What You Should Know About Colour Correctors Before Getting One

HomeBeautyMakeupUpdated: Jan 30, 2020, 23:17 UTC10 Things You Should Know About Colour Correctors Before Buying OneStuti Bhattacharya Follow UsStuti BhattacharyaBeauty Editor

Specialty: Photography, makeup, skincare, and perfumes

Qualification: PG Diploma, Radio and TV Journalism from IP College For Women, Indian Institute Of Mass Communication

Experience: 8 Years

Stuti is an English Lit graduate who studied Radio & TV Journalism while pursuing photography. A perfume enthusiast, she enjoys pop-culture commentary. Her dream is to live in a world where beauty is a choice, not a necessity for social acceptance. Know More

Are you fascinated by the rainbow-hues beauty bloggers use on their face before applying makeup? That’s what a colour corrector is, and here we give you the lowdown on what these products do, and whether you need one.

What colour correctors basically are, and what their intended use is

As the name suggests, colour correctors correct colour unevenness in your complexion, so as to neutralise discolouration, and give your foundation an even base to sit on. The way this works is, we use colour theory to cancel out a shade of pigment in our skin, using a colour which is opposite to it on the colour wheel.

So, if some parts of your skin look green, you can fix that with a red corrector. If you have purple-ashy tones somewhere, an orange corrector can remedy that. Have red pimples? Spot-correcting with a green corrector can fix that, and so on.

Once you have done your colour-correction, you can apply a concealer or foundation on top of that for an even-toned finish. Since not all foundations and concealers are totally opaque, the lack of colour-correction can give away the unevenness of the skin’s tone underneath the foundation. Colour correctors combat this.

Who should use colour correctors, or does everybody need it?

Everyone does not need colour correctors. If you have dark circles, a colour corrector can go a long way in helping you.

Anyone with skin discolouration, be it patchy, green-grey pigmentation around the eyes and mouth, acne scars, or patches of yellowing, is a good candidate for colour correctors.

If you are someone who uses light to medium coverage concealers and foundations, then colour correctors are perfect for you.

Orange and peach correctors do the same thing—for different skin tones

What many of us didn’t realise after Deepica Mutyala’s viral “Red Lipstick To Remove Dark Circles” video is that peach, orange, and red are different shades for fixing the same problem, depending on your skin tone. The greenish-purple shade of dark circles some of us get can be remedied with different shades of peach, from pale to rich orangey-red.

You don’t necessarily need a green corrector just because you have pimples

Let’s be honest: green correctors were made keeping Caucasian women’s pink and red pimples in mind. For everyone with purple, brown, or maroon pimples, green correctors are pretty useless. Since there is no colour corrector for brown, it’s best to use a full-coverage foundation or concealer in your exact skin tone to correct such spots and blemishes.  

A lilac corrector is useless for dusky to dark skin, so try peachy-orange instead

Lilac or pale pink correctors are meant to cancel out sallowness in skin, by combating the yellow tones. So, this is useful for paler skin.

On dark skin, it just looks ashy and chalk-like. Instead, using a peachy-orange corrector is a better idea, because it prevents olive skin from looking washed-out by cancelling the greens.

Yellow correctors are SERIOUSLY underrated for Indian undertones

Brown Indian skin predominantly has yellow, golden, olive, or orange undertones. Yellow colour correctors are perfect for evening-out these skin tones, be it a nice, golden-toned concealer for your undereyes, or a yellow-toned concealer to conceal your pimples.

This is because every other shade of concealer looks ashy on our warm-toned skin colours, and yellow is the only shade which isn’t cool-toned. If salmon-toned under-eye concealers have been failing you, perhaps it’s time to try something with golden-yellow undertones to match the warmth of the rest of your skin.

You’re not supposed to colour-correct with a thick amount of product

Forget whatever clown contouring and colour correction you saw on Instagram, because you are not supposed to paint your face with an inch-thick amount of colour corrector. Remember: it is simply supposed to adjust whatever colour is already there, not ADD colour.

Minimal product usage is essential for colour correction to be effective and cake-free. Remember: parts of your skin with pimples or fine lines already have texture, so you need thin layers of coverage there. Caking on correctors makes the part get cakey and awkwardly flake, so it looks unnatural. Further, if you use too much corrector, it can look too orange or too green, depending on whatever you’ve OD’d on.

Your corrector should be nearly invisible after you blend it in, so here’s how you can sheer it out

Using a wet Beauty Blender (or any makeup sponge) is the best way to blend your corrector because wet sponges absorb product, meaning excess product gets picked up, and you get the most natural, sheer finish.

The other reason your tool of choice needs to be a blender is because blenders can be pressed into the skin and used to push a product in at one specific point, whereas brushes need to be moved to blend. Moving a colour corrector and dragging orange and green tones everywhere defeats the purpose of pin-point correcting, and messes up the whole exercise.

You don’t need a corrector if you have a concealer with the same undertone

Suppose you only need a colour corrector because you have dark circles. Buying a concealer which has the undertones you need in a corrector, is a multi-purpose solution to your problem.

For example, the L.A. Girl Pro Conceal HD has several shades with a salmon undertone to cancel dark circles.

Then, the Benefit Boi-ng Brightening Concealer comes with a brightening pink undertone for dull undereyes.

The NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer comes in many yellow-toned shades with golden undertones which perfectly conceal dark circles on warm skin, be it light or dark.

The BECCA Undereye Corrector, conversely, is a corrector which also highlights and conceals skin, making it useful on its own, without a concealer!

Full coverage foundations and concealers completely hide correctors, so using one is… useless.

Nobody knows why beauty vloggers make a whole show of colour-correcting their skin and then cover that with three coats of Huda Beauty’s formidably cakey Faux Filter Foundation. It is a waste of product, because the foundation covers skin like a mask anyway, so using a corrector makes no difference. Colour correctors are therefore wasted under concealers and foundations with this kind of pigment. 

Read iDiva for the latest in Bollywood, fashion looks, beauty and lifestyle news.

Stuti BhattacharyaBeauty Editor

Specialty: Photography, makeup, skincare, and perfumes

Qualification: PG Diploma, Radio and TV Journalism from IP College For Women, Indian Institute Of Mass Communication

Experience: 8 Years

Stuti is an English Lit graduate who studied Radio & TV Journalism while pursuing photography. A perfume enthusiast, she enjoys pop-culture commentary. Her dream is to live in a world where beauty is a choice, not a necessity for social acceptance. Know More

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