The 10 Best New Color Correctors (and Exactly How to Use Them)

You know that “WTF HOW?!” feeling you get when you see a celebrity’s un-retouched face in red carpet photos, or a model’s weirdly ethereal skin in close-up videos? Like, how? Nobody has that perfect of skin in real life, right? Nobody has zero splotchiness, or under-eye circles, or giant red zits, right? Welp, folks, this is where we introduce you to the magical world of color correctors, the unsung heroes behind 99-percent of ridiculously good-looking skin. Because no, none of those models or actresses have perfect skin—they just have the right products (and a team of professional makeup artists, but shhh).

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Sure, you’ve probably used a color corrector once or twice before. Maybe you drew over your middle-school zits with a chalky green concealer that left you with a zillion bright-green dots. Or maybe you slathered on a purple primer and wondered why your skin looked white-washed and ashy. But when used correctly, color-correcting primers, concealers, and powders can give you the appearance of a quick dip in the Fountain of Youth mixed with 100 hours of sleep. Yes, they’re that good.

Though dissertations could be written on exactly which color should be used to cancel out or enhance other colors (oh, wait—we think that’s called art school?), we’ll give you the abridged version: For neutralizing redness, use yellow and green color correctors. To perk up dull, sallow skin (in very fair skin types), try lavender and blue tones, and to cancel dark circles, use pink for fair skin tones, peach for medium skin, orange for medium-to-dark skin, and red for deep skin tones.

Did your eyes just glaze over? Yeah, we know; it seems tricky, though we promise it’s really not. So to help you figure out exactly which color corrector to try—and how to use it—we rounded up the newest and coolest color correctors that seriously work wonders on your skin. Click through to find the best corrector for you, and get ready to feel like a skin sorcerer.

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