Hey Everyone!
Brace yourselves! MY BARE FACE IS COMING! haha
Jokes aside, it is really scary putting your BARE, SICK face out on the interwebs.
Here is a little background for today’s post.
I am very sick! I have had a sinus infection for about three weeks now and it has reached its peak horridness this past week. I finally went to the doc’s and got some antibiotics but I am now feeling ten times worse! Hopefully it’s what people say ” you have to get worse before you can get better.”
I usually don’t have blue/dark circles at all. The most I have is bags/puffiness but not discoloration. However, due to being sick I have had really bad blue/yellow/ugly discolorations around my eyes. My skin has also been wreaking havoc. It seems like no matter how much moisturizer I put on my skin is just like a desert. SUPER DRY. Not to mention it has also been itchy, this may be due to allergies or eczema acting up.Just last night I put on a ton of Vitamin E oil (my holy grail for fixing anything wrong with my skin- dry patches, acne, acne scars, etc!) and my face is still quenching.
Anyways this sickness gave me the opportunity to do this post for you guys since last Saturday I came up with this because I don’t usually have discoloration. I liked the way it came out! My friend Bianca told me she didn’t even notice I was wearing makeup!! So here it is!
As you can see above: I have super dry, itchy skin (esp in the cheek area), swollen in between the eyes from my sinusitis and that is where most of the discoloration is as you’ll see in a photo below, and my lips are also super dry! They usually have more color to them :(. Also, I have my hair back which is not the most flattering for my face haha AND I have thick, unruly eyebrows and really.. can anyone be bothered with that when they are having migraines, face pain, earache, dizziness, fatigue, etc!! So bear with me but I promise these tips are good!
So to begin, you need to understand color theory. On a color wheel, directly across blue/purple is orange/yellow. Which means they are complementary. Placed next to each other, they make each other’s colors pop more. But placed on top of each other, they should cancel out one another.
Taking that and applying it to skin, the most commonly used skin correctors are yellow and orange.
You probably have heard of salmon colored concealers to cancel out the darkness/blue/purple under the eyes. Well it works wonders!
The first product I use to color correct under my eyes is the Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Waterproof Concealer in Tan. I bought this in a set during their Black Friday sale and there were only four colors available. I chose tan, knowing medium would probably be too light. However, tan was just too dark! I have this problem A LOT! It is also a bit too orange for my skin tone. But it didn’t stop me from using this product. I made it work for me! Because it is actually very good at not creasing much and it lasts a long time.
Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer Tan
Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer Tan Swatch on NC35 skin
Here you can see I squirted out a tiny drop of the concealer but I will not even use half of that! Even with all the discoloration. (Usually I just use almost nothing) This product is highly pigmented. I wish I could squeeze out less, but this is the littlest amount I can usually squeeze out.
I applied the Tarte concealer in the inner corner area of my eye, where most of my discoloration is and tapped it out a bit, but not too far from its original place. This is going to cancel out the blue/purple. I also added a bit to the outer area of my eye because you could also see some blue there.
I usually don’t even use this much!
Added more because I wasn’t satisfied with coverage.. that’s how bad the discoloration is!
Blended out, you can see it is quite orange against my skin. I have a very yellow undertone but I have a very red/pink overtone in my face due to rosacea/eczema. However, it has cancelled out the blueish discoloration fairly well. In the pic because the concealer is moist there is a glare but it doesn’t flashback (no SPF). Also, because of the flash in the camera the obvious orange color is not SO obvious in person.
I noticed I also had some darkness/blue on the outer corner of my eye where I applied some more concealer and proceeded to blend it out.
Okay so here it is all blended out. Now I want to do a bit of brightening in the inner eye area because the part of my nose between my eyes is a bit swollen and also it makes you look more awake. To do this I use MAC’s Studio Finish concealer in shade NC30 which is too light for me but I can use it as basically a highlight for the inner corner of my eye. It contains SPF but used lightly it won’t flashback.
MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC30
I’m not sure if you can see the lightening effect on the inner corner of the eye because it is creamy and flashes light at the camera but you might be able to see it after I powder it. So next I use a translucent powder to set it right under my eye where it tends to crease because of fine lines. Here I am using MAC’s Prep + Prime Loose Powder. I apply it with a brush that is called PP13 Blending Fluff from Crown Brush. If you have the Real Techniques Setting brush it is very similar in shape and size to that one. It is a perfect size to fit in the orbital bone area.
MAC Prep and Prime Loose Powder
Pink Blending Fluff PP13 Crown Brush
With the same brush I then applied Clinique’s Redness Solutions Instant Relief Mineral Powder all over the orange-y area. This will brighten under your eye as well as blend the concealer better into the rest of your skin.
Clinique Redness Solutions Instant Relief Mineral Powder- a yellow powder used to neutralize redness; in my case, brighten the under eye area.
That looks much better!
Now I didn’t want people getting upset that the rest of the concealer didn’t blend well into my skin. If I put foundation on it would be blended in and look great! So instead of going through my foundation routine, I just added a bit of MAC’s Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium-Deep to the one side of my face since it also has a more orange undertone (which I use more in Summer when I am tan and my undertone leans more towards orange).
MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium Deep all over right side of face along with the concealed right eye.
before
after
In the first picture you can see the left side of my face is bare while my right side is concealed and face is powdered; see the difference?
Here you can see that the eye that is covered up looks great compared to the one with no makeup!
before and after close up of my right eye
On the left is my before picture of the right eye and on the right is the after picture of my right eye. You can see the dramatic difference!
So anyways I hope you enjoyed this and learned something! Feel free to ask any questions or share your tips below!
I don’t want to leave you all with such horrendous photos of me so here are two that I like 😉
I used to have blonde hair! haha
~~Andrea
Life through Andrea's Eyes 