Face painting looks like pure labour until you price the split cakes, the fresh sponges and the wipes that go through a festival day. Dividing what you opened by how many faces you painted turns a vague supply drawer into a number you can put in a quote.
$17.50 of supplies over 22 faces at a birthday party is $0.80 a face — small, but not nothing at 140 faces.
The example
Three jobs, each with what was consumed in four supply categories and how many faces were painted.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Event | Paints | Sponges | Glitter | Wipes | Faces | Cost/face |
| 2 | Festival | $34.00 | $9.50 | $12.00 | $6.50 | 95 | $0.65 |
| 3 | Birthday party | $8.00 | $3.00 | $4.00 | $2.50 | 22 | $0.80 |
| 4 | School fair | $46.00 | $14.00 | $18.00 | $9.00 | 140 | $0.62 |
The formula
One SUM, one division:
How it works
Everything hinges on what you count:
SUM(B2:E2)adds the four consumable buckets. Split cakes and single colours go in paints; brushes belong here only if you replaced them./F2spreads that over the faces actually painted, which is the number your artist tallied, not the number booked.ROUND(...,2)gives cents, because the answer is usually under a dollar and the third decimal is noise.- Count a paint cake as consumed when it is used up, not when it is opened — otherwise a fresh set makes one event look catastrophic.
Once you know cost per face, a per-face price or an hourly rate can be set against a real margin instead of a guess.
Try it: interactive demo
Enter what each category cost and how many faces you painted.
Variations
Add the artist's time
Fold in labour to get a fully loaded cost per face.
Margin at your per-face price
Compare the cost to what you charge for a full-face design.
Pitfalls & errors
Cost per face falls sharply with volume because paints are a semi-fixed cost. A twenty-face party will always look expensive per face — do not price small jobs off a festival's number.
Keep a separate row for jewels and transfers. They are the fastest way for a cheap design to become an expensive one, and burying them in glitter hides where the money went.
Practice workbook
Frequently asked questions
Should I include the cost of my kit?
What is a normal cost per face?
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