Let’s be honest, it's a challenge we all face. Those dark spots from the sun, acne scars from middle school and blemishes as we age. On one hand, you can pay somewhere between $60-$500 on procedures to get rid of them. While some would prefer such treatments, I’m writing to readers who either can’t afford them or would rather just camouflage those spots for the time being.
When it comes to color correcting, you’ll need some tips on what products and colors can cancel out unwanted spots. There is no one color for everyone. First, identify your skin tone - would you consider yourself of fair, medium, or deep complexion?
If you identify as fair, you are most likely experiencing blue undertone spots due to the intense color of your veins. To cover blue spots, try investing in a pale pink concealer to apply underneath your eyes and over dark spots on your cheeks.
For those with medium skin tones, you may notice purple spots with mixtures of blue. To neutralize this discoloration, try using a salmon or peach concealer. The salmon color will highlight and lift the under eye, while the peach undertone neutralizes the dark spot.
For dark or deep skin tones, your under eye might appear purple and green. For this, use an orange concealer to cancel out dark spots. Longwood freshman Zinora Rodgers recommends Bare Minerals’ product.
“I find that Bare Minerals concealer covers my fine lines and dark under eyes perfectly. To give myself a natural finish, I top it off with a liquid foundation to not give myself that harsh concealer line,” said Rodgers.
The biggest problem is figuring out how to cover red spots on cheeks, but not to worry, green concealer is your best friend. As a fun fact: red and green are opposite on the color wheel, so they will cancel each other out.
It’s already a long, difficult process toward deciding which tones to use, but now we need to look at the right products for you. Most makeup gurus will tell you to buy individual concealers and primers to neutralize every specific flaw in your skin, but do yourself a favor and don’t buy into this! Many makeup brands listened to our complaints and have started creating color correcting palettes, voila!
These palettes have every neutralizing color for men and women to obsess over and use at their leisure. For my cautious spenders out there, this could potentially save you over $30. Current popular palettes are "Anastasia Beverly Hills", "Tarte" and "Makeup Forever". These are only available in cream form, but this will make it easier for you to blend out and have your foundation glide over top smoothly.
Bottom-line, my advice is to invest in a palette and discover new ways to become more confident in your own skin. Dark spots are a thing of the past!
