Children who have disfiguring skin conditions were found to have a higher quality of life when they used camouflage makeup. Anyone of any age, including men, who have vitiligo, birthmarks, severe acne, burns and other skin irregularities can benefit from the use of cosmetic camouflage.
Three principles of camouflage makeup:
1) Concealing
Concealers are thick creams that come in a variety of colors to match the color of your skin. Sometimes blending two colors will create a better match.
2) Color correcting
Color correcting is done to disguise colors from a skin condition such as bruising. Use of a green color correctors neutralize red colors.
3) Contouring
Contouring of irregular surfaces helps to diminish the look of swelling or depressions in the skin. The use of light and dark shadowing de-emphasizes imperfections.
Camouflage Makeup Brands
There are a number of brands of camouflage makeup. Some can be purchased at the drug store or cosmetics counter. Others need to be ordered. Dermablend has teaching videos on how to apply their product.
Liquid and cream foundations can be purchased from the companies listed below:
ColorTration: http://www.colortration.com
Cover | FX: http://www.coverfx.com
La Roche-Posay: http://www.laroche-posay.us
Dermablend: http://www.dermablend.com
Covergirl: http://www.covergirl.ca
Skin Camouflage.com is a great source of information on what skin conditions can be treated with what type of camouflage makeup.
Airbrushing
Another method of applying camouflage make up is airbrushing. Dinair sells airbrush kits. They have an abundance of help on their site if you want to learn how to apply cosmetic camouflage with this technique.
Temptu is another brand of airbrush makeup that has teaching instructional videos.
Online Sources for Cosmetologists
The children in the study discussed above each had a one-hour consultation with an experienced cosmologist and were given makeup to match their skin tone.
It appears that there is no central cosmetology organization here in the United States that lists members with cosmetic camouflage experience. Many cosmetology groups are run by the state, so you might try looking for one in the state you live.
Alternately, there are some listed in the UK and Canada that may offer phone or Skype consultations.
Val Ross practices extensively throughout the UK and can do consultations by phone, email or facetime.
British Association of Skin Camouflage has a link to camouflage resources from their self-help guide.
Make-up Artist Directory has listings all over Canada.
YouTube Videos
There is an abundance of YouTube videos available. Some are better than others.
Experienced cosmetologists did these three below on how to cover common problems such as acne, scars, psoriasis or rosacea but the same techniques are useful for any makeup application.
The Makeup Chair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpKxBePbSbA
Lisa Eldridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwngbzv0gbY
Goss Makeup Artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBZgKOqnPFs
Each cosmetologist has additional web pages or facebook pages so you can follow them. Makeup artist Wayne Goss applies the makeup to himself to demonstrate that even men can benefit from camouflage makeup.
Hopefully this has given you a big start on how to work with skin conditions that have affected your or a friend’s self-esteem. Share any thoughts you may have with us in the comments section to help other readers overcome this difficulty.
Sources:
Cosmetic camouflage. DermNet NZ. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
http://dermnetnz.org/procedures/camouflage.html
Skin camouflage. Skincamouflage.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
http://www.skincamouflage.com/index.html
Michele is an R.N. freelance writer with a special interest in woman’s healthcare and quality of care issues. Other articles by Michele are at http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/499625/michele_blacksberg.html
Edited by Jody Smith