Ok....I know I'm going to seem a little nutz, but I'm going to ask anyway.

Does anybody here feel the need to use a top of the line vapor mask while airbrushing?

Not to be too personal, but I was working on my OK cake and had to airbrush a bunch of teal. I swear I had teal boogies for a week. That can't be good for me, can it? Obviously I'm breathing this stuff.....does anybody think this could be harmful? I've priced those masks people wear to avoid inhaling paint vapor, and they are a bit expensive. Plain ol' dust masks don't do the trick, so far as I've noticed.

I didn't do that much airbrushing and always forgot to put on a mask Yahhh you do 'blow' highly colored stuff afterward
Frances Kuyper (who introduced the airbrush to cake decorating and is *THE* Cakelady) never did either.

I wear a cheap mask when airbrushing. I made a pumpkin cake and blew orange out of my nose for days. Since then I also set up a fan in the window to help pull the color out of the air, too. I also set up inside of a big cardboard box to try to contain the color. But yes, the mask certainly helps. Just get a cheap one from Home Depot.

What - you don't like the technicolor boogers? It is one of the more interesting side effects of caking, beats the weight gain!

I was cleaning the house for a tasting the other day, and as far as upstairs on the stair railings, I was coming away with teal "dust" on my rags. I even did this airbrushing in a box. I'm starting to wonder if I should do all airbrushing outside. My husband polished my cherry dining table and the cloth was teal when he was done. And it wasn't even in the same room as the airbrushing!

I wonder what a doctor would say? I'll bet I have technicolor lungs.

karateka, I avoid airbrushing as much as possible for the same reason. You find colour everywhere for weeks, it is incredible how far it travels. I always make sure that I clean up and wash the floors right afterwards, but last time I did it I realised after having done a big clean up of the kitchen and myself I was getting blue soles of my feet from going back in the kitchen. The colour obviously stays suspended for a long time before it comes down. And I was doing it in a box too. I have tried airbrushing outside but the humidity did not really work in my favour.

Earleens website has directions for making a paint booth for airbrushing if anyone is interested.

Hmmm.....I feel like a bigger idiot than normal. I never thought to check Earlene's website for this info.

Thanks tiggy2!

Here's the link to the airbrush cabinet http://www.earlenescakes.com/AirbrushCabInst.html

Thanks!!