Show me your War Paint!

What do you use for camouflage on your face? Elevated hunting in the colder months is simple. Pull up the neck gaiter and hood, and BOOM, you’re not only warm but your face is covered, too. What about in the early season or stalking from the ground?

Growing up, I loved putting on face paint. Dressing up in a military costume for Halloween, watching “Commando” (over and over and over and over), and of course picking up on my dad’s old face paint tricks. All of these older methods included the odor-ific, oil-based coatings basically requiring an exorcism to cleanse your facial features of the diabolic substance. Although there were several brands to choose from, hunters faced the reality that all options were basically the same. These options were tolerable at the time, and when hunting from home or a large camp, one had the means to remove the “smear” at the end of the day.

Hunter Specialty camo tubes have been around and unchanged for decades!

But how do you clean the stuff off when hunting in the backcountry? In my experience, it was a futile task. In the late 90’s I embarked on my life-long passion of backcountry hunting. If you recall, we did not have unscented wet wipes readily accessible back then. Whether on foot, or loading up my old KHS mountain bike (looked like it came straight out of the movie Karate Kid), I would venture 3-5 miles behind the gates or down the trail in my endeavors of hunting alone. I always looked forward to painting the morning’s design, but I despised cleaning my fingers after the artistic foray; and cleaning morning fingers was not nearly as monumental as removing the sludge back in camp after a long day’s hunt. Needless to say, it was all we had and I refused to stalk the Pacific Northwest territory with my face naturally aglow.

Elk hunting the Washington Coast with Michael Sims, adjourned with Nature's Paint.

Fast forward to 2020…

While preparing for a Washington Coast archery elk hunt, my hunting partner and I discovered Nature's Paint. While watching an episode of “Born and Raised Outdoors”, we were entertained by the glamorous duo of Dirk Durham and Trent Fisher, eloquently concealing each other's facial features with a new organic face paint option. 

Nature’s Paint was created by two avid female big game hunters out of Oregon, providing an organic option with fairly easy clean up at the end of the day. With three different colors to choose from, Nature’s Paint is a solid solution for a multi-colored face cover. Unlike other mass-produced, chemical-based face paint, Nature’s Paint has a less than potent odor and does not pull and itch like other camo creams.

But what if I told you there was another option…

Introducing the cork concealment camo concept! As I already carry a butane torch in my backcountry load-out, I decided to find a face-friendly carbon-based charcoal source. I settled on cork. Inspired by another elk hunt, this one to Idaho in 2021, I took the cork from my one-year wedding anniversary and started a burning axiom.

Simply put, take any piece of natural cork, light an end on fire until you have a workable layering of soot and apply it to your face. Personally, I prefer a champagne cork. The large round end is a good finger-hold and the flat narrow end works like a giant magic marker. Another solid source for good workable cork is found in many quality bottles of whiskey or scotch. Future corkers beware, modern wine corks ARE NOT a viable option as they are synthetic!

I have found the burnt cork method to work so well, I know carry it with me in all my packs, whether hunting in the back 40 or packed into my wilderness area of choice. For ease of containment and transfer of my cork kit from pack to pack, I keep the two required pieces in a small ziplock bag and stash it in the left pouch of my lumbar/waist belt of whatever pack I’m using. What’s even better is the burnt cork smells natural, does not irritate or make your skin itch AND it wipes off easily with a single unscented wipe (I prefer Dude Wipes).

Diamond Creek, Idaho shortly after the cork method was discovered, circa 2021.

So, if you’re tired of smelling like a face-painting carnival stand while pursuing your favorite big game animal and having to use fine-grain sandpaper to clean your face at the end of the day, crack open a bottle of champagne, grab your butane torch and go cork yourself!!!

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