It’s the unsung hero of every pro makeup artist’s kit bag - but what can a green concealer do for you?
We talk about an even skin tone all the time - but actually, creating a truly uniform, even skin tone, with clarity and smoothness, is no mean feat. The upper layers of your skin are transluscent, so your complexion is informed by the light that’s reflected back from the lower layers of your skin. Redness - due to the bloody supply beneath the skin’s surface - is never far away, and no matter what colour your skin, that lovely, healthy-looking flush that’s created by your microcirculation, and the flow of blood beneath the skin’s surface, is part of what can give you that overall ‘glow.’
Sometimes, though, redness is less uniform, and appears in concentrated patches. There are various reasons it can happen, such as inflammation, irritation, sunburn, and rosacea. These conditions can cause blood vessels to dilate, resulting in redness and an uneven skin tone. And when redness appears in concentrated areas, it means your skin has less of an overall uniformity, and can start to look a bit more like a ‘patchwork quilt’.
And of course, if patches of redness are something you feel you want to cover up, you could just reach for a concealer that matches your skin tone. And that will definitely help. But professional makeup artists have another strategy, and it involves using something that you wouldn’t necessarily think would work with your skin at all: something green.
It’s all to do with colour theory. Promakeup artists use green makeup as a way of neutralising areas of redness in the skin because according to colour theory, colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel cancel each other out. Green, being the opposite of red on the color wheel, can therefore neutralise redness in the skin.
Green, being the opposite of red on the colour wheel, can therefore neutralise redness in the skin.
When green makeup is applied to the skin, it counteracts the redness and creates a more neutral colour. This is because the human eye perceives colour based on the combination of wavelengths of light that are reflected or absorbed by objects. Green makeup contains pigments that absorb red light, making the redness in the skin less visible to the eye.
By using a green colour corrector, makeup artists can balance out the redness in the skin and create a more even base for foundation or concealer.
How to Apply Green Concealer
To use green makeup effectively, it is important to apply it to the areas of redness before applying foundation or concealer. This helps to neutralise the redness and create a more even base.
How to use our new Superluminous Redness Corrector:
Use your usual skincare routine - and if you're prone to redness, a moisturiser with Centella Asiatica (CICA) could be a good one for you. And SPF always, please and thank you.
Apply a Redness Corrector anywhere you notice patches of redness. As well as 'knocking out' redness due to its green hue, ours is more than just makeup - it’s also inflused with Linoleic Acid (aka Vitamin F), which helps moisturise and plump up skin and Bisabolol to help sooth and calm.
It’s important to blend the green makeup thoroughly, to avoid any green tones showing through the foundation. Blend out with a concealer brush if you prefer.
Layer concealer and/or foundation on top and watch the magic happen. Use your fingertips to warm the product and let it melt into skin, so as not to 'move' the product around too much as you layer.
Apply the rest of your makeup. Redness no more!
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