It’s that time of year again when people don novelty costumes, wigs and accessories all in the name of Children in Need. Children In Need fundraising does continue all year, & Props & Frocks is proud to support this worthwhile cause with a discount code to use for your fundraising costumes & accessories – just put this code in during the cart process CIN11

We know that when it comes to routes to good costuming, we like to think that the only way is us here in Essex. Unfortunately someone’s already nicked that title for something else (although we are working on our own tele-visual riposte). In the meantime something that turned up in a recent episode of TOWIE has raised some interest: This is the animal-themed party featuring a selection of interesting face/body-painting creations. Nothing too full-on, just some minimalist designs to complement the animal print outfits (most of them normal street/club separates) being worn.

Now it would be naïve to think that the painted designs were the work of the Bright Young Things themselves – so far we know of about five face-paint artists who claim to have been involved – but what the episode did highlight was the simplicity with you can create impressive results using the new generation of face-paint stencils. These have been widely used by professional body-paint artists for years to get uniformity of repeat designs such as scales or big-cat markings, and to cover a large skin area quickly using an air-brush, but as always, a good idea has ‘trickled down’ to become available for the wider face-paint market. Take a look at our wide range of face paints to use for a wide range of fancy dress outfits.

But, whether you are going the whole hog today and showing your spots (or stripes or whatever), or just adopting a minimalist approach, we hope you have fun and raise lots of money for this worthy cause.