A makeup lover spends up to 18 hours creating festive masterpieces on her face - including an ice queen, a gingerbread man and a nutcracker.<br /><br />Accounts specialist Cole Denby, 32, works an office job by day - but in her spare time she paints stunning designs using her own FACE as a canvas.<br /><br />Her other festive specials include a reindeer, elf and Aldi's Kevin the Carrot.<br /><br />Cole, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, is self-taught and has to wake at 4am to complete her designs before work - drinking through a straw to avoid spoiling her work.<br /><br />She said: "Coming up with the designs, I often see them on TV - I think 'I can turn that into makeup'.<br /><br />"They take all day - my Edward Scissorhands took 18 hours!<br /><br />"My nutcracker took 12 hours and my gingerbread man took 10.<br /><br />"If I'm doing a big long design I'll book a day off work for it.<br /><br />"The most common question I get is 'how do you get so good?' but it's just about practice practice practice."<br /><br />Cole said she was inspired to give body painting a go after seeing TikTok videos in 2020 during lockdown.<br /><br />The creative skill came naturally to her as she's quite arty and good at drawing - and she was quickly hooked.<br /><br />She had to invest in hundreds of pounds worth of special effects makeup, paints and accessories to bring her visions to life.<br /><br />Cole reckons she has an advantage because she is ambidextrous - meaning she can use both her left and right hands to paint.<br /><br />She sketches out her looks using an eyebrow pencil before painting them on.<br /><br />After snapping hundreds of photos and videos of each creation, she normally wipes them straight off again - after sharing completed looks on TikTok and Instagram.<br /><br />"When I wash it off, it's soul-destroying," she said.<br /><br />Occasionally she'll treat members of the public to a glance at her masterpieces in person.<br /><br />Cole said: "I went to the garden centre in my reindeer look - everyone loved it.<br /><br />"There was a Father Christmas there who wanted his picture taken with me!"
