Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy Dulay.
Hi Nancy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When I lived on Guam, there really weren’t any face painters. After I had my daughter, I bought a kit mostly out of necessity. My daughter was diagnosed with autism so I gave up my career in education and we moved to San Diego. At some point, a family member asked me to paint for her son’s birthday party. From there, someone hired me and it slowly became a business–Fancy Nancy Faces. Over the years, I took classes, attended conferences, and built up my clientele.
There were a few events that changed the company. The first was becoming the face painter for Bates Nut Farm. I have been so blessed to have been working with them for about ten years now. I can say that I’ve grown the most as a face painter there. The artists that join me at the pumpkin patch are phenomenal and have made me better.
The second event was the passage of AB5. The inability for me to legally subcontract other artists made it really difficult for us to work at events that required multiple artists. I knew that the company would have to pivot.
The third was when I added airbrush tattoos. I noticed that adults really loved joining in the fun with the tattoos. There were parties where the aunties and uncles would say, “Okay, if every kid got a face paint, you’re done. It’s our turn to get tattoos.” The kids would summarily be ushered aside and the whole mood of the party would change.
Airbrush tattoos were just more FUN and playful. Sometimes, they’re also more naughty. I began to be hired for adult-only events. I wanted to keep FancyNancyFaces as a more child-centered business. I hired my partner and Temporary Mistake®️ LLC was formed.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not at all.
My daughter’s needs come before everything else. The great thing about this business is that I can choose when I want to work. I homeschool my daughter and she still has a lot of therapy appointments.
I’ve purposely kept the company small. We take on clients and events that sound like they’re going to be fun and that work with our schedules.
AB5 was definitely the biggest hurdle. Transitioning from a sole-prop to an LLC with employees was a huge investment.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We make Temporary Mistakes fun.
Most of the tattoo stencils the company uses are created in house. At this point we have about 2,000. I created over half of them, making them unique to our company. I was the first to start making tattoos of the players for the local teams.
I love designing new stencils. If we are asked for a design that we don’t yet have, it goes on “the list” and I will do my best to ensure that if they see us at another event, we will have it. Client-request is the reason we now have tattoos for an otter, a taco, and a pickle. Yes, we have 3 pickle tattoos.
I probably design and cut anywhere from 20-100 tattoos each month. Just for the Adult Swim Comic Con activation, 27 tattoos were created.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I’m always learning.
Contact Info:
- Website: TemporaryMistake.com and FancyNancyFaces.com
- Instagram: @makeatemporarymistake @fancynancyfaces
Image Credits
Nelson De Guzman
John Boresoff-Evangelista
