Facial paint for hunting?

Animals senses are keener than humans in almost all cases, so when you play to be the predator it will be necessary to find a way to defeat your prey and have an edge because most of hunting games are able to detect your presence much before you even notice them.

Furthermore, most of animals are completely aware of their surroundings and how it looks, being able to notice even the most tiny change and when it occurs, consequences are quite previsible: the animal will stay away of that new element because it might represent a menace.

On this regard nothing highlights more on the natural environment than a human face, after all there are not many round shaped, light colors elements outside on the bushes, so a human face will be like a spotlight on the forest announcing your presence and keeping animals away from your position.

That's particularly true on high pressure hunting grounds where animals have learned to associate that round, light shape with a menace (hunters) and do their best to be away from it.

With the above in mind, no matter how good your camo is, if you don't hide your face properly you will be detected for sure decreasing this way your success odds.

In some cases hunters decide to use masks to hide their faces but this is not always the best choice, instead facial paint tends to be better and currently many hunters decide to use it.

Tactical facial paint is well known because of its use by military personnel on the battlefield, but even when it was popular among hunters some years ago, for a time window it was abandoned due to the use of masks, only to become popular again recently because facial paint is more convenient than masks.

Facial paint aim is not only to cover facial color but also to break face shape in order to blend it with the surroundings.  For this purposes is necessary not only a good facial paint but also a thick layer of it, otherwise it will fade of quickly because of wet.

Even when there are plenty of pattern options, a good, dark plain facial black paint tends to be enough to hide your face on the shadows, however if you give to move a step forward the use of stripes and other patterns will help to break usual face shape, helping to hide it better.

It's not necessary to become a makeup artist or expend two hours painting your face before hunting; in fact it will be enough to apply a gently, thick layer of dark paint combined with a lighter color (but still within the dark tones) on an asymmetric, random pattern.

That will be enough to hide your face and will help to blend it on the shadows and the surrounding background.

A final remark is to remember that colors, even when dark, must be in accordance with the area and season you are hunting on; thus dark green and black will be great on a green forest but won't be the best choice for an autumn, mountain hunting raid. In this case the use of than and brown will fit better.

So, be sure to choose proper colors, apply a thick, asymmetric pattern paint on your face and wear to proper camo clothes in order to disappear on the bushes and have an edge to catch that game, no matter which one you are looking for.