Over the rainbow: How to colour correct like a pro

You may have seen them in the concealer aisle, products in rainbow hues like green, purple, pink and yellow. No, these aren’t concealers, they’re colour correctors!

Suffer from dullness? Redness? Bags under your eyes? Thankfully there’s a colour corrector for that! I’ve actually posted about colour correcting before, but I wanted to touch on it again since so many brands are coming out with their own colour correcting palettes.

Colour correcting solves a lot of problems. I’ve had friends ask me for concealer recommendations for dark circles or moisturizers to make their skin glow, but in reality, a little colour correcting can get rid of problems like dark circles under the eyes and dullness.

The way these things work is by looking at the colour wheel. Red and green are opposite colours, so they cancel each other out.  If you suffer from redness on your face (perhaps around the nose area?), apply some green to the area, blend it out, then apply your foundation. You’ll notice that the redness was neutralized. Same goes for all the other colours you’ll commonly find in a colour correcting kit.

Here’s a cheat sheet:

Pale pink – targets blue-toned spots on fair skin
Peach – neutralizes blue/purple shadows
Yellow – Conceals purple or dark-toned shadows on olive or tan skin
Green – camouflages redness
Lavender – cancels out yellow tones

Although there are many palettes out there geared towards colour correcting, a lot of brands also offer single items as well in case you don’t need to go so heavy with the correcting. In fact, Make Up For Ever has a whole line of primers in an assortment of different hues geared toward colour correcting the face before applying makeup.

I don’t often do colour correcting since I don’t really suffer from discolouration much. With that being said, if I do colour correct, I will apply some green around the eye area and my nose to balance it out. It may seem scary once you apply the colour to your face, but once it’s blended out, you really do see a difference.

In the photo above I went a little deeper than I normally would do for this method. I applied the peach tone under my eyes to banish dark circles, I put the green around my nose and outer corner of the eyes to get rid of redness, and I placed the purple on my cheeks to take away any dullness. I used the colour correcting palette by L’Oreal Paris, as part of their Infallible line, but most colour correcting palettes have the same colours (if you are darker toned, then the colours will be a little different to suit darker complexions).

Once I blended that all out, I applied my makeup as I usually would and you can definitely tell that my skin looked more radiant and my makeup more flawless.

The redness was gone, the dullness disappeared, and the dark circles vanished. All because of a little green, purple, and peach.

If you are curious about colour correcting and live in the Winnipeg area, I’m hosting a colour correcting clinic this Monday, April 24 at London Drugs St. Vital. The event is free and there are two sessions available, 6 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.. You can register for tickets here. Come by, say hi, and learn to colour correct like a pro!

Do you do colour correcting? What are your thoughts on this method?

Please note, products sent by PR. All opinions are my own.

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