Covering Up Beard Shadow

Corrie Dubay, makeup artist extraordinaire and owner of Midwest Makeup Supply and Femme Makeovers, is a friend and hero to t-girls everywhere.  I’ve been fortunate to know her for the past year and a half, I’ve had makeup lessons with her and the MN T-Girls have had two makeup demonstrations with her as well.  She is beyond talented.

Corrie has a newsletter that she sends out with helpful makeup tips and with her permission, I am sharing her most recent one here.  It focuses on beard shadow which is something many of us struggle with.

I am certain you’ll find this useful!  You can sign up for her newsletter here.

Love, Hannah

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Ahh, yes….beard shadow. You can be such a pain in the ass some times. I teach a lot of one-on-one makeup lessons and covering beard shadow is topic that comes up in just about every lesson I do. So – how do we get it to stay covered as long and as well as possible? Let’s talk about it!

First – there is some reasoning behind the products I use, and some color theory involved with color correction (which essentially is what we’re doing when we cover beard shadow). But! I want to keep this simple and to the point (or as much as I can) so I’m not going to dive deep into that…unless ya’ll want to know more about it. Shoot me a message if you do and I can do a separate email about it. Okay? Okay!

Ultimately – when we are trying to cover beard shadow – we’re trying to neutralize a blue-ish/purple-ish (or violet as most color wheels will show) shadow. Even if your facial hair is brown, black, etc. – I still consider the shadow we see to be more blue/purple. Some of you may have tried a normal flesh-toned concealer and have had some luck with it kind of working, especially if you have very little or very light facial hair. For the rest of you with the darker facial hair – a normal flesh-toned concealer just doesn’t cut it.

Enter COLOR THEORY! As mentioned above – I’m not going to do a deep dive into color theory – but a good tip for everyone is this: when we are trying to correct/conceal/neutralize something when it comes to makeup – look at what color it is you’re trying to correct or get rid of: beard shadow (blue/purple), under eye circles (purple/blue), blemishes (redness), etc. Whatever the unwanted color is, we need to use it’s color wheel opposite to make it disappear. This is how we conceal our beard shadow!

Example: for a blue-ish/purple beard shadow – using something that is very orange-toned over the shadow will help neutralize the blue color below. If we’re trying to knock down redness – we want to use something with a hint of green. Make sense?

You may be asking – okay – I get it but what the hell do I use for this and where do I find it??

(…raises hand…) I’ve got you!! AND! I have several options depending on the level of coverage you need. What we want to use is called a corrector (or neutralizer) color. They have specific color-correcting undertones that conceal the unwanted colors we see.

But wait, Corrie!! Someone once told me I can use a red or orange lipstick to get rid of my beard shadow? Is that wrong???

Great question! No – technically it’s not wrong. What’s the first rule when it comes to makeup?? There are no rules!! Well – at least that’s my rule! HA! Guidelines and tricks that will help things turn out better, yes. But rules…naw! That’s the whole point of makeup is it have fun with it! So – back to the lipstick. Yes – an orange or red lipstick would help neutralize the shadow – however, lipstick is formulated for your lips. Generally speaking it has a more oily consistency (to keep your lips hydrated and glide on smoothly).

The trouble we might run into with using lipstick is that your makeup might not set properly or as well. So on a nice warm day – your face could be melting away faster than the Wicked Witch of the West. Which we do not want, right? Right! So – using something that is formulated for your face (not lips) is a better choice (in my opinion). If you’re in a bind and all you have is orange lipstick, or, you are out of your corrector color – yes – by all means, do what you have to do to get the job done…but ideally – for longevity and best overall result – the corrector color is product I prefer.

First up: Graftobian Corrector in Soft Orange I (light) and II (medium/dark) ($14). This one is on the lighter end of the spectrum as far as consistency/heaviness goes. So if you have lighter colored facial hair or not a ton of a shadow that pops through – this will cover nicely.

This goes on UNDER your foundation…and because it’s so light, can also be put OVER (unpowdered) foundation to give you an extra bump of coverage if needed (see note below). Works awesome as an under eye concealer, too!

My other favorite is by Kryolan – and that’s their DermaColor Camouflage Cremes ($18). If you’ve every had your makeup done by me – oftentimes this is what I use for the extra longevity. These guys are heavier than the Graftobian products – but if you have a very dark, thick beard shadow – this is the one you want to go with. It gives really great coverage and wears super well. As with the Graftobian one, this also goes on under your foundation.

Side note: Truthfully – I try to avoid putting anything back over the top of my foundation if I can (and never over anything that has already been powdered. We’ll talk about this in another email), but if I need an extra bump of coverage, I most definitely can. We just want to avoid doing too much back and forth as it can look heavy and cakey – see note below about this.

For the application using either product – we want to use our corrector only in the spots we are trying to correct…in other words – keep it contained to where you see the shadow. Brush or sponge it on, building up the coverage if you need by stippling (or dabbing/patting) the product on (rather than wiping it on) in areas that need it. Example: many times above the upper lip is an area I use a little more product. Why? The shadow can show through darker, you will sweat more there and if you are eating and drinking – it can be wiped off more easily if we’re not careful.

This photo shows the three correctors on my hand so you can see the more orange-y undertone it has. From the left: Graftobian Soft Orange I, Graftobian Soft Orange II and Kryolan DermaColor D5.

My note: I mentioned above that you can put more corrector over your foundation if needed – which is true. But – for the best results, we really want the initial application of the corrector to be strong and full enough coverage from the start. We want to avoid layering too much on top of our foundation as we run the risk of messing up our application by making it too heavy, cakey or not being able to blend it properly.

Once you get the corrector on – gently, gently blend it out. We want to blend it in but not away (otherwise, we will see that pesky shadow again sooner than we want). Once it’s blended in – proceed with your foundation application (I prefer to use a creme foundation – I’ll do a follow up email dedicated to foundations later). We want to be a little extra careful (use a stippling or patting/dabbing motion) when we are blending our foundation over the areas we’ve corrected. If we blend too vigorously – we could potentially blend our corrector away, again – resulting in the shadow popping through faster than you want.

Information overload, I know – so I’ll stop here. I hope this makes some sort of sense. If you have any questions – shoot me a message or drop by and I can do a quick demo for you. Okay? And stay tuned in the coming weeks for more tips and trips! And if you have any questions you want answered – send them my way!

PS: You can get everything I talk about in this post at my store – Midwest Makeup located in Uptown. Not local or don’t want to stop by? No worries – we can drop things in the mail to you as well. Call us (612-822-2150) or email: info@midwestmakeup.com to place an order.