I teach at a make-up academy a few times a month, and one thing that comes up a lot is colour correcting. There seems to be so much of it about at the moment, especially on certain social media channels!! There is a definitely a time and place for it, the right application can be brilliant, however the wrong application can make things worse.
Colour correcting goes back to the artist’s colour wheel – the colours that are opposite each other on the wheel will cancel each other out (if applied over each other). So for example a lilac is great at brightening up a sallow (yellow) complexion.
If you have a lot of redness on your complexion, than green can be great in helping to counteract it. However if you have some red blemishes, choosing a yellow based concealer can be enough to cover them most of the time. I wouldn’t use a green first and then the concealer, piling too much product on can make the spot more apparent.
Don’t do it for the sake of it. I see lots of people getting into what I call ‘paint by numbers’ – they get caught in the trap of doing what they think they should be doing, rather than actually looking at their skin and seeing what it really needs. If your skin doesn’t need colour correcting, than don’t do it.
The main place that I’ll use a colour corrector is under the eyes. Using an orange, peach or a pink tone under there is great for brightening up any darkness.Â
I’ll use an orange on a deeper skintone, sometimes that is all I will use and it will make such a difference. Other times I’ll need to then go over with a concealer that matches the skin. For lighter skintones peach is great. Again sometimes the peach works on its own, other times it needs a concealer over the top. If you don’t have a peach try mixing some orange into your regular concealer – have you got an orange lipstick you could mix in?
If the darkness is only slight then mixing some colour corrector into your regular concealer is a great way to give it a bit more oomph.
When applying a colour corrector, make sure you are applying only where the darkness is, otherwise you’ll end up with an orange or peachy patch that you then need to cover! When applying your concealer too, really look at where you need it – a few fine layers well blended are much better than one thick layer.
I’m a big fan of Absolution’s Multi Correcteur in Apricot – it blends so well into skin and really helps to brighten any darkness. I also like Hiro Cosmetic’s Space Balm Correctors – they have Cora which is a peach for blue under eyes, and Thora which is more golden for purple under eyes.
Are you a fan of colour correcting? What do you use?
Image by Mike Blackett with make up by me.
