Special Tools
Certain medical and dental tools have found use by
make-up artists (Figure 5.3):
College Pliers Six-inch, stainless steel, curved tip
dental pliers (large tweezers) are best for handling
false lashes, small prostheses, and other items.
Dental Spatulas The stainless steel, 2!/2-inch blade
spatula is excellent for mixing colors, stirring
liquids (like stipples), taking a bit of make-up
out of a container to be placed on a plastic tray
or disposable butter chip for individual portions
of lipcolor, and so on.
A variety of scissors are useful:
Hair Scissors Get the best available, keep them sharp,
and cut only hair with them. The 3-inch barber’s
style is most useful.
Straight Scissors A good pair with short blades for
cutting all other materials such as plastics, fabric,
and so forth is best.
Curved Scissors Surgical, stainless steel with a 1 Vi-
inch blade length are best for cutting curves on
latex or plastic appliances.
Pinking Shears A small pair of these for trimming
lace on prepared hair goods should be part of a
make-up artist’s hair kit.
Comb An aluminum tail-comb with widespread, un-
serrated teeth for hair work.
Eyecare items would include tweezers. A good pair
of slant-cut tweezers for brow care is important. Many
complicated Varieties of plucking tweezers are made as
well.
Although some female performers like to curl their
lashes, it is not a good practice to carry or offer an
eyelash curler for general use. Not only are the rubber
or plastic pads on their curlers hard to clean and ster-
ilize, but also new research has shown that some in-
dividuals are allergic to the plating on the finish of
some of the curlers when they are pressed on the eye
area. Also, if the pads inadvertently slip or fall off,
one can clip off all the lashes at the roots. This, of
course, is not a pleasant prospect, but it has happened.