paint than before. I found myself completely ignoring these paints and using my leftover Snazaroo paints and only using the Palmers when necessary (I was completely out of yellow, white, and pink).

Am I missing something? Am I not using them correctly or are they really just this bad?

Ew, that dosent sound good at all. I have no idea honestly. but they sound icky. Im a Snaz fan.

Here is another thread here that talks about how it isn't as nice or safe as they might want you to think. I hate it. Tried it and my sensitive skin broke out right away.


http://www.facepaintforum.com/t863-palmer-face-paints?highlight=palmer

Palmer is so bad, I don't think it should even be called face paint!

Palmer is total crap.

You weren't doing anything wrong... they suck.

It sounds like you are ready for the big sizes... expensive, I know, but they'll last a lot longer (making them cheaper by the oz) and you only need the basics. You can blend any color you need.

The very first time I painted, I used PALMER'S. I didn't know any better, and I hadn't started really painting yet. Looking back, I must have been crazy and so were the parents who ooohed and aaaaahed about the designs! Thank God for Snazaroo! They saved my life, or at least, my business! We live and we learn...

When I first tried my hand at face painting, I used Palmer's paints and it was aweful...(sorry)! I did a write up of it on my blogspot and posted some pics. I'm sooo glad I did my homework. Now DFx and Wolfe are my best friends.
http://By-These-Hands.blogspot.com