No matter what makeup look or trend you’re trying to tackle in the morning, if you wake up to a breakout, all of your attention immediately shifts from picking an eyeliner to figuring out how to hide your lumps and bumps from the world.
Generally speaking, no one likes a caked-on makeup look. Even if we spent two straight hours caking on a face, we sure as hell don’t want anyone to know it — or be able to tell. So, when it comes to pesky pimples, we’re always on the lookout for any and every trick to cover up our breakouts without looking like there's an inch of makeup involved.
While there are plenty of great concealers out there to help with this, there are also plenty of other great products that help hide your zits and make concealers look like total amateur hour — rather than spackling on the cover-up, these tips and shortcuts will make sure the world never knows there was a pimple there at all.
We called upon some of our makeup-artist and Instagram-influencer friends to spill on their favorite tricks to help reduce inflammation, flatten pimples, and even fill in acne scars. So you can get back to that very important eyeliner saga.
The grown-up guide to dealing with acne. Read more from The Acne Diaries here.
Pink Lipliner
When a face flare-up happens, the pockmarks left behind are almost as bad as the zit itself. That's when makeup artist Matthew Vanleeuwen, who works with Natalie Dormer and Keke Palmer on the regular, reaches for a peachy or pink lipliner for those acne scars. “When it comes to acne scars and deep pores, I found that a pale, peachy/pink lipliner slightly lighter than your own skin color can literally erase a scar or a deep pore. Make sure the pencil is well-sharpened and apply the color into the deep pore or scar. The liner helps fill the hole while the peachy/pink cancels the darkness of the shadow.”
Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip Waterproof Lipliner Pencil in Tender Pink, $19, available at Sephora.
A Q-Tip Dipped in Hot Water
Instagram star Ellarie 's unconventional trick is one of the easiest you'll ever try. "Whenever I feel a pimple coming or I have a large one, I put a Q-Tip under really hot water then press it right on the bump. It usually prevents a new pimple from forming if I catch it in time, or it will shrink it down, no product needed!”
Q-Tips Cotton Swabs, $2.69, available at Walmart.
Green Color Corrector
YouTube guru and special-effects artist Lex Fleming of MadeYewLook actually struggled with severe acne in high school, so she’s a professional at concealing breakouts. She suggests that using a green color corrector before your foundation will cut out the red without piles of makeup. Fleming recommends applying a light layer of green color corrector to “correct” the redness and then neutralize the color before finishing with foundation for a more natural, less crimson look.
Cover Fx Correct Click in Green, $18, available at Cover Fx.
Cortisone
Makeup artist Deanna Melluso — who has worked on all of the top models for countless editorials — told us to that her secret of choice is dabbing Cortisone on a zit for a few minutes to help reduce it before applying any makeup. “This way you’ll dry it out and shrink it a bit before starting the face,” Melluso said.
Aveeno 1% Cortisone Anti-Itch Cream, $6.99, available at Walgreens.
Dermaflage
If you have deep acne scars, then special effects secret weapon Dermaflage was made for you. It was originally created for Hollywood (to stand up to those HD cameras) to help actors fill in wrinkles and hide scars on film, but now it’s available to the masses for exactly the same purpose. The product literally fills the recessed area of the skin to create a smooth surface, concealing the mark. The formula keeps it flexible so it moves around and looks like skin — and you can cover it with your foundation to blend with the rest of your makeup.
Dermaflage Starter Kit, $60, available at Dermaflage.
Ice Wrapped In Tissue
Melluso also recommends wrapping ice in a tissue to shrink a zit. She told us that many people make the mistake of putting ice directly on their pimple, and then end up with more redness or an “ice burn” on the skin — which does the exact opposite of what they had hoped. “If you wrap it in a tissue it will shrink down the blemish with the extreme cold, so you can conceal it with foundation afterwards,” Melluso advised.
Photo: Getty Images.
Eye Drops
Makeup artist Gita Bass, who works with the likes of Elizabeth Olsen and Suki Waterhouse, loves Visine to help conceal a blemish. “You dab a few drops on an inflamed pimple and the Visine helps to reduce redness and swelling, making it less obvious.” said Bass.
Visine Original Redness Relief Eye Drops, $3.97, available at Target.
A Dab of Homeoplasmine
If you’re someone who picks at your skin Melluso suggests applying Homeoplasmine to your skin and irritated areas before putting anything else on it. Let it sit for a minute, and then apply your foundation like usual. This will make sure your makeup doesn't glom on to dry patches, which always makes those pimples look even more noticeable than before you put on your makeup.
Homeoplasmine Ointment, $16.49, available at Amazon.
The Wonder Pencil
YouTube star Rosalina Young uses Nyx’s Wonder Pencil to cover up the dark marks and redness left behind post-breakout. The pencil was made to be a 3-in-1 and work as a brightener, concealer, and lipliner, but due to the fact that it’s so skinny, most people overlook its concealer functionality. Young says that because of its fine point, you can easily zero in on where the product goes and you don’t need to use a lot. “When we break out we tend to use more concealer or foundation to cover up those stubborn spots,” says Young. So when a little goes a long way, you're less likely to cake on too much.
Nyx Wonder Pencil, $4.50, available at Nyx.
Gentle Exfoliation:
If you suffer from dry, flaky skin alongside your acne, Melluso actually recommends gently exfoliating your skin around the blemish to help with makeup application — removing those dead skin cells makes sure you've got a smooth canvas to start off with. Again, gentle is the name of the game here, as you don’t want to irritate the skin, you just want to help banish flakes. Her favorite pick is Kate Somerville's Clinic-To-Go Resurfacing Peel Pads , which actually have a small slot for your finger so you can easily control the pressure with which you’re exfoliating.
Kate Somerville Clinic-To-Go Resurfacing Peel Pads, $52, available at Sephora.
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