How To Color Correct Redness on The Face

The great thing about makeup is that you can conceal pretty much anything on the skin. And that includes redness on the face. If you’re dealing with facial redness, or if you have red dots and blemishes you want to cover up, or if you have rosacea like me, you can color correct redness. And I promise you, it’s not as confusing as you might think.

Color correctors used to be gimmicky products you would only see in a makeup artist’s bag. The secret got out and we learned that we could use green colors, pink colors, and even orange colors to conceal imperfections on the face. Sadly, that only led us to buy a pricey 6-piece color-correcting palette only to let it expire.

Well, I’m not here to confuse you any further. So keep reading to find out how to color correct redness, what to use, and how to use it.

What Is Color Correcting?

Color correcting, as a makeup technique, is all about the idea of using one color to cancel another one out. Regarding redness, green is the color we use. You use the color green to color-correct redness.

And it’s not just overall facial redness. We all deal with redness around the nose, especially during colder months, which tends to get in the way of achieving an even base. Color correcting can help you even the skin tone in that area too.

Additionally, acne and blemishes, especially when they’re inflamed, tend to look red. Green color correctors are also helpful in softening the look of redness from acne too.

So whatever the cause, using the color green, you can correct and soften the look of redness on the skin. In the end, as the colors cancel each other out, you have an even base. And you level the playing field, so to speak.

With redness out of the way, you can move on to your concealer and foundation without worrying about uneven coverage due to discolorations.

But it’s important to remember that color correcting is, well, simply color correcting. So it has nothing to do with coverage. No matter how green your product is, you cannot cover acne with green; you simply reduce how red it looks.

Do You Need a Color Corrector To Cover Redness?

Remember that color correcting is not an essential makeup step. There are amazing foundations or concealers with great coverage that render color-correcting redundant. So you absolutely don’t have to get a green color corrector to deal with the redness.

And let’s face it, the reality is so different than what we see on Youtube or TikTok where people have 17 different colored dots and they blend everything together and get ridiculously glowing skin.

We can only apply so many different products on the skin without looking cakey. Not everyone has time for that. And there’s also the fact that applying product after product doesn’t help when you have textured skin or wrinkles.

But the most important benefit of color correctors has to do with minimalism. Color correcting simply makes you less dependent on heavier products like foundation.

They ‘correct’ but don’t cover anything. So they’re also great for no-makeup makeup looks. So you decide if you need a color corrector or not.

What To Use To Color Correct Redness

As long as it’s green, you can use any makeup product to color correct redness. Here’s the thing, green products come with so many different names and it gets confusing to know which product is the original color corrector. But it all comes down to what you need.

For example, you can use color-correcting palettes that come with different pots with different shades like green, pink, and orange. If you need to color correct dark circles or hyperpigmentation too, using a palette is more cost-effective.

You can use green concealers to color correct redness too. They make more sense as they’re great for spot-concealing acne and red patches. But keep in mind that green concealers are not like regular concealers in terms of coverage. It’s still a color corrector and not a concealer.

Additionally, you can use green-tinted primers. They’re better when you need the grip of a regular primer or when you need to mattify the skin and blur out pores too. So a green primer will both cover redness and improve the finish of your foundation too.

There are even tinted moisturizers that are green. You can use those to color-correct redness while moisturizing the skin. They’re better for no-makeup makeup days. Again, it all comes down to what you expect from the product.

How To Color Correct Redness

Whether it’s rosacea, acne, or redness on the cheeks, around the nose, or around the eyes, here’s how to color correct redness.

1. Make sure you finish your skincare routine before moving on to color correcting.
2. Using your fingers or a flat brush, apply a very small amount of your green color corrector on the red areas of the face.
3. Lightly thin out the color corrector by spreading it. Stop applying more once the redness is gone.

As simple as it looks, there are ways you can mess things up. For example, if you start by applying more than you should, you replace your redness problem with a greenness problem. Applying a thick layer of the green color corrector is not the way to go.

So you need to go very lightly and apply very thin layers until the redness is gone. Otherwise, you’ll have to apply copious amounts of concealer or foundation to cancel that green color. And there’s a chance that there’ll be a greyish hue peaking through your foundation.

Similarly, you need to properly blend that green color into the skin. The end result, before applying foundation, should look like a neutral skin color where you can’t see red or green.

So this is how you color correct redness and different products you can use to do it. Remember, less is more. Keep it subtle.

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