A Concealer Or A Corrector - What's The Difference?

Most of us probably have a concealer in our makeup bag but how many of us have correctors. I'm betting not many and I can tell you, once you've used these indispensable little gems you'll wonder how you ever lived without them - I know I do!

Many people it seems are a little unsure as to what the difference is between a concealer and a corrector, so let's do a little explaining.

Both are formulated into a base and can be dry powder, pressed into a palette or liquid.

Concealers - will purely and simply disguise any blemishes or shadows. They are normally similar in colour to foundation tones and most are quite translucent so will allow the colour of whatever you are trying to disguise to show through unless you spend a long time working on it.
Correctors - will do much more, as in they will neutralise any blemishes or shadows and they normally come in green, yellow, peach and lavender colours.

They basically work like this, a colour that is opposite on the colour wheel neutralises its opposing counterpart. It is much easier to see this on a colour wheel for yourself, so pop colour wheel into the search engine of your computer, you will be spoilt for choice.

Green will neutralise red - any red blemishes, port wine stains, rosacea or broken capillaries try using a green corrector.
Yellow will neutralise purple - any purple under eye shadows or any purply bruising try applying a more yellow corrector.
Lavender will neutralise yellow - if you have sallow skin or yellow bruising try applying a lavender corrector.
Apricot will neutralise blue - if you have prominent blue veins or more blue under eye shadows try using apricot, it also warms up olive or yellow skin tone.

It is also worth noting that different skin tones and undertones will require the same colours to correct but possibly a different intensity of colour.

They are always applied before foundation on clean, moisturised skin and it may take a few attempts to get the application right. Start off by applying small pin prick amounts, you can always add more. You definitely don't want to look like you've just dropped off another planet!

So, as you can see there is quite a big difference between a concealer and a corrector and although concealers have their place in our handbags, so do correctors and the best news of all is you can make them yourself!