Colour correction is one of those things, like malt loaf, that you think you should get round to looking at but there never really seems to be an appropriate time. You know, who actually buys and prepares malt loaf? Certain people. The same people who have been using colour correction since they came out of the womb, holding a colour chart and armed with appropriate products.
In saying that, I'm always on the lookout to look less shit, so gave a variety of different colour correction products currently on the market a go. I had a great time, but also discovered that while some things make a big difference, some things really don't, and you probably shouldn't spend your cash on them unless, for example, you've got a real redness problem. In which case, fill your boots/check out this article which goes into it better than I ever could.
MAC PRO CONCEAL AND CORRECT PALETTE
Price: £35 for the palette or £12.50 for the orange on its own
OK so you can get a single compact with just the orange concealer, which is cheaper, but we got sent the slight wrong one hence this massive palette. Either way, I was so sceptical of this I referred to it as 'batshit concealer' until I actually tried it and discovered it's magical. Like a red wizard. Like a red wizard on my eye. Start really, really light and with very, very little (I probably went a bit finger-happy) to get the best effect - but if you can see the difference, the red makes it a little bit less chalky and ashy coloured than when I used normal concealer. And the normal concealer isn't just any concealer, it's Boi-ing by Benefit which is the best, so that's saying something.
Would I do this to my face again? Yes. Why the hell not. It worked.
BARRY M BRIGHTENING PRIMER IN PURPLE
Price: £6
The thought of covering my face in purple liquid was hilarious, but it disappears the moment you rub it in which is actually quite disappointing. But still, probably a good thing. In terms of how it looked, it didn't really brighten or make any conceivable difference to my skin - which I think is a good test subject considering it's the palest skin in the world, so everything shows up on it - except it felt like a primer. So, a bit softer and smoother and felt nice when I stroked it... but in terms of brightening? Nah.
Would I do this to my face again? If I'm hungover, I'd probably give it the benefit of the doubt when trying to pull out all the brightening stops. But I remain unconvinced that it actually brightens.
MAXFACTOR CC STICK
Price: £9.99
The classic green stick! We've all heard of green correcting redness, so I pitted it against my old faithful (Boi-ing by Benefit) and found that while, yes, it did conceal the redness, it didn't conceal it any better than just the concealer. And actually, it felt and looked a little chalky and flaky. Like flaky chalk. If you had severe redness, then a green CC lotion would work better so you could blend and get a better texture - but this was admittedly really good for the spots. So I'm keeping it in my makeup bag for localised spot work, rather than redness in general. And that's the real test - whether I steal it or not.
KIKO SKIN TONE CORRECTOR IN PEACH
Price: £9.90
Another primer, another day. This one is made with diamond powder! Unfortunately it made absolutely no difference to my skin tone at all and I actually preferred the feel of the Barry M primer - so I'd go with that. I also once tried a YSL primer (yeah, I'm fancy) and it felt exactly the same as the Barry M primer too, so I think I just remained wholly unconvinced by primers in general. If anyone wants to argue with me, or have a fight, tweet me.
Summary: The orange concealer under the eye trick works. The rest isn't so effective, and I struggled to find something that significantly improved my face - although the green correcting stick would probably be great for localised spots that appear just before a night out. It just feels a little bit gimmicky - even the orange under-eye concealer was a little bit OTT for a daily morning make-up routine, and I'll probably only do it if I'm seriously tired, or really bored and have loads of time to paint my face.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.