Colour Correcting: Is This Beauty Trend The New Contouring?

If 2015 was the year that contouring became commonplace (thanks to a certain Ms. Kardashian-West), then this year could be all about extreme colour correcting.

It might look a little crazy, but you’re probably already familiar with the concept of colour correction - remember when the beauty industry went wild for CC creams? It’s all about using opposite shades on the colour wheel to counteract your skin concerns. Green tones balance out redness and blemishes, purple will perk up a dull, sallow skin tone while yellow will nix dark under eye circles.

This technique, demonstrated below in an Instagram video by beauty vlogger TianaCosmetics, takes this principles and applies them to the whole face, rather than one specific problem area. So, green is applied to the T-zone and cheeks for a flaw-free base, the purple shade highlights the forehead and the peachy orange neutralises shadows.

Afterwards, it’s a case of blending out the colours and lightly applying foundation where needed – the colourful base creates a subtly sculpted effect that’s perfect for those afraid of going for full on, Kardashian style contouring. So far, so simple…

It’s not the first time that crazy and colourful beauty techniques have cropped up on our Instagram feeds. Last year saw the rise of ‘clown contouring,’ which involves painting on different shades of contour, highlighter and colour correcting product in shapes that recall a clown’s face paint. Thankfully, this one seems slightly easier to achieve.

If you fancy trying it out for yourself, Kiko’s Colour Correction Concealer Wheel (£12.90) and NYX’s Colour Correcting Palette (£10) both include colourful shades and a darker contour cream, while Max Factor’s range of six Colour Corrector Sticks are easy to apply thanks to their crayon shape. Just make sure you have a good buffing brush in your beauty arsenal to blend out the shades (check out our guide to the best make-up brushes here) – after all, no one wants to look like a toddler let loose with the face paints.

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