You are getting ready to go out for a big evening: your foundation looks really natural, your skin is glowing, and you apply your eyebrow pencil to perfection. You apply shadow and get the contour on your right eye, and it looks rather stunning, if you do say so yourself. You load the brush to do the other eye and, just as you touch the brush to your lid, the phone rings, causing your hand to slip and apply the shadow in a streak that resembles a slug trail. Chances are you've been in this or a similar situation - we all have. And how come it always happens when you don't have the time to really go back and fix it properly? Well, from now on, don't panic. Whatever you do you can undo, as long as you assess the damage and then go about fixing it in the most logical way possible. Here are a few of the most common boo-boos and the easiest ways to fix them. This should be fun...
Sinking foundations
Problem: Your foundation is drying too quickly and you can't get it to blend.
The easiest thing to do is apply a little bit of moisturiser over the top of it (this, of course, does not work if it is a powder foundation). Take a small amount of your moisturiser and warm it between your hands. Press the moisturiser over your face in a patting/blending motion. Work quickly and you should find that you can get the blotchy areas to blend out.
Problem: Your foundation colour is too dark. [quote]
If you have not already applied the foundation to your entire face, attempt mixing it with a paler shade to try and get a little bit closer to your actual skintone. The real answer is that you should remove the foundation and start over with one that is the right shade. But let's say you have not worn the product since last summer, when you had a tan. If it is too dark, try to lighten it by making it more sheer with an extra little application of your moisturiser. You can use the above method to do that... You can also add a light layer of a foundation that is too pale to try to blend the colour down. This is a good use for sample products. Another option is to apply a powder that is too pale. This is a good time to break out all of those little freebie products that you have knocking around. You will not be able to adjust the colour by a lot, but you should be able to change it by a shade or so. What you may also have to do is follow the advice for what to do if a powder looks too heavy… which is to follow.
Problem: Your foundation is too light
Basically, we are going to reverse all of the advice given in the previous section! If you need to try to darken by a shade or so, use a dab of a tinted moisturiser, warm it between your hands, and press it to your face and gently blend. This should lighten the offending product by one or two shades. Mix the lighter shade with a sample of one that is too dark for you. Hopefully, regardless of which way you are trying to get the foundation adjusted, you may even be using shades that are right for you at some point of the year! That should, in theory, make these adjustments easier. But once again, you may find you are using little freebies or samples. A touch of bronzing powder can make this problem go away fairly easily, too. I would warn you, though: as ever with bronzing powders, apply a layer of normal powder first. That will keep the bronzer from sticking to the moisture of the foundation and intensifying any oranginess! Finally, try a slightly darker powder to set the foundation. I usually think this looks more natural than bronzing powder, but mainly because ordinary powders are less likely to be sparkly. Darkening a too-pale foundation with sparkly orange powder will make you look like… well, you don't want to know!
Concealer concealing
Usually the problem with concealers is that when they go wrong, it is because they look too heavy and end up making whatever you were trying to conceal even more obvious. Crusty spots and cakey under-eye areas are the main offenders, but colour can be an issue as well.
If you are looking dry under the eye, apply a very small amount of eye cream over the top of the concealer. Use a patting motion similar to the one we used to add extra moisture to a foundation. If the product itself has started to dry out, or you know that it will look heavy before you even start, mix a little bit of the concealer with your eye cream. That also makes the concealer a slight treatment product for the eye area - at least we can try to fool ourselves into believing that! If you have a product that is the wrong shade, you will need to apply it and then cover it up with a foundation that is (hopefully) the right colour. If you have covered a blemish and it looks crusty, dip a cotton bud into your foundation. Now roll the bud over the crusty area. The additional moisture of the foundation should help to lessen the crusty appearance of the concealer. This is not always going to be the case, though. Sometimes you are simply better off to remove it and start over again. With concealer, there are often times when less is more. The more you try to cover the spot, the more you draw attention to it. Let's say you have a spot and don't even have a concealer to try to cover it up. One of the easiest solutions is to use a little bit of the foundation that is drying around the lid of your bottle. This will at least be a good match to the foundation, but please keep in mind that if it is drying up, there is also probably a high bacteria content in this coagulating base. This is best for states of emergency, and hopefully, you will not need to have it on for very long.
