One of the many wonderful benefits of makeup is its ability to help boost a clients’ self-esteem. Sometimes clients have scars caused by injury, surgery or acne and are looking for clever ways to hide them. Gabriela Santana-Blackburn, Executive Director of Esthetics and Instructor Training at Tricoci University of Beauty Culture shares two tips for concealing scars:
1) Be sure to neutralize the color. Applying makeup that is on the opposite end of the color wheel will neutralize or cancel out the color of the scar. So if you have a scar that is red, use a concealer that has a green undertone to it and that will neutralize the red. If we just put a light concealer over it, it will just turn it to a pink or light red scar. It’s important that these concealers are still a natural flesh tone and not just green, yellow or any other color. Red and Green neutralize one another, as well as yellow and violet and blue and orange. A great product to use is ColorLab Custom Blend concealer. They have a variety of concealer colors to provide coverage for any skin color – dark or light – but you can customize the texture and undertones to suit your coverage and skin needs. Another great product is Kryolan Dermacolor Camouflage makeup – they have a variety of colors and undertones that will cover even the most difficult scars and pigmentation issues.
2) Press powder into the concealer to give it a longer-lasting quality. Don’t make the mistake of using a big fluffy brush and brushing on a setting powder. This is really ineffective from a long lasting stand point. If you use a powder puff and work the powder into it, then press it firmly over the area covered for coverage that lasts longer and isn’t easily wiped away. There are many great products that you can use for this – a couple that I recommend would be ColorLab Custom Blend Mineral Powder. Again, they have a huge variety of colors to match any skin color, as well as giving you the ability to customize the amount of coverage that you desire from sheer to full coverage. Kryolan also has a great setting powder called Micro Silk Powder which is an HD powder that works really well for makeup that is being photographed or videotaped.
This article originally appeared on Beauty Launchpad here.