6 Essential Makeup Tips For Rosacea

I’ve had rosacea for a few years now, and the only thing that is consistent is inconsistency. I have good skin days and bad skin days, and unfortunately I’m not always lucky! I can have a flare because I forgot to wash my face at night (yes, that one is my fault), or because it was a bit windy when I played in the backyard with my daughter. While I have found that taking great care of my skin will make these flares less frequent and minimize their severity, I haven’t been able to get rid of all of my bad skin days. Here are my top makeup tips for rosacea!

1. Pat On Your Moisturizer

Hydrating your skin will help plump up the outer layers of the skin, creating a more even surface, which is key for having smooth makeup application. I’ve had my makeup done by a few professional makeup artists in the last few years, and their foundation application is always much smoother, even when using the same makeup and tools.

One key difference between me and the makeup artist was that I tended to rush through my skin preparation. I was smearing a moisturizer on to my skin and then drying my hair or brushing my teeth while I let it get to work. The makeup artists tended to very deliberately dot the moisturizer onto my face so that it would be applied evenly, and then pat the product in to my skin using their fingertips. Extra attention was paid to any potential problem areas such as around my nose or under the eyes.

The process doesn’t need to be slow, once you get the hang of it patting in the moisturizer adds less than a minute to your routine. However, that time is definitely worth it! Patting in moisturizer instead of just spreading it around results in it being easier to blend your foundation without streaks, skin is more evenly prepped for makeup, and the end result looks more natural.

2. Don’t Forget A Primer

While that moisturizer you just patted on will help prep your skin, you really cannot afford to skip your primer! Look for a silicone based product, it will create a light layer over your pores and any skin texture issues, smoothing and blurring these problem areas. You only need a small amount, roughly the size of a pea, and you can apply it just to problem areas with a fingertip.

3. Color Correct With The Right Formula

Color correction is really your friend if you have rosacea! Rather than covering up your redness with a thick layer of foundation or concealer, a light layer of a color corrector will cancel out a lot of redness. You can then apply a much lighter layer of foundation over the corrector, which will look much more natural.

There are many color correctors on the market, and they come in a lot of different formulations. As a general rule, larger areas should be covered with lighter weight products. A thick color corrector that comes in a pot will be very difficult to spread over a large area of skin in a natural way. Instead you should reach for a light liquid or lotion product that can be gently spread over the problem area. A thick color corrector is great for a very small area, such as a pimple, that needs intense coverage.

4. Only Correct Issues, Not Your Whole Face

Even if you have extensive redness from a rosacea flare, you should avoid covering your whole face with a corrector. While the tint will cancel out redness in your skin, if there isn’t any redness in the skin, you’ll just look… green. Remember when they turned Johnny Depp violet in Edward Scissorhands? No one wants to be a green version of Edward Scissorhands. Apply the corrector sparingly to just areas that need it.

5. Consider Not Using Green To Cover Your Redness

Even if you’re only covering those red areas, when the area that needs correcting is extensive, using a green corrector over a widespread area can still look a little strange. Consider using a yellow tinted corrector instead. Because yellow is also across the color wheel from red, it will also cancel out the red, but it won’t leave an unnatural cast to your skin if used extensively. Experiment with non-green correctors that are labelled as redness correcting to find the one that works the best for you.

6. Always Cover Corrector With Skin Toned Makeup

It can be very satisfying to tap a little color corrector over an area of redness and have it virtually disappear immediately. It is very tempting to just leave it at that. However, when you step into different light that invisible light green corrector might not be so invisible! Apply a light layer of foundation or concealer over that corrector, blending it into the surrounding skin with a brush or makeup sponge.

If you still see a little discoloration after your skintoned makeup, resist the urge to add another light layer of corrector. Going back and forth between the two products results in a caked finish that won’t look natural. Instead, try a light layer of concealer on just the trouble spot. Set your makeup with translucent powder to pull the look together and make it last all day.

7. Don’t Skip Blush

When you’ve just spent so much time correcting and covering up redness of the skin, a lot of pink blush is the last thing you want to apply! It will pick up any residual amount of redness in your skin and highlight it. While you might want to skip blush all together, opting for bare cheeks is also a mistake. Skipping blush will make any skin imperfections that haven’t been perfectly covered more of a feature. Instead, opt for a very light application of blush, which will distract the eye from those trouble spots. If you have a lot of redness, reach for a peach tone rather than pink or red blush.

8. Distract With A Great Lip Color

For years I was a light pink lip girl. I wanted light pink whether I had on lipstick, lipstain or lipgloss. I was most comfortable in light pink, and I didn’t feel like myself whenever I wore anything brighter. But when I started looking at myself in pictures, I discovered that my skin looked better when I was wearing darker lip colors. A bright pink, peach or even a red lip color added a great pop of color to my face and distracted the eye from my skin. Even if I still had a few trouble spots, my great bright pink lipstick claimed all of the attention, not the red I couldn’t cover under my right eye.