THROW SHADE

USE THIS SIMPLE TRICK TO COMBAT BLEMISHES, DARK CIRCLES AND MORE

Once a secret weapon of the experts, colour correcting has become part of many people’s make-up routines. While slapping greens, purples and peach colours all over your face can seem intimidating, all you really need is a basic understanding of the colour wheel to take advantage of the tone technique.

Beauty legend Napoleon Perdis says it’s thanks to social media that colour correcting has become a common way of achieving a professional make-up finish at home.

“Pro tips, tricks and techniques can be accessed instantly, by anyone, anywhere,” Napoleon says. “Where we used to have to experiment to get the perfect result, product innovation and technology has now allowed us to achieve this in one easy product.”

Let’s start with the colour wheel. Imagine a circle divided into six wedges. Starting from the top and travelling clockwise the colour sections would be red, purple, blue, green, yellow and orange. Whatever two colours are opposite each other in the wheel are the ones that neutralise each other — so green neutralises red, purple neutralises yellow and blue neutralises orange.

The most common colour correction is green hues to take away redness on fairer skin — this can be used on red pimples, or even spread across cheeks and the nose for sunburn or skins with rosy undertones.

“If you are looking to correct a large area of redness, you want to use sheer green-tinted primer,” Napoleon says.

“If you are looking to correct a smaller, more intense area like a blemish, a minttinted concealer might be your best option.”

Napoleon says a peach-coloured concealer helps to correct blue and brown dark circles under the eyes on lighter skin tones.

“Darkness under and around the eyes is another common concern, but also one of the easiest to address when using a concealer containing peach tones like my The One Concealer,” he says.

As for darker skin, using a soft red or orange concealer around the eyes and chin cancels out blue, purple and green undertones, and lavender colours on olive skin can take away yellow hues. Make-up artists recommend people with deeper skin tones use rich corals and burnt yellows to colour correct, staying away from light pinks and peaches as they can create greyness.

Napoleon says it’s important to not go over the top with colour correcting and let the tones in the products do the hard work.

“The beauty of this is the ability to achieve natural results because you are relying on the colour to correct, rather than the amount of product you are using,” Napoleon says.

WORDS: AMBER MACPHERSON