This Is the Right Way to Use Color Correctors to Get the Skin You Wish You Had

If you find yourself piling on the concealer until it becomes one big, cakey mess, maybe it’s time to move on to color correctors. With the right color correctors, you can make short work of whatever ails your complexion, whether it’s ruddiness, dark circles, or even a random blue vein. Here, we show you how.

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Despite our best efforts, we either occasionally, or even permanently, have skin issues. It's kind of like being in top shape but still carrying saddlebags. Our bodies have problem areas; sometimes our skin does too. Unless you're genetically blessed, it's just part of the human experience. The random hormonal acne, couperose or rosacea, dark circles — the list goes on and on. It's frustrating, but there's something that can help! Have you met your new friend, color correctors?

Color correctors are like traditional concealers with a very specific superpower: cancelling out the unwanted color it targets. The way it does this is pretty Zen: It works by simply “being.”

In order to understand that, let's go all the way back to the most Zen place of our lives: childhood. You may remember the color wheel, the little chart that taught us about color and their opposites positioned across from them on a wheel. A perfect example would be that viral video from a few years ago that featured red lipstick being used as a concealer. The reason that worked so well can be plotted on the color wheel: red cancels out blue-green, so it made short work of her dark under-eye circles. Using this same theory, green color correcting concealers will cancel out the redness of an angry zit or of ruddy cheeks.

Pimples & redness: Green color correctors

To use green color correctors, either spot treat your blemishes or spread a thin layer on top of affected red areas. Green correctors are especially good for those suffering with rosacea or those who have permanent flushing they'd like to tone down. Green color correctors are probably the most well-known ones, since they've been popular for covering acne since the '70s. But it doesn't just stop there. There are many other kinds of color correctors that you may not have known existed, and they do things you may not have even thought of.

Sallowness & dullness: Purple color correctors

A sallow complexion is one that is yellowish; on the extreme end of things it can look almost jaundiced. A sallow complexion can make one look sickly or run down. For a brighter and more radiant complexion, the use of pinkish or lavender correctors will set you on the right path. The purple tones will block out that yellow and transform skin to give it a more healthy appearance.

Blue veins: Yellow color correctors

On the opposite end, yellow color correctors can put blue in its place. If you have blue veins around your nose or under the eyes, it can be especially frustrating.  This is a problem that can be especially troublesome of the ultra fair skinned among us. With little melanin to hide them, veins can be very visible. You may be tempted to cake on the full coverage foundation, but a slick of yellow might be just the trick to minimize them.

Dark under-eye circles: Peach color correctors

While the red lipstick trick was a great party trick to use on the fly, the dark pigment of a lipstick wouldn't work too well as a concealer on fair skin. The formula of most lipsticks will also likely end up in your under-eye creases. There are red color correcting concealers out there, and they would work excellent on darker skin tones, but for those that fall in the fairer category, salmon or peachy correctors are your go-to.

One of my all time favorite concealers is the Skinfood Salmon Dark Circle Concealer. The salmon peach tones hide my late night exploits better than any caffeine ever could. Peachy correctors are especially effective in the inner corner of the eye if you have those blue-green discolourations that are sometimes lurking.

So while opposites might not attract in these cases, opposites certainly do cancel each other out. While the battle rages on for perfect skin, we can lay back and let these color opposites fight with each other. In the end we are the victors. Score!