Liquid latex can be quite fun to play with, and this is something that Burning Angel seems to have done really well. Some of the things the box suggests you can do with is are to paint on a sexy rubber cat suit and hit the town, or paint on thigh high stockings and garters and stay home. You can paint pink girly tattoos on your body, or swirls to accent your curves. But really it's up to you.

You get a bright pink box with pictures of the kit as well as Joanna Angel, and ideas for use and ingredients. Inside the kit you get the latex paint and two foam brushes of different sizes. The ingredients in the latex paint are rubber latex, ammonia, ammonium hydroxide, mica, titanium dioxide, and ferric ferrocyanide. The two brushes are pretty similar to what you might find at a paint store, only cheaper. They're both about 6 1/2" in height, one is 1" wide, the other is about 1 1/2" wide. My smaller one had come detached from the wooden handle, but a little glue could fix that. Or purchase cheap replacement brushes from the paint or art store.



The container itself is plastic and the resealable lid does a great job at keeping it closed. It's 12.5 ounces and includes instructions to put it on and take it off, and precautions. Number one on instructions is to use in a ventilated area. This is because of the ammonia, and in a small room you could get lightheaded, so make sure you open a window and turn on the fan. Next, stir well before use. I've found that shaking it also seems to work. Perform a spot test on your skin to make sure you're not allergic to it before you slather it all over your body.



When you're ready to apply it, they recommend preparing the area by removing the body hair and applying moisturizer. When tested on my arm with hair on it, removing it was just a wee bit painful. But on a freshly shaved leg there weren't really any issues. They say to use the applicator brush to apply the liquid latex in smooth, even strokes and then then wash the brush immediately after use with soap and cold water. Honestly, it's almost easier to use your fingers to apply the paint, and then rub your fingers together to remove the latex from your fingers while waiting for the applied latex to dry. That works best for small areas though. Allow the first coat to dry completely before applying another coat. For a durable finish and metallic effect, apply sparkle dust to the dried latex using your hands. For a glossy, wet look, you can use a silicone based shine spray.

The latex goes on a nice light pink color, and dries a sort of dark, hot pink. In smaller areas or more thinly spread areas it dries in about 5-10 minutes, and larger areas can take up to an hour to fully dry. However a hair dryer can help speed up the drying process if you don't want to wait that long. Just be careful not to burn yourself on accident. They say that latex does not block your pored and allows the skin to perspire, and that it should start to separate itself from your skin in about 8 hours. I haven't tried it with large sections yet, but I had a patch roughly 8"x2" stay on for over 12 without starting to peel away.

For a pretty translucent effect, put it on really thin. If you wait for it to dry and add more layers, you're not adding much to the opacity, but you'll make the color more vibrant. On regular skin, it's hard to tell the difference, but if you're painting over something like tattoos you'll be able to tell. Here you can see where it was put on thicker, but it's hard to tell the difference between the 2nd and 3rd coat. You'll also see that on my shaved leg, there's a visible texture difference between that and my hairier arm.



If you put it over a surface that bends, like a knee, it'll move like a bandaid will. It'll scrunch and stretch when you move, only it won't work itself off as fast. This is it over my knee completely straightened.



Removing it is easy. Ever play with Elmer's glue as a kid and spread it out then peel it off? This is going to be pretty much the same. Start rubbing at the edge, and then you can either keep rubbing it off or just peel it away. Afterwards, you can store the jar in a cool dry location until your next foray with liquid latex!

Also, make sure you lay down some sort of plastic sheet if you're planning on painting large areas, as it's rather drippy right out of the container.

I had never played with any kind of liquid latex before receiving this assignment, and to be honest, it had always kind of intrigued me. So I took it up, and had myself a whole bunch of fun. I can tell that this isn't something I'm going to use all the time, but for painting fun designs on each other and stockings that won't fall down, I'm having a good time playing with it. It's got a really neat feel to it on the skin. On parts with hair you can feel the hair and that breaks up the smoothness. But on freshly shaven areas, it's super smooth, but still has some drag, and just feels really cool to touch.

I'm not sure how much longer I would have waited to purchase something like this, maybe never. But I'm really glad I got a chance to play with it. I know I don't have much experience with liquid latex products, but if you follow the instructions, this is a great set - even if the brushes suck!