How to Colour Correct: A Beginner's Guide

Although it's damn near impossible to wake up flawless like Beyoncé on the regular, it is possible to get pro concealing tips from her makeup artist (who's also a L'Oréal ambassador) Sir John, so you can achieve her #SkinGoals with a little effort. In his opinion, the key to concealing your skin properly relies on identifying these three things: (1) where you need to correct (under-eye area, around your nose, eyes); (2) what you need to correct (dark shadows, yellow tones, redness); and (3) the proper shades you need to use to get the job done.​ The handy chart below addresses the latter. 

As far as figuring out where and what you need to correct, look at yourself in the mirror near natural light. "If you don't, your look can go awry very easily and your skin can look too light in areas — that or the colours from the correctors can even be visible through your foundation if you use the wrong shades," he says. ​

To apply colour correctors like a boss, Sir John offers up this advice: Apply your foundation or tinted moisturiser first, that way you don't have to use as much of the colour correctors as you would if you put them on your makeup-free face. "Also, you're not covering a tattoo or a bruise when color correcting, these are just shadows you're covering," he says. "So apply them lightly by patting them on with your clean fingertip, so the warmth of your skin helps them blend into your complexion." Lastly, you want to make sure you're using the right version of the colour-correcting shade. 

For example, if you have fair skin, you'll most likely be using the palest colours of the shade range when it comes to pinks, yellows, greens, and purples. If you have medium to olive skin, the colour-correcting shades will also most likely be a touch darker than the pastel versions that, say, fair-skinned folks would use. And for deeper skin tones, where someone with pale skin would use light pink under their eyes, a darker-skinned person would use a more orangey peach hue; the same rule goes for the greens, yellows, and purples you might use. To give you a visual...

For fair skin like Emma's:

Use a pale pink under your eyes and around your mouth to cancel out dark shadows. Use a pale green around the nostrils and chin to nix redness and a lilac colour corrector on cheeks to neutralise any yellow tones.

For medium skin like Heeseung's:

Dot a peach-coloured formula under your eyes​. Cancel redness on your cheeks, around the nose, and on the chin with a medium-shade green colour corrector. Erase yellow tones on your forehead and jawline with correcting cream and conceal darkness around your mouth with a brightening pale yellow.

For dark skin like Maya's:

Use a lavender around your nose to cancel out any yellow with a concealer wand. Dab a light green along the tops of your brows, down your nose, and on the sides of your mouth, and eliminate dark shadows with a deep shade of peach.