How To- Using Colour Correcting Concealers

While shopping for concealers, you may have noticed ones that come in strange shades that don't match with any normal skin tones. It may seem odd to find mint greens, pastel lavenders, and banana yellows in products normally meant to blend in with your natural skin. In fact, these concealers do blend in well, neutralizing discolouration to even out your skin tone. With the right colour and application technique, you can use colour-correcting concealers to disguise pimples, scars, under-eye circles, rosacea, and more. You can also use these products to enhance blemish-free skin for a healthy brightening effect.

How do colour-correcting concealers work?
Colour-correcting concealers help to mask skin discolouration by bringing problem areas to a more neutral hue. Here's a crash course in colour theory, in case you forgot it from grade school art class:

• Complementary colours are colours that are completely opposite each other on the colour wheel. The following are the pairs of basic complementary colours you'll use for colour correcting: red with green, yellow with purple, and blue with orange.
• For most types of colour correcting, makeup of one colour will cancel out discolouration of its complement.
• The exact opposite colour can also sometimes overcorrect, making skin look lifeless and unnatural. In these instances, you should use a colour next to the discolouration's complement.
• Most colour-correcting concealers come in a single shade. The exceptions are oranges and peaches. For these, pair deeper shades with darker discolouration and brighter, more pastel concealers with lighter areas.
• A normal skin tone concealer is usually used over colour-correcting concealers.

Use GREEN to spot treat extremely red areas. Green is the colour opposite red on the colour wheel and is therefore the strongest colour for canceling out red. Because of this, green colour-correcting concealers are best for neutralizing intensely red blemishes. Most green colour correctors are a pastel mint colour.

• Use green concealers directly on small patches of red like pimples.
• Green concealers are also good for medium-sized areas of redness, such as moderate acne and irritation. For people with fair skin, a common pattern for placing green concealer is down the front of the nose, the centre of the forehead, around the nostrils, and along the cheekbones.
• For more diffuse areas of vivid redness that cover most of your face, like sunburn or rosacea, consider using a green-tinted makeup primer instead. A tinted primer will work the same way as a colour-correcting concealer but will even out your tone for a flawless foundation application.

Use YELLOW to even out a ruddy complexion. Sometimes green concealers work too well, making the skin look dull and lifeless. By instead selecting yellow, a warm colour next to green on the colour wheel, you can tone down red discolouration without removing all traces completely.

• Yellow concealers are a good choice for masking mild to moderate diffuse redness.
• Yellow concealers are also great for neutralizing and brightening dark purple and blue blemishes like fresh bruises, age spots, sun spots, and dark under eye circles on some people.
• If this is your first time using a particular skin tone concealer or foundation, check to see how you look wearing them without additional colour correction first. Many concealers and foundations for lighter skin tones have some degree of yellow pigment for built-in colour correction.

BLEND, BLEND, BLEND. A common cause of a subpar, unnatural look when using makeup is improper blending. Foundation, concealer, bronzer, blush, and eye shadow all need to be blended. In fact, many makeup artists consider blending to be the most important step when applying makeup.

• One major reason to use colour-correcting concealers is to avoid having to go overboard with opaque foundation and concealers. If you find that your makeup still looks caked on, use less product. Rely on thin, well-blended layers instead of thick ones.
• If you have difficulty blending your colour corrector in completely, try putting it on under your foundation instead. This may be necessary when covering a large area with an unnatural-looking colour like green.

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