Color Correcting Made Easy!

Color correcting has resurfaced as a makeup trend this year, and numerous companies came out with color correcting palettes and products to make it easy for anyone to try color correcting for themselves.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of having too many layers on my face. I love letting my skin breathe as much as possible, especially since my skin tends to be dry and moody. 😉 But every now and then I do love to go all out and do a full face, especially for a night out or a special occasion. Let’s be real, having alone time to sit and listen to music or catch up on a favorite show (totally watching Once Upon a Time from the beginning right now!) and just spend way too much time doing my makeup is sometimes the “me time” I love and need! Anyone else with me?? 🙂

Today I’m going to break down the idea of color correcting and make it super easy for anyone who wants to give it a go! So who’s color correcting for? Really, anyone! If you have some discoloration, spots you want to hide, dark circles under your eyes or uneven skin tone, using a color correction method under your makeup can seriously do wonders!

Where I struggle with discoloration the most is having blue/purple in the inner corner of my eyes, darkness under my eyes and a lot of redness around my nose area. Not to mention a few acne scars from my teenage years (boo!) and a few breakout spots on my face. I’ll walk you through my personal process for color correcting, and then leave you with some easy tips for doing it on your own at home!

Most of the time people get overwhelmed by the colors and don’t really know where to start and what colors to use where. As an easy reference, I’ve included a picture of a color wheel below. We are going back to the basics of color theory! If you take a look at the wheel, you’ll notice that orange is directly across from the color blue. Green is directly across from the pinks and reds. The color that is directly across from the problem color you are trying to correct is the color you’ll want to use on that area. Pretty neat, huh? Let’s jump into the step-by-steps.

Step One: Prime your face before getting started. I like to use a light moisturizer to prime my face before applying makeup. I suggest using your favorite primer.

Step Two: I’m first going to address the dark blue/purple area in the corners of my eyes. I’m using a cream product, so I’ll dab my finger in it to help apply to the area and blend in lightly. The trick is to not apply too much and not too little, just enough to cover the area until you no longer see the problem color coming through. It’s OK if it leaves the color on your face, don’t worry, we’ll get it covered up.

Pro Tip: I always suggest applying your creams before your powders. If you do it the opposite way, your makeup can tend to break up and look uneven. Since I have a cream foundation and concealer, I decided to use cream correctors instead of powdered ones. Most kits are creams, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding one you like!

Step Three: Using the light peach (because my skin tone is very fair), I blended this out under my eyes to help the slight dark circles in that area.

Step Three: The green shade is one of my favorites since it helps even out redness. I tend to have a lot of hormonal redness around my nose, chin and cheeks, so I used my fingers and a brush to lightly apply the green in those areas.

Since those are the main places I wanted to address, I went ahead and stopped there.

Here is an easy guide on what colors to use for your skin needs below:

Purple: Corrects yellow. Brightens and helps with dullness and sallowness.
Pink: Corrects brown. Great for dark spots, age spots and sunspots. Ideal for fair skin.
Yellow: Corrects purple. Covers mild redness and purple/blue under eye areas. Brightening.
Green: Correct redness. Great for more intense redness, visible capillaries and breakouts.
Red: Corrects green/blue. Especially great for covering dark circles on deep skin.
Orange: Corrects blue. Covers dark circles, better for medium skin tones.
Peach: Corrects blue. Also covers dark circles and hyper-pigmentation, better for fair skin tones.

Step Four: Using a beauty blender, I applied my foundation over the color correcting. After this step, you shouldn’t see the color correcting you’ve done, instead you should have a very even look to your skin.

Step Five: To add brightness, I applied my concealer over my foundation where my face naturally has the most light (under eyes, bridge of nose, forehead, chin etc.) and as a little extra to some of those pesky breakouts. 😉

Pro tip: Since we used so many layers, I suggest using a setting powder to set your under eye area in order to prevent creasing.

And we are done! This will give you a very even but one dimensional look, so I highly suggest adding a little color back into those cheeks with some contouring, blush and highlight. Check out my highlighting and contouring post for some of my favorite tips on that method!

So what do you think of color correcting? Is it something you would try out for yourself? I like that it’s an option for an extra special occasion and possibly for those times here and there when certain areas are really struggling and I just want to brighten everything up. 🙂 There are a lot of good palettes out there too! I used the one by Tarte, but this one, this one and these have all had great reviews too. Enjoy, friends! Lots of love, Sav.

Credits //Author and Photography: Savannah Wallace. Photos edited with the NEW A Beautiful Mess actions.